Parents of DCPS HS graduates - were your kids prepared for college?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Highest predictor of academic success is education level of mother. That's why J-R is called "Yale or Jail." Parents who can supplement - supplement from an early age with weekend language classes, tutors, summer camps, internships. Those kids are prepared for college and would be prepared anywhere.

To be clear "Yale or jail" is widely recognized as a racist trope centered in the idea of Black exceptionalism (i.e. any outstanding Black student is one of a small number of "good ones", but most Black teens are inherently bad and destined for jail).

Of course, the reality is that the overwhelming majority of non-college-bound kids who graduate from JR go on extremely positive and productive lives -- there are ROTC kids who join the military, kids who become firefighters, kids who become police officers, etc. In short, the people who do the day-to-day work that makes DC livable as a city and the US a functional country.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Highest predictor of academic success is education level of mother. That's why J-R is called "Yale or Jail." Parents who can supplement - supplement from an early age with weekend language classes, tutors, summer camps, internships. Those kids are prepared for college and would be prepared anywhere.

I work in college admissions, have a kid at J-R and don't think it's quite that simple. Yes, the "Yale" or "Jail" phenomenon is real. But there's a good-sized group of bright but not terribly motivated potential "Yale" students in the ES feeders and Deal who would do better in better-run and more demanding schools than DCPS, schools that would have pushed them harder from the upper ES grades. UMC parents can't always compensate for what schools aren't doing by supplementing extensively. All of these parents aren't going to find the time, resources, stamina or working relationship with a child to get and stay on track for "Yale" from DCPS. My do-the-minimum older kid wouldn't have worked hard at Deal or J-R (so attended parochial schools after ES), while my younger one has thrived in DCPS as a pre-teen and teen.

Can you speak a little more about your kids different styles? Would the older kid not worked as hard at Deal/JR and pushed more at parochial school?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Highest predictor of academic success is education level of mother. That's why J-R is called "Yale or Jail." Parents who can supplement - supplement from an early age with weekend language classes, tutors, summer camps, internships. Those kids are prepared for college and would be prepared anywhere.

To be clear "Yale or jail" is widely recognized as a racist trope centered in the idea of Black exceptionalism (i.e. any outstanding Black student is one of a small number of "good ones", but most Black teens are inherently bad and destined for jail).

Of course, the reality is that the overwhelming majority of non-college-bound kids who graduate from JR go on extremely positive and productive lives -- there are ROTC kids who join the military, kids who become firefighters, kids who become police officers, etc. In short, the people who do the day-to-day work that makes DC livable as a city and the US a functional country.

"Yale or Jail" is a widely recognized term in academic literature to describe an often racist system centered in the ideal that White/Asian students are destined for college and Black and Brown students are tracked for non-college curricula. https://muse.jhu.edu/article/854858/pdf. Still exists. Still exists at J-R. Still, Black and Brown students with educated mothers are going to be largely fine and prepared for college.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Highest predictor of academic success is education level of mother. That's why J-R is called "Yale or Jail." Parents who can supplement - supplement from an early age with weekend language classes, tutors, summer camps, internships. Those kids are prepared for college and would be prepared anywhere.

To be clear "Yale or jail" is widely recognized as a racist trope centered in the idea of Black exceptionalism (i.e. any outstanding Black student is one of a small number of "good ones", but most Black teens are inherently bad and destined for jail).

Of course, the reality is that the overwhelming majority of non-college-bound kids who graduate from JR go on extremely positive and productive lives -- there are ROTC kids who join the military, kids who become firefighters, kids who become police officers, etc. In short, the people who do the day-to-day work that makes DC livable as a city and the US a functional country.

"Yale or Jail" is a widely recognized term in academic literature to describe an often racist system centered in the ideal that White/Asian students are destined for college and Black and Brown students are tracked for non-college curricula. https://muse.jhu.edu/article/854858/pdf. Still exists. Still exists at J-R. Still, Black and Brown students with educated mothers are going to be largely fine and prepared for college.

My black coworker uses this phrase.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I was just with a group of former students who all went to an array of DCPS high schools, Banneker, Walls, Phelps. McKinley. All of them said that they were ready for college and have graduated and started careers or have continued to grad school. One of my former students graduated from Walls and recently defended her dissertation. A few students who went to Banneker said they felt over-prepared, especially for freshman and sophomore years.

So while not a parent of a DCPS high school graduate (my child attended a charter and the youngest is in a DCPS middle school), I have a fairly solid group of students who felt very prepared for school.

I have heard this as well from a few parent friends who were Banneker alum.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Highest predictor of academic success is education level of mother. That's why J-R is called "Yale or Jail." Parents who can supplement - supplement from an early age with weekend language classes, tutors, summer camps, internships. Those kids are prepared for college and would be prepared anywhere.

I work in college admissions, have a kid at J-R and don't think it's quite that simple. Yes, the "Yale" or "Jail" phenomenon is real. But there's a good-sized group of bright but not terribly motivated potential "Yale" students in the ES feeders and Deal who would do better in better-run and more demanding schools than DCPS, schools that would have pushed them harder from the upper ES grades. UMC parents can't always compensate for what schools aren't doing by supplementing extensively. All of these parents aren't going to find the time, resources, stamina or working relationship with a child to get and stay on track for "Yale" from DCPS. My do-the-minimum older kid wouldn't have worked hard at Deal or J-R (so attended parochial schools after ES), while my younger one has thrived in DCPS as a pre-teen and teen.

Can you speak a little more about your kids different styles? Would the older kid not worked as hard at Deal/JR and pushed more at parochial school?

