<p>I agree with much of what has been said above. I think the number one thing that private schools are doing is that they expect more from every student, and no one gets lost in the shuffle. The super smart, highly motivated, social kids can do well anywhere, and a highly rated public may be just fine for them, but some kids might fall by the wayside or choose to be less challenged in public school.</p>
<p>There are many non-academic benefits to private schools some of which have been noted above. In my own experience, there seems to be less bullying, and more tolerance, and our private school than at the local public school. There is much more acceptance of diversity, in terms of race and sexual orientation. Many private schools also see it as their mission to instill religious and/or moral values in their students, which public schools by law can’t do.</p>
<p>both my kids did public up through freshman year in high school. (we happen to live in a top school district, so the teachers are really great, for the most part.)</p>
<p>After that, both went to private school, one because she just wasn’t doing her work and we were sick of fighting about it, the other because she was sick of living here and wanted to get to a place with kids who hadn’t known her when she was in 7th grade and couldn’t read. </p>
<p>The one has become a stellar student now that we aren’t there to hassle her about it. Suddenly SHE cares.</p>
<p>The other got the opportunity to just start over as the kid she had become.</p>
<p>Which goes to what I think private schools can do that publics cannot, which is to tailor the experience for the student rather than vice-versa. For certain kids, I don’t think it would make one bit of difference, given a good public. (Though I will say any school that is too big creates scarcity before it is necessary, imho, and some kids just won’t develop all of their talents.). For some kids? I think it can make all the difference.</p>
<p>Unfortunately, for the kids who I think it would make the MOST difference, those who live in poverty, it’s not an option, and nobody would benefit more from smaller classrooms, imho, and less homework. YMMV</p>
<p>I think it’s a nonsensical question, since “public” covers everything from New Trier down to the public high in the 'hood, and “private” covers everything from Exeter down to the many private / parochial schools that don’t offer anything special compared to their surrounding publics. Plenty of private schools are no big deal.</p>
<p>Any private isn’t “better” than any public. Also, any kid won’t necessarily “benefit” from every school. I can think of at least two kids who would not have done well at Exeter. ;)</p>
<p>Although my children do not go to private schools, they have done very well and one was just accepted into a top university. She has friends who go to a private school and I hear from them that many of their classmates are extremely entitled and not very invested in their education. They are also heavy partiers and high risk takers.</p>
<p>I moved my daughter from private to public in 4th grade. I found the better teachers to be in the public schools - at least in the ones in my neighborhood. I picked the neighborhood because of the schools though. The core curriculum was identical. She went to a magnet high school that offered opportunities she would have never had in private school.</p>
<p>Private and boarding for our family. Different reasons for each kid. Our public schools were horrible. They tried, but the cards were so stacked against them that we simply weren’t going to be part of the improvement project. I think the environments at my kids’ 2 very different boarding schools were simply wonderful in every way- socially, academically, athletically ( at one of them- not at Interlochen :). I’m grateful we were able to do this for our kids.</p>
<p>My niece and nephew attended a top suburban high school and the education was pretty weak. Niece took some classes at Ursuline, which helped, but nephew ( took enough CC classes to graduate from college a year early) has horrible reading and writing skills. I am not impressed. I know there are great public schools and some advantages, but I would not have made any other choice for my kids.</p>
<p>Private schools have higher expectations not only for their students but also of their teachers. Being able to replace non-performing teachers is a big plus.</p>
<p>As long as this is the sweeping generalizations thread, let’s just stop tiptoeing around the elephant in the room. This private schools and those “good publics” are, with very few exceptions, only for those who can afford them–or who can afford to move into the “right” neighborhoods. </p>
<p>And when we’re talking about getting into highly selective schools, exactly what is the advantage? We all know very successful people who graduated from state u, maybe even started out at a cc. The advantage is the folks your kids will be rubbing shoulders with. Yes some low income kids go to these places, but if we look at the percentage of pell eligible students, we see it’s not too many. </p>
