Anonymous wrote:OMG - the solutions proposed by the Chancellor are ridiculous. No mention of actually supporting kids from Wards 7 and 8 to become more competitive, and instead seeks to just lower the standards. How about programs to support high achieving kids from low income schools??

From the article:

“In 2019, Ferebee announced he would overhaul application requirements for the city’s eight selective high schools, eliminating most testing requirements and reducing the minimum grade-point average from middle school necessary to gain entrance.”

Anonymous wrote:DCPS doesn’t want an entrance exam for Walls. The administration at the school is not strong and therefore does not push back on anything DCPS wants. So there will not be an entrance exam again. If you want one, start with pressuring DCPS. They ultimately control that decision.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:DCUM won’t like my post, but I am a teacher who does the interviews. I’m not defending two questions or three minutes or whatever, but I can tell you that after 10 years of being at the school, it is possible to see within ten minutes who is a good fit. Parent interview portion does not factor into the score except to help students who appear to have strong family support. However, with gpa inflation the past two years due to WS plus the ban on getting parcc scores plus random charter schools who have weird report cards, it is very difficult to assess candidates, honestly.

I would support an application ranking system with no interview, just lottery of qualified students. I hate interview days and would rather be teaching.

Thanks. What written records are available? What kind of information could we get with a FOIA request?

This was posted earlier. Basically:

Keep your request simple. Ask for all "records" that contain:
- the formal process by which Walls candidates were ranked
- all guidance for interviewers on how questions they were to ask and how they were to rate candidates
- all records that provides training for interviewers
- all records that provides the weighting for interviews vs GPA and how candidates are ranked in the event of a tie.
Also ask for an example of the interview matrix or rubric that is used for each interview.

There are some exceptions for what has to be disclosed but this is the type of information that has to be released because it's of public interest. If it exists, they will have to provide it. It is likely it doesn't exist and it will show it was capricious.

Thanks, but I asking the SWW teacher who is part of the process, not you.

That's not how publicly disclosable information works. This is why FOIA exists

Huh? You must be new to DCUM. This is an anonymous blog where people disclose information all the time.

Feel free to file your FOIA request and pay applicable fees to DC for searching, reviewing, and reproducing records.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:DCUM won’t like my post, but I am a teacher who does the interviews. I’m not defending two questions or three minutes or whatever, but I can tell you that after 10 years of being at the school, it is possible to see within ten minutes who is a good fit. Parent interview portion does not factor into the score except to help students who appear to have strong family support. However, with gpa inflation the past two years due to WS plus the ban on getting parcc scores plus random charter schools who have weird report cards, it is very difficult to assess candidates, honestly.

I would support an application ranking system with no interview, just lottery of qualified students. I hate interview days and would rather be teaching.

Thanks. What written records are available? What kind of information could we get with a FOIA request?

This was posted earlier. Basically:

Keep your request simple. Ask for all "records" that contain:
- the formal process by which Walls candidates were ranked
- all guidance for interviewers on how questions they were to ask and how they were to rate candidates
- all records that provides training for interviewers
- all records that provides the weighting for interviews vs GPA and how candidates are ranked in the event of a tie.
Also ask for an example of the interview matrix or rubric that is used for each interview.

There are some exceptions for what has to be disclosed but this is the type of information that has to be released because it's of public interest. If it exists, they will have to provide it. It is likely it doesn't exist and it will show it was capricious.

Thanks, but I asking the SWW teacher who is part of the process, not you.

That's not how publicly disclosable information works. This is why FOIA exists

Huh? You must be new to DCUM. This is an anonymous blog where people disclose information all the time.

Feel free to file your FOIA request and pay applicable fees to DC for searching, reviewing, and reproducing records.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:DCUM won’t like my post, but I am a teacher who does the interviews. I’m not defending two questions or three minutes or whatever, but I can tell you that after 10 years of being at the school, it is possible to see within ten minutes who is a good fit. Parent interview portion does not factor into the score except to help students who appear to have strong family support. However, with gpa inflation the past two years due to WS plus the ban on getting parcc scores plus random charter schools who have weird report cards, it is very difficult to assess candidates, honestly.

