Reply to School without Walls High Admission test results

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[quote=Anonymous]dc had a very pleasant interview, was talking to an adult tonight, and the question was how would dc know that Walls was the right fit, etc.  dc observed that they do not allow shadowing until students are accepted, but that is probably because they are so competitive and have so many applicants....

If you make it to the interview, you ought to have earned your right to a shadow day.  Seriously.

dc met a babysitter from Wilson for younger kids (a senior) who offered a shadow day and to answer all questions.  We are in boundary for Wilson, but babysitter apparently had the authority to offer this without prior approval, probably the IB question came up, but nothing more.

So dc will be doing a shadow day at Wilson with this wonderfully voluble girl, and maybe wait and wait for the opportunity to shadow at Walls.  The difference is stark, and for a "school without walls" they have put up numerous walls in terms of how the qualified applicants can determine whether Walls is a good fit....

Quite frankly, many kids who apply to Walls have other options - staying where they are, Wilson, private, Latin (just to give parents hope, we know a child who got in for 9th, but the sibling preference that meant the other child was in at 5th may have had an impact, but there is still hope.)  I do not believe that there is another school that does not allow you to shadow pre lottery, so you at least know where to list it...

Again, Walls is still I think coming down from the idea that they were a star in the DCPS constellation, as opposed to a political chip and a school that the present (and former Rhee) administration were probably hostile towards.   Points to the moral integrity of Rhee and Henderson, take whatever is working in DCPS (for primarily AA students according to their stats) and destroy it.  Apparently, as a pp enlightened us, SWW even under the Rhee regime had the rep has School With Whiners, and the fact that they do not have their own principal and had to fight hard against alleged principal's idea to have all the 11th graders walk to classes at SWW Francis Stevens, where he is spending all of his time, does not bode well for the [b]only school in DC that was nationally ranked last year in the US News & World Report, at #198[/b].

Wilson is Yale or Jail and in the 700s? I think, and Banneker probably was higher than Wilson, but with SAT scores below the national average ( as parents have explained here over and over, 4 years at Banneker cannot make up for the crappy education most kids were coming from).  So the options for high school for an academically advanced kid are admittedly limited (BASIS stops accepting kids in 6th grade), and although maybe Walls got the message about the interview process from DCUM, I am not sure they got the entire message.

Given that they had to go back and grant interviews to kids who for some reason had not made the placement test or grade cut to fill their 9th grade class, one would think that not only would they reconsider their interview process, but also the idea that students have to be accepted to have a shadow day.  And apparently, the shadow day last year (for the parents who were not so put off by the interview process that they crossed Walls off their list - and they were vocal here) given the timing here, will occur very close to decision time.

Gut check?  I would prefer my kid to stay where they are and if we have issues go into honor classes at Wilson.  "Without Walls" should signal openness, but instead it does not equal transparency at all, and certainly not transparency allowing kids to make an informed decision with the best information they can get before the decision time, which is essential.  They are only (grudgingly?) granted a shadow day once they have been accepted.

Walls, think about giving a shadow day to everyone who made the interview cut, because it might make for more substantial interviews.....

Sincerely,
a potential Walls parent, but most likely Wilson, all as a result of what Walls has done (and not done during this process), in order to make my highly qualified child make an informed decision....[/quote]

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