Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Here’s a little secret: The top students who stay in public want to go to Wilson. Sure, there are bright kids at Walls, but not the top kids. Walls is known for busy work, group projects and field trips. The majority of Wilson teachers are younger and more engaged, although there are a few exceptions, and this is not the case at Walls where there are many older teachers who frankly are terrible. See, the kids know this —- listen to them once in a while— but the adults are clueless. 🤷‍♀️

How do you square your interpretation with all the complaints about the Wilson principal and Honors for All?

I disagree with the assertions of this poster as a parent of a Walls student. It is not that there are not strong students at both schools, but for some the smaller school with more autonomy (open campus from freshman year) is a better fit. Also, all the students are all engaged hard working students and they come from all over the city. Wilson is largely Deal continued. I agree the teachers are not all exceptional but I would argue the student cohort is exceptional.

I never hear complaints about honors for all outside of DCUM. My (smart, motivated, high-achieving) kid’s experience at Wilson has been very positive; honors for all literally never comes up in my real-life conversations. The principal also seems fine.

Really because I hear from parents that it’s basically a wasted year.

Unless you have incompetent teachers, I don’t see how that’s possible. They’re still teaching the same material.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Here’s a little secret: The top students who stay in public want to go to Wilson. Sure, there are bright kids at Walls, but not the top kids. Walls is known for busy work, group projects and field trips. The majority of Wilson teachers are younger and more engaged, although there are a few exceptions, and this is not the case at Walls where there are many older teachers who frankly are terrible. See, the kids know this —- listen to them once in a while— but the adults are clueless. 🤷‍♀️

How do you square your interpretation with all the complaints about the Wilson principal and Honors for All?

I disagree with the assertions of this poster as a parent of a Walls student. It is not that there are not strong students at both schools, but for some the smaller school with more autonomy (open campus from freshman year) is a better fit. Also, all the students are all engaged hard working students and they come from all over the city. Wilson is largely Deal continued. I agree the teachers are not all exceptional but I would argue the student cohort is exceptional.

I never hear complaints about honors for all outside of DCUM. My (smart, motivated, high-achieving) kid’s experience at Wilson has been very positive; honors for all literally never comes up in my real-life conversations. The principal also seems fine.

Really because I hear from parents that it’s basically a wasted year.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Here’s a little secret: The top students who stay in public want to go to Wilson. Sure, there are bright kids at Walls, but not the top kids. Walls is known for busy work, group projects and field trips. The majority of Wilson teachers are younger and more engaged, although there are a few exceptions, and this is not the case at Walls where there are many older teachers who frankly are terrible. See, the kids know this —- listen to them once in a while— but the adults are clueless. 🤷‍♀️

How do you square your interpretation with all the complaints about the Wilson principal and Honors for All?

I disagree with the assertions of this poster as a parent of a Walls student. It is not that there are not strong students at both schools, but for some the smaller school with more autonomy (open campus from freshman year) is a better fit. Also, all the students are all engaged hard working students and they come from all over the city. Wilson is largely Deal continued. I agree the teachers are not all exceptional but I would argue the student cohort is exceptional.

I never hear complaints about honors for all outside of DCUM. My (smart, motivated, high-achieving) kid’s experience at Wilson has been very positive; honors for all literally never comes up in my real-life conversations. The principal also seems fine.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Here’s a little secret: The top students who stay in public want to go to Wilson. Sure, there are bright kids at Walls, but not the top kids. Walls is known for busy work, group projects and field trips. The majority of Wilson teachers are younger and more engaged, although there are a few exceptions, and this is not the case at Walls where there are many older teachers who frankly are terrible. See, the kids know this —- listen to them once in a while— but the adults are clueless. 🤷‍♀️

How do you square your interpretation with all the complaints about the Wilson principal and Honors for All?

I disagree with the assertions of this poster as a parent of a Walls student. It is not that there are not strong students at both schools, but for some the smaller school with more autonomy (open campus from freshman year) is a better fit. Also, all the students are all engaged hard working students and they come from all over the city. Wilson is largely Deal continued. I agree the teachers are not all exceptional but I would argue the student cohort is exceptional.

There is widespread agreement that the student cohort is the main advantage of Walls over Wilson and that Wilson has the advantage of better teachers (and perhaps the highest achieving students, if not the most uniformly high achievers)...but there without the admissions test and the incoming students at Walls were screened on 7th grade grades alone...and those were grossly inflated due to COVID. Combined with the fact that they interviewed 500, rather than the usual 250, and the interview process is complete garbage, it is highly doubtful that this year's 9th graders at Walls will be as strong as years past. But time will tell...

For interested folks, there was a Walls vs Wilson thread a month or two ago...it was interesting and there were clearly pros and cons to each but overall, Wilson parents seemed to be happier (and there were quite a few parents with a kid at each....) and the sense was that Walls was overrated.

