The time has come. Walls versus Jackson Reed

[Anonymous]

Teacher turnover seems less at Walls. I imagine it is a good school to teach at and not much reason to leave once you are in.
Classes may or may not be smaller than JR but I’m not sure

[Anonymous]

We have one at each. The turnover may be lower at Walls but our experience is that there is more complacency with the Walls teachers. They like teaching there because it’s easy and there’s not a lot of passion or creativity. There are some good ones and a few great ones but we have found, on average, better teachers at J-R.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:As one who has a child a both Walls and J-R, I would add that the difference is not just Humanities vs STEM and sports. J-R has a ton of top-notch activities (e.g., the Beacon, robotics, model UN, mock trial, amazing theater programs, etc) that Walls can't provide (they have some but not as many and they are not of the same caliber.) Having said that, the calm nature of Walls is 100 percent better for my student who is there (the "chaos" of J-R would not have suited them, but for my J-R student it is a non issue and they love and take advantage of all of the opportunities). Both schools have issues with teacher vacancies and I think overall the quality of teaching is better at J-R, especially in the AP classes.

Mock trial, model UN, newspaper also exist at Walls and are pretty good.
Some of the sports coaches at Walls are good too. Love the athletic director.
Theater is not of the same calibre but music is good.
My kid has loved or at least liked most of his AP teachers at Walls - AP Physics, AP Calc BC, AP Lit, AP World History, AP US History, AP Chem, AP Human Geo.
AP language was not a good experience at Walls unfortunately. Love his counselor but no idea about the other counselors at Walls.

As I said, I have kids at both…Walls has many of the same clubs and they are fine but some at J-R are truly excellent (debate is another one)…it may not be enough to make up for the downsides of J-R for some kids—those who need smaller, calmer environments for example—but it’s worth considering. I wouldn’t say my Walls kid is getting a superior education than my J-R kid.

[Anonymous]

I really appreciate this post. We are in the same boat. We are going to let our student decide but we are trying to help him make an informed decision. Thank you for sharing!

[Anonymous]

Appreciate the feedback here as well. Wondering if the 30-min commute to Walls still makes it worth it if our daughter could walk to JR.

Also, is the amount of homework at these schools significantly different? Don’t want her to be overloaded every day. Thanks for any tips!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:As one who has a child a both Walls and J-R, I would add that the difference is not just Humanities vs STEM and sports. J-R has a ton of top-notch activities (e.g., the Beacon, robotics, model UN, mock trial, amazing theater programs, etc) that Walls can't provide (they have some but not as many and they are not of the same caliber.) Having said that, the calm nature of Walls is 100 percent better for my student who is there (the "chaos" of J-R would not have suited them, but for my J-R student it is a non issue and they love and take advantage of all of the opportunities). Both schools have issues with teacher vacancies and I think overall the quality of teaching is better at J-R, especially in the AP classes.

Mock trial, model UN, newspaper also exist at Walls and are pretty good.
Some of the sports coaches at Walls are good too. Love the athletic director.
Theater is not of the same calibre but music is good.
My kid has loved or at least liked most of his AP teachers at Walls - AP Physics, AP Calc BC, AP Lit, AP World History, AP US History, AP Chem, AP Human Geo.
AP language was not a good experience at Walls unfortunately. Love his counselor but no idea about the other counselors at Walls.

NP and thanks for this comment. It’s nice to see positive comments about STEM APs after several posts saying Walls isn’t strong in those subjects.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Appreciate the feedback here as well. Wondering if the 30-min commute to Walls still makes it worth it if our daughter could walk to JR.

Also, is the amount of homework at these schools significantly different? Don’t want her to be overloaded every day. Thanks for any tips!

The commute has been worth it for my son.
If it were my kid trying to decide, I would encourage them to attend Walls for 9th grade and then switch back to JR for 10th if they were not happy.
9th grade is definitely weaker at JR so the trade off seems worth it to me. But some kids don’t like the idea of moving around so it really just depends on your kid. If your kid is into theater or wants to do crew, JR is the way to go.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:As one who has a child a both Walls and J-R, I would add that the difference is not just Humanities vs STEM and sports. J-R has a ton of top-notch activities (e.g., the Beacon, robotics, model UN, mock trial, amazing theater programs, etc) that Walls can't provide (they have some but not as many and they are not of the same caliber.) Having said that, the calm nature of Walls is 100 percent better for my student who is there (the "chaos" of J-R would not have suited them, but for my J-R student it is a non issue and they love and take advantage of all of the opportunities). Both schools have issues with teacher vacancies and I think overall the quality of teaching is better at J-R, especially in the AP classes.

