Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Caltech acceptance rate for last year was about 7% so no surprise there.

Wilson is a good school. It's funny how much it's being vilified by charter school advocates. We are in boundary and did not consider it because of the terrible things we were told. And please do not believe those who say that anyone who does homework gets an "A" . Maybe in general music or health classes but believe me, there was a Physics class where the teacher only gave one "A", 2 "B+", a few "C"S and "D"s and failed the rest.

a teacher who does this is a failure, imo. One of Wilson's flaws is that ineffective teachers cannot easily or rapidly be shown the door

Not at all. The teacher was very good and left Wilson. She just had high standards and was always willing to help students. She would stay until the building was closed to guide them through extra lab work. Only a few students would show up for extra hours.

If the only way they could learn without failing was to do extra lab work that no one could or would attend- that is a failure of a teacher.

According to my DS and his friend, most students would not listen to the teacher, play or talk during lab, not take notes, not do well on the quizzes and not care about the make-up tests. Students need to take responsibility for their learning.

I wish we had ignored those charter school advocates and enrolled DS at Wilson starting his freshman year. He would have avoided all the headaches and heartaches and been a recipient of merit scholarships. And while in his charter he was labeled "academically too weak" supposedly could not understand any chemistry concepts and was "not collegebound material", he was able to score two "4"s and two "5" in his AP's, in 3 sciences and 1 math.

Wilson has its share of problems, but there is definitely teaching and learning going on.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Caltech acceptance rate for last year was about 7% so no surprise there.

Wilson is a good school. It's funny how much it's being vilified by charter school advocates. We are in boundary and did not consider it because of the terrible things we were told. And please do not believe those who say that anyone who does homework gets an "A" . Maybe in general music or health classes but believe me, there was a Physics class where the teacher only gave one "A", 2 "B+", a few "C"S and "D"s and failed the rest.

a teacher who does this is a failure, imo. One of Wilson's flaws is that ineffective teachers cannot easily or rapidly be shown the door

Not at all. The teacher was very good and left Wilson. She just had high standards and was always willing to help students. She would stay until the building was closed to guide them through extra lab work. Only a few students would show up for extra hours.

If the only way they could learn without failing was to do extra lab work that no one could or would attend- that is a failure of a teacher.

I agree that at a school with Wilson's type of kids, there shouldn't be a need for extra contact hours IF the teacher is communicating the material in an effective manner, on their level. Smart people with good intentions may still be sucky teachers

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Caltech acceptance rate for last year was about 7% so no surprise there.

Wilson is a good school. It's funny how much it's being vilified by charter school advocates. We are in boundary and did not consider it because of the terrible things we were told. And please do not believe those who say that anyone who does homework gets an "A" . Maybe in general music or health classes but believe me, there was a Physics class where the teacher only gave one "A", 2 "B+", a few "C"S and "D"s and failed the rest.

a teacher who does this is a failure, imo. One of Wilson's flaws is that ineffective teachers cannot easily or rapidly be shown the door

Not at all. The teacher was very good and left Wilson. She just had high standards and was always willing to help students. She would stay until the building was closed to guide them through extra lab work. Only a few students would show up for extra hours.

If the only way they could learn without failing was to do extra lab work that no one could or would attend- that is a failure of a teacher.

Pratt
McGill
The New School
Art institute of Chicago

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:i thought wilson was supposed to be this amazing school. i went to a public high school in a small town in a farm state and, every single year, the valedictorian, and sometimes also the no. 2, went to harvard. the next ten kids all went to other ivies or other highly regarded schools. i would have thought wilson would blow that out of the water.

It's much easier to get into Harvard for an equally qualified student from a rural school in a farm state versus a Mid-Atlantic/New England student. Also, I call BS that your school was just run-of-the-mill public school. At the high school attended by my rural family, very few went to college, none out of state, and vanishingly few completed college.

i guess it was not run-of-the-mill in the sense that it was in the wealthy section of town. but this was a town of 30,000 people, where the most expensive house in town costs less than $350K. and i didnt say everyone went to harvard, or even to college at all. once you got out of the top ten percent of students -- which was, like, 15 students -- the pictures changes pretty rapidly. most people in my class didnt go to college at all. and, yeah, there's no question that if you're a good student in a small town in the middle of nowhere, you're probably more attractive to colleges than a similar student in a big city. good students from the dc area are probably a dime a dozen in some schools' eyes.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:i thought wilson was supposed to be this amazing school. i went to a public high school in a small town in a farm state and, every single year, the valedictorian, and sometimes also the no. 2, went to harvard. the next ten kids all went to other ivies or other highly regarded schools. i would have thought wilson would blow that out of the water.

College admissions in 2018 are NOTHING like they were 20 years ago. Are you living under a rock? None of us who got into the Ivies then would get in now. The acceptance rates are a small fraction of what they were.
It's gotten even more insane in the past 5 or even 2 years.

i thought that was mostly a myth, in part because the number of high school kids has been shrinking, but i must admit i have not paid much attention to college acceptance rates since i was 18 years old. my only point was that i would have thought a much-desired school like wilson, in a wealthy neighborhood of a big city filled with type-a personalities, would have a more impressive list of college acceptances than what's been listed here so far.

