Mexusa:it certainly does exist. