Last year's Third Grade at Janney. 30 kids in a class = only 53% proficient in English.

[Anonymous]

The slacking third graders are fall 2006 and spring/summer 2007

[Anonymous]

or is it the boys who were red shirted?

[Anonymous]

I blame Kaya. And Obama.

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:ugh, after just spending 1.4 on a home IB for Janney I have to say I am having 2nd thoughts. My wife and I want to be part of the resurgence of DC public schools but if they can't do better at one of their flag ship schools it leaves me with little faith.

Have to think they get rid of PK4 next year to get class sizes down at Janney. The 2014 boundary revision (or lack thereof) was a disaster for that school.

I do think that taking out one PK 4 class might be prudent, but FWIW my child's K class has 19 kids and 1st ranges from 19-22. Current 2nd grade and 4th grade seem to be the balloon years.

Yup - Kindergarten at Janney only has 99 students which is down 30 from the number that the current 4th grade class started with and someone told me pre-K took the most non siblings of the last 4 years.

FWIW our DC was in 3rd grade last year at Janney and we (and everyone else we know for that matter) had no concerns about their instruction.

I know a lot of parents who were not happy.

I'm a new poster. My DC was in 3rd grade last year at Janney. DC was thriving. I cannot care less about the test.

He/she just can't take standardized tests unlike his peers elsewhere in upper NW.

Lol no, I don't know yet which scores DC got, but DC writes very well, likes to draw, plays three musical instruments and is doing Kumon 5th grade level math. DC also reads quite a bit. So I know DC is doing very well indeed, regardless of PARCC scores!

And if your DS is one of the 30% who are proficient, great. (I realize you don't know yet, but in particular if your child, who obviously gets after-schooled, is one who did well, that's not a great result for the shcool.). What about the other 60-70% of his male classmates?

Maybe large classes are really bad for 8 and 9 year old boys in particular?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:ugh, after just spending 1.4 on a home IB for Janney I have to say I am having 2nd thoughts. My wife and I want to be part of the resurgence of DC public schools but if they can't do better at one of their flag ship schools it leaves me with little faith.

Have to think they get rid of PK4 next year to get class sizes down at Janney. The 2014 boundary revision (or lack thereof) was a disaster for that school.

I do think that taking out one PK 4 class might be prudent, but FWIW my child's K class has 19 kids and 1st ranges from 19-22. Current 2nd grade and 4th grade seem to be the balloon years.

Yup - Kindergarten at Janney only has 99 students which is down 30 from the number that the current 4th grade class started with and someone told me pre-K took the most non siblings of the last 4 years.

FWIW our DC was in 3rd grade last year at Janney and we (and everyone else we know for that matter) had no concerns about their instruction.

I know a lot of parents who were not happy.

I'm a new poster. My DC was in 3rd grade last year at Janney. DC was thriving. I cannot care less about the test.

He/she just can't take standardized tests unlike his peers elsewhere in upper NW.

Lol no, I don't know yet which scores DC got, but DC writes very well, likes to draw, plays three musical instruments and is doing Kumon 5th grade level math. DC also reads quite a bit. So I know DC is doing very well indeed, regardless of PARCC scores!

Well of course your child is "thriving". Your'e doing hard core academic supplementation outside of school (which I consider Kumon to be).
His/her thriving probably has very little correlation with what is or isn't being taught at Janney. The fact that 47% of the third grade is testing below grade level does.

[Anonymous]

I don't want my child to have to do KUMON to thrive or even test at grade level. That should be Janney's job in the classroom.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I don't want my child to have to do KUMON to thrive or even test at grade level. That should be Janney's job in the classroom.

You realize this is public education, right?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don't want my child to have to do KUMON to thrive or even test at grade level. That should be Janney's job in the classroom.

You realize this is public education, right?

I hear what you're saying but as taxpayers and parents, we should expect more. After all, the word "education" is part of "public education."

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I don't want my child to have to do KUMON to thrive or even test at grade level. That should be Janney's job in the classroom.

Well, I don't mind supplementing and would even if DC were going to one of the best scoring ES of the region.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My DS will be at Janney next year (depending on the lottery) or the following year (when he'll be K) and this concerns me a little. I agree, one grade one year is nothing to get all up in arms about, but if this becomes a larger pattern, I may consider going private.

The thing that is concerning (as a Janney parent) is that other ward 3 school managed to get their students to test well.
And i know that they're not "teaching to the test" anymore than Janney is.

This is I think a very good point. No ward 3 school spent gobs of time teaching to the test that I have heard.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My DS will be at Janney next year (depending on the lottery) or the following year (when he'll be K) and this concerns me a little. I agree, one grade one year is nothing to get all up in arms about, but if this becomes a larger pattern, I may consider going private.

The thing that is concerning (as a Janney parent) is that other ward 3 school managed to get their students to test well.
And i know that they're not "teaching to the test" anymore than Janney is.

This is I think a very good point. No ward 3 school spent gobs of time teaching to the test that I have heard.

But did they spend time teaching typing skills? Janney did not. That may be part of the problem.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My DS will be at Janney next year (depending on the lottery) or the following year (when he'll be K) and this concerns me a little. I agree, one grade one year is nothing to get all up in arms about, but if this becomes a larger pattern, I may consider going private.

The thing that is concerning (as a Janney parent) is that other ward 3 school managed to get their students to test well.
And i know that they're not "teaching to the test" anymore than Janney is.

This is I think a very good point. No ward 3 school spent gobs of time teaching to the test that I have heard.

But did they spend time teaching typing skills? Janney did not. That may be part of the problem.

Third graders at Janney were taught keyboarding in digital communications in both second and third grade. I just asked my child.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My DS will be at Janney next year (depending on the lottery) or the following year (when he'll be K) and this concerns me a little. I agree, one grade one year is nothing to get all up in arms about, but if this becomes a larger pattern, I may consider going private.

The thing that is concerning (as a Janney parent) is that other ward 3 school managed to get their students to test well.
And i know that they're not "teaching to the test" anymore than Janney is.

This is I think a very good point. No ward 3 school spent gobs of time teaching to the test that I have heard.

But did they spend time teaching typing skills? Janney did not. That may be part of the problem.

Third graders at Janney were taught keyboarding in digital communications in both second and third grade. I just asked my child.

I know that they covered it a little bit in digital communications, but not enough to make them proficient.

[Anonymous]

This isn't the answer folks - the girls at Janney did fine. They had the same exposure to keyboarding as the boys.

Let it go. Next year will probably be different - and if not you have plenty of time to get into private schools.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I suspect you are not going to get much sympathy here, OP, when lots of other schools aren't anywhere near 53%.

This is what liberal America has been pushing for years. Congratulations for the success! Thank God my children are out of this mess.