Anonymous wrote:They shouldn’t be interviewing at all. Grades, test, lottery. Or just grades, lottery. The interview is ridiculous.

Yes! Colleges don’t rely on this anymore either, sometimes it is given but doesn’t really factor in, because it’s so biased.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Who they did enroll this year is more mediocre white students. I know smart kids who got in but also straight B students who don't care about school and who would have never made the top 250 kids in a typical year. Then some of the highest achievers at Deal did not get in because for whatever reason their 2 minute interview did not stand out.

+1000
I have no dog in this fight but I know many of these Deal kids. I think highly of Perry Stein but she should dig further into the Walls process to see what when on. A "36 points" system is laughable on face value ( how on earth did they come up with this weighting system to begin with, not to mention figure out how to apportion 31 points during a 3-10 minute interview and norm it across different interviewers)...and not even try to give weight to geographic diversity.

Wow. This is even worse than using and admissions test!

Perry, come on. Sometimes I feel like I could do a better job writing these articles.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I am curious how many students were accepted that live in ward 7 or 8 but didn't go to middle school there. Maybe part of the issue is that students from wards 7 or 8 who are academically inclined are looking for middle schools elsewhere. Is that really Walls' fault?

Huh? First it’s a high school. Second, they screen out kids with IEPs (which is illegal). They screen out kids in wards 7 and 8. What else is there to know?

Isn’t the whole point of an IEP is that the kid can’t keep up with normal kids without help? That should eliminate them from contention from high achieving spots in a competitive field…. Because they can’t keep up without help. There is no IEP allowances at my office. Eventually the cold B-smack of reality will come down on the kids who can’t keep up.

I’m all for helping them through but we shouldn’t pretend they are normal.

Anonymous wrote:I am curious how many students were accepted that live in ward 7 or 8 but didn't go to middle school there. Maybe part of the issue is that students from wards 7 or 8 who are academically inclined are looking for middle schools elsewhere. Is that really Walls' fault?

From the article:

“ Preliminary data shows the new freshman class includes four students from Wards 7 and 8, though the city says it does not have the ward of residence for 39 students. None of these students were enrolled in the traditional public school system.”

So it might be more than four, but based on demographics of the class as a whole, it’s unlikely to be much more. And yes, none from the public MSs in wards 7 and 8.

I think part of the problem is that if you live in a part of the city with mostly underperforming schools, being “academically inclined” is largely a function of whether your family is academically inclined, and thus works hard to get you into a better performing school via the lottery PLUS invests (or even has) the time and energy to get you to school at non-neighborhood schools. Kids in wealthier parts of the city who are naturally academically inclined can just go to their IB schools and take advantage of the opportunities presented. That’s much harder to do in Wards 7 and 8.

My straight A (by her own choice - we have NEVER pushed for grades) daughter did not receive an offer a few years ago. She was really anxious about the interview and flubbed it. She has diagnosed anxiety, at the time undiagnosed. She is a terrific outgoing, athletic, adventurous young person. Just REALLY nervous about being interviewed! It felt terribly poorly weighed.

Anonymous wrote:I am curious how many students were accepted that live in ward 7 or 8 but didn't go to middle school there. Maybe part of the issue is that students from wards 7 or 8 who are academically inclined are looking for middle schools elsewhere. Is that really Walls' fault?

I can’t tell you about acceptance, but the article says last school year Walls enrolled 14 freshmen with a ward 7 or 8 residence and this year their data show 4 enrolled (with 39 students for whom they have no ward of residence which, if anyone cared, they could figure out with a 10 minute mapping exercise).

Anonymous wrote:I am curious how many students were accepted that live in ward 7 or 8 but didn't go to middle school there. Maybe part of the issue is that students from wards 7 or 8 who are academically inclined are looking for middle schools elsewhere. Is that really Walls' fault?

Huh? First it’s a high school. Second, they screen out kids with IEPs (which is illegal). They screen out kids in wards 7 and 8. What else is there to know?

I am curious how many students were accepted that live in ward 7 or 8 but didn't go to middle school there. Maybe part of the issue is that students from wards 7 or 8 who are academically inclined are looking for middle schools elsewhere. Is that really Walls' fault?

Anonymous wrote:Who they did enroll this year is more mediocre white students. I know smart kids who got in but also straight B students who don't care about school and who would have never made the top 250 kids in a typical year. Then some of the highest achievers at Deal did not get in because for whatever reason their 2 minute interview did not stand out.

+1000
I have no dog in this fight but I know many of these Deal kids. I think highly of Perry Stein but she should dig further into the Walls process to see what when on. A "36 points" system is laughable on face value ( how on earth did they come up with this weighting system to begin with, not to mention figure out how to apportion 31 points during a 3-10 minute interview and norm it across different interviewers)...and not even try to give weight to geographic diversity.

They shouldn’t be interviewing at all. Grades, test, lottery. Or just grades, lottery. The interview is ridiculous.

I was shocked to read that they accepted no students from any Ward 7 or 8 middle schools the last TWO YEARS. I acknowledge that transportation could be part of the issue, but I think it’s shameful that that part of the city is not represented in DC’s best public high school.

Who they did enroll this year is more mediocre white students. I know smart kids who got in but also straight B students who don't care about school and who would have never made the top 250 kids in a typical year. Then some of the highest achievers at Deal did not get in because for whatever reason their 2 minute interview did not stand out.

It's a pretty lame article. It claims that this year's admission was based on "grades and interviews"....but ask any parent or kid who went through the process - the devil is in the details. Kids were given a score from 0-36. Grades counted for 5 points. You read that right. The remaining 31 of 36 points were based on one interview, which ranged from 3-10 minutes. So the school basically got to choose from the 500 they wanted because (basically) the ENTIRE admissions was the arbitrary and capricious decision of interviewers. Given this, it's even more galling that they weren't able to bring more kids in across all parts of the city...shame on Walls.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/education/school-without-walls-admissions-test-diversity/2021/08/27/6959cec2-0293-11ec-a664-4f6de3e17ff0_story.html

What does it mean for next year's class?