It sounds like you don't live in DC, nor do you know much about Wilson demographics. Wilson has many kids who attend who don't live in-boundary, but who travel from all around the city to attend. Some are from economically disadvantaged backgrounds--actually, the DCPS profile says 24% fit this definition. The most recent numbers I could find suggest that more than 400 Wilson students are considered "at-risk," meaning they are homeless, in foster care, qualify for temporary financial or supplemental nutrition assistance, or are one or more years older than their grade level.

So while some students do live close by, are from well-educated, affluent families, etc., Wilson has students from all 8 wards of the city, from varying backgrounds.

ive lived in dc for 20 years. the vast majority of wilson kids are inboundary. if you closed down wilson, housing prices in the area would fall pretty dramatically, i suspect. the reason why it's so expensive over there is because people are buying their way into wilson.

Up until 4 years ago, the boundary for Wilson was 1/3 of the city geographically. Sections of Capital Hill were in the Wilson boundary. This was changed but grandfathering was in existence until last year so saying that most of the kids have been in boundary historically does not say much to challenge the idea that Wilson has kids from all over the city.

Anonymous wrote:If every child who lives IB for Wilson attended Wilson the list might look a bit different.

But the “truly wealthy Type A” families have kids at Sidwell, St. Albans, Holton, GDS, Potomac and Walls in addition to Wilson. Ward 3 overall will be represented well at Harvard and the rest of the Top 20 schools next fall.

this is a very good point. i always forget about the private schools.

Anonymous wrote:i thought wilson was supposed to be this amazing school. i went to a public high school in a small town in a farm state and, every single year, the valedictorian, and sometimes also the no. 2, went to harvard. the next ten kids all went to other ivies or other highly regarded schools. i would have thought wilson would blow that out of the water.

It's much easier to get into Harvard for an equally qualified student from a rural school in a farm state versus a Mid-Atlantic/New England student. Also, I call BS that your school was just run-of-the-mill public school. At the high school attended by my rural family, very few went to college, none out of state, and vanishingly few completed college.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:i thought wilson was supposed to be this amazing school. i went to a public high school in a small town in a farm state and, every single year, the valedictorian, and sometimes also the no. 2, went to harvard. the next ten kids all went to other ivies or other highly regarded schools. i would have thought wilson would blow that out of the water.

College admissions in 2018 are NOTHING like they were 20 years ago. Are you living under a rock? None of us who got into the Ivies then would get in now. The acceptance rates are a small fraction of what they were.
It's gotten even more insane in the past 5 or even 2 years.

i thought that was mostly a myth, in part because the number of high school kids has been shrinking, but i must admit i have not paid much attention to college acceptance rates since i was 18 years old. my only point was that i would have thought a much-desired school like wilson, in a wealthy neighborhood of a big city filled with type-a personalities, would have a more impressive list of college acceptances than what's been listed here so far.

It sounds like you don't live in DC, nor do you know much about Wilson demographics. Wilson has many kids who attend who don't live in-boundary, but who travel from all around the city to attend. Some are from economically disadvantaged backgrounds--actually, the DCPS profile says 24% fit this definition. The most recent numbers I could find suggest that more than 400 Wilson students are considered "at-risk," meaning they are homeless, in foster care, qualify for temporary financial or supplemental nutrition assistance, or are one or more years older than their grade level.

So while some students do live close by, are from well-educated, affluent families, etc., Wilson has students from all 8 wards of the city, from varying backgrounds.

ive lived in dc for 20 years. the vast majority of wilson kids are inboundary. if you closed down wilson, housing prices in the area would fall pretty dramatically, i suspect. the reason why it's so expensive over there is because people are buying their way into wilson.

PP here. I also live in DC and am IB for Wilson. The vast majority are not IB--56% are, per 2016-17 info. Yes, people are buying into Wilson, but it's also true that there is a large OOB population there. Not sure why you'd expect universally stellar college acceptances given the varied population there. I think the current acceptances are actually pretty impressive, all things considered.

http://profiles.dcps.dc.gov/Woodrow+Wilson+High+School

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Caltech acceptance rate for last year was about 7% so no surprise there.

Wilson is a good school. It's funny how much it's being vilified by charter school advocates. We are in boundary and did not consider it because of the terrible things we were told. And please do not believe those who say that anyone who does homework gets an "A" . Maybe in general music or health classes but believe me, there was a Physics class where the teacher only gave one "A", 2 "B+", a few "C"S and "D"s and failed the rest.

a teacher who does this is a failure, imo. One of Wilson's flaws is that ineffective teachers cannot easily or rapidly be shown the door

Not at all. The teacher was very good and left Wilson. She just had high standards and was always willing to help students. She would stay until the building was closed to guide them through extra lab work. Only a few students would show up for extra hours.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:i thought wilson was supposed to be this amazing school. i went to a public high school in a small town in a farm state and, every single year, the valedictorian, and sometimes also the no. 2, went to harvard. the next ten kids all went to other ivies or other highly regarded schools. i would have thought wilson would blow that out of the water.

