Is Jackson Reed really that bad?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Reading this I have been never been so happy to be paying for a much maligned big 3 private! No teachers in classrooms for months?! Ok with no writing instruction? And whether you want to be truthful about it or not, Tenley is chaos after school. Maybe yeah, it’s kids being kids but I’m not going to that Target after school. And it’s black and white kids fwiw, but it’s also screaming, yelling, running through the stores and streets.

Why do you bother posting here? I truly don’t understand. I can’t fathom wasting my time in the private school forum, much less posting there. It’s bizarre.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Reading this I have been never been so happy to be paying for a much maligned big 3 private! No teachers in classrooms for months?! Ok with no writing instruction? And whether you want to be truthful about it or not, Tenley is chaos after school. Maybe yeah, it’s kids being kids but I’m not going to that Target after school. And it’s black and white kids fwiw, but it’s also screaming, yelling, running through the stores and streets.

Why do you bother posting here? I truly don’t understand. I can’t fathom wasting my time in the private school forum, much less posting there. It’s bizarre.

One of two possibilities:

1. They are trolls who are living some made up lifestyle on DCUM - sad.
2. They are mortgaging everything they have an putting their own retirement at risk and it is stressing their relationship and finances. They are desperate to prove to themselves that it is not a mistake so they read the DCPS forum and post to make themselves feel better and try and convince themselves it isn't a huge mistake - even sadder.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm a long-term DCPS parent who bailed from Deal for private for 9th for kids 1 and 2 and am really torn about kid number 3.
My concerns about JR which I see echoed by many parents:

-missing teachers. My understanding is that last year there was no physics teacher(s) (AP or otherwise) for an entire semester. The kids just sat in a room(s). This year my daughter's friend is missing a teachers in AP environmental science and AP psychology. She just sits in a room and has for months. I know that some parents are really chill about this but it would really bother me for a high schooler. We had this happen several times at Deal and I was okay with it then but this is high school! You don't learn physics what happens when you get to college and are in class with kids who had excellent instruction?

-really weak writing, humanities and foreign language instruction. My kids left Deal and with great grades but could barely write a critical essay and knew next to no foreign language. They hit private school and had their a$$es kicked for a good year in these subjects (as they wrote a collective 50 pages of essays across all subjects in 9th grade). Meanwhile, their JR friends continued on their trajectory of doing next to no writing, learning no foreign language and getting high As. I just can't reconcile this in my brain. I know that one does not need to be able to critique and analyze literature at a high level in most jobs OR do advanced Spanish grammar but it still bothers me. I know many kids who graduate JR and (in the words of another DCUM) "can't write their way out of a paper bag." I have a hard time being ok with this.

I simply cannot believe that any parent accepts any of this as OK.

The bar is really low in DC. Some people don’t realize that being in that bubble, some accept it and secretly supplement like crazy, while others are just in denial.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:And the students are not all getting 5s on APs. Far from it.

At what school are all the kids getting 5s on APs? The point is that there are plenty of classes that are challenging, many of which are in the social sciences and so have a decent amount of writing.

I would also emphasize the extracurricular opportunities that are academic in nature and that have a strong writing component--the Beacon, mock trial, and debate. Is this the same as mandatory writing requirements that you would get in a private school? No. But they are pretty intensive and the feedback kids get (from faculty advisors and their peers) is excellent.

The PP was referring to the JR kids getting accepted to the Top10 schools...not the general JR population.

Again, 60% of JR students on average score 3 or higher.

It is a small minority of JR students getting into the top 10 schools.
Why is this thread focusing on the top 5% of students. The top group of kids (maybe the top 30 students by GPA) would be fine anywhere.
What is JR like for the kid who is not able to handle a course load of 10+ APs. What options do they have. From what I have heard the non AP courses are fairly low level. It would be nice if the honors classes were actually honors

Only a handful of kids matriculate to T10 schools in any given year from Wilson-JR. Remove the crew recruits and the number is probably around 7 or 8 kids.

Yes, I obsessively track the IG and official YouTube videos, which have been comprehensive in recent years. There are a lot of fine schools in there -- Bates, Colby, Tulane and that ilk -- but these are not T10.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:And the students are not all getting 5s on APs. Far from it.

At what school are all the kids getting 5s on APs? The point is that there are plenty of classes that are challenging, many of which are in the social sciences and so have a decent amount of writing.