I would support an application ranking system with no interview, just lottery of qualified students. I hate interview days and would rather be teaching.

Thanks. What written records are available? What kind of information could we get with a FOIA request?

This was posted earlier. Basically:

Keep your request simple. Ask for all "records" that contain:
- the formal process by which Walls candidates were ranked
- all guidance for interviewers on how questions they were to ask and how they were to rate candidates
- all records that provides training for interviewers
- all records that provides the weighting for interviews vs GPA and how candidates are ranked in the event of a tie.
Also ask for an example of the interview matrix or rubric that is used for each interview.

There are some exceptions for what has to be disclosed but this is the type of information that has to be released because it's of public interest. If it exists, they will have to provide it. It is likely it doesn't exist and it will show it was capricious.

Thanks, but I asking the SWW teacher who is part of the process, not you.

That's not how publicly disclosable information works. This is why FOIA exists

Huh? You must be new to DCUM. This is an anonymous blog where people disclose information all the time.

Feel free to file your FOIA request and pay applicable fees to DC for searching, reviewing, and reproducing records.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:DCUM won’t like my post, but I am a teacher who does the interviews. I’m not defending two questions or three minutes or whatever, but I can tell you that after 10 years of being at the school, it is possible to see within ten minutes who is a good fit. Parent interview portion does not factor into the score except to help students who appear to have strong family support. However, with gpa inflation the past two years due to WS plus the ban on getting parcc scores plus random charter schools who have weird report cards, it is very difficult to assess candidates, honestly.

I would support an application ranking system with no interview, just lottery of qualified students. I hate interview days and would rather be teaching.

Thanks. What written records are available? What kind of information could we get with a FOIA request?

This was posted earlier. Basically:

Keep your request simple. Ask for all "records" that contain:
- the formal process by which Walls candidates were ranked
- all guidance for interviewers on how questions they were to ask and how they were to rate candidates
- all records that provides training for interviewers
- all records that provides the weighting for interviews vs GPA and how candidates are ranked in the event of a tie.
Also ask for an example of the interview matrix or rubric that is used for each interview.

There are some exceptions for what has to be disclosed but this is the type of information that has to be released because it's of public interest. If it exists, they will have to provide it. It is likely it doesn't exist and it will show it was capricious.

Thanks, but I asking the SWW teacher who is part of the process, not you.

That's not how publicly disclosable information works. This is why FOIA exists

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This this board is anonymous I'll share that my 4.0 Deal kid in Algebra 2 last year was accepted to Sidwell, Potomac, St. Albans, GDS, Maret and the Scholar's program at St. Johns but not Walls. Quite a few of these schools had 9th grade acceptance rates around 5% last year (so we have since learned).
He was waitlisted at Walls. He is now doing extremely well at one of the privates. He's an outgoing kid, travel athlete who is now on a varsity team, national-level debater, and had 99% PARCC scores from 3rd grade on.
His Walls interview was literally 90 seconds long last year.

Similar experience (though my slightly less high-flying DC was in geometry not Algebra 2 and didn't get admitted to quite as many privates, though some). FWIW, I have heard rumors that Walls prefers to not take too many advanced math students--they see themselves as a "humanities" school. Whatever, DC reads voraciously and actually loves ELA and history far more than math...and if they had spent more than 3 minutes with her in the interview, they would have known this. But I wonder if they see the higher math tracks as some sort of flag and those kids have a harder time getting in.

My DC took geometry in 8th and got in (and there are others) so it's definitely not a screen. Having said that, it definitely does have a reputation as being weaker in STEM than Wilson so maybe they limit the number of kids on those tracks? Hard to know. We were in boundary for Wilson and ended up choosing Walls but remember having some conversations about this issue with friends who had kids at both...