College admissions in 2018 are NOTHING like they were 20 years ago. Are you living under a rock? None of us who got into the Ivies then would get in now. The acceptance rates are a small fraction of what they were.
It's gotten even more insane in the past 5 or even 2 years.

i thought that was mostly a myth, in part because the number of high school kids has been shrinking, but i must admit i have not paid much attention to college acceptance rates since i was 18 years old. my only point was that i would have thought a much-desired school like wilson, in a wealthy neighborhood of a big city filled with type-a personalities, would have a more impressive list of college acceptances than what's been listed here so far.

It sounds like you don't live in DC, nor do you know much about Wilson demographics. Wilson has many kids who attend who don't live in-boundary, but who travel from all around the city to attend. Some are from economically disadvantaged backgrounds--actually, the DCPS profile says 24% fit this definition. The most recent numbers I could find suggest that more than 400 Wilson students are considered "at-risk," meaning they are homeless, in foster care, qualify for temporary financial or supplemental nutrition assistance, or are one or more years older than their grade level.

So while some students do live close by, are from well-educated, affluent families, etc., Wilson has students from all 8 wards of the city, from varying backgrounds.

ive lived in dc for 20 years. the vast majority of wilson kids are inboundary. if you closed down wilson, housing prices in the area would fall pretty dramatically, i suspect. the reason why it's so expensive over there is because people are buying their way into wilson.

Anonymous wrote:Caltech acceptance rate for last year was about 7% so no surprise there.

Wilson is a good school. It's funny how much it's being vilified by charter school advocates. We are in boundary and did not consider it because of the terrible things we were told. And please do not believe those who say that anyone who does homework gets an "A" . Maybe in general music or health classes but believe me, there was a Physics class where the teacher only gave one "A", 2 "B+", a few "C"S and "D"s and failed the rest.

a teacher who does this is a failure, imo. One of Wilson's flaws is that ineffective teachers cannot easily or rapidly be shown the door

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:i thought wilson was supposed to be this amazing school. i went to a public high school in a small town in a farm state and, every single year, the valedictorian, and sometimes also the no. 2, went to harvard. the next ten kids all went to other ivies or other highly regarded schools. i would have thought wilson would blow that out of the water.

College admissions in 2018 are NOTHING like they were 20 years ago. Are you living under a rock? None of us who got into the Ivies then would get in now. The acceptance rates are a small fraction of what they were.
It's gotten even more insane in the past 5 or even 2 years.

i thought that was mostly a myth, in part because the number of high school kids has been shrinking, but i must admit i have not paid much attention to college acceptance rates since i was 18 years old. my only point was that i would have thought a much-desired school like wilson, in a wealthy neighborhood of a big city filled with type-a personalities, would have a more impressive list of college acceptances than what's been listed here so far.

I recently saw an article on Forbes.com that listed the most selective schools in every state. I was quite surprised to see that the school that not only accepted me but gave me a full, merit-based ride 30 years ago is the most selective school in VA. When I look at current admissions, I'm pretty sure I wouldn't get in now, much less get a full ride.

Anonymous wrote:Caltech acceptance rate for last year was about 7% so no surprise there.

Wilson is a good school. It's funny how much it's being vilified by charter school advocates. We are in boundary and did not consider it because of the terrible things we were told. And please do not believe those who say that anyone who does homework gets an "A" . Maybe in general music or health classes but believe me, there was a Physics class where the teacher only gave one "A", 2 "B+", a few "C"S and "D"s and failed the rest.

Yeah my kid gets a but kicking in AP Bio and AP Computer Science.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:i thought wilson was supposed to be this amazing school. i went to a public high school in a small town in a farm state and, every single year, the valedictorian, and sometimes also the no. 2, went to harvard. the next ten kids all went to other ivies or other highly regarded schools. i would have thought wilson would blow that out of the water.

College admissions in 2018 are NOTHING like they were 20 years ago. Are you living under a rock? None of us who got into the Ivies then would get in now. The acceptance rates are a small fraction of what they were.
It's gotten even more insane in the past 5 or even 2 years.

i thought that was mostly a myth, in part because the number of high school kids has been shrinking, but i must admit i have not paid much attention to college acceptance rates since i was 18 years old. my only point was that i would have thought a much-desired school like wilson, in a wealthy neighborhood of a big city filled with type-a personalities, would have a more impressive list of college acceptances than what's been listed here so far.

It sounds like you don't live in DC, nor do you know much about Wilson demographics. Wilson has many kids who attend who don't live in-boundary, but who travel from all around the city to attend. Some are from economically disadvantaged backgrounds--actually, the DCPS profile says 24% fit this definition. The most recent numbers I could find suggest that more than 400 Wilson students are considered "at-risk," meaning they are homeless, in foster care, qualify for temporary financial or supplemental nutrition assistance, or are one or more years older than their grade level.

So while some students do live close by, are from well-educated, affluent families, etc., Wilson has students from all 8 wards of the city, from varying backgrounds.