Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I believe -- and I say this as someone with a kid already at Walls -- is that the school knows they need more rigor in the application process, but they still want wiggle room to choose who they want without getting sued. An essay is subjective, unlike a standardized test.

+1...Kid also at Walls. The Principal wanted a more holistic admissions system. Going by GPA or just a test eliminates a lot of kids that would do well given the opportunity. A family event, bad teacher, etc. can easily lead to a lower grade than normal. Can't please everyone but hopefully this will give more kids a chance.

It doesn't give more kids a chance -- the numbers are the same.

It just gives the Principal the power to play God with kids' educations.

Right — to me it would be more fair to do a test, but take the top X finishers by zoned school to make sure kids from across the city get a chance. Interview & essay still feels pretty subjective.

Sure. But if they did that, they'd have to keep track of test scores. You could foia it and argue with the choice, in either direction. Maybe you could even argue its legality, if zoned school proxied very closely for race. But this way, they don't even touch student test score data in the admissions process. The opaqueness of the process protects them.

I had visibility to the process as the school had exposed it accidentally. I will tell you from what I saw:
- If you had the minimum required GPA you were allowed to sit for the test. They used to also require a "4" on PARCC/the previous test for DCPS/DCPCS students.
- Top ~ 2x 9th grade enrollment from the test qualified to interview. If students had the same score from the test and that score was the cut-off, all students with that score were invited to interview.
- They interviewed (Black box on how they scored)
- From the interview score and test score, they created a ranked list and this created the list for who was accepted and who was put on the waitlist and the order they were on the waitlist

This process - although not perfect - was a bit of an equalizer.
If you had the minimum GPA set by walls (I think it was a 3.0 at the time) it removed the issue of your child having the hard grader. It also equalized for kids who may have struggled with executive functioning (which is a lot of middle school) but had the intelligence and things had not quite evened out yet.

Interesting. Thanks for posting. I had wondered if there was a component to spread acceptances among middle schools around the city (ie cutoff at deal might be higher).

I didn’t realize they used an interview to rank even when they had the test. That’s as arbitrary as the grade cutoff to get an interview last year, so I’m less annoyed at them dropping the test! They probably interviewed 2x the class last year, too, just picked by grade. I still think the interview is really bad, for all the many reasons that have been discussed.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I believe -- and I say this as someone with a kid already at Walls -- is that the school knows they need more rigor in the application process, but they still want wiggle room to choose who they want without getting sued. An essay is subjective, unlike a standardized test.

+1...Kid also at Walls. The Principal wanted a more holistic admissions system. Going by GPA or just a test eliminates a lot of kids that would do well given the opportunity. A family event, bad teacher, etc. can easily lead to a lower grade than normal. Can't please everyone but hopefully this will give more kids a chance.

It doesn't give more kids a chance -- the numbers are the same.

It just gives the Principal the power to play God with kids' educations.

Right — to me it would be more fair to do a test, but take the top X finishers by zoned school to make sure kids from across the city get a chance. Interview & essay still feels pretty subjective.

Sure. But if they did that, they'd have to keep track of test scores. You could foia it and argue with the choice, in either direction. Maybe you could even argue its legality, if zoned school proxied very closely for race. But this way, they don't even touch student test score data in the admissions process. The opaqueness of the process protects them.

I had visibility to the process as the school had exposed it accidentally. I will tell you from what I saw:
- If you had the minimum required GPA you were allowed to sit for the test. They used to also require a "4" on PARCC/the previous test for DCPS/DCPCS students.
- Top ~ 2x 9th grade enrollment from the test qualified to interview. If students had the same score from the test and that score was the cut-off, all students with that score were invited to interview.
- They interviewed (Black box on how they scored)
- From the interview score and test score, they created a ranked list and this created the list for who was accepted and who was put on the waitlist and the order they were on the waitlist

This process - although not perfect - was a bit of an equalizer.
If you had the minimum GPA set by walls (I think it was a 3.0 at the time) it removed the issue of your child having the hard grader. It also equalized for kids who may have struggled with executive functioning (which is a lot of middle school) but had the intelligence and things had not quite evened out yet.

Interesting. Thanks for posting. I had wondered if there was a component to spread acceptances among middle schools around the city (ie cutoff at deal might be higher).