Mock trial, model UN, newspaper also exist at Walls and are pretty good.
Some of the sports coaches at Walls are good too. Love the athletic director.
Theater is not of the same calibre but music is good.
My kid has loved or at least liked most of his AP teachers at Walls - AP Physics, AP Calc BC, AP Lit, AP World History, AP US History, AP Chem, AP Human Geo.
AP language was not a good experience at Walls unfortunately. Love his counselor but no idea about the other counselors at Walls.

NP and thanks for this comment. It’s nice to see positive comments about STEM APs after several posts saying Walls isn’t strong in those subjects.

I don't think anyone said Walls is not strong in the STEM APs they offer...just that JR offers more STEM classes (6 Honors Engineering classes, 3 additional STEM APs, cybersecurity class)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Weighing in for JR. ... This year, the new principal while not amazing is solid and is trying to fix things.

Based on my experience, I have to disagree. Super meh principal, who cares a lot more about staying in the good graces of DCPS rather than developing bonds with students and teachers. I'm very unclear of the direction the school will be going in coming years. Fingers crossed that JR gets back on track.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Weighing in for JR. ... This year, the new principal while not amazing is solid and is trying to fix things.

Based on my experience, I have to disagree. Super meh principal, who cares a lot more about staying in the good graces of DCPS rather than developing bonds with students and teachers. I'm very unclear of the direction the school will be going in coming years. Fingers crossed that JR gets back on track.

I'm confused by the bolded. Why are they mutually exclusive? Doesn't a principal's job description include doing the bidding of their bosses and managing up?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Weighing in for JR. ... This year, the new principal while not amazing is solid and is trying to fix things.

Based on my experience, I have to disagree. Super meh principal, who cares a lot more about staying in the good graces of DCPS rather than developing bonds with students and teachers. I'm very unclear of the direction the school will be going in coming years. Fingers crossed that JR gets back on track.

I'm confused by the bolded. Why are they mutually exclusive? Doesn't a principal's job description include doing the bidding of their bosses and managing up?

NP and I’m not too familiar with the JR principal but in general principals that toe the line with DCPS and follow every order and directive are not good at their jobs. DCPS central office is just full of people creating new programs, data collection methods and meetings for teachers. A good principal can keep downtown appeased but allow their teachers the space to teach.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:How does Jackson Reed have such good outcomes if ninth and 10th grade are wasted there… What does that even mean

Parents supplement a lot. That’s what they don’t tell you. A whole lot

I don’t know who wrote this but it’s a huge generalization and not true for our family or any that I know at JR. - parent of a academically successful JR kid

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:How does Jackson Reed have such good outcomes if ninth and 10th grade are wasted there… What does that even mean

Parents supplement a lot. That’s what they don’t tell you. A whole lot

I don’t know who wrote this but it’s a huge generalization and not true for our family or any that I know at JR. - parent of a academically successful JR kid

Same, with two academically successful JR kids.

Honestly, who has the time? My kids both spend 10-15 hours a week doing ECs and a couple more doing volunteer work. A lot of their friends have jobs. I can’t figure out when all of this supplementing is happening….

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:How does Jackson Reed have such good outcomes if ninth and 10th grade are wasted there… What does that even mean

Parents supplement a lot. That’s what they don’t tell you. A whole lot

I don’t know who wrote this but it’s a huge generalization and not true for our family or any that I know at JR. - parent of a academically successful JR kid

Same, with two academically successful JR kids.

Honestly, who has the time? My kids both spend 10-15 hours a week doing ECs and a couple more doing volunteer work. A lot of their friends have jobs. I can’t figure out when all of this supplementing is happening….

We don't supplement either, but our 9th grader has been proactive about throwing themselves into lots of clubs and sports as well as looking for things on their own (Khan academy, online course, extra books) to learn the material that they need to get. If you child is unmotivated to learn, then I can see you having a problem depending on "your draw."

And by "your draw" I mean that for all of these schools (not just JR), some classes have really great teachers, some classes are missing teachers or have teachers on leave (hey, life happens), and some classes have teachers who are struggling more (they are new, their class management skills are not as strong, etc.). Moreover, the pandemic just hit a lot of kids hard in terms of learning (and other things). So at any school, your child is going to have a mix of experiences. How they handle that is a growth experience. But you want to try to take what you think you know about your child into account. If they are already struggling, how much uncertainty do you want to subject them to?

In our case, I haven't been thrilled with JR, but I also recognize that our child is still thriving in part through their own initiative and in part because of the still-good environment that they are in and opportunities that they have access to. And that developing that sort of initiative is probably worth more than anything the school could teach them formally.

[Anonymous]

What is the difference in workload at Walls and JR?