Anonymous wrote:12:21, are you freaking kidding if the most kids are proficient and advanced how come it is not reflective in the honor students demographics. Let's see the school is predominantly AA and the many of the honor students are AA, so your point is what??? Get your facts straight boo-boo, being white/asian at Wilson ain't all that in a nutshell. Sheesh~

My only point is that the vast majority of white and Asian students at Wilson are proficient or advanced on the DC-CAS. I made no comments about AA students or honor roll

Anonymous wrote:"3) if a child doesn't pass standardized tests, DCPS needs to focus like crazy to get those kids up to speed. Put them in different schools that provide an alternative."

How about give them different parents?



Also, the white kid at Wilson was probably proficient or advanced on the standarized tests, like most other white and Asian kids at Wilson.

On further reflection I'd liek to change 3) to "Place children that don't pass the standardized tests in a different classroom." Really no need for an entirely different school-- just need the teachers that are the very best at bringing lagging teachers up to speed. Regarding "different parents", I actually did consider proposing a boarding school type situation as a couple successful charters do this-- but for elementary school and middle school, it just seems too messed up. Maybe give parents with failing students a list of suggestions to help bring the kid up to speed, like "no TV/non-educational screen time until grades improve". Seems a bit "nanny state" to make such a recommendation, but I bet it would really work.

If non-proficient kids were taught separately from proficient kids, the proficient kids would be able to dig deeper in their classrooms beyond mere proficiency into true mastery - beyond regurgitating facts they could connect those facts with their own original ideas.

12:21, are you freaking kidding if the most kids are proficient and advanced how come it is not reflective in the honor students demographics. Let's see the school is predominantly AA and the many of the honor students are AA, so your point is what??? Get your facts straight boo-boo, being white/asian at Wilson ain't all that in a nutshell. Sheesh~

I read this article and it further reinforced my decision to go private.

"3) if a child doesn't pass standardized tests, DCPS needs to focus like crazy to get those kids up to speed. Put them in different schools that provide an alternative."

How about give them different parents?

Also, the white kid at Wilson was probably proficient or advanced on the standarized tests, like most other white and Asian kids at Wilson.

1) the article gives me hope regarding Core Curriculum
2) the article makes me think standardized testing should not happen after 5th grade.
3) if a child doesn't pass standardized tests, DCPS needs to focus like crazy to get those kids up to speed. Put them in different schools that provide an alternative. Allows teachers of those that do pass tests to go deeper without having the struggling students slow down the classroom.
4) heartening to hear that even those that received lack luster educations in DCPS and initially struggle in college, are able to right themselves, given the right support and enough effort by the student. A bad education can be overcome. (But wouldn't it be great if it didn't have to be?)

It appears the wrong link was used to start this thread. here's the correct link:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/education/graduates-from-low-performing-dc-schools-face-tough-college-road/2013/06/16/e4c769a0-d49a-11e2-a73e-826d299ff459_story.html?wpmk=MK0000203

The wapo article mentions that the Wilson kid took 11 AP courses and got college credit for 5 of them.

Could be AP english (assuming he took it) was not one of the courses he did so well in.

Anonymous wrote:Um.....that article (NPR above) is a general article about current HS reading standards. They used Wilson as an example of the problem generally. It isn't a specific Wilson problem specifically.

If anything, the NPR piece was complimentary of the coursework at Wilson:

"Back at Woodrow Wilson High School, classes are changing. A 10th grade English class is getting underway. This is a regular English class and a lot of these kids say they don't read much outside of school. But Tyler Jefferson and Adriel Miller are eager to talk. Adriel likes books about sports, Tyler likes history. Both say their teachers have assigned books that they would not have chosen on their own.

TYLER JEFFERSON: I read "The Odyssey." I read "Romeo and Juliet." I didn't read "Hamlet."

NEARY: What did you think of those books?

JEFFERSON: It was very different because how the language was back then. Yeah, the dialogue that they had and...

NEARY: Was it harder to read than...

JEFFERSON: Yes, it was. It was harder to comprehend, also.

NEARY: You agree? I mean, that when you get those kinds of books that they're harder to read?

ADRIEL MILLER: Most definitely. You know, that's why we have great teachers that actually make us understand.

NEARY: So you think it is a good thing to be assigned those kinds of books.

MILLER: Yes, ma'am. It gives us a harder challenge of our brain, you know? It gives us a challenge.

JEFFERSON: It gives us a new view on things.

NEARY: Sandra Stotsky would be heartened to hear that. Professor emirita of education at the University of Arkansas, Stotsky firmly believes that high school students should be reading challenging fiction to get ready for the reading they will have to do in college."
....

What can you do, rid the poor children from the school system? What can you do, rid of the DCCAS?

A similar article was published by WashPo a few months ago and highlighted freshman year college students who graduated from DC public schools and were trying to make it at area colleges. It was really tough and many of them were in remedial classes and having a hard time.

Um.....that article (NPR above) is a general article about current HS reading standards. They used Wilson as an example of the problem generally. It isn't a specific Wilson problem specifically.

Yeah the Wilson thing made me very frustrated. I graduated from an inner city school out west and had multiple 5-10 page papers I had written from 9th grade on up for each year.

This NPR piece last week also set at Wilson did not give me any peace either.

http://www.npr.org/blogs/monkeysee/2013/06/11/190669029/what-kids-are-reading-in-school-and-out

Isn't that the exact same article as came out two years ago about some shitty charter school?

What did you think of today's new WashPo article? Even Wilson sounds unchallenging.