Right, you care, but very few other J-R stakeholders must. The stakeholders include J-R parents, IB homeowners, DC ed leaders, Ferebee, Bowser, the city council members. Now in Fairfax and Arlington, many parents and ed leaders must care because, traditionally, roughly one-third of TJ students have been PSAT/NMSQT Semifinalists annually.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Six, eight, ten years ago, Walls routinely produced 4, 5 even half a dozen National Merit Scholarship semifinalists annually. Here in the 2020s, there are zero some years.

So, here is the list of schools in DC and number of 2023 NMSFs:

Maret - 1
JR - 1
NCS - 2
STA - 3
GDS - 4
Sidwell -5
Walls - 6 (I am not NMSF...but I think that is 1/2 a dozen)

Look at the Presidential Scholars as well which is based primarily on SAT Scores and Walls has the most in DC.



Why do people post demonstrably false information?

This is a terrible look for JR! That school has nearly 5 times the number of students as Walls and it only produced ONE (1) NMSF?!?

Sad.

How is it a terrible look for JR but not Maret or NCS? Number of kids that attend is irrelevant when you have schools with cultivated student bodies. I am not saying it couldn’t be better…but terrible? Also, JR is about 3.3x larger.

JR graduates over 450 seniors a year, many from high SES familes in NW. Only 1 NMSF isnt a good loook.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Academies have become popular as a way to create smaller learning communities within a larger school. They also are supposed to help kids connect the dots between school and actual careers. They have had mixed success in DCPS.

Academies are pseudo vocational tracks. That is why they are rigid and there are no AP courses in many.

The focus at JR is shifting from a school to prepare kids for college to a school to help lower achieving kids to find careers, many of which do not need college.

I am not a huge JR fan but I don’t agree with this. Academies are a popular HS model with mixed success. They can work just fine for college bound kids and vocational kids. I do believe that DCPS spends way too much money on academies with multiple academy directors at JR + $$ for the NAF branding + extra money for academy events + field trips. Core classes could benefit from this amount of funding. Or they could use the academy money to fund more teachers so class sizes would be smaller. DCPS does not use money efficiently and they never do a cost benefit analysis unfortunately

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Academies have become popular as a way to create smaller learning communities within a larger school. They also are supposed to help kids connect the dots between school and actual careers. They have had mixed success in DCPS.

Academies are pseudo vocational tracks. That is why they are rigid and there are no AP courses in many.

The focus at JR is shifting from a school to prepare kids for college to a school to help lower achieving kids to find careers, many of which do not need college.

AP courses are set by the College Board. It is not as though a school can just offer AP Engineering or AP Biomedicine. JR offers every math and science AP that college board offers. Are you saying that they should require kids to take AP Physics or AP Chem in order to graduate from the Scimatech academy? No surprise, that most do so on their own.

We paid for writing tutors and summer camps for a J-R athlete bound for an elite SLAC. Admissions shouldn't be the main concern! Your kid obviously has to be able to write well to thrive in a competitive college.

Anonymous wrote:OK, but would DCPS furnished writing instruction get an above average high school senior who isn't particularly a self-starter academically but might have a "hook" at elite colleges (sport, legacy, music)? The terrain doesn't sound all that promising unless the family pays for the writing support.

I can’t comment on the football and crew recruits (6 are going to Ivy League schools between Cornell and Columbia)…I doubt they are paying for any writing support, but no idea. The legacy kids are also top performers academically, so again, don’t think they are paying for this.

Other than Princeton, I am not aware of any other top college that needs to see your actual HS writing as part of the application…I guess they are making assumptions based on your essays

OK, but would DCPS furnished writing instruction get an above average high school senior who isn't particularly a self-starter academically but might have a "hook" at elite colleges (sport, legacy, music)? The terrain doesn't sound all that promising unless the family pays for the writing support.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Transplant_1 wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Yes, the academies are essentially a joke. They seem to exist to give false hope of academic excellence to middle school families considering leaving DCPS for good. But higher level AP math and science offer real rigor at J-R.

From the one tour I took, it seemed like the academies is a way to keep hope / on-track kids that may not do well in school - to create a community of like-minded kids to support each other. Most of the tour guides were from the hospitatlity track, and that is what I picked up. And I'm glad that is there, and seems like a good thing. But, what about for preparing for highly selective colleges - esp. the writing skills needed.

There are some fine writing teachers at J-R, and a minority that hardly gives a darn. Writing instruction is hit and miss in DCPS high schools, including at the AP level. The J-R academies are neither here nor there where writing instruction goes. It's not unusual for parents shooting for highly selective colleges to pay for weekly writing tutors and/or to enroll kids in summer writing camps etc. If you want serious writing you pay the tutors, move to the burbs, or pay for a private/parochial. Best to face reality early and get on with it.

