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?

Anonymous wrote:OP. I think you can readily observe here that what happens on DCUM is that families move to the suburbs long before they have any knowledge or experience with JR - and then to justify that decision, they just assume that the real JR is as bad as the JR that they made up in their head.

Families with real-life experience with JR, are, on balance, happy with it. Honestly, I hear less carping from those families than I do from the families with kids in MoCo schools.

This. My kid graduated a couple of years ago, and it was really striking how many utterly fictional posts would come up on DCUM - posted by people who had clearly never set foot inside the school. It’s very odd.

OP. I think you can readily observe here that what happens on DCUM is that families move to the suburbs long before they have any knowledge or experience with JR - and then to justify that decision, they just assume that the real JR is as bad as the JR that they made up in their head.

Families with real-life experience with JR, are, on balance, happy with it. Honestly, I hear less carping from those families than I do from the families with kids in MoCo schools.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Real estate has changed. Too easy to move over the line and not do J-R in the same neighborhood.

This post is uncommonly nonsensical. Kudos.

PP means you can move to MD and go to a school other than J-R without changing your home neighborhood, your commute, your grocery store, your friends, etc.

Wait...I could have moved across Western Avenue to MD this whole time...why didn't anyone tell me!

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Real estate has changed. Too easy to move over the line and not do J-R in the same neighborhood.

This post is uncommonly nonsensical. Kudos.

PP means you can move to MD and go to a school other than J-R without changing your home neighborhood, your commute, your grocery store, your friends, etc.

Anonymous wrote:Real estate has changed. Too easy to move over the line and not do J-R in the same neighborhood.

This post is uncommonly nonsensical. Kudos.

my colleague has 2 JR recent grads who are really impressive. Another colleague regrets not sending to JR.

I think you have to decide why you are interested in buying in Upper NW DC...is it for access to the metro, walkability, etc.? If there are equally compelling reasons, I think you have to then research equivalent areas and their feeder schools. In MoCO, I think it is really BCC where you can live near shops, restaurants, metro, etc. I don't really know VA that well, so don't know what one would consider the equivalent.

BCC does not seem to get much love from the MoCo forums, but I don't really know why. I believe it is a large school...maybe close to 3,000 students.

Even as a relatively satisfied JR parent (one graduating this year and attending a Top10 college next year), if I was moving de nova into the area and had MS or HS kids and schools were the most important criteria...I would probably pick something in the Whitman boundary. I don't know how far East the Whitman boundary extends (possibly what you consider walkable to Bethesda?), but it is at least a fairly quick ride to Bethesda.

Back to JR...there is a new HS opening in Palisades in Fall 2023 (Macarthur HS) which should start alleviating some of the overcrowding at JR, though I think they are phasing in students over a couple of years. I suppose that is also a potential HS option as well.

Anonymous wrote:My hs junior has teachers in all her subjects. It’s fine.

That's a low bar.

No, Jackson Reed is very solid, and I say that as a parent of two recent grads. It's not perfect, there is some administrative chaos at almost all times, and you can find stuff to criticize if you want.

But big picture? The kids who go there are very happy and fulfilled. It really does seem to be the type of place where every kid finds their people. They go on to excellent colleges, and they are prepared when they get there.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:There’s a range of kids who go to J-R. Your kid will get a much more realistic view of the world than they would at Churchill or Whitman. They will be very prepared for college and exist outside a bubble.

Most of DCUM wants to exist inside the bubble. If you are this type, OP, don’t move into the JR boundary. Move to MoCo.

Give us a break. If we wanted to exist inside "the bubble" we wouldn't live in DC outside of Foxhall and Palisades. What we want are better public schools. Much better.

Anonymous wrote:Real estate has changed. Too easy to move over the line and not do J-R in the same neighborhood.

What does this mean? What is moving over the line? Do you mean to MoCo? 🤷‍♀️

OP, please listen to the actual parents on this thread as opposed to outsiders who are using coded racist language. I am not a JR parent but we know many, many happy JR kids, current and former, who all go on to amazing colleges and do well. These kids are smart, worldly, not entitled, and involved in all kinds of cool things at JR.

Real estate has changed. Too easy to move over the line and not do J-R in the same neighborhood.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:9th grade is the weakest year by far...rigor increases a lot after that. I can't compare it to anything else but we had one graduate last year and they are doing well at a Top 20 school; we have another who is there now.

Is the school overcrowded? Yes. Are there behavioral problems that you would expect with a very large high school with a sizeable number of kids coming from disadvantaged backgrounds? Yes. But there are a lot of very good teachers and great opportunities for kids who want to take advantage of them, as well as a sizeable cohort of motivated, very smart kids.

The cohort of smart kids advancing to JR is significantly declining. Lots of families are making other choices or leaving the dysfunctional system.

This is untrue.