My point is that loads of high achieving Deal (and Hardy, for that matter) kids are now at Wilson--either because they were so pissed off at the process at Walls (several kids I know) or because they preferred Wilson and the opportunities it offers to begin with (my DS and many of their friends). The PP's hypothesis about the 9th grade class being "rougher" is both full of dog whistles and full of crap.

Anonymous wrote:I took a kid from 9th grade at Whitman (MCPS) and sent him to St Andrew's, a coed boarding high school in Delaware. Mine repeated 9th grade, but they also have admissions into the 10th grade and very good financial aid. A world of difference, in all positive ways. Do some research into what else is out there (no, I would not have home-schooled)

We are considering this path - give walls/Wilson a chance but be ready to pull.

How did you navigate the timing? Did you know 9th grade wasn't going to work right away?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I wonder if the student body at Wilson (esp. 9th) is rougher than normal. None of my kid's friend group of 15+ kids at Deal went on the Wilson. They're at Walls, Duke Ellington, Banneker, about 5 different privates and 4 Catholics. They were all quiet, studious kids at Deal.
Almost all had older siblings who attended Wilson. The parents got scared off by Covid and many are scraping their dimes together to afford private or Catholic tuition.

Whew, I’m impressed that you were able to fit so many dog whistles into one post.

I like you, PP. 👏👏👏👏
-signed an actual Wilson parent whose sophomore is doing fine

+1000
-signed an actual Wilson parent with two kids at the school, one of whom is a freshman and is there with many, many of her studious friends from Deal

I don't know many. Most of the studious kids went to Walls this year.

Not even close to being true...check out the threads on Walls. They didn't take many of the highest achievers from Deal this year...

+1
Nope, nope, nope. Walls admissions was a joke this year. I know several kids from Deal that were tippy top students with perfect grades but they got waitlisted (while others with much lower grades got in.) They weighted the interviews 31 points vs 5 points for grades. And many kids got 3 minute interviews. It was basically a lottery.

My kid was in the Walls lottery.
I agree that a few very top kids did not get Walls spots but most of them got in. Many of the the kids with lower grades who got in did not take the spots.
My kid was in group o 25 kids in Algebra 2 class and almost all of her/his classmates who wanted to go to Walls eventually got Walls spots. These kids were high achievers in math and were also super involved in debate, the literary journal, student leadership team, etc (and also had straight As). I'd estimate that 90% of the "super high achievers" at Deal this year eventually got Walls spots. About 10%, maybe 15% did not (which I agree was not fair and a major bummer as some of the very top kids were in this group). A few of the very high achievers went on to private high schools (Sidwell, GDS, STA, NCS).

I wonder how closing the achievement gap has gone since they ran out Pete Cahill. Have they released any analysis of how they have improved on that front?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I wonder if the student body at Wilson (esp. 9th) is rougher than normal. None of my kid's friend group of 15+ kids at Deal went on the Wilson. They're at Walls, Duke Ellington, Banneker, about 5 different privates and 4 Catholics. They were all quiet, studious kids at Deal.
Almost all had older siblings who attended Wilson. The parents got scared off by Covid and many are scraping their dimes together to afford private or Catholic tuition.

Whew, I’m impressed that you were able to fit so many dog whistles into one post.

I like you, PP. 👏👏👏👏
-signed an actual Wilson parent whose sophomore is doing fine

+1000
-signed an actual Wilson parent with two kids at the school, one of whom is a freshman and is there with many, many of her studious friends from Deal

I don't know many. Most of the studious kids went to Walls this year.

Not even close to being true...check out the threads on Walls. They didn't take many of the highest achievers from Deal this year...

+1
Nope, nope, nope. Walls admissions was a joke this year. I know several kids from Deal that were tippy top students with perfect grades but they got waitlisted (while others with much lower grades got in.) They weighted the interviews 31 points vs 5 points for grades. And many kids got 3 minute interviews. It was basically a lottery.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I wonder if the student body at Wilson (esp. 9th) is rougher than normal. None of my kid's friend group of 15+ kids at Deal went on the Wilson. They're at Walls, Duke Ellington, Banneker, about 5 different privates and 4 Catholics. They were all quiet, studious kids at Deal.
Almost all had older siblings who attended Wilson. The parents got scared off by Covid and many are scraping their dimes together to afford private or Catholic tuition.

Whew, I’m impressed that you were able to fit so many dog whistles into one post.

I like you, PP. 👏👏👏👏
-signed an actual Wilson parent whose sophomore is doing fine

+1000
-signed an actual Wilson parent with two kids at the school, one of whom is a freshman and is there with many, many of her studious friends from Deal

I don't know many. Most of the studious kids went to Walls this year.

Not even close to being true...check out the threads on Walls. They didn't take many of the highest achievers from Deal this year...

I think we need new principals are 3 school s in the 20016 area with many problems and they don't do anything to fix it.What is going on bullies and smoking and using phones in class is permitted now.
The language this kids use is nasty and stolen in target and whole foods .what are the parents of this kids.
We need to do something now.

I feel like wherever you go there are high schoolers dabbling in alcohol and drugs. Even homeschooled ones..

Anonymous wrote:

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Anonymous wrote:Well, what's your other option? Would you homeschool? Could you get him into a private school somewhere?

I homeschooled my child last year and it was great.[b] I kept my child socially connected with positive friends and activities. There is a homeschooling page on dcum as well as lots on Facebook like SEA (secular, eclectic, academic). What are your means like? DC is great about homeschooling in one regard - very hands off. However, they don't provide resources- other states do. We used the library a LOT.

