+1. So be it if they are focusing on academies, but why? What are they doing in terms of educational purposes? And then, how does this feed into academic excellence, achievement, college application / selection, APs, etc. Can all this be tied together coherently?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Deal sounds like a disaster.

It is not a disaster. I like the principal. But I do wish the academic standards were a bit higher.
My kids coasted at Deal. Then 9th grade at JR was even easier than 8th grade at Deal. Very frustrating.
Rigor comes in at JR only with APs unfortunately. I know private schools don’t like APs but I’m not sure how JR would manage without them.

OP here: And thus why, I started this thread and asked why Jackson Reed's presentations don't present / barely present about APs.

From what I've picked up, APs have become the "anchor" for academic rigor across US public high schools, since colleges can't "trust" grades (as much as they used to?) because of grade inflation - for whatever reasons, to hide the acievement gap or to keep selective college bound kids/parents happy. Well then, so be it - that's another debate. But then, why doesn't Jackson Reed present on APs?

Why the focus on academies almost exclusively?

Hearst is a small, neighborhood school, if that's what you're looking for. 2 classes per grade. Many inzone. Some out of zone that seem to get off lottery, or, it seems there is some sort of DCPS program to place students at Hearst for diversity. We walk to and from school, along the way parents run into each other, get to know each other, build community, hang out after drop off and pick up to chat. It's very parent heavy (not nanny heavy, which I hear is the case with some of the other local elementary school.)

Now older, my kids walk to and from school on their own. After school they self release, play in the playground, then walk home. I don't need to continually set up playdates and drive them. They go on weekends to Hearst field and playground to play pickup soccer, basketball, playground, with high chance of running into others. it has become their "center" -- a place of safety, fun, belonging, being known and knowing others. One child is now in 7th at local middle school, the other in 4th. Middle school may not be working out for us, so we may move. But our lives have been super enrichened -- friends, memories, community, independence - for the years we were at Hearst. If I had to re-do, I would definitely do our "lives at Hearst". I'm now onto figuring out lives for middle and high school

Kids have to write a long paper in every IB class? 14 page paper for every class?

I'm sure many parts of DCPS and staff and teachers of DCPS are well intentioned and doing their best -- it just seems so under-resourced, and focused / distracted about other issues and not academic excellence and achievement.

Do IB exams do that -- have to write several pages within a few hours? That sounds awful.

To the poster that wrote: "Ok so you did the same thing except by demanding an in-person meeting, and that makes you superior? Also of course failure to provide feedback hurts a child’s ability to succeed. I’m not at all sure what you are trying to say."

You are weird and not constructive.

At last night's session, I think they said that the CompSci academy is the only one with AP in its course requirements/sequencing, and a kid can tak AP Comp Sci ONLY if they are in the academy.

+1. Bingo

What kind of paper is required for IB math? 3000-5000 words is more than an essay, that's a 14-ish page paper.

Not all teachers are like this. My son's science teacher is outstanding with return work marked up in a timely manner. His english and social studies teacher also return work with comment. Again, it's the brazen inconsistency, in the name of self-advocacy.

Again, I think some parents and staff justify under-communication, organization, consistency, as kids needing to learn to self-advocate. But yet, in the rest of our adult lives, we like some level of clear communcation, consistency, clarity, etc.

Math teacher did not return work to any of the children. My child had asked him for his. The math teacher didn't return. In the math teacher's first reply to me via email, he said he doesn't bother returning work because kids throw it away or step on it. In his second reply to me via email, he said my child would have to find him during Advisory to get it. I asked a simple question - why can he not return marked up work to my kid in class. I asked another parent who has a child in the class, and she has never seen marked up return work. I think he didn't want to return it in class, so other kids wouldn't see that my kid got back his work marked up, and ask for theirs as well.

One of the things I like about IB diploma is that it requires the extended essay, a 4,000 word self-directed independent research. Is there any AP class, or anything in the AP program that has something similar? Thank you.

And, I've had to do the same with the Spanish teacher.