Janney Vent

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote: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.

Key has its issues. The lower grades are usually great, but things get very uneven after that. A lot of the richer families - and talented kids who can secure aid from privates - peel off after 3rd or 4th, which reduces class sizes but also morale. As with everything else in DCPS, Hardy is good until it isn’t. There are some incredible teachers there, but turnover is high. The principal this year has been much better about ensuring that teachers are quickly replaced when they leave, but last year was a total shitshow in that respect.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote: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.

Disagree. We have 3 kids at Janney, non neurodivergent, and having a terrible experience this year. Chaos, bullying, watching TV in Spanish --kids don't mind that I guess, but every single lesson is watching..where is the instruction here?

[Anonymous]

It's hilarious that people here think these issues only pop up in DCPS schools. They're in every school district: rich, poor and in between.

Signed,
A parent who got fed up with Janney, moved to allegedly exceptional Montgomery County, and encountered the exact same problems in the schools there.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It's hilarious that people here think these issues only pop up in DCPS schools. They're in every school district: rich, poor and in between.

Signed,
A parent who got fed up with Janney, moved to allegedly exceptional Montgomery County, and encountered the exact same problems in the schools there.

+1 As a former teacher and parent of elementary aged kids, this is exactly what you have to realize.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote: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.

Key has its issues. The lower grades are usually great, but things get very uneven after that. A lot of the richer families - and talented kids who can secure aid from privates - peel off after 3rd or 4th, which reduces class sizes but also morale. As with everything else in DCPS, Hardy is good until it isn’t. There are some incredible teachers there, but turnover is high. The principal this year has been much better about ensuring that teachers are quickly replaced when they leave, but last year was a total shitshow in that respect.

+1 to both. Key 4th/5th has come a LONG way from the no man's land they were when our kids started in preK. But they're still a very different experience from the lower grades, and a good intro/prep for Hardy. Which is exactly as PP says.

Still would recommend Key wholeheartedly and Hardy as acceptable. Of course our kids are still there; they have not yet been measured against peers from other environments and found wanting. But I also find credible the PPs who observed that erratic instruction, the ripple effects of a few disruptive kids, and fluffy curriculum are consistent features of public schools that you can't escape by relocating to a different district.

[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 want to preface this by saying that I am attempting to respond with great respect it may come across as snarky and I don’t intend that

I respectfully disagree that no matter where you go or what you pay, need a lot of parental involvement and a great deal of patience.
I raise this because I’m sure there are some people reading this who are on the fence about what year they will start private school. ie, maybe the plan is 9th or 6th, but the money is there for you to start in K

We sent our kid K-12 to a DC independent school and once I was satisfied that he was a typical learner, I sat back and did not in fact, pay much attention. It was fairly plug-and-play. He did not have one minute of outside enrichment To make up for perceived deficits

Of course, people elect to go to private school and do have to remain vigilant and overly engaged. But there’s a fair number of us successfully avoid all that and come out with an excellent appropriate, right size elementary education.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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 want to preface this by saying that I am attempting to respond with great respect it may come across as snarky and I don’t intend that

I respectfully disagree that no matter where you go or what you pay, need a lot of parental involvement and a great deal of patience.
I raise this because I’m sure there are some people reading this who are on the fence about what year they will start private school. ie, maybe the plan is 9th or 6th, but the money is there for you to start in K

We sent our kid K-12 to a DC independent school and once I was satisfied that he was a typical learner, I sat back and did not in fact, pay much attention. It was fairly plug-and-play. He did not have one minute of outside enrichment To make up for perceived deficits

Of course, people elect to go to private school and do have to remain vigilant and overly engaged. But there’s a fair number of us successfully avoid all that and come out with an excellent appropriate, right size elementary education.

That's what private school parents are paying for. Kids don't fall through the cracks in private -- the whole school is paying attention to every kid.

Public school parents (and students) need to hustle and find opportunities and be a bit more of an active participant in education. This is common to all public schools.

[Anonymous]

OP- you aren't alone.

There are a lot of things Ive been impressed with (referrals to the school psych for loneliness, excellent pullout structure to right-size learning), I think the teachers are mostly great (WAY better education than Key FWIW which my kids also attended). But for whatever reason they can't even seem to write a single personalized line on a child in a report card. I know they care about these kids, As a parent, that matters to me. You have 25 kids, write one line.

Additionally, the culture is SO equity-focused that (for fear of "not checking my privilege") I have avoided on numerous occasions voicing concerns about my child being harassed and hit by other kids, simply bc they are POC. Multiple repeat offenders that bite, hit, grope, use wildly inappropriate language. My kid will be ok, so I swallow it.

The Fistbook debacle asking young children to identify and write down the racists in their family...the Trans posters in the Kindergarten hall reminding kids who can't read or even comprehend yet that "everyone gets to choose if they are a boy or a girl or both or neither or something else"...the teachers who CONTINUE to mask. There is a way to teach children to be good human beings without the self-flagellating kabuki.