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I believe -- and I say this as someone with a kid already at Walls -- is that the school knows they need more rigor in the application process, but they still want wiggle room to choose who they want without getting sued. An essay is subjective, unlike a standardized test.

+1...Kid also at Walls. The Principal wanted a more holistic admissions system. Going by GPA or just a test eliminates a lot of kids that would do well given the opportunity. A family event, bad teacher, etc. can easily lead to a lower grade than normal. Can't please everyone but hopefully this will give more kids a chance.

It doesn't give more kids a chance -- the numbers are the same.

It just gives the Principal the power to play God with kids' educations.

Right — to me it would be more fair to do a test, but take the top X finishers by zoned school to make sure kids from across the city get a chance. Interview & essay still feels pretty subjective.

Sure. But if they did that, they'd have to keep track of test scores. You could foia it and argue with the choice, in either direction. Maybe you could even argue its legality, if zoned school proxied very closely for race. But this way, they don't even touch student test score data in the admissions process. The opaqueness of the process protects them.

I had visibility to the process as the school had exposed it accidentally. I will tell you from what I saw:
- If you had the minimum required GPA you were allowed to sit for the test. They used to also require a "4" on PARCC/the previous test for DCPS/DCPCS students.
- Top ~ 2x 9th grade enrollment from the test qualified to interview. If students had the same score from the test and that score was the cut-off, all students with that score were invited to interview.
- They interviewed (Black box on how they scored)
- From the interview score and test score, they created a ranked list and this created the list for who was accepted and who was put on the waitlist and the order they were on the waitlist

This process - although not perfect - was a bit of an equalizer.
If you had the minimum GPA set by walls (I think it was a 3.0 at the time) it removed the issue of your child having the hard grader. It also equalized for kids who may have struggled with executive functioning (which is a lot of middle school) but had the intelligence and things had not quite evened out yet.

Interesting. Thanks for posting. I had wondered if there was a component to spread acceptances among middle schools around the city (ie cutoff at deal might be higher).

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I believe -- and I say this as someone with a kid already at Walls -- is that the school knows they need more rigor in the application process, but they still want wiggle room to choose who they want without getting sued. An essay is subjective, unlike a standardized test.

+1...Kid also at Walls. The Principal wanted a more holistic admissions system. Going by GPA or just a test eliminates a lot of kids that would do well given the opportunity. A family event, bad teacher, etc. can easily lead to a lower grade than normal. Can't please everyone but hopefully this will give more kids a chance.

It doesn't give more kids a chance -- the numbers are the same.

It just gives the Principal the power to play God with kids' educations.

Right — to me it would be more fair to do a test, but take the top X finishers by zoned school to make sure kids from across the city get a chance. Interview & essay still feels pretty subjective.

Sure. But if they did that, they'd have to keep track of test scores. You could foia it and argue with the choice, in either direction. Maybe you could even argue its legality, if zoned school proxied very closely for race. But this way, they don't even touch student test score data in the admissions process. The opaqueness of the process protects them.

I had visibility to the process as the school had exposed it accidentally. I will tell you from what I saw:
- If you had the minimum required GPA you were allowed to sit for the test. They used to also require a "4" on PARCC/the previous test for DCPS/DCPCS students.
- Top ~ 2x 9th grade enrollment from the test qualified to interview. If students had the same score from the test and that score was the cut-off, all students with that score were invited to interview.
- They interviewed (Black box on how they scored)
- From the interview score and test score, they created a ranked list and this created the list for who was accepted and who was put on the waitlist and the order they were on the waitlist

This process - although not perfect - was a bit of an equalizer.
If you had the minimum GPA set by walls (I think it was a 3.0 at the time) it removed the issue of your child having the hard grader. It also equalized for kids who may have struggled with executive functioning (which is a lot of middle school) but had the intelligence and things had not quite evened out yet.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I believe -- and I say this as someone with a kid already at Walls -- is that the school knows they need more rigor in the application process, but they still want wiggle room to choose who they want without getting sued. An essay is subjective, unlike a standardized test.

+1...Kid also at Walls. The Principal wanted a more holistic admissions system. Going by GPA or just a test eliminates a lot of kids that would do well given the opportunity. A family event, bad teacher, etc. can easily lead to a lower grade than normal. Can't please everyone but hopefully this will give more kids a chance.