I would also emphasize the extracurricular opportunities that are academic in nature and that have a strong writing component--the Beacon, mock trial, and debate. Is this the same as mandatory writing requirements that you would get in a private school? No. But they are pretty intensive and the feedback kids get (from faculty advisors and their peers) is excellent.

The PP was referring to the JR kids getting accepted to the Top10 schools...not the general JR population.

Again, 60% of JR students on average score 3 or higher.

It is a small minority of JR students getting into the top 10 schools.
Why is this thread focusing on the top 5% of students. The top group of kids (maybe the top 30 students by GPA) would be fine anywhere.
What is JR like for the kid who is not able to handle a course load of 10+ APs. What options do they have. From what I have heard the non AP courses are fairly low level. It would be nice if the honors classes were actually honors

Only a handful of kids matriculate to T10 schools in any given year from Wilson-JR. Remove the crew recruits and the number is probably around 7 or 8 kids.

Yes, I obsessively track the IG and official YouTube videos, which have been comprehensive in recent years. There are a lot of fine schools in there -- Bates, Colby, Tulane and that ilk -- but these are not T10.

Ugh, you again. It doesn’t bother me that you’re so obsessed with this. It bothers me that you’re wrong and insist on being wrong repeatedly, all to denigrate the accomplishments of a bunch of kids.

This year through ED/EA alone there are Harvard, Brown, Cornell, and Northwestern admissions. I don’t know if those are all “T10” schools, but I do know that the students aren’t crew recruits. Not all of the admissions/attendance decisions end up on IG. (And please save your dignity and don’t tell us about how you’ve stalked their parents on LinkedIn so you know they’re all legacies. You creep.)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:And the students are not all getting 5s on APs. Far from it.

At what school are all the kids getting 5s on APs? The point is that there are plenty of classes that are challenging, many of which are in the social sciences and so have a decent amount of writing.

I would also emphasize the extracurricular opportunities that are academic in nature and that have a strong writing component--the Beacon, mock trial, and debate. Is this the same as mandatory writing requirements that you would get in a private school? No. But they are pretty intensive and the feedback kids get (from faculty advisors and their peers) is excellent.

The PP was referring to the JR kids getting accepted to the Top10 schools...not the general JR population.

Again, 60% of JR students on average score 3 or higher.

Omg get a life.

It is a small minority of JR students getting into the top 10 schools.
Why is this thread focusing on the top 5% of students. The top group of kids (maybe the top 30 students by GPA) would be fine anywhere.
What is JR like for the kid who is not able to handle a course load of 10+ APs. What options do they have. From what I have heard the non AP courses are fairly low level. It would be nice if the honors classes were actually honors

Only a handful of kids matriculate to T10 schools in any given year from Wilson-JR. Remove the crew recruits and the number is probably around 7 or 8 kids.

Yes, I obsessively track the IG and official YouTube videos, which have been comprehensive in recent years. There are a lot of fine schools in there -- Bates, Colby, Tulane and that ilk -- but these are not T10.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:And the students are not all getting 5s on APs. Far from it.

At what school are all the kids getting 5s on APs? The point is that there are plenty of classes that are challenging, many of which are in the social sciences and so have a decent amount of writing.

I would also emphasize the extracurricular opportunities that are academic in nature and that have a strong writing component--the Beacon, mock trial, and debate. Is this the same as mandatory writing requirements that you would get in a private school? No. But they are pretty intensive and the feedback kids get (from faculty advisors and their peers) is excellent.

The PP was referring to the JR kids getting accepted to the Top10 schools...not the general JR population.

Again, 60% of JR students on average score 3 or higher.

It is a small minority of JR students getting into the top 10 schools.
Why is this thread focusing on the top 5% of students. The top group of kids (maybe the top 30 students by GPA) would be fine anywhere.
What is JR like for the kid who is not able to handle a course load of 10+ APs. What options do they have. From what I have heard the non AP courses are fairly low level. It would be nice if the honors classes were actually honors

Only a handful of kids matriculate to T10 schools in any given year from Wilson-JR. Remove the crew recruits and the number is probably around 7 or 8 kids.

Yes, I obsessively track the IG and official YouTube videos, which have been comprehensive in recent years. There are a lot of fine schools in there -- Bates, Colby, Tulane and that ilk -- but these are not T10.

Useful research, brava, PP.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:And the students are not all getting 5s on APs. Far from it.

