Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:And the students are not all getting 5s on APs. Far from it.

At what school are all the kids getting 5s on APs? The point is that there are plenty of classes that are challenging, many of which are in the social sciences and so have a decent amount of writing.

I would also emphasize the extracurricular opportunities that are academic in nature and that have a strong writing component--the Beacon, mock trial, and debate. Is this the same as mandatory writing requirements that you would get in a private school? No. But they are pretty intensive and the feedback kids get (from faculty advisors and their peers) is excellent.

Anonymous wrote:And the students are not all getting 5s on APs. Far from it.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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.

Perhaps. But which college?

Same college they would have gone to from literally any school, public or private. The high school does not influence the college choices as much as people on here seem to think. That kid going to Harvard or MIT will get there from anywhere because it isn't what happened in high school that got them there in the first place.

It's not a matter of getting in; the post I was referring to stated that these kids are "very prepared" for college. There is a big difference in excelling at Harvard or MIT, versus excelling at State U.

I am not convinced that students who have such weak instruction in writing and languages will excel at top schools, at least initially. They will almost certainly be behind kids from other schools, who have had writing skills drilled into them. I am seeing that now with my college freshman who went to a local private. He has been told by more than one teacher this year that they can "tell he went to a good high school," simply because his writing skills are better than they often see.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm a long-term DCPS parent who bailed from Deal for private for 9th for kids 1 and 2 and am really torn about kid number 3.
My concerns about JR which I see echoed by many parents:

-missing teachers. My understanding is that last year there was no physics teacher(s) (AP or otherwise) for an entire semester. The kids just sat in a room(s). This year my daughter's friend is missing a teachers in AP environmental science and AP psychology. She just sits in a room and has for months. I know that some parents are really chill about this but it would really bother me for a high schooler. We had this happen several times at Deal and I was okay with it then but this is high school! You don't learn physics what happens when you get to college and are in class with kids who had excellent instruction?

-really weak writing, humanities and foreign language instruction. My kids left Deal and with great grades but could barely write a critical essay and knew next to no foreign language. They hit private school and had their a$$es kicked for a good year in these subjects (as they wrote a collective 50 pages of essays across all subjects in 9th grade). Meanwhile, their JR friends continued on their trajectory of doing next to no writing, learning no foreign language and getting high As. I just can't reconcile this in my brain. I know that one does not need to be able to critique and analyze literature at a high level in most jobs OR do advanced Spanish grammar but it still bothers me. I know many kids who graduate JR and (in the words of another DCUM) "can't write their way out of a paper bag." I have a hard time being ok with this.

I simply cannot believe that any parent accepts any of this as OK.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm a long-term DCPS parent who bailed from Deal for private for 9th for kids 1 and 2 and am really torn about kid number 3.
My concerns about JR which I see echoed by many parents:

-missing teachers. My understanding is that last year there was no physics teacher(s) (AP or otherwise) for an entire semester. The kids just sat in a room(s). This year my daughter's friend is missing a teachers in AP environmental science and AP psychology. She just sits in a room and has for months. I know that some parents are really chill about this but it would really bother me for a high schooler. We had this happen several times in at Deal and I was okay with it then but this is high school! You don't learn physics what happens when you get to college and are in class with kids who had excellent instruction?

-really weak writing, humanities and foreign language instruction. My kids left Deal and with great grades but could barely write a critical essay and knew next to no foreign language. They hit private school and had their a$$es kicked for a good year in these subjects (as they wrote a collective 50 pages of essays across all subjects in 9th grade). Meanwhile, their JR friends continued on their trajectory of doing next to no writing, learning no foreign language and getting high As. I just can't reconcile this in my brain. I know that one does not need to be able to critique and analyze literature at a high level in most jobs OR do advanced Spanish grammar but it still bothers me. I know many kids who graduate JR and (in the words of another DCUM) "can't write their way out of a paper bag." I have a hard time being ok with this.

I simply cannot believe that any parent accepts any of this as OK.