It doesn't give more kids a chance -- the numbers are the same.

It just gives the Principal the power to play God with kids' educations.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I believe -- and I say this as someone with a kid already at Walls -- is that the school knows they need more rigor in the application process, but they still want wiggle room to choose who they want without getting sued. An essay is subjective, unlike a standardized test.

+1...Kid also at Walls. The Principal wanted a more holistic admissions system. Going by GPA or just a test eliminates a lot of kids that would do well given the opportunity. A family event, bad teacher, etc. can easily lead to a lower grade than normal. Can't please everyone but hopefully this will give more kids a chance.

It doesn't give more kids a chance -- the numbers are the same.

It just gives the Principal the power to play God with kids' educations.

Right — to me it would be more fair to do a test, but take the top X finishers by zoned school to make sure kids from across the city get a chance. Interview & essay still feels pretty subjective.

Sure. But if they did that, they'd have to keep track of test scores. You could foia it and argue with the choice, in either direction. Maybe you could even argue its legality, if zoned school proxied very closely for race. But this way, they don't even touch student test score data in the admissions process. The opaqueness of the process protects them.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Can we get back to the original question about the essay prompt? How are these things graded? Are there tips we could give our kids, like make sure you have a good topic sentence? Have two paragraphs? Etc does anyone know?

They said at the open house they were still working on what the prompt would be, if it was handwritten or typed, how many paragraphs it would be, how much time would be allotted etc. They did say if the student already has an accommodation (504/IEP) for longer time on tests/work that that would be allowed for the essay as well.

How is this going to be administered? Will they have all the applicants come in on a Saturday or something to sit the test? Administering the test online - as I suspect they will be tempted to do - will achieve nothing as plenty of over-engaged parents will just write their kids’ essays for them. At least with an interview, the school can be reasonably sure that the applicant is providing their own answers!

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Can we get back to the original question about the essay prompt? How are these things graded? Are there tips we could give our kids, like make sure you have a good topic sentence? Have two paragraphs? Etc does anyone know?

They said at the open house they were still working on what the prompt would be, if it was handwritten or typed, how many paragraphs it would be, how much time would be allotted etc. They did say if the student already has an accommodation (504/IEP) for longer time on tests/work that that would be allowed for the essay as well.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I believe -- and I say this as someone with a kid already at Walls -- is that the school knows they need more rigor in the application process, but they still want wiggle room to choose who they want without getting sued. An essay is subjective, unlike a standardized test.

+1...Kid also at Walls. The Principal wanted a more holistic admissions system. Going by GPA or just a test eliminates a lot of kids that would do well given the opportunity. A family event, bad teacher, etc. can easily lead to a lower grade than normal. Can't please everyone but hopefully this will give more kids a chance.

It doesn't give more kids a chance -- the numbers are the same.

It just gives the Principal the power to play God with kids' educations.

Right — to me it would be more fair to do a test, but take the top X finishers by zoned school to make sure kids from across the city get a chance. Interview & essay still feels pretty subjective.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I believe -- and I say this as someone with a kid already at Walls -- is that the school knows they need more rigor in the application process, but they still want wiggle room to choose who they want without getting sued. An essay is subjective, unlike a standardized test.

+1...Kid also at Walls. The Principal wanted a more holistic admissions system. Going by GPA or just a test eliminates a lot of kids that would do well given the opportunity. A family event, bad teacher, etc. can easily lead to a lower grade than normal. Can't please everyone but hopefully this will give more kids a chance.

It doesn't give more kids a chance -- the numbers are the same.

It just gives the Principal the power to play God with kids' educations.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I believe -- and I say this as someone with a kid already at Walls -- is that the school knows they need more rigor in the application process, but they still want wiggle room to choose who they want without getting sued. An essay is subjective, unlike a standardized test.

+1...Kid also at Walls. The Principal wanted a more holistic admissions system. Going by GPA or just a test eliminates a lot of kids that would do well given the opportunity. A family event, bad teacher, etc. can easily lead to a lower grade than normal. Can't please everyone but hopefully this will give more kids a chance.

Anonymous wrote:I believe -- and I say this as someone with a kid already at Walls -- is that the school knows they need more rigor in the application process, but they still want wiggle room to choose who they want without getting sued. An essay is subjective, unlike a standardized test.