Reply to Wall 2022--63% admission rate for 9th

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]At least two years ago looks played into who was chosen.  My daughter has two friends who are objectively gorgeous--they were selected although they were in low math classes and had multiple Bs.  neither took the spots as they had no real interest in Walls.  But the interviewers definitely voted for them. [/quote]

Previous poster again. I should elaborate and say that I know because my daughter and friends were talking about this. of their friend group (8?) the quiet, plain, studious ones were not taken.  The beautiful, glam, charismatic ones were,  I remember because we had a conversation about it--they were laughing about it. 
It's how the world works but kind of crappy for high school admissions but not surprising when 90% of admissions was based on a 2 minute interview by a teenager.  a kid is going to consciously or unconsciously go with the visually appealing option. [/quote]

This is not the first time you’ve posted about this.  You don’t know that there interviews were based on looks.  Also there are lots of quiet nonglam kids at Walls.  Please stop spreading this rumor.[/quote]

Agreed.  I know some very plain looking freshman at Walls.  You can say many things about the interview process, but it’s definitely not a beauty contest.[/quote]

NP.  I know a kid who was conducting interviews at Walls and he was laughing about this very thing.  He definitely made it sound like he was basing his decisions on looks/people he might want to be friends with.  This is a ridiculous way to conduct admissions. [/quote]

I’m sure there are employers who extend offers to prospective employees for the same reasons.  There are administrators and teachers who select students  based on biases they’re not even aware they have.  It’s certainly not right, but how do you prevent it?  If humans are involved in the process, nothing is foolproof.[/quote]

I think you mean well, but you've just deployed an age old rhetorical device. Nothing is perfect. Humans are fallible. Therefore let's do nothing.

Employers who conduct interviews without standards, job descriptions, rubrics or standard scoring get sued. And lose. Smart employers mandate bias education and development for all employees, and for sure those that conduct interviews. One of the reasons that objective standards (tests, project based assessments, GPA) are used in lieu of interviews and other purely subjective measures is that we have learned over time that subjectivity results in bias, which in turn results in discriminatory behaviors and outcomes. Somehow DC has decided that the way to overcome bias and discrimination is to employ a purely objective standard led by teenagers.  [/quote]

So what is your solution?

My children have gone through the admissions process at both Walls and DC private high schools.  The private schools were not one iota more transparent than Walls in terms of what they were looking for during the interview.  Yes, the interview lasted longer, but that doesn’t yield more insight for the student about how they’re being evaluated.  Oh, private school interviews are also subject to the same implicit bias.[/quote]

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