Anonymous wrote:

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.

Perhaps. But which college?

Same college they would have gone to from literally any school, public or private. The high school does not influence the college choices as much as people on here seem to think. That kid going to Harvard or MIT will get there from anywhere because it isn't what happened in high school that got them there in the first place.

Anonymous wrote:I'm a long-term DCPS parent who bailed from Deal for private for 9th for kids 1 and 2 and am really torn about kid number 3.
My concerns about JR which I see echoed by many parents:

-missing teachers. My understanding is that last year there was no physics teacher(s) (AP or otherwise) for an entire semester. The kids just sat in a room(s). This year my daughter's friend is missing a teachers in AP environmental science and AP psychology. She just sits in a room and has for months. I know that some parents are really chill about this but it would really bother me for a high schooler. We had this happen several times at Deal and I was okay with it then but this is high school! You don't learn physics what happens when you get to college and are in class with kids who had excellent instruction?

-really weak writing, humanities and foreign language instruction. My kids left Deal and with great grades but could barely write a critical essay and knew next to no foreign language. They hit private school and had their a$$es kicked for a good year in these subjects (as they wrote a collective 50 pages of essays across all subjects in 9th grade). Meanwhile, their JR friends continued on their trajectory of doing next to no writing, learning no foreign language and getting high As. I just can't reconcile this in my brain. I know that one does not need to be able to critique and analyze literature at a high level in most jobs OR do advanced Spanish grammar but it still bothers me. I know many kids who graduate JR and (in the words of another DCUM) "can't write their way out of a paper bag." I have a hard time being ok with this.

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.

Perhaps. But which college?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It is absolutely true that either Wilson or maybe even Deal kids shoplift in Tenley after school. I have been in the CVS when it happens. It is absolutely true that kids smoke weed pretty much in front of the police officers stationed there to keep them under control. I have seen it and my Deal son reports it. It is absolutely true that core teachers go missing.

Will this and other chaos affect your child? Good question. You will have no idea until they get to Deal or JRR. It did for mine, and no one would have ever guessed it. We are figuring it out, but knowing what I know now, I never ever would have let my child go into Deal/JRR.

This is a good perspective. JR chaos may or may not affect your kid. You might luck out with mostly good teachers or you may end up with a sucky schedule.
Fights in the hallway may not bother your kid or perhaps they will find it a frustrating environment.
For high achieving self motivated kids who want to load up on AP classes, it is probably fine.
For others, who don’t want a ton of APs, it is meh.

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.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I may be wrong but JR appears to be more mentally healthy than the MoCo schools. You don’t hear about high stress, depression, suicide. I wonder if the greater diversity and freedom of the school and comparatively less academic emphasis, is better for teens? Even just the ability to take Metro instead of getting loaded onto school buses.

This is why we’re sticking with DCPS instead of moving to MOCO. I struggled with my mental health as a young adult and do not want to put my kids in an environment that exacerbates it. I’m just not going to send burnt out teenagers to college to sink or swim. If you had kids that weren’t JR AP material, then maybe it would be a different decision. But even then I’d be looking for a well rounded school that isn’t a W.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It is absolutely true that either Wilson or maybe even Deal kids shoplift in Tenley after school. I have been in the CVS when it happens. It is absolutely true that kids smoke weed pretty much in front of the police officers stationed there to keep them under control. I have seen it and my Deal son reports it. It is absolutely true that core teachers go missing.

Will this and other chaos affect your child? Good question. You will have no idea until they get to Deal or JRR. It did for mine, and no one would have ever guessed it. We are figuring it out, but knowing what I know now, I never ever would have let my child go into Deal/JRR.

This is a good perspective. JR chaos may or may not affect your kid. You might luck out with mostly good teachers or you may end up with a sucky schedule.
Fights in the hallway may not bother your kid or perhaps they will find it a frustrating environment.
For high achieving self motivated kids who want to load up on AP classes, it is probably fine.
For others, who don’t want a ton of APs, it is meh.