Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It all comes down to whether or not you have a teacher who maxes out the recommendation form. When my kid went through this a few years ago at Deal there was one English teacher who didn't max it out for any students on that team and zero kids from that team got in despite many of them having a 4.0 and being school leaders.

It's a deeply flawed process but it's DCPS and that's what they do.

My kid suspected this. He was shocked his friends with 4.0’s in geometry, physics, and who are in national junior honors society, student council, etc, did not get interviews. He suspected it was partially because one of the teachers they all had write their recs is pretty tough on them.

Yes, but don't blame the teachers. People write recs in different ways and I don't think DCPS communicates to teachers that anyone with less than a perfect rating won't move on. Teachers who know this will pass through everyone who is decent. Teachers who don't have in the past dinged even the top kids because this is a very reasonable way to complete a rec (i.e no one is perfect, there is room for improvement, etc).

Honestly if there is one takeaway for me of this process it is that teacher recommendations should not be required. They are a massive burden on teachers and can be arbitrarily unfair if the teacher has a different standard than others or doesn’t understand the game. Grades and essays should be enough - schools that want to assess writing or other skills could do a test, workshop, portfolio or interview.

And their effect is magnified when recs play such a big role in deciding who gets an interview. I think it is absolutely true that many teachers (and parents) don’t understand the impact of these recommendations on students’ chances. Middle school leadership or counselors may have some ability to communicate this to teachers, but there is inherently going to be variation from teacher to teacher, especially without some system for norming these recommendations.

The problem remains that the pool of highly qualified kids is larger than the number of spots available. It’s not simple to come up with a fair admissions process and I can appreciate the value of rec letters as part of an overall application package, but the way the current application process uses them seems flawed.

Exactly. “The pool of highly qualified kids is larger than the number of spots available.”

That means Walls can conduct a pretty slipshod process and still wind up with a strong class.

And the teachers get paid the same, whether they put in 10 hours for admissions or 100. So they have every incentive to stick with this imperfect process. Just make sure you have a backup plan, and don’t let your kid take the results too seriously.

Yea, I wouldn’t take it seriously at all.

Obviously, they are not taking the most highly qualified applicants and there is massive grade inflation at the school which doesn’t help either.

Agree on the randomness of admissions, but the "massive grade inflation" claim is silly. If you took the top students at any high school -- all taking tons of APs and honors -- that by group too would have a 4.whatever average gpa.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It all comes down to whether or not you have a teacher who maxes out the recommendation form. When my kid went through this a few years ago at Deal there was one English teacher who didn't max it out for any students on that team and zero kids from that team got in despite many of them having a 4.0 and being school leaders.

It's a deeply flawed process but it's DCPS and that's what they do.

My kid suspected this. He was shocked his friends with 4.0’s in geometry, physics, and who are in national junior honors society, student council, etc, did not get interviews. He suspected it was partially because one of the teachers they all had write their recs is pretty tough on them.

For parents who talk about the 4.0 GPA, etc that show how strong the students are. If your child has a personality flaw that affects the classroom environment, it might show through in the rec. one friend’s child did not get interview invite yet and I’m only half surprised. Her child is super arrogant, hyper critical of others and pretty unbearable to be around… these things matter.

Whereas you, who are positing that every child who does not get into Walls has a “personality flaw,” are a model of non-toxic positivity and a joy to have in this discussion.

They just want to believe their kid is better than the others and special and unique enough to get an interview - the 700 plus kids who didn’t get interviewed obviously all have personality flaws and large egos lol.

My point is, but I’m sure you already got it, if kids don’t have stellar recommendations from teachers, if anything suggests that the child may be difficult to work with (despite a 4.0) you can bet they won’t get an interview.

My child is already at Walls, and from what I’ve noticed, kids are all pretty nice, humble people and seem to have similar « easy-to-work » with traits.

No, you implied that kids who didn’t get interviews have personality flaws. The narcissism in this area is unreal.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I agree that the process is not transparent, and there probably should be a test component (or use CAPE scores). What they shouldn’t do is consider the difficultly of the kids” course load. That would be completely unfair and take certain schools out of the running. This isn’t a college application.

