Current experiences at Jackson-Reed?

[Anonymous]

I have nothing against MCPS. OP should move to Montgomery County if they prefer it. But let’s not mislead people. If you prefer Montgomery College to UDC, you can go to Montgomery College from DC: it’s open enrollment, and DCTAG covers the full difference in price. And UMCP admits out-of-state and in-state students at essentially the same rate (36% and 35%, respectively). Data here: https://www.usmd.edu/IRIS/#.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Do most of the kids walk to and from school? I’m deciding between MoCo, NOVA and JR to relocate to for HS and for my particular kid, I really value him developing a good friend group. Seems like a mostly walkable school facilitates that better than bussing/driving.

By numbers, most of the kids do not walk to JR since the boundary is so big. Almost all that do walk went to Deal and most of the walkers went to Janney (some kids from Hearst and Murch live within walking distance). My kids have gone the walking to Janney/Deal/JR path and almost all of their friends are friends from early elementary. I think the same is true for the Hearst and Murch kids. There is just not that much social development outside of the elementary school friendships. I doubt moving close to JR for high school would let your child break into these cliques.

OP this is just a Janney thing. Like this at Deal too. Lots of kids walk from all over the neighborhood, bus stops and metro. That is the really lovely part about JR.

Is it worth moving to be IB? Really depends on your family. My kids (who walk but not from Janney) have friends all over the city which I think is great for them.

[Anonymous]

JR has a lot of potential, but to me, it lacks vibrant, creative leadership. From what I've seen over the last two years, principal Sah Brown is distant and rigid, more of a DCPS "yes man" than someone who builds community or inspires students, teachers, or parents. He reminds me of the principals you see in 80s, 90s movies, just lacking in personality and warmth. For example he promotes these totally empty "ROAR values" (respect, ownership, attendance, responsibility) that remind me of corporate leadership babble. Teachers are a mixed bag. Some are fantastic, talented teachers who really care about kids, but they come across as tired and discouraged. I've heard that a number of really good teachers have left JR for greener pastures--both to other DCPS schools (MacArthur, Coolidge maybe) and Maryland/VA schools. Basically, JR seems to be stagnating or going backwards a bit. On the plus side, there are great kids and families and some wonderful teachers. The negative is a truly meh principal who should be pushing paper downtown instead of running a school. If I had to do it again, I'd probably try my luck with Banneker or Walls.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:JR has a lot of potential, but to me, it lacks vibrant, creative leadership. From what I've seen over the last two years, principal Sah Brown is distant and rigid, more of a DCPS "yes man" than someone who builds community or inspires students, teachers, or parents. He reminds me of the principals you see in 80s, 90s movies, just lacking in personality and warmth. For example he promotes these totally empty "ROAR values" (respect, ownership, attendance, responsibility) that remind me of corporate leadership babble. Teachers are a mixed bag. Some are fantastic, talented teachers who really care about kids, but they come across as tired and discouraged. I've heard that a number of really good teachers have left JR for greener pastures--both to other DCPS schools (MacArthur, Coolidge maybe) and Maryland/VA schools. Basically, JR seems to be stagnating or going backwards a bit. On the plus side, there are great kids and families and some wonderful teachers. The negative is a truly meh principal who should be pushing paper downtown instead of running a school. If I had to do it again, I'd probably try my luck with Banneker or Walls.

I mean…that’s what public school principals are, especially HS principals. They are hired by DCPS to be DCPS yes-people and to ensure things run smoothly on a day-to-day basis. And that’s what he does. I haven’t heard any reports of the Walls or Banneker principals being any different or more inspirational; in fact, a few years ago DCPS pushed out a Walls principal who was allegedly just the sort you describe.