The school doesn’t limit the number of advanced track math students. There are plenty of kids in calculus in junior or sophomore years at the school. They increased math electives this year to accommodate the large number of advanced math students.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This this board is anonymous I'll share that my 4.0 Deal kid in Algebra 2 last year was accepted to Sidwell, Potomac, St. Albans, GDS, Maret and the Scholar's program at St. Johns but not Walls. Quite a few of these schools had 9th grade acceptance rates around 5% last year (so we have since learned).
He was waitlisted at Walls. He is now doing extremely well at one of the privates. He's an outgoing kid, travel athlete who is now on a varsity team, national-level debater, and had 99% PARCC scores from 3rd grade on.
His Walls interview was literally 90 seconds long last year.

Similar experience (though my slightly less high-flying DC was in geometry not Algebra 2 and didn't get admitted to quite as many privates, though some). FWIW, I have heard rumors that Walls prefers to not take too many advanced math students--they see themselves as a "humanities" school. Whatever, DC reads voraciously and actually loves ELA and history far more than math...and if they had spent more than 3 minutes with her in the interview, they would have known this. But I wonder if they see the higher math tracks as some sort of flag and those kids have a harder time getting in.

My DC took geometry in 8th and got in (and there are others) so it's definitely not a screen. Having said that, it definitely does have a reputation as being weaker in STEM than Wilson so maybe they limit the number of kids on those tracks? Hard to know. We were in boundary for Wilson and ended up choosing Walls but remember having some conversations about this issue with friends who had kids at both...

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This this board is anonymous I'll share that my 4.0 Deal kid in Algebra 2 last year was accepted to Sidwell, Potomac, St. Albans, GDS, Maret and the Scholar's program at St. Johns but not Walls. Quite a few of these schools had 9th grade acceptance rates around 5% last year (so we have since learned).
He was waitlisted at Walls. He is now doing extremely well at one of the privates. He's an outgoing kid, travel athlete who is now on a varsity team, national-level debater, and had 99% PARCC scores from 3rd grade on.
His Walls interview was literally 90 seconds long last year.

Similar experience (though my slightly less high-flying DC was in geometry not Algebra 2 and didn't get admitted to quite as many privates, though some). FWIW, I have heard rumors that Walls prefers to not take too many advanced math students--they see themselves as a "humanities" school. Whatever, DC reads voraciously and actually loves ELA and history far more than math...and if they had spent more than 3 minutes with her in the interview, they would have known this. But I wonder if they see the higher math tracks as some sort of flag and those kids have a harder time getting in.

Geometry was once a sticking point because Walls included some questions on the entrance exam but not every MS feeder offered Geometry and thus some candidates were at a disadvantage unless they learned it independently of school or the school offered it as an elective supplement. Not many MS even offer Algebra 2 so that's definitely beyond anything a Walls test would cover.

The mediocre students at above private schools start younger. By HS admission process they can get more selective. The mediocre students never leave.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This this board is anonymous I'll share that my 4.0 Deal kid in Algebra 2 last year was accepted to Sidwell, Potomac, St. Albans, GDS, Maret and the Scholar's program at St. Johns but not Walls. Quite a few of these schools had 9th grade acceptance rates around 5% last year (so we have since learned).
He was waitlisted at Walls. He is now doing extremely well at one of the privates. He's an outgoing kid, travel athlete who is now on a varsity team, national-level debater, and had 99% PARCC scores from 3rd grade on.
His Walls interview was literally 90 seconds long last year.

Similar experience (though my slightly less high-flying DC was in geometry not Algebra 2 and didn't get admitted to quite as many privates, though some). FWIW, I have heard rumors that Walls prefers to not take too many advanced math students--they see themselves as a "humanities" school. Whatever, DC reads voraciously and actually loves ELA and history far more than math...and if they had spent more than 3 minutes with her in the interview, they would have known this. But I wonder if they see the higher math tracks as some sort of flag and those kids have a harder time getting in.