I do think you could weight grades in courses as long as 4.0 was the max. So like a B+ in Geometry would at least be worth the same 4.0 as the A in remedial math.

How would you balance that with a kid who goes to a school that doesn’t offer Geometry but gets an A- in 8th grade math? I just don’t think this is fair.

But even if you could figure out a fair weighted system, the manpower that would go into recalculating GPAs is not possible. The turn around for interview invites is pretty tight. Especially given that the person who runs admissions is not an admissions officer like at a private school. They have many other responsibilities and asking them to hand calculate weighted GPAs by class taken is not feasible at all.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It all comes down to whether or not you have a teacher who maxes out the recommendation form. When my kid went through this a few years ago at Deal there was one English teacher who didn't max it out for any students on that team and zero kids from that team got in despite many of them having a 4.0 and being school leaders.

It's a deeply flawed process but it's DCPS and that's what they do.

My kid suspected this. He was shocked his friends with 4.0’s in geometry, physics, and who are in national junior honors society, student council, etc, did not get interviews. He suspected it was partially because one of the teachers they all had write their recs is pretty tough on them.

For parents who talk about the 4.0 GPA, etc that show how strong the students are. If your child has a personality flaw that affects the classroom environment, it might show through in the rec. one friend’s child did not get interview invite yet and I’m only half surprised. Her child is super arrogant, hyper critical of others and pretty unbearable to be around… these things matter.

Whereas you, who are positing that every child who does not get into Walls has a “personality flaw,” are a model of non-toxic positivity and a joy to have in this discussion.

They just want to believe their kid is better than the others and special and unique enough to get an interview - the 700 plus kids who didn’t get interviewed obviously all have personality flaws and large egos lol.

My point is, but I’m sure you already got it, if kids don’t have stellar recommendations from teachers, if anything suggests that the child may be difficult to work with (despite a 4.0) you can bet they won’t get an interview.

My child is already at Walls, and from what I’ve noticed, kids are all pretty nice, humble people and seem to have similar « easy-to-work » with traits.

No, you implied that kids who didn’t get interviews have personality flaws. The narcissism in this area is unreal.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I agree that the process is not transparent, and there probably should be a test component (or use CAPE scores). What they shouldn’t do is consider the difficultly of the kids” course load. That would be completely unfair and take certain schools out of the running. This isn’t a college application.

I do think you could weight grades in courses as long as 4.0 was the max. So like a B+ in Geometry would at least be worth the same 4.0 as the A in remedial math.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It all comes down to whether or not you have a teacher who maxes out the recommendation form. When my kid went through this a few years ago at Deal there was one English teacher who didn't max it out for any students on that team and zero kids from that team got in despite many of them having a 4.0 and being school leaders.

It's a deeply flawed process but it's DCPS and that's what they do.

My kid suspected this. He was shocked his friends with 4.0’s in geometry, physics, and who are in national junior honors society, student council, etc, did not get interviews. He suspected it was partially because one of the teachers they all had write their recs is pretty tough on them.

For parents who talk about the 4.0 GPA, etc that show how strong the students are. If your child has a personality flaw that affects the classroom environment, it might show through in the rec. one friend’s child did not get interview invite yet and I’m only half surprised. Her child is super arrogant, hyper critical of others and pretty unbearable to be around… these things matter.

Whereas you, who are positing that every child who does not get into Walls has a “personality flaw,” are a model of non-toxic positivity and a joy to have in this discussion.

They just want to believe their kid is better than the others and special and unique enough to get an interview - the 700 plus kids who didn’t get interviewed obviously all have personality flaws and large egos lol.

My point is, but I’m sure you already got it, if kids don’t have stellar recommendations from teachers, if anything suggests that the child may be difficult to work with (despite a 4.0) you can bet they won’t get an interview.

My child is already at Walls, and from what I’ve noticed, kids are all pretty nice, humble people and seem to have similar « easy-to-work » with traits.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It all comes down to whether or not you have a teacher who maxes out the recommendation form. When my kid went through this a few years ago at Deal there was one English teacher who didn't max it out for any students on that team and zero kids from that team got in despite many of them having a 4.0 and being school leaders.

It's a deeply flawed process but it's DCPS and that's what they do.