I don’t disagree that teachers find him generally unsupportive; JR has lost some good ones in the last few years.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:JR has a lot of potential, but to me, it lacks vibrant, creative leadership. From what I've seen over the last two years, principal Sah Brown is distant and rigid, more of a DCPS "yes man" than someone who builds community or inspires students, teachers, or parents. He reminds me of the principals you see in 80s, 90s movies, just lacking in personality and warmth. For example he promotes these totally empty "ROAR values" (respect, ownership, attendance, responsibility) that remind me of corporate leadership babble. Teachers are a mixed bag. Some are fantastic, talented teachers who really care about kids, but they come across as tired and discouraged. I've heard that a number of really good teachers have left JR for greener pastures--both to other DCPS schools (MacArthur, Coolidge maybe) and Maryland/VA schools. Basically, JR seems to be stagnating or going backwards a bit. On the plus side, there are great kids and families and some wonderful teachers. The negative is a truly meh principal who should be pushing paper downtown instead of running a school. If I had to do it again, I'd probably try my luck with Banneker or Walls.

Coolidge is not a "greener pasture".

[Anonymous]

How many kids does J-R have this year? Someone mentioned the enrollment is down now following MacArthur’s opening.

DCPS always seems to be slow updating data on things like current enrollment by school but perhaps I don’t know where to look.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Do most of the kids walk to and from school? I’m deciding between MoCo, NOVA and JR to relocate to for HS and for my particular kid, I really value him developing a good friend group. Seems like a mostly walkable school facilitates that better than bussing/driving.

By numbers, most of the kids do not walk to JR since the boundary is so big. Almost all that do walk went to Deal and most of the walkers went to Janney (some kids from Hearst and Murch live within walking distance). My kids have gone the walking to Janney/Deal/JR path and almost all of their friends are friends from early elementary. I think the same is true for the Hearst and Murch kids. There is just not that much social development outside of the elementary school friendships. I doubt moving close to JR for high school would let your child break into these cliques.

OP this is just a Janney thing. Like this at Deal too. Lots of kids walk from all over the neighborhood, bus stops and metro. That is the really lovely part about JR.

Is it worth moving to be IB? Really depends on your family. My kids (who walk but not from Janney) have friends all over the city which I think is great for them.

+1 My non-Janney kids walked to Deal and can walk to JR, and they have friends from all over the city; and one, who moved to private for HS and is now in college, still has friends all over the city from the Deal days.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:How many kids does J-R have this year? Someone mentioned the enrollment is down now following MacArthur’s opening.

DCPS always seems to be slow updating data on things like current enrollment by school but perhaps I don’t know where to look.

I think it's now around 1800ish down from 2000ish. It will drop down to what it is supposed to be as I believe feeder kids no longer have a choice between JR or Macarthur which they allowed for a couple of years.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:How many kids does J-R have this year? Someone mentioned the enrollment is down now following MacArthur’s opening.

DCPS always seems to be slow updating data on things like current enrollment by school but perhaps I don’t know where to look.

I believe they’re at ~1850 this year and anticipating ~1750 next year. The school was built for 1600, with flex capacity up to maybe 1850? They’re planning to dismantle the portable classrooms after this year, which is a great sign.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:JR has a lot of potential, but to me, it lacks vibrant, creative leadership. From what I've seen over the last two years, principal Sah Brown is distant and rigid, more of a DCPS "yes man" than someone who builds community or inspires students, teachers, or parents. He reminds me of the principals you see in 80s, 90s movies, just lacking in personality and warmth. For example he promotes these totally empty "ROAR values" (respect, ownership, attendance, responsibility) that remind me of corporate leadership babble. Teachers are a mixed bag. Some are fantastic, talented teachers who really care about kids, but they come across as tired and discouraged. I've heard that a number of really good teachers have left JR for greener pastures--both to other DCPS schools (MacArthur, Coolidge maybe) and Maryland/VA schools. Basically, JR seems to be stagnating or going backwards a bit. On the plus side, there are great kids and families and some wonderful teachers. The negative is a truly meh principal who should be pushing paper downtown instead of running a school. If I had to do it again, I'd probably try my luck with Banneker or Walls.

First, JR and all DCPS schools have a bunch of turnover. The strong ones that have been there a while actually tend to stay.