At what school are all the kids getting 5s on APs? The point is that there are plenty of classes that are challenging, many of which are in the social sciences and so have a decent amount of writing.

I would also emphasize the extracurricular opportunities that are academic in nature and that have a strong writing component--the Beacon, mock trial, and debate. Is this the same as mandatory writing requirements that you would get in a private school? No. But they are pretty intensive and the feedback kids get (from faculty advisors and their peers) is excellent.

The PP was referring to the JR kids getting accepted to the Top10 schools...not the general JR population.

Again, 60% of JR students on average score 3 or higher.

It is a small minority of JR students getting into the top 10 schools.
Why is this thread focusing on the top 5% of students. The top group of kids (maybe the top 30 students by GPA) would be fine anywhere.
What is JR like for the kid who is not able to handle a course load of 10+ APs. What options do they have. From what I have heard the non AP courses are fairly low level. It would be nice if the honors classes were actually honors

Only a handful of kids matriculate to T10 schools in any given year from Wilson-JR. Remove the crew recruits and the number is probably around 7 or 8 kids.

Yes, I obsessively track the IG and official YouTube videos, which have been comprehensive in recent years. There are a lot of fine schools in there -- Bates, Colby, Tulane and that ilk -- but these are not T10.

Ugh, you again. It doesn’t bother me that you’re so obsessed with this. It bothers me that you’re wrong and insist on being wrong repeatedly, all to denigrate the accomplishments of a bunch of kids.

This year through ED/EA alone there are Harvard, Brown, Cornell, and Northwestern admissions. I don’t know if those are all “T10” schools, but I do know that the students aren’t crew recruits. Not all of the admissions/attendance decisions end up on IG. (And please save your dignity and don’t tell us about how you’ve stalked their parents on LinkedIn so you know they’re all legacies. You creep.)

Add Princeton to this list...not an athlete.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:And the students are not all getting 5s on APs. Far from it.

At what school are all the kids getting 5s on APs? The point is that there are plenty of classes that are challenging, many of which are in the social sciences and so have a decent amount of writing.

I would also emphasize the extracurricular opportunities that are academic in nature and that have a strong writing component--the Beacon, mock trial, and debate. Is this the same as mandatory writing requirements that you would get in a private school? No. But they are pretty intensive and the feedback kids get (from faculty advisors and their peers) is excellent.

The PP was referring to the JR kids getting accepted to the Top10 schools...not the general JR population.

Again, 60% of JR students on average score 3 or higher.

It is a small minority of JR students getting into the top 10 schools.
Why is this thread focusing on the top 5% of students. The top group of kids (maybe the top 30 students by GPA) would be fine anywhere.
What is JR like for the kid who is not able to handle a course load of 10+ APs. What options do they have. From what I have heard the non AP courses are fairly low level. It would be nice if the honors classes were actually honors

Only a handful of kids matriculate to T10 schools in any given year from Wilson-JR. Remove the crew recruits and the number is probably around 7 or 8 kids.

Yes, I obsessively track the IG and official YouTube videos, which have been comprehensive in recent years. There are a lot of fine schools in there -- Bates, Colby, Tulane and that ilk -- but these are not T10.

Ugh, you again. It doesn’t bother me that you’re so obsessed with this. It bothers me that you’re wrong and insist on being wrong repeatedly, all to denigrate the accomplishments of a bunch of kids.

This year through ED/EA alone there are Harvard, Brown, Cornell, and Northwestern admissions. I don’t know if those are all “T10” schools, but I do know that the students aren’t crew recruits. Not all of the admissions/attendance decisions end up on IG. (And please save your dignity and don’t tell us about how you’ve stalked their parents on LinkedIn so you know they’re all legacies. You creep.)

Add Princeton to this list...not an athlete.

I know there are others who have gotten into top 10 (including Ivies) and top 15 schools this year who are not on IG. Some people are more private about these things. But seriously, if your complaint is that only a limited number of students from J-R get into the most selective schools in the country then you've lost me. These schools are very selective. College admissions is a very individual thing. Jackson-Reed is a large urban high school where about 30% of the students are considered "at risk" under DCPS standards. In my eyes they fight above their weight in terms of overall college outcomes.

It's clear that the haters are going to hate - and it always seems that on this forum, most of the haters chose to not send their kids to this school so they have no personal knowledge. Fine by me - the school is overcrowded as it is so if you don't want to send your student there, please don't.

