Here are a variety of ways to directly access specific row/columns and change their values. They are all documented in the Scripting Guide.
Help==>Documentation Library
names default to here(1);
dt=open("$SAMPLE_DATA/big class.jmp");
:height[2] = 99;
dt[4,4]=88;
column(dt, "Height")[6] = 44;
:height[dt<<get rows where(:age == 13)] = 21;
:height[16::20] = 34;
Jim