Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Do WIS students take any standard tests that students at other high schools take, such as National Merit exams? Comparing the WIS results on those exams might provide some clues about academic rigor of WIS and success of its students.

If these sorts of standardized scores are important to you then WIS is the wrong school for you.

Apparently those standardized scores are important to WIS too. I see them all featured prominently in WIS's student profile statement. http://www.wis.edu/data/files/gallery/ContentGallery/WISProfile_20122013.pdf

1262 SAT average (R+M)
14 PSAT Commended students out of 103 eligible students in 2011 and 2012 classes
Solid AP Exam scores
Plenty of respectable US colleges for grads

Seems like a fine school to me.

Anonymous wrote:Very selective (now extremely hard to get into if your child doesn't already have 2+ languages, though they need not be English, French, or Spanish). Great academics, as agreed upon by those coming from or leaving for schools around the world. Yes, the language immersion, while a huge draw for many, does not appeal to as broad a swath of DC private school parents as the general curriculum of GDS, Maret, etc., (though WIS children handle all of that general curriculum but in 2+ languages) so it isn't mentioned here as often.

Not necessarily for lower school. I know someone who was accepted at WIS this year who only speaks English. The same child also didn't get into any Big 3 but will be attending a school other than WIS.

Anonymous wrote:Very simple - it's a great school but its grads don't have the pedigree of the big 3 in terms of future lawyers/politicians.

And the Big 3 do not have the same pedigree of future titans of technology, or of great academic and research scientists, that some West Coast private schools have. So what? That would not discourage me from sending my academically gifted science and math child to a private school in Washington, DC.

Future lawyers, politicians, businessmen, scientists, researchers, world leaders, philosophers, military, academics, philanthropists, thought-leaders, writers, and many other great contributors to our world come from diverse educational backgrounds.

Anonymous wrote:Do WIS students take any standard tests that students at other high schools take, such as National Merit exams? Comparing the WIS results on those exams might provide some clues about academic rigor of WIS and success of its students.

WIS students take ERBs starting in third grade, as do the other private schools.

In the upper school, you prepare to take the IB exams. However, many upper school students are well-prepared for (though not specifically taught to) the various AP exams, SAT subject tests, the ACT, and SAT. It is really the best of all worlds as many WIS students take the same standardized tests as their peers in the other private schools (APs, SAT subject tests, ACT, SAT), as well as the additional IB exams (which opens the doors for universities abroad).

Very simple - it's a great school but its grads don't have the pedigree of the big 3 in terms of future lawyers/politicians.

Anonymous wrote:Do WIS students take any standard tests that students at other high schools take, such as National Merit exams? Comparing the WIS results on those exams might provide some clues about academic rigor of WIS and success of its students.

If these sorts of standardized scores are important to you then WIS is the wrong school for you.

Do WIS students take any standard tests that students at other high schools take, such as National Merit exams? Comparing the WIS results on those exams might provide some clues about academic rigor of WIS and success of its students.

WIS is an academically rigorous school, particularly in the middle school and upper school years.

Perhaps more importantly, the PYP and IB program, combined with the School's participation in a Harvard-structured teaching program, promotes an atmosphere in which students are taught to consider and mull what they learn, to discuss their ideas with others, to dissect the information, and to retain it.

This teaching and learning style is more rare than you think in other schools. I have had children at both WIS and other excellent schools over the years, and at their other schools there was a lot of regurgitation of knowledge, or "pumping" of the children with facts which they subsequently "dumped" after an exam.

My DCs had more fun learning at WIS. Just yesterday, one of my older children commented -- as a younger DC and I drilled multiplication tables for their current school -- that at WIS s/he used to play a game with dice, where the students had to roll the dice and multiply the numbers that came up, keeping an ongoing calculation, until they reached 1000.

l feel that the information and ideas my DC learned early on at WIS are building blocks used again and again by them, enjoyed and retained as knowledge.

One last point, when we had to move away to another metropolitan, world city, my DC were admitted to the best schools in their new home -- and are at the very top of the class at their new schools.

I hope to move back one day so that my younger DCs can resume their educations at WIS.

I don't understand this...how are ncs, Sitwell, sta, gds , potomac etc even listed in the article. Makes me think it is not that reliable...

Sorry link didn't work. can u repost? Thx.

This is the Washington Post's list of most challenging schools:

http://apps.washingtonpost.com/local/highschoolcha...lenge/schools/2013/list/local/

Far more challenging than the typical high school ( up there with St Anselm's ) - not a traditional high school experience.

Very selective (now extremely hard to get into if your child doesn't already have 2+ languages, though they need not be English, French, or Spanish). Great academics, as agreed upon by those coming from or leaving for schools around the world. Yes, the language immersion, while a huge draw for many, does not appeal to as broad a swath of DC private school parents as the general curriculum of GDS, Maret, etc., (though WIS children handle all of that general curriculum but in 2+ languages) so it isn't mentioned here as often.

I can't really speak to the other schools, but my DH and I are considering WIS for our son (now 2) and not considering the other ones. It is a personal preference, but we value the language training enough to consider private, but we have other good public options if language immersion is not on the table.

Just wondering, WIS seldom is mentioned along with NCS, Sidwell etc. as a top DC private. Is this because it is an immersion school? My understanding is that it is academically rigorous and competitive to enter.

Anyone have any ideas/thoughts about this?