Janney Vent

[Anonymous]

Warning; I have nothing constructive to say here. I’m just venting. No, I’m not a troll.

Like many, we moved to the neighborhood for the public school. Like many, I have since learned that you don’t move “for the schools”. But this school’s stunning lack of competence leads to a level of disorganization and chaos that is beyond anything I would consider normal for an elementary school. It is way too crowded. A few teachers are good and try their best (4th grade team is pretty good) but many are burnt out and/or spend all their time on odd activist lessons (no, I’m not a conservative troll either). One of my three has since graduated and is in a non DCPS middle and none of these odd curriculum additions were either necessary or relevant to her preparation for MS. In fact, she was woefully unprepared for MS. She’s doing wonderfully now. Something is wrong with Janney in particular and DCPS in general. I don’t know what happened or if it’s always been like this. I’m too angry and exhausted to explain every incident that has frustrated us right from the beginning. A quick summary:

- kid number one was a horrible speller and struggled with reading. We were told it’s normal and that it would eventually click. Never clicked. Confidence shot as a result. New school somehow was able to support the issue and get it fixed. Kid is thriving in new school and is helping other kids with their HW.

- kid two has accommodations. We still get complaints about kid’s focus in class. Yeah, no sh*t. Support staff is MIA, no response to emails, no recognition that supports might need to be adjusted. Clearly no communication between teachers and administrative staff. Teachers constantly coming to us to “fix it”.

- kid three is young but is having so many issues socially (due to chaos? Large number of kids? Something else?)

We’re exhausted. Feel free to roast if you must but someone out there must be experiencing this too. It can’t just be us. My understanding is that our house may get moved to the Mann boundary. There’s a lot of rumbling over here about it and people aren’t happy primarily due to impact on home values. I’m not sure it’s such a bad thing. That place needs to have about half the population it is currently dealing with. We’ll be moving soon as a result of all of this. Just a fair warning to others. Do your homework and never move “for the school”.

[Anonymous]

Thanks for your honest opinion.

[Anonymous]

:::grabs popcorn:::

[Anonymous]

I appreciate your honesty. Many people in this forum say that as long as the school has a large enough cohort of ‘high performers’ the school is good. I always thought that was coded language and I really know nothing about Janney except its location and population of students. At least your have Deal to look forward to, yet another overcrowded chaotic school.

[Anonymous]

I had 3 kids go through Janney. We had good years and bad years at Janney. The worse was the year they ran a third grade class with 2 full-time teachers and 30 kids. Or was it 40? I've blocked it out. It was a mess and my kid learned nothing and ended up in therapy for anxiety. No joke. We spend thousands of dollars (literally) on therapy that year at the Ross Center and he's never had anxiety before or since. Perhaps it was the class of 40 kids?

I think in general it's not a good idea to move for DCPS (or probably any school) because the experience can be highly uneven, depending on the teachers your kid gets. Deal is similar. One of mine had great teachers, one had okay teachers and one just got the real short end of the stick. She basically did not have English instruction for 2 of her 3 years due to the 6th grade English teacher quitting (and not being replaced for 4 months) and the 8th grade English teacher who called in several days per week for almost the entire year (and not for illness) while also teaching nothing on the days that he/she was present.

We sent our kids on to private high schools and it was kind of startling how little they knew in some subjects after DCPS PK-8. Writing was the worse (they were years behind their privately educated peers) but math was also sort of bad, despite being on the highest math track at Deal (and being pulled out for math at Janney). We moved the youngest for 8th grade because we were tired of having to deal with the giant catch up in 9th grade (when grades matter for college). It was stressful. That said, I'm glad we used DCPS for as long as we did. First of all, we couldn't afford private for more than high school (even with aid). Second, I loved the community aspect of being part of a local DCPS. Third, I do think the most of the Janney (and Deal) teachers are good and almost all are incredibly devoted to their jobs. Lastly, the private schools around here (at least the top ones) are just so incredibly wealthy. Janney parents are the poors in comparison and that is saying something. Again, we get aid (which is ridiculous because we are not poor). I'm not sure I would have survived being around that much wealth PK-12. We look at our DCPS friends as "our people" and we miss being part of that world (warts and all) but there's no denying that the education in private is much better.