As a neighborhood parent, it feels like there is an abnormal amount of energy placed on things that -- in the scheme of elementary education --don't matter. My kids can't tell time and they don't know the months in the year. They don't know the states on the east coast, but they will learn about American Revolution mainly from the perspective of indigenous populations.

I'm not incensed, but I am indifferent to what is supposedly the finest ES in the city. I won't miss it, and I won't give money until they get their priorities in check. But then again, I am an outlier in a neighborhood of "In this house we believe"ers.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP- you aren't alone.

There are a lot of things Ive been impressed with (referrals to the school psych for loneliness, excellent pullout structure to right-size learning), I think the teachers are mostly great (WAY better education than Key FWIW which my kids also attended). But for whatever reason they can't even seem to write a single personalized line on a child in a report card. I know they care about these kids, As a parent, that matters to me. You have 25 kids, write one line.

Additionally, the culture is SO equity-focused that (for fear of "not checking my privilege") I have avoided on numerous occasions voicing concerns about my child being harassed and hit by other kids, simply bc they are POC. Multiple repeat offenders that bite, hit, grope, use wildly inappropriate language. My kid will be ok, so I swallow it.

The Fistbook debacle asking young children to identify and write down the racists in their family...the Trans posters in the Kindergarten hall reminding kids who can't read or even comprehend yet that "everyone gets to choose if they are a boy or a girl or both or neither or something else"...the teachers who CONTINUE to mask. There is a way to teach children to be good human beings without the self-flagellating kabuki.

As a neighborhood parent, it feels like there is an abnormal amount of energy placed on things that -- in the scheme of elementary education --don't matter. My kids can't tell time and they don't know the months in the year. They don't know the states on the east coast, but they will learn about American Revolution mainly from the perspective of indigenous populations.

I'm not incensed, but I am indifferent to what is supposedly the finest ES in the city. I won't miss it, and I won't give money until they get their priorities in check. But then again, I am an outlier in a neighborhood of "In this house we believe"ers.

I am not at Janney and very concerned with the DCPS curriculum which seems to not teach any kind of history OR practical skills like telling time. Further, I think the writing instruction is awful and I'm really concerned about how it will be in high school.

[Anonymous]

I don’t know what happened with the report cards. I had an older kid at Janney and they definitely used to write actual, personalized comments. Somewhere post COVID they transformed to bland 2-3 sentences.

[Anonymous]

The report card thing is DCPS's fault, not Janney's. DCPS launched new report cards that don't accommodate sufficient prose.

[Anonymous]

You are making me feel very satisfied with our experiences at Mann and Hardy (well, Hardy this year).

[Anonymous]

We faced similar issues at Key. Bizarre obsessive SEL lessons but little fundamental reading, writing, and math. We moved and send our child to a private Christian school. If you had told me I would be sending my kid to a religious school, I would have laughed in your face, but I was so 'over' the non-school school that we became open to other options.

The difference is amazing. The new school is orderly, focused on fundamentals, with a beautiful positive outlook. My child was a behavior problem at Key. At the new school, they are excelling, behaving, and happy. There is a lot to be said for simple, old-fashioned school where teachers expect to teach subject matter rather than grievance politics.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP- you aren't alone.

There are a lot of things Ive been impressed with (referrals to the school psych for loneliness, excellent pullout structure to right-size learning), I think the teachers are mostly great (WAY better education than Key FWIW which my kids also attended). But for whatever reason they can't even seem to write a single personalized line on a child in a report card. I know they care about these kids, As a parent, that matters to me. You have 25 kids, write one line.

Additionally, the culture is SO equity-focused that (for fear of "not checking my privilege") I have avoided on numerous occasions voicing concerns about my child being harassed and hit by other kids, simply bc they are POC. Multiple repeat offenders that bite, hit, grope, use wildly inappropriate language. My kid will be ok, so I swallow it.

The Fistbook debacle asking young children to identify and write down the racists in their family...the Trans posters in the Kindergarten hall reminding kids who can't read or even comprehend yet that "everyone gets to choose if they are a boy or a girl or both or neither or something else"...the teachers who CONTINUE to mask. There is a way to teach children to be good human beings without the self-flagellating kabuki.

As a neighborhood parent, it feels like there is an abnormal amount of energy placed on things that -- in the scheme of elementary education --don't matter. My kids can't tell time and they don't know the months in the year. They don't know the states on the east coast, but they will learn about American Revolution mainly from the perspective of indigenous populations.

I'm not incensed, but I am indifferent to what is supposedly the finest ES in the city. I won't miss it, and I won't give money until they get their priorities in check. But then again, I am an outlier in a neighborhood of "In this house we believe"ers.

I'm EOTP and none of this is happening at our DCPS elementary. I wonder if this is a thing that only happens in majority white schools?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I don’t know what happened with the report cards. I had an older kid at Janney and they definitely used to write actual, personalized comments. Somewhere post COVID they transformed to bland 2-3 sentences.

Sometimes the names of the specials teachers are even inaccurate. It is obvious that they are not checked for accuracy.