<p>So, the advantage is there, probably, in terms of prep/readiness for top schools. And as long as one’s goal is to integrate and move into elite circles, it is, perhaps, the only advantage that matters.</p>
<p>I attended a jesuit prep school that was generally considered one of the top academic & athletic schools in our state (most people refered to it as a mini Stanford due to the emphasis on academics and athletics)…the things that our school did that was better than the top public schools in the state:</p>
<ul>
<li>Faculty: The faculty at my school was generally more prepared academically (50%+ had PhDs, 100% had at least 1 advanced degree) than those in public schools and therefore knew quite well the requirements of a college class involved which helped better prepare students for the realities of college-level work (i.e. less busy work, more innovative assignments, harder courses, more focus on writing, more work in each class, etc.)</li>
<li>Faculty / Student Ratio: As has been talked about a lot in this thread…was very low meaning students couldn’t hide in a large classroom. </li>
<li>Counseling: All of our college counselors worked in admissions at top universities prior to moving to our school. Our head counselor was the former dean of admissions at Georgetown and all of them were well connected. With these backgrounds & a focus on getting into top colleges, they provided fantastic, individualized plans for all students starting from freshman year. Plus their connections helped out a lot come admissions time, for example, one of my good friends was accepted at Dartmouth, Cornell, and other selective schools but he really wanted to go to Brown and was waitlisted. His college counselor at our school called her contact at Brown, explained the situation and subsequently got him off the waitlist that day. </li>
<li>Course Availability: Our school not only offered 25-30+ AP courses but also offered all levels of 5 foreign languages (spanish, mandarin, french, german, latin), advanced math classes above and beyond Calc BC (differential equations, linear algebra, etc. - most students took Calc AB or BC sophomore or junior year and ended up taking more advanced math jr or sr year), more innovative / interesting seminars (rather than taking world history or U.S. history you could take classes more similar to college “Rise and Fall of the Russian Empire,” Latin American Politics," “Islam & Society in Africa,” etc.). Also we had dual-enrollment with a local university so that all of our honors, AP, and advanced h.s. classes counted towards college credit (most of my friends that went to public univ ended up coming in to those schools with enough credits to start out as college juniors).</li>
<li>Discipline: Students learned to be more disciplined (academically, daily habits, dress, etc.) and “professional” due to the demanding requirements of the school. </li>
<li>Student Body: More competitive & overall more capable (self-selected) students that went through a rigorous admissions process. </li>
<li>Extracurriculars: Better opportunity / variety for most sports and greater variety of coursework and opportunity for music, art, etc. </li>
<li>Parental Involvement: More involved parents than what I saw at some of the pub schools my friends attended. We even had a “work experience” program run by the schools parent assoc. that helped students get good internships in h.s. (at some of the parent’s firms) to not only learn about different fields students were interested in but also to help students bolster their resumes, etc. For example, I worked at Morgan Stanley during my junior and senior year of h.s.</li>
</ul>
<p>the particular generalization (that the only reason one sends their kids private is to be accepted to selective universities) is not always the case…nor is it to move into elite circles…</p>
<p>as parents, we wanted our child to leave high school knowing how to write a paper, analyze text and literature, critically think about world issues and, to be honest, care about school</p>
<p>Private schools tend to have distinct mission statements and thus distinct student populations they set out to attract and serve. This does not immediately lead to exclusivity, elitism or even the prerequisite of economic advantage especially in the case of Catholic /denominational privates. </p>
<p>By being very clear as to which populations they are serving, private schools can tailor their curriculum, teaching styles, ECs, social environment and even the physical environment to address their SPECIFIC students. Although most discussions on CC revolve around elite college prep privates, these are not the only successful models especially in the Catholic/denominational spectrum.</p>