I guess I sort of veered off track with these comments but I'm not surprised that your Janney experience has been uneven. It's sort of the hallmark of DCPS. It's great until it isn't. It works for your kid until it doesn't. You get what you get and you don't get upset. Basically--you have to have a pretty large tolerance for uneven instruction and chaos and if you (and more importantly your kids) can deal with this then it can be great. Or at least serviceable. If this doesn't work for you (because the unpredictable quality is stressful) or your kid (because they aren't neurotypical or any other reason) then your options are either lower your expectations or move elsewhere. Many of our friends did the later (move to MCPS or private). I kind of wish i was a more chill parent (or person) because I really wanted to stick it out in DCPS but all the little things that I mentioned above (mainly--the lack of reading and writing and spelling instruction) gave me significant anxiety (mostly due to my own history of attending really crummy schools and then struggling as a freshman in college). So we moved our kids.

[Anonymous]

I’d like to tell you that another public school system will be better, but they’re all huge and disorganized around here. Only area I would consider is Falls Church City. We were hugely disappointed with Janney as well but love AU Park. We switched our kids to a not fancy private school that most folks here wouldn’t consider. They are thriving and love going to school now. Good luck!

[Anonymous]

This is exactly why we chose Palisades over AU Park. I’d much rather be at Key (tiny, two classes or three classes per grade) than a school as large as Janney. There just are not the resources to get a handle on a school that big.

[Anonymous]

Reading these posts just drives home to me that every kid is different and needs different support. My child was also in the large class with 2 teach experiment. It remains their favorite Janney year. They got more personal attention than any other year and are now at an Ivy college after remaining in public schools through HS. That being said, no matter where your child goes, how much you pay, or the services needed, parental involvement and a ton of patience remains essential.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Reading these posts just drives home to me that every kid is different and needs different support. My child was also in the large class with 2 teach experiment. It remains their favorite Janney year. They got more personal attention than any other year and are now at an Ivy college after remaining in public schools through HS. That being said, no matter where your child goes, how much you pay, or the services needed, parental involvement and a ton of patience remains essential.

I'm confused. The "large class (35+) with 2 teachers experiment" kids are currently juniors in high school. Did they do this twice?

[Anonymous]

^^ I guess so. My DD was also in that class and is now a sophomore in college. There were 42 kids I think. 2 FT teachers.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:^^ I guess so. My DD was also in that class and is now a sophomore in college. There were 42 kids I think. 2 FT teachers.

Oh gosh. Then they did do it twice. The high school classes of 2022 and 2025.
I wonder why--I can't remember the reasoning they gave us at the time. The large section (40 kids?) was chaos for the class of 2025. Parents still talk about it today. There were a few kids who monopolized one of the two teachers full time so on a daily basis the ratio was like 1:2 and 1:38. I know one of the two teachers was also new or almost new to teaching so perhaps the 2022 class had more experienced teachers.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I appreciate your honesty. Many people in this forum say that as long as the school has a large enough cohort of ‘high performers’ the school is good. I always thought that was coded language and I really know nothing about Janney except its location and population of students. At least your have Deal to look forward to, yet another overcrowded chaotic school.

Just chiming in to say we thought Deal would be chaotic but our 8th grader has had three terrific years. There’s always a bad teacher, but the team-structure has been done well and our son has thrived. And we came from Hearst, so very tiny. To another PP’s point, each kid is different and certainly each parent set is different.

[Anonymous]

To pp, your vent is fine. But understand that there were parents telling you this exact same information while you ignored them about bought into the myth.
My point is- the only people who will listen to you are BTDT parents.

[Anonymous]

Sounds like all 3 of OPs kids were special needs kids. That is what I assume private schools is usually for - for kids who can’t cut it in mainstream public. (yes, I know public is supposed to provide supports to special needs students, but there just isn’t sufficient funding for that.) Not sure I see your point here.

[Anonymous]

I’m facing this question now, in a different school district.

I guess it makes sense re:supply/demand, but most of the private schools are also clustered in the most affluent public school zones. So you can let yourself off the hook for “moving for schools” to some extent because you probably would have ended up moving to have a tolerable commute to private school. Also better chance of admission somewhere near your house.