[Anonymous]

Different poster here.
Since someone above has already insulted those of use who track JR college admissions I will add that the Brown admit is double legacy, Columbia is URM and football, Northwestern and Princeton are URM and most of Cornell are crew recruits.
Harvard is the only unhooked but one parent is a VIP so not sure if this factors.

Not a surprise because it's the same everywhere in the DMV.

I post this because parents on here act like JR is some sort of superhighway to top 20 colleges. Maybe it was to some degree 5 years ago. Not anymore and hasn't been for quite a few admissions cycles.
Sure, you'll be in to decent enough college but it's no longer the road to the Ivies for your AU Park kid.
Pretending that it is is just stupid.

[Anonymous]

1) Princeton is not URM (unless there is more than one).

2) This obsession with "top X" schools is gross and also misses the mark on the sociodemographic makeup of the school...a LOT of kids--including high achieving kids--at J-R do not come from families that can spend $80K/year on college. Many fall in the financial aid donut hole so may not qualify for financial aid. As a result, they are looking for merit and do not apply ED.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP - I recommend you spend some time in Tenlytown both before and after school. Talk with the folks who work in the businesses around the school. Or just sit on the bench by the library and observe. It will give you a good feel for the school.

What exactly will you learn about the school from observing how kids behave as soon as they're done with school for the day?

NP here. You learn a lot, insomuch as the behavior of the kids that attend the school. Im in Tenleytown most days around that time, and have been threatened routinely inside of my car, outside of my car, I watch kids smoking weed out in the open, screaming at eachother, running in packs from various police officers posted to keep behavior in check, the stress of the managers at Target over shoplifting, the stress and eye-rolling of the local businesses, kids sneaking in the backdoor of Wawa to get around the timed entry. The general manners of the portion of the student body observed (terrible). The drive-by shooting that took place outside. Its precisely BECAUSE of the observation of students outside of the building that I would never send my kids there, and I'm in the feeder pattern. I don't what we are going to do because we can't afford private, but understanding my own expectations for my kids and their behavior, being surrounded by what I see every day around J-R makes this school a non option. Maybe we move in bounds for MacArthur. There is nothing to do or mess with retail wise so maybe kids will just...go home?

WTAF! I’ve never been harassed when I’m in Tenley at that time. Not once in over a decade. Also, a Target employee told me they have everything locked up because of professional criminals who steal an entire row of detergent, not students. If you think there is a school in America that doesn’t have pot smoking kids, who jump around and are loud when together, you are delusional.

I have a JR grad at a top-25 college, who is thriving. I have one there now and I think the teaching staff has improved, or this kid has lucked out with teachers. The kids all seem to love it there.

I do think the PP was overly dramatic about the criminal behavior --- but I will say as a general statement, teenagers will always be teenagers (cue in a clip from dazed and confused) -- having a school across the street from commerce isn't ideal. If there was no where to go but home, they would go home.

[Anonymous]

So our of curiosity -- For current Deal/JR parents (my kids are in a feeder in upper elementary) --

1. Have you seen the schools improve since you have been there? aka does it seem to be trending for the better or worse?
2. I know JR is "overcrowded" but how many kids does it have now vs is capacity? Is the guess that JR will just go down 200 kids next year once McArthur opens or will they just have a increase in OOB kids they accept to fill the seats?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Different poster here.
Since someone above has already insulted those of use who track JR college admissions I will add that the Brown admit is double legacy, Columbia is URM and football, Northwestern and Princeton are URM and most of Cornell are crew recruits.
Harvard is the only unhooked but one parent is a VIP so not sure if this factors.

Not a surprise because it's the same everywhere in the DMV.

I post this because parents on here act like JR is some sort of superhighway to top 20 colleges. Maybe it was to some degree 5 years ago. Not anymore and hasn't been for quite a few admissions cycles.
Sure, you'll be in to decent enough college but it's no longer the road to the Ivies for your AU Park kid.
Pretending that it is is just stupid.

You are clearly obsessed. Why don't you track all the Big-3 top-10 college admits? Funny, I know of only one kid from there going to a top-10. The others are going to other good schools, just like the JR kids. While the Bib-3 admits to top-10 are clearly higher based on savvy counselors, insanely wealthy parents, and that the schools self-select students based on a standardized test, the vast majority are not going to top-10 schools. Get over it.

[Anonymous]

And, btw, nobody on here who actually sends their kids to JR is pretending.