They have lost some good younger teachers, but actually the teachers I know completely left the area for private sector jobs. One to Colorado and one to Philadelphia. Believe they both followed their spouses who were offered jobs in those locations.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:How many kids does J-R have this year? Someone mentioned the enrollment is down now following MacArthur’s opening.

DCPS always seems to be slow updating data on things like current enrollment by school but perhaps I don’t know where to look.

I think it's now around 1800ish down from 2000ish. It will drop down to what it is supposed to be as I believe feeder kids no longer have a choice between JR or Macarthur which they allowed for a couple of years.

+1. The whole idea behind opening MacArthur was to bring down enrollment/alleviate overcrowding at JR. (It's a problem at Deal too, but they decided this was the more pressing issue of the two.)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Do most of the kids walk to and from school? I’m deciding between MoCo, NOVA and JR to relocate to for HS and for my particular kid, I really value him developing a good friend group. Seems like a mostly walkable school facilitates that better than bussing/driving.

You should care more about in-state college options and costs vs. the things you mention above. DC TAG does not bridge the entire gap between in-state and OOS at all, so if you care about having UMD or UVA/W&M/Virginia Tech et al as in-state options, that should be a larger factor for you.

The areas you would consider "walkable" are fairly expensive for SFHs. I consider say anything within a 1 mile radius (and that could be a stretch) as walkable. There are reasonable apartments and condos, especially in some older buildings on CT Avenue.

My guess is that 50% of the kids that are in-bound for Jackson-Reed in these areas attend, while there is a large %age going to Walls or private schools.

of course you’re not wrong about college but my particular kid needs to get through high school happily in a place that values kids of all types with lower barrier to entry activities. If you can think of a good HS option in NOVA or MoCo I all all ears but they all seem massive (Blair, WL) or bad cultural fits (Ws) or basically indistinguishable/worse academically than JR (Einstein).

BCC in Bethesda is similar to JR in terms of cultural fit and you will find many walkable areas. Not sure what doesn’t work for you for Whitman as I would say the top 20% of JR is a lot like Whitman kids.

I don’t know VA as well other than Langley and McLean HSs are popular options.

Thanks. I think BCC has a bigger catchment area and a lot more busing. But yes, it’s the closest thing. But then I wonder if I actually want to move to Bethesda just to get $10,000 more a year for college?

Everything I’ve heard about the Ws sounds like a poor fit. I don’t like being in schools where every family believes they have an “advanced learner.”

It's the difference between $50k OOS and $30k in state, so with TAG...correct it costs and additional $10k. However, I believe there are more merit scholarships reserved for in-state applicants, so the actual differential could be much more.

I don't quite get where you plan to live for JR. I don't think Tenley or Friendship Heights or Chevy Chase DC are really any different than Bethesda. It feels like BCC gives you a bit more of the traditional HS experience where kids attend football games as an example. JR basketball games are decently popular.

probably south of JR on Wisconsin or on CT if I can find a safe building.

I’m scared of Bethesda.

I personally would move to MCPS.
DCPS is a real hassle to deal with. And you have the advantages of state colleges and universities in MD. It is not just a cost issue. State universities favor instate applicants. Sports are better managed in MCPS vs. DCPS.
Montgomery college is also better than UDC. Check out Wooton, Walter Johnson, BCC, Wheaton high schools and so many more

Eh, I’ve been dealing with DCPS for nine years now … college is really probably the most persuasive reason to move to MoCo.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Do most of the kids walk to and from school? I’m deciding between MoCo, NOVA and JR to relocate to for HS and for my particular kid, I really value him developing a good friend group. Seems like a mostly walkable school facilitates that better than bussing/driving.

You should care more about in-state college options and costs vs. the things you mention above. DC TAG does not bridge the entire gap between in-state and OOS at all, so if you care about having UMD or UVA/W&M/Virginia Tech et al as in-state options, that should be a larger factor for you.

The areas you would consider "walkable" are fairly expensive for SFHs. I consider say anything within a 1 mile radius (and that could be a stretch) as walkable. There are reasonable apartments and condos, especially in some older buildings on CT Avenue.

