When my son was receiving very low marks on various things in math in Aspen, I had to send several emails, CC in the vice principal, then the principal for my son to get his work back marked up with what he got wrong, so that at the least we could look at it, see what he didn't understand, and learn.

+1

I think it's about how one sees one's role as a parent. I don't see it as letting my kids "figure out the chaos" at Deal and Jackson Reed, while they don't know what they might need for college and life success.

Or once the parent realizes, they can hire college counselors, or ship their kids to expensive summer programs to make up for the lack and oversight, while the kid was 'figuring things out."

For all those who figured it out on their own when they were in HS, good for you. I was also one of those myself, with immigrant parents who had no idea what to do. The issue now is that I am not an immigrant parent, with a child who is not me. DCPS under-resource, under-communication, under-organization, under-clarity then makes it hard for all parents -- any color, any SES. It's saying only those kids that are motivated and can figure out the chaos can make it. It doesn't put hard work, care, adn effort into the equation - of either the kid or parent.

My child is at Deal, and one thing I notice, is that non-consistency, confusion, lack of communication / clarity, is often explained away with "students need to learn to self-advocated and organize." I don't deny they need to learn this, and would have to in any public school. But it seems just too much. It seems there just aren't enough rescources to create clarity, consistency, etc. Just look at the difference between the website of JR and a high school in MoCo, Fairfax, Arlington. Also, I find, that as a parent, if you are trying to support your child -- either with organization, trying to help them develop montivation for challenge, etc -- the lack of communication/clarity puts you as the parent in a difficult position with nothing to "hold onto" to "grab onto." And this is not about being an overbearing parent, or about letting the kids figure it out or self-advocate. This is about, parents guiding children about the importance of school, until they are at the point of really understanding it themselves. For example, if I let my children "guide themselves" - they would eat sugary junk all day. Same thing with school - if I let my child guide themselves, they would try to do as little as possble. This is where I find the biggest difficult with DCPS's under resource, under communciation, under organization. That as a parent -- no matter what color - if you want to support your child until they can do it on their own, it is very very hard.

I find that it's not just with school staff that consider you "over the top" when you ask about academics with an eye towards what's needed for selective colleges. I find many parents are like that as well. Or, they're willing to talk to you one on one, but not with others in group. It's as if as soon as you want to be open about shooting for highly selective colleges, you must be an elistist, or racist, or not "cool and liberal" or an overbearing parent.

I understand the freshman course line-up for freshman at Jackson Reed is:
9th grade English Honors
World History Honors
Biology Honors
-whichever appropriate Math class they need
-whichever foreign language they choose
Health/PE
Art or music fundamentals
Elective(s)

What are the electives? I assume freshman take only one elective.

There's no info on website I'm aware of. I've been to two parent sessions this school year, and basic information like this isn't presented. So, I'm at DCUMs asking.

I have one child in 7th grade at Deal, another in a NW DC public elementary school (7th grader went there as well.)

The older the kids gets, the more important "peer cohort" is important, and more important it is for schools to differentiate with general ed, honors, etc. The less differentiation, the more kids are not served, those on the "lower" level and "higher" level.

Also, what I've found most important is that there is nothing for my kid to "reach" for. He is a middling student who cares and knows school is importnat, is compliant, but doesn't love school. But he has no "external" signalling system guiding him on what and how to do better. In other words, he's NOT in a general ed class, looking at the honors class, and saying "i want to do that." Also, there's nothing for me as a parent to say "this is what you need to do, to be in honors next year."

So there's no structure or system for us to "grab" onto, to figure out what to do. Also, from what I've observed, I think it hurts the school and the school system, bc it then they themselves are not disciplined / have no structure / system to provide the teaching, rigor, support needed for each level.

They did not talk about course selection.
Just the academies.
But here is one post from the info session tonight.

Jackson Reed - why do their public presentations not talk about APs?
https://www.dcurbanmom.com/jforum/posts/list/1124379.page

Thank you. This is helpful. What I don't get is why kids have to talk among themselves and figure it out (and I assume with help from college educated parents and college consultants.) It just seems there's a lack of the administration, staff, to guide the effort and keeping an eye on the selective college landscape.