<p>IMHO, the US public school system has been tasked with an impossible (both financial and structural) assignment and that is each INDIVIDUAL school needs to address the needs/concerns/requirements of EVERY type of student. This is done in the name of equality, fairness and (again IMHO) political correctness. Each of our local public high schools needs to provide for not only AP courses, but also remedial English classes… Each classroom must accept socially functional and socially disruptive students. By diluting resources in an attempt to provide complete equality the public school system has set itself up for failure.</p>
<p>A local public charter High School is ranked in the top 5 HS in this state. Places are assigned by lottery. This public HS exceeds many expensive privates in areas of test scores and elite college acceptances. Each year, they must fight for their survival mainly confronting the local teachers union and school board who continually send accusatory charges of .elitism, selectivity and discrimination their way. There is an undercurrent of self-destruction in our public school system and until we can address it those that can will often flee to the private system.</p>
<p>rocknroll, I couldn’t disagree more with this statement: </p>
<p>“There are many non-academic benefits to private schools some of which have been noted above. In my own experience, there seems to be less bullying, and more tolerance, and our private school than at the local public school. There is much more acceptance of diversity, in terms of race and sexual orientation.” </p>
<p>As a parent of minority kids who have attended a number of private schools (as have my relatives, as did I) and a number of public schools, I would say that, despite the accepting ‘face’ of many private schools, there is much more diversity and acceptance in public schools.</p>
<p>I think you may be on to something 2college. It’s easy to talk about “accepting diversity” (which extends well beyond race) when there’s darn little of it.</p>
<p>No elephant in the room with me. THough one of the private schools that my kids attended did have some celebrities’ kids going there and a number of well to do folks, the vast majority of kids were from wealthy families that were still working families and therefore are not really what you pay that kind of money to rub shoulders with their offspring. I’m talking about families that still felt the sting of paying that kind of tuition. Some 30% of the kids qualified for college financial aid, so it’s not as though they were all such rich kids. Also, 5-6% of each class came from programs like Prep for Prep. Though the school was not as well integrated as our school district which is about as diverse as any I have seen, it is far more diverse in every regard than many of our county districts.</p>
<p>In this area, I don’t think it would have made a bit of difference in terms of contacts. </p>
<p>Now one of mine graduated from an all boys Catholic schools, and I do feel that school did a lot to foster deep friendships among those kids. Most all of them graduated with a true love for the school, school pride and as kindred spirits with many from their class.</p>
<p>…and public schools are doing this at the same time (at least in California) that overall resources to the public schools are being cut, class size is exploding, and teacher caseload is mushrooming out of control!</p>
<p>CPTof House :Now one of mine graduated from an all boys Catholic schools, and I do feel that school did a lot to foster deep friendships among those kids. Most all of them graduated with a true love for the school, school pride and as kindred spirits with many from their class.</p>
<p>Agreed! My DS, currently in an all boy Catholic school has mentioned this fact many times. He feels part of a community and has a sense of pride. He was recently challenged about the fact he wore a class ring, some local PS kids could not imagine why he would do this.</p>
<p>(okay, how do you make that pretty ‘quote box’… I knew the secret at one time but can’t remember … or find the answer on FAQ)</p>
<p>All three of my kids have attended private independent day school for many years, although we started out the oldest in public school and moved him by 4th grade. The oldest is getting ready to graduate and heads of to college in the Fall. All of my kids have done very well in private school. I have almost no complaints and only praise.</p>
<p>Except for the money! </p>
<p>We have really struggled to afford three private school tuitions for nearly 10 years. Thank God we’re getting some financial aid from S1’s college, but even with that it is tough. </p>
<p>We’re now actually thinking of moving to a smaller home in a district with top public schools. In a way it breaks my heart to consider this option when private school has worked so well for our family up to this point. But the fact remains we are slowly going broke. This is a problem. Sometimes I wish we never started down the private school path. We are “spoiled” at this point, but something has to change. Oh well, I’m sure we’ll find a way, but sometimes I wonder how anyone affords private school in today’s economy (especially for multiple kids).</p>