My guess is that 50% of the kids that are in-bound for Jackson-Reed in these areas attend, while there is a large %age going to Walls or private schools.

of course you’re not wrong about college but my particular kid needs to get through high school happily in a place that values kids of all types with lower barrier to entry activities. If you can think of a good HS option in NOVA or MoCo I all all ears but they all seem massive (Blair, WL) or bad cultural fits (Ws) or basically indistinguishable/worse academically than JR (Einstein).

BCC in Bethesda is similar to JR in terms of cultural fit and you will find many walkable areas. Not sure what doesn’t work for you for Whitman as I would say the top 20% of JR is a lot like Whitman kids.

I don’t know VA as well other than Langley and McLean HSs are popular options.

Thanks. I think BCC has a bigger catchment area and a lot more busing. But yes, it’s the closest thing. But then I wonder if I actually want to move to Bethesda just to get $10,000 more a year for college?

Everything I’ve heard about the Ws sounds like a poor fit. I don’t like being in schools where every family believes they have an “advanced learner.”

It's the difference between $50k OOS and $30k in state, so with TAG...correct it costs and additional $10k. However, I believe there are more merit scholarships reserved for in-state applicants, so the actual differential could be much more.

I don't quite get where you plan to live for JR. I don't think Tenley or Friendship Heights or Chevy Chase DC are really any different than Bethesda. It feels like BCC gives you a bit more of the traditional HS experience where kids attend football games as an example. JR basketball games are decently popular.

probably south of JR on Wisconsin or on CT if I can find a safe building.

I’m scared of Bethesda.

I personally would move to MCPS.
DCPS is a real hassle to deal with. And you have the advantages of state colleges and universities in MD. It is not just a cost issue. State universities favor instate applicants. Sports are better managed in MCPS vs. DCPS.
Montgomery college is also better than UDC. Check out Wooton, Walter Johnson, BCC, Wheaton high schools and so many more

NP. I grew up in Montgomery County in-bounds for a "W" school and went to a magnet MCPS school for high school; personally, I've got no interest in living in Montgomery County again nor in having my kids grow up replicating my suburban childhood. They've have had good experiences in DCPS elementary and middle school, so I think J-R would have to go MUCH worse than I anticipate next year for our kid for us to look to move to MCPS. It's true that living in D.C. makes college more expensive, but fortunately, we should be in a financial position where in-state tuition won't be our only option when college starts.

There are all kinds of factors involved in where you live; people take them all into account when making decisions like this.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:JR has a lot of potential, but to me, it lacks vibrant, creative leadership. From what I've seen over the last two years, principal Sah Brown is distant and rigid, more of a DCPS "yes man" than someone who builds community or inspires students, teachers, or parents. He reminds me of the principals you see in 80s, 90s movies, just lacking in personality and warmth. For example he promotes these totally empty "ROAR values" (respect, ownership, attendance, responsibility) that remind me of corporate leadership babble. Teachers are a mixed bag. Some are fantastic, talented teachers who really care about kids, but they come across as tired and discouraged. I've heard that a number of really good teachers have left JR for greener pastures--both to other DCPS schools (MacArthur, Coolidge maybe) and Maryland/VA schools. Basically, JR seems to be stagnating or going backwards a bit. On the plus side, there are great kids and families and some wonderful teachers. The negative is a truly meh principal who should be pushing paper downtown instead of running a school. If I had to do it again, I'd probably try my luck with Banneker or Walls.

Coolidge is not a "greener pasture".

+100

People on this site are so full of it. Complain about JR all you want but none of you would send your kid to Coolidge.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:How many kids does J-R have this year? Someone mentioned the enrollment is down now following MacArthur’s opening.

DCPS always seems to be slow updating data on things like current enrollment by school but perhaps I don’t know where to look.

I believe they’re at ~1850 this year and anticipating ~1750 next year. The school was built for 1600, with flex capacity up to maybe 1850? They’re planning to dismantle the portable classrooms after this year, which is a great sign.

Delayed response, but thanks to you and PP for the current info.