Basic Info
Walter Johnson HS is located at 6400 Rock Spring Drive, Bethesda, MD 20814. The principal is Mrs. Jennifer Baker.
Rating
Please rate your experience at this school with respect to the following aspects on a scale from 0 to 10.- Inclusiveness: Does the school have a culture of inclusion and inclusive practices in place (e.g., co-teaching)? Are these practices effectively and systematically implemented?
- Staffing and resources: Does the school have staff and resources to accommodate a wide range of special needs?
- Cooperation: Does the school staff exhibit a cooperative approach by accepting/requesting the parents' input, listening to concerns, and attempting to resolve disagreements?
- Communication: Does the school implement progress monitoring plans? Does the staff regularly communicate with parents with respect to their child's progress and challenges? Is the staff responsive when contacted?
- Academic expectations: Does the staff systematically set high expectations for students with special needs? Does the staff systematically raise expectations when IEP goals are met ahead of time?
Walter Johnson HS
Inclusiveness
5.9
Staffing and resources
4
Cooperation
3.7
Communication
1.7
Academic expectations
3.4
My children have dyslexia. The school has no effective remedial program for them. Expectations are low and guidance is minimal or worse. For example, no attention to long term objectives, what to do after high school, or even what to take in lieu of a language. Teachers, including special educators, seem unfamiliar with dyslexia and how it effects students. IEP is often not followed. Goals in the IEP’s are vague, general and not measurable. Even when you advocate and remind, action is only grudgingly taken. Some of this is serious, such as failing to give tests in a seperate room so she has quiet, read-to, extra time and other accomodations in her IEP. Effective accomodations, including technology are not used or made available. For example, not allowed or encouraged to use text to speech or speech to text. Laptops purchased for use by students w ith IEP’s are locked up and not provided. We bought an IPAD for my daughter to use at school, but teachers complained about compatibility or technical issues. Kids are not signed up for learning ally or book share, we had to do it on our own and teachers didn’t sign form for my son; said they did not know if they could. Teachers don’t use and don’t seem to know about programs or apps to help kids with learning or other disabilities, like co-writer for writing. Low expectations. They dumb down some work, such as having students watch a movie rather than read the book. Strenths are not encouraged. Math teachers also not trained to teach students with dyslexia or other learning disa bilities. Poor parent communication.
Thank you for this comment. Our son has dyslexia as well, and has been attending a private school specifically for kids with dyslexia, but the tuition is killing us, I resent having to pay for private school and the high MoCo taxes which are supposed to be supporting a public school education for all. I’m disgusted.
The Aspergers Program at Walter Johnson HS does not have a social skills class. Self-Contained English is an option for those who need it, though it is not strictly an Aspergers English class.
At WJ the students have resource class (9th graders begin with two resource classes) and support in grade level or above grade level classes (depending on the IEP). There are more opportunities for co-taught classes for students in the program.