My kid suspected this. He was shocked his friends with 4.0’s in geometry, physics, and who are in national junior honors society, student council, etc, did not get interviews. He suspected it was partially because one of the teachers they all had write their recs is pretty tough on them.

Yes, but don't blame the teachers. People write recs in different ways and I don't think DCPS communicates to teachers that anyone with less than a perfect rating won't move on. Teachers who know this will pass through everyone who is decent. Teachers who don't have in the past dinged even the top kids because this is a very reasonable way to complete a rec (i.e no one is perfect, there is room for improvement, etc).

Honestly if there is one takeaway for me of this process it is that teacher recommendations should not be required. They are a massive burden on teachers and can be arbitrarily unfair if the teacher has a different standard than others or doesn’t understand the game. Grades and essays should be enough - schools that want to assess writing or other skills could do a test, workshop, portfolio or interview.

And their effect is magnified when recs play such a big role in deciding who gets an interview. I think it is absolutely true that many teachers (and parents) don’t understand the impact of these recommendations on students’ chances. Middle school leadership or counselors may have some ability to communicate this to teachers, but there is inherently going to be variation from teacher to teacher, especially without some system for norming these recommendations.

The problem remains that the pool of highly qualified kids is larger than the number of spots available. It’s not simple to come up with a fair admissions process and I can appreciate the value of rec letters as part of an overall application package, but the way the current application process uses them seems flawed.

Exactly. “The pool of highly qualified kids is larger than the number of spots available.”

That means Walls can conduct a pretty slipshod process and still wind up with a strong class.

And the teachers get paid the same, whether they put in 10 hours for admissions or 100. So they have every incentive to stick with this imperfect process. Just make sure you have a backup plan, and don’t let your kid take the results too seriously.

Yea, I wouldn’t take it seriously at all.

Obviously, they are not taking the most highly qualified applicants and there is massive grade inflation at the school which doesn’t help either.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It all comes down to whether or not you have a teacher who maxes out the recommendation form. When my kid went through this a few years ago at Deal there was one English teacher who didn't max it out for any students on that team and zero kids from that team got in despite many of them having a 4.0 and being school leaders.

It's a deeply flawed process but it's DCPS and that's what they do.

My kid suspected this. He was shocked his friends with 4.0’s in geometry, physics, and who are in national junior honors society, student council, etc, did not get interviews. He suspected it was partially because one of the teachers they all had write their recs is pretty tough on them.

For parents who talk about the 4.0 GPA, etc that show how strong the students are. If your child has a personality flaw that affects the classroom environment, it might show through in the rec. one friend’s child did not get interview invite yet and I’m only half surprised. Her child is super arrogant, hyper critical of others and pretty unbearable to be around… these things matter.

Whereas you, who are positing that every child who does not get into Walls has a “personality flaw,” are a model of non-toxic positivity and a joy to have in this discussion.

They just want to believe their kid is better than the others and special and unique enough to get an interview - the 700 plus kids who didn’t get interviewed obviously all have personality flaws and large egos lol.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It all comes down to whether or not you have a teacher who maxes out the recommendation form. When my kid went through this a few years ago at Deal there was one English teacher who didn't max it out for any students on that team and zero kids from that team got in despite many of them having a 4.0 and being school leaders.

It's a deeply flawed process but it's DCPS and that's what they do.

My kid suspected this. He was shocked his friends with 4.0’s in geometry, physics, and who are in national junior honors society, student council, etc, did not get interviews. He suspected it was partially because one of the teachers they all had write their recs is pretty tough on them.

For parents who talk about the 4.0 GPA, etc that show how strong the students are. If your child has a personality flaw that affects the classroom environment, it might show through in the rec. one friend’s child did not get interview invite yet and I’m only half surprised. Her child is super arrogant, hyper critical of others and pretty unbearable to be around… these things matter.

Whereas you, who are positing that every child who does not get into Walls has a “personality flaw,” are a model of non-toxic positivity and a joy to have in this discussion.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It all comes down to whether or not you have a teacher who maxes out the recommendation form. When my kid went through this a few years ago at Deal there was one English teacher who didn't max it out for any students on that team and zero kids from that team got in despite many of them having a 4.0 and being school leaders.

