WIS is a great school. These rankings are RUBBISH for any school on the list, it's based on the number of AP tests taken without factoring in scores. Look at the methodology. Mathews used to do this for Newsweek. They got so many complaints that they came up with their own methodology, one that factors in other things.

Nothing against WIS, which seems like a terrific school, but those particular rankings are crazy -- is it really the hallmark of a good education to get more kids to take AP tests, whether they are ready or not? To reward them the more and earlier they do?

It's more testing nuttiness. And why we felt compelled to leave the public school system.

Congratulations! Of the schools that chose to share their data with the Post, WIS gave the third highest number of AP/IB tests per student.

Anonymous wrote:The community there is just privileged, if not more. Many WIS families used to have their tuitions subsidized by their work places (IMF, World bank, WHO... basically the tax payers). I wonder if the tuition perk still exists these days in the international orgs.

Some of them still do. They are also not paying any taxes. Then they hire nannies and domestic workers that they hold hostages on G5 visas.

Anonymous wrote:What a boost to see that this quiet, intensive and academically aggressive private school in DC gets real recognition for educating so many kids from multiple backgrounds with equal rigor. Congratulations, WIS students! And congratulations to parents who may have ever questioned their choice of high schools in a ridiculously over-priced world of private education.

Overpriced?!?! Wis is 28k yr for lower school!

Great for WIS. The ranking is because of the IB program. All WIS kids are required to take IB classes to graduate so the school, like other IB schools, does well on the percent of seniors taking IB/AP tests.

Many of the private schools don't label their classes AP so the metrics used in the survey don't really apply.

Of course this whole ranking has been criticized many times before, but the ranking itself is based on AP/IB tests per senior. However some of the schools with high rankings have pass rates below 50%. Others with lower rankings have pass rates nearer to 90%. Personally I'd rather (and do) have my kid in a school with high pass rates.

The community there is just privileged, if not more. Many WIS families used to have their tuitions subsidized by their work places (IMF, World bank, WHO... basically the tax payers). I wonder if the tuition perk still exists these days in the international orgs.

Anonymous wrote:What a boost to see that this quiet, intensive and academically aggressive private school in DC gets real recognition for educating so many kids from multiple backgrounds with equal rigor. Congratulations, WIS students! And congratulations to parents who may have ever questioned their choice of high schools in a ridiculously over-priced world of private education.

You may need a little more rigor in how you interpret that article, I'm afraid.

Anonymous wrote:Why are they selling property to developers to build homes? Are they broke?

The house going up on Macomb Street? That land has always been privately owned. It's not part of the Tregaron Conservancy or the WIS campus--just next to it. Obviously someone decided to finally build a suburban-looking enormous house there. Nothing the school or the conservancy can do about that.

Anonymous wrote:Why are they selling property to developers to build homes? Are they broke?

Where is this information? Is it public?

It is the policy of schools that belong to Independent Education to not participate in such rankings that is why there are so few private schools on the list.

The ranking in the Washington Post made no sense. They included only a few privates and none of the top publics. Nothing against WIS which seems like a nice school, but those ranking were completely incoherent.

Why are they selling property to developers to build homes? Are they broke?

Care to post who did the rankings and a link?

What a boost to see that this quiet, intensive and academically aggressive private school in DC gets real recognition for educating so many kids from multiple backgrounds with equal rigor. Congratulations, WIS students! And congratulations to parents who may have ever questioned their choice of high schools in a ridiculously over-priced world of private education.