PP, no offense, but as someone who has homeschooled nieces and nephews, and other homeschooled kids, it is very difficult to provide any social interactions that really resemble, and teach the lessons, of the day to day, unsupervised socializing that occurs among kids in school. I hate to say it, I know many homeschooled parents are good parents, they try hard, they teach their kids academically fine...but there is a reason why homeschooled kids are a bunch of weirdos. You simply cannot learn how to act in society unless you are in society.

Yes, PP, your social skills are extraordinary.

I'm not offended though I disagree with "a bunch of weirdoes" (wow!). OP is talking about a *t high school situation and turning the dial. Homeschool could be an option, with lots of enrichment and travel factored in. It's not going to turn her highly socialized child into "a weirdo" (yuck, I'd rather sit with them than you PP).

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I wonder if the student body at Wilson (esp. 9th) is rougher than normal. None of my kid's friend group of 15+ kids at Deal went on the Wilson. They're at Walls, Duke Ellington, Banneker, about 5 different privates and 4 Catholics. They were all quiet, studious kids at Deal.
Almost all had older siblings who attended Wilson. The parents got scared off by Covid and many are scraping their dimes together to afford private or Catholic tuition.

Whew, I’m impressed that you were able to fit so many dog whistles into one post.

I like you, PP. 👏👏👏👏
-signed an actual Wilson parent whose sophomore is doing fine

+1000
-signed an actual Wilson parent with two kids at the school, one of whom is a freshman and is there with many, many of her studious friends from Deal

I don't know many. Most of the studious kids went to Walls this year.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Well, what's your other option? Would you homeschool? Could you get him into a private school somewhere?

I homeschooled my child last year and it was great. I kept my child socially connected with positive friends and activities. There is a homeschooling page on dcum as well as lots on Facebook like SEA (secular, eclectic, academic). What are your means like? DC is great about homeschooling in one regard - very hands off. However, they don't provide resources- other states do. We used the library a LOT.

NP. What is your feeling about homeschooling in HS and then college? I am interested in doing longterm homeschooling but worried it might make the college application process more difficult (no GPA, no recs from teachers, etc.).

Also, beyond activities, do homeschooling resources in DC enable you to find other homeschooling families and do some joint coursework? I know this is possible at the elementary level, but I worry there are not enough homeschooling high schoolers in the area to do something similar at this level. It would be nice to be able to pool resources for science learning, for instance.

There are such large contingents of homeschoolers in almost every area of the country hence many many opportunities for all of the things you mentioned . It’s the best thing I’ve ever done, especially made clear when I read the posts below the one I’m replying to. It’s a disgrace what children today are being subjected to on a daily basis .

The homeschooling community tends to crazy Christians. I think I would rather have my kid at Wilson.

You are super bigoted "crazy Christians" and homeschooling is a much more diverse group of people than you think, including a wide range of military families, and super secular.

Anonymous wrote:Just asked my DD (with whom I have very open conversations about drugs and sex) about how much fighting and drug use she sees. She says there are occasional fights but she hasn’t experienced drug use in bathrooms. She has great, bright, engaged friends. They do their own thing and ignore the rest. She appreciates being able to be herself at Wilson instead of conforming to private school norms and the pressures of wealth and privilege that come with them.

😂

Sure.

Anonymous wrote:Wilson is horribly overenrolled by about 700 students. The principal, Kimberly Martin, resigned to take a job as a curriculum specialist or something of that sort before the school year.

Yes, there is a real problem with violence and drugs.

Her LinkedIn profile says Instructional Superintendent. So, it was a promotion to the central office. I am sure she was burned out.

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Anonymous wrote:My DS said the drug problem is bad, like heroin bad.

I think your son is exaggerating. If you are a teen it's exciting to think that this may be going on - like you're living in a movie! But as a parent who has two kids at Wilson, that's now how it is. It's not always great, but its not heroin bad.

Well he said it happens all the time at Ft. Reno Park. Feel free it check it out yourself. Said it’s in the tree area.

If he knows this first hand, it sounds like he might be part of the problem. If he doesn't, it sounds like he's just passing on rumors.

Ridiculous. Everyone in our local public knew where the weed stairwell and bathroom was. Older kids passed along the info to younger kids. And yes, some used. Most didn't but wanted to avoid it.

The PP said her son knows kids are using heroin at Ft Reno. That’s not smoking weed in the bathroom. He’s part of it or he’s full of it.

dp: Ridiculous x 2. If this activity is going on, a lot more kids know about it than just the users in the trees.

Right. And in a thread where people are posting all sorts of crazy stuff about Wilson, only one person is reporting heroin use in the trees. Which is why I’m confident PP’s kid is full of it.

OP mentioned drugs first.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My DS said the drug problem is bad, like heroin bad.

I think your son is exaggerating. If you are a teen it's exciting to think that this may be going on - like you're living in a movie! But as a parent who has two kids at Wilson, that's now how it is. It's not always great, but its not heroin bad.

Well he said it happens all the time at Ft. Reno Park. Feel free it check it out yourself. Said it’s in the tree area.

If he knows this first hand, it sounds like he might be part of the problem. If he doesn't, it sounds like he's just passing on rumors.

Ridiculous. Everyone in our local public knew where the weed stairwell and bathroom was. Older kids passed along the info to younger kids. And yes, some used. Most didn't but wanted to avoid it.

The PP said her son knows kids are using heroin at Ft Reno. That’s not smoking weed in the bathroom. He’s part of it or he’s full of it.

dp: Ridiculous x 2. If this activity is going on, a lot more kids know about it than just the users in the trees.

Right. And in a thread where people are posting all sorts of crazy stuff about Wilson, only one person is reporting heroin use in the trees. Which is why I’m confident PP’s kid is full of it.