Honestly, the JR kids that are going to the top schools are the least likely to need writing tutors or attend writing summer camps. These kids are debate champs, editors of The Beacon student newspaper, etc where they are writing all the time. They also come from well educated households.

Agree with this. These kids are not your average A students; they all have found ways within school to learn to write and demonstrate to colleges that they can write. It's almost to a person.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Academies have become popular as a way to create smaller learning communities within a larger school. They also are supposed to help kids connect the dots between school and actual careers. They have had mixed success in DCPS.

Academies are pseudo vocational tracks. That is why they are rigid and there are no AP courses in many.

The focus at JR is shifting from a school to prepare kids for college to a school to help lower achieving kids to find careers, many of which do not need college.

This comment is just detached from reality.

Anonymous wrote:Academies have become popular as a way to create smaller learning communities within a larger school. They also are supposed to help kids connect the dots between school and actual careers. They have had mixed success in DCPS.

Academies are pseudo vocational tracks. That is why they are rigid and there are no AP courses in many.

The focus at JR is shifting from a school to prepare kids for college to a school to help lower achieving kids to find careers, many of which do not need college.

Anonymous wrote:I would've been OK with Walls pre Covid, under the sharp, dynamic previous head, when an entrance exam was used to screen students and applicants had to submit a standardized test score (PARCC, PSAT, SAT). Post Covid, Walls obviously isn't the school it used to be. Neighbors and friends with sophomore, juniors and seniors describe serious problems like no subs, weak ad hoc humanities instruction (whatever individual teachers want it to be) and teachers quitting mid-year and not being replaced until the fall. We rejected our Walls offer for a private this spring.

No one has quit mid year at Walls since maybe 2017. And that person had medical reasons to leave. Walls has way more subs than most schools. Some other poster wrote how there was no U.S. history teacher for weeks- absolutely not true. Walls is not perfect but you spreading these lies says more about you than the teachers at that school.

Anonymous wrote:

Transplant_1 wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Yes, the academies are essentially a joke. They seem to exist to give false hope of academic excellence to middle school families considering leaving DCPS for good. But higher level AP math and science offer real rigor at J-R.

From the one tour I took, it seemed like the academies is a way to keep hope / on-track kids that may not do well in school - to create a community of like-minded kids to support each other. Most of the tour guides were from the hospitatlity track, and that is what I picked up. And I'm glad that is there, and seems like a good thing. But, what about for preparing for highly selective colleges - esp. the writing skills needed.

There are some fine writing teachers at J-R, and a minority that hardly gives a darn. Writing instruction is hit and miss in DCPS high schools, including at the AP level. The J-R academies are neither here nor there where writing instruction goes. It's not unusual for parents shooting for highly selective colleges to pay for weekly writing tutors and/or to enroll kids in summer writing camps etc. If you want serious writing you pay the tutors, move to the burbs, or pay for a private/parochial. Best to face reality early and get on with it.

Honestly, the JR kids that are going to the top schools are the least likely to need writing tutors or attend writing summer camps. These kids are debate champs, editors of The Beacon student newspaper, etc where they are writing all the time. They also come from well educated households.

Transplant_1 wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Yes, the academies are essentially a joke. They seem to exist to give false hope of academic excellence to middle school families considering leaving DCPS for good. But higher level AP math and science offer real rigor at J-R.

From the one tour I took, it seemed like the academies is a way to keep hope / on-track kids that may not do well in school - to create a community of like-minded kids to support each other. Most of the tour guides were from the hospitatlity track, and that is what I picked up. And I'm glad that is there, and seems like a good thing. But, what about for preparing for highly selective colleges - esp. the writing skills needed.

There are some fine writing teachers at J-R, and a minority that hardly gives a darn. Writing instruction is hit and miss in DCPS high schools, including at the AP level. The J-R academies are neither here nor there where writing instruction goes. It's not unusual for parents shooting for highly selective colleges to pay for weekly writing tutors and/or to enroll kids in summer writing camps etc. If you want serious writing you pay the tutors, move to the burbs, or pay for a private/parochial. Best to face reality early and get on with it.

Academies have become popular as a way to create smaller learning communities within a larger school. They also are supposed to help kids connect the dots between school and actual careers. They have had mixed success in DCPS.

Anonymous wrote:Yes, the academies are essentially a joke. They seem to exist to give false hope of academic excellence to middle school families considering leaving DCPS for good. But higher level AP math and science offer real rigor at J-R.

From the one tour I took, it seemed like the academies is a way to keep hope / on-track kids that may not do well in school - to create a community of like-minded kids to support each other. Most of the tour guides were from the hospitatlity track, and that is what I picked up. And I'm glad that is there, and seems like a good thing. But, what about for preparing for highly selective colleges - esp. the writing skills needed.