Anonymous wrote:Here’s a little secret: The top students who stay in public want to go to Wilson. Sure, there are bright kids at Walls, but not the top kids. Walls is known for busy work, group projects and field trips. The majority of Wilson teachers are younger and more engaged, although there are a few exceptions, and this is not the case at Walls where there are many older teachers who frankly are terrible. See, the kids know this —- listen to them once in a while— but the adults are clueless. 🤷‍♀️

How do you square your interpretation with all the complaints about the Wilson principal and Honors for All?

I disagree with the assertions of this poster as a parent of a Walls student. It is not that there are not strong students at both schools, but for some the smaller school with more autonomy (open campus from freshman year) is a better fit. Also, all the students are all engaged hard working students and they come from all over the city. Wilson is largely Deal continued. I agree the teachers are not all exceptional but I would argue the student cohort is exceptional.

Here’s a little secret: The top students who stay in public want to go to Wilson. Sure, there are bright kids at Walls, but not the top kids. Walls is known for busy work, group projects and field trips. The majority of Wilson teachers are younger and more engaged, although there are a few exceptions, and this is not the case at Walls where there are many older teachers who frankly are terrible. See, the kids know this —- listen to them once in a while— but the adults are clueless. 🤷‍♀️

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Good riddance. Every person in the administration at Walls this year has been an embarrassment to higher education. They have not managed to have a single in-person class for any kids this year. They refused to engage with parents honestly and transparently about plans for any sort of IPL. They did nothing. But they were happy to have the Mayor come celebrate the anniversary of the school for self-serving PR. The kids who succeed at the school do so in spite of the administrators there, not because of them. And if they go woke and make permanent the admissions test (which they suspended this year), it will be the beginning of the end for the school's reputation (or what's left of it).

Agree with this. I know about 10 kids who are attending and the majority of them are okay students and not top students. My own kid is going and would never have met the cut-off if it had been based on a test. (I'm being totally honestly). He's a squarely B student. He made the Walls cut-off because of inflated quarantine grading.
I had another kid go through Walls who was a tippy top student. This year will be very different. It will be interesting to see what happens with this cohort.

I suspect the answer is...nothing different will happen with this cohort. A screening test does not predict success; it just provides an arbitrary cut point for admissions.

Well congrats to your student anyway! I hope he does well.

Anonymous wrote:Good riddance. Every person in the administration at Walls this year has been an embarrassment to higher education. They have not managed to have a single in-person class for any kids this year. They refused to engage with parents honestly and transparently about plans for any sort of IPL. They did nothing. But they were happy to have the Mayor come celebrate the anniversary of the school for self-serving PR. The kids who succeed at the school do so in spite of the administrators there, not because of them. And if they go woke and make permanent the admissions test (which they suspended this year), it will be the beginning of the end for the school's reputation (or what's left of it).

Agree with this. I know about 10 kids who are attending and the majority of them are okay students and not top students. My own kid is going and would never have met the cut-off if it had been based on a test. (I'm being totally honestly). He's a squarely B student. He made the Walls cut-off because of inflated quarantine grading.
I had another kid go through Walls who was a tippy top student. This year will be very different. It will be interesting to see what happens with this cohort.

Anonymous wrote:Good riddance. Every person in the administration at Walls this year has been an embarrassment to higher education. They have not managed to have a single in-person class for any kids this year. They refused to engage with parents honestly and transparently about plans for any sort of IPL. They did nothing. But they were happy to have the Mayor come celebrate the anniversary of the school for self-serving PR. The kids who succeed at the school do so in spite of the administrators there, not because of them. And if they go woke and make permanent the admissions test (which they suspended this year), it will be the beginning of the end for the school's reputation (or what's left of it).

Walls parent here. This is a truth bomb^. My Walls senior said the exact same thing.

Walls definitely seems to have fallen several rungs on the ladder.

Good riddance. Every person in the administration at Walls this year has been an embarrassment to higher education. They have not managed to have a single in-person class for any kids this year. They refused to engage with parents honestly and transparently about plans for any sort of IPL. They did nothing. But they were happy to have the Mayor come celebrate the anniversary of the school for self-serving PR. The kids who succeed at the school do so in spite of the administrators there, not because of them. And if they go woke and make permanent the admissions test (which they suspended this year), it will be the beginning of the end for the school's reputation (or what's left of it).

Anonymous wrote:The decision by DC to fire the SWW Principal last year cost DC another great leader.

That's big loss for the school. She is 100% terrific. I wish her the best.

You know nothing of the situation, other than the person is leaving. Go back to your cave, troll.

The decision by DC to fire the SWW Principal last year cost DC another great leader.