It's a deeply flawed process but it's DCPS and that's what they do.

My kid suspected this. He was shocked his friends with 4.0’s in geometry, physics, and who are in national junior honors society, student council, etc, did not get interviews. He suspected it was partially because one of the teachers they all had write their recs is pretty tough on them.

For parents who talk about the 4.0 GPA, etc that show how strong the students are. If your child has a personality flaw that affects the classroom environment, it might show through in the rec. one friend’s child did not get interview invite yet and I’m only half surprised. Her child is super arrogant, hyper critical of others and pretty unbearable to be around… these things matter.

Whereas you, who are positing that every child who does not get into Walls has a “personality flaw,” are a model of non-toxic positivity and a joy to have in this discussion.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It all comes down to whether or not you have a teacher who maxes out the recommendation form. When my kid went through this a few years ago at Deal there was one English teacher who didn't max it out for any students on that team and zero kids from that team got in despite many of them having a 4.0 and being school leaders.

It's a deeply flawed process but it's DCPS and that's what they do.

My kid suspected this. He was shocked his friends with 4.0’s in geometry, physics, and who are in national junior honors society, student council, etc, did not get interviews. He suspected it was partially because one of the teachers they all had write their recs is pretty tough on them.

For parents who talk about the 4.0 GPA, etc that show how strong the students are. If your child has a personality flaw that affects the classroom environment, it might show through in the rec. one friend’s child did not get interview invite yet and I’m only half surprised. Her child is super arrogant, hyper critical of others and pretty unbearable to be around… these things matter.

Whereas you, who are positing that every child who does not get into Walls has a “personality flaw,” are a model of non-toxic positivity and a joy to have in this discussion.

I said « if ». Has to be the case for some. Whether you find my suggestion offensive or not, a 4.0 is not all that matters for a teacher.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It all comes down to whether or not you have a teacher who maxes out the recommendation form. When my kid went through this a few years ago at Deal there was one English teacher who didn't max it out for any students on that team and zero kids from that team got in despite many of them having a 4.0 and being school leaders.

It's a deeply flawed process but it's DCPS and that's what they do.

My kid suspected this. He was shocked his friends with 4.0’s in geometry, physics, and who are in national junior honors society, student council, etc, did not get interviews. He suspected it was partially because one of the teachers they all had write their recs is pretty tough on them.

For parents who talk about the 4.0 GPA, etc that show how strong the students are. If your child has a personality flaw that affects the classroom environment, it might show through in the rec. one friend’s child did not get interview invite yet and I’m only half surprised. Her child is super arrogant, hyper critical of others and pretty unbearable to be around… these things matter.

Whereas you, who are positing that every child who does not get into Walls has a “personality flaw,” are a model of non-toxic positivity and a joy to have in this discussion.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It all comes down to whether or not you have a teacher who maxes out the recommendation form. When my kid went through this a few years ago at Deal there was one English teacher who didn't max it out for any students on that team and zero kids from that team got in despite many of them having a 4.0 and being school leaders.

It's a deeply flawed process but it's DCPS and that's what they do.

My kid suspected this. He was shocked his friends with 4.0’s in geometry, physics, and who are in national junior honors society, student council, etc, did not get interviews. He suspected it was partially because one of the teachers they all had write their recs is pretty tough on them.

For parents who talk about the 4.0 GPA, etc that show how strong the students are. If your child has a personality flaw that affects the classroom environment, it might show through in the rec. one friend’s child did not get interview invite yet and I’m only half surprised. Her child is super arrogant, hyper critical of others and pretty unbearable to be around… these things matter.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It all comes down to whether or not you have a teacher who maxes out the recommendation form. When my kid went through this a few years ago at Deal there was one English teacher who didn't max it out for any students on that team and zero kids from that team got in despite many of them having a 4.0 and being school leaders.

It's a deeply flawed process but it's DCPS and that's what they do.

My kid suspected this. He was shocked his friends with 4.0’s in geometry, physics, and who are in national junior honors society, student council, etc, did not get interviews. He suspected it was partially because one of the teachers they all had write their recs is pretty tough on them.