Older kid is pushed much harder at top parochial middle school than at Deal. He only does what he has to, now he puts nose to the grindstone (or we don't let him play sports he loves). His interests aren't academic, but he can perform well if required to. Younger kid has strong academic interests, enjoys reading, writing, plays a musical instrument well. We supplement for younger kid in DCPS with harder math and language study on weekends. We can only afford parochial school for one comfortably, don't get fi aid from the school and highly doubt that they'd have admitted him if we needed a scholarship. If we hadn't bought a house in NW almost 20 years ago, leaving us with a small mortgage, we'd have bailed for the burbs by now to head off college admissions issues for older kid.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Highest predictor of academic success is education level of mother. That's why J-R is called "Yale or Jail." Parents who can supplement - supplement from an early age with weekend language classes, tutors, summer camps, internships. Those kids are prepared for college and would be prepared anywhere.

I work in college admissions, have a kid at J-R and don't think it's quite that simple. Yes, the "Yale" or "Jail" phenomenon is real. But there's a good-sized group of bright but not terribly motivated potential "Yale" students in the ES feeders and Deal who would do better in better-run and more demanding schools than DCPS, schools that would have pushed them harder from the upper ES grades. UMC parents can't always compensate for what schools aren't doing by supplementing extensively. All of these parents aren't going to find the time, resources, stamina or working relationship with a child to get and stay on track for "Yale" from DCPS. My do-the-minimum older kid wouldn't have worked hard at Deal or J-R (so attended parochial schools after ES), while my younger one has thrived in DCPS as a pre-teen and teen.

This is true.

[Anonymous]

Yup, the kid's motivation and intellectual curiosity is critical in DCPS if you're aiming for elite colleges.

[Transplant_1]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Highest predictor of academic success is education level of mother. That's why J-R is called "Yale or Jail." Parents who can supplement - supplement from an early age with weekend language classes, tutors, summer camps, internships. Those kids are prepared for college and would be prepared anywhere.

I work in college admissions, have a kid at J-R and don't think it's quite that simple. Yes, the "Yale" or "Jail" phenomenon is real. But there's a good-sized group of bright but not terribly motivated potential "Yale" students in the ES feeders and Deal who would do better in better-run and more demanding schools than DCPS, schools that would have pushed them harder from the upper ES grades. UMC parents can't always compensate for what schools aren't doing by supplementing extensively. All of these parents aren't going to find the time, resources, stamina or working relationship with a child to get and stay on track for "Yale" from DCPS. My do-the-minimum older kid wouldn't have worked hard at Deal or J-R (so attended parochial schools after ES), while my younger one has thrived in DCPS as a pre-teen and teen.

Can you speak a little more about your kids different styles? Would the older kid not worked as hard at Deal/JR and pushed more at parochial school?

Older kid is pushed much harder at top parochial middle school than at Deal. He only does what he has to, now he puts nose to the grindstone (or we don't let him play sports he loves). His interests aren't academic, but he can perform well if required to. Younger kid has strong academic interests, enjoys reading, writing, plays a musical instrument well. We supplement for younger kid in DCPS with harder math and language study on weekends. We can only afford parochial school for one comfortably, don't get fi aid from the school and highly doubt that they'd have admitted him if we needed a scholarship. If we hadn't bought a house in NW almost 20 years ago, leaving us with a small mortgage, we'd have bailed for the burbs by now to head off college admissions issues for older kid.

Do you think your older kid would have done as well in the surburban "W" schools. Or, he needed he smaller environment and more personal attention of parochial?

[Anonymous]

Hard to say but older kid would probably have done well in MoCo as long as we kept him in on track with incentives to achieve, e.g. meeting our GPA cut-off to play sports (our cut-off 3.5 in challenging classes, MoCo cut-off would have been around 2.0 in regular classes). As I said, he's v. bright but can't be bothered to work hard w/out a big push. We don't want to sell our NW house and don't want the hassle of renting it out so we could afford to rent in MoCo. We can't afford to buy a 2nd place for a "W" school and strongly prefer the stability and comforts of living in our home, surrounded by great neighbors/friends of many years. In the big picture, staying in DC to continue living in our home with one in parochial school is the right decision for us. Younger kid has so many interests that he should do fine at J-R in a social niche with the like-minded in classes, musical ensembles, clubs. Good luck.

[Anonymous]

NP. Our family has thought about the W schools along the same lines. Luckily, one kid cracked Walls and the other got good fi aid at a private. Their both getting solid, if not fantastic, college prep. We don’t want to blow dough on pricey MoCo rentals and condo fees…

[Transplant_1]

Thank you. This is all very helpful. I appreciate you sharing. You nailed it with the problem of pricey rentals and condo fees. I think it's impossible to find family friendly places (playground/field nearby, kids walking independently) within a certain price range, unless condo with high condo fees. Also, agreed, it's not easy to say "we'll make new friends" for either the children nor the parents.

[Anonymous]

The reality is that both Upper NW and the southern swathe of MoCo have become so affluent in this century that parents with normal jobs (teacher, nurse, civil servant, cop, etc). struggle to buy homes there these days. But at least high prices/rents buy you decent neighborhood middle and high schools/college prep in MoCo.

I wouldn't stay in the District for DCPS post Covid if I hadn't owned a nice house for a long time.

[Transplant_1]

Thank you. What you are saying is what I am finding to be the case.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Yup, the kid's motivation and intellectual curiosity is critical in DCPS if you're aiming for elite colleges.

Elite college admission is a stretch for any kid these days. Sending your kid to a “W” school is not going to make the difference. You should pick a school based on your family’s overall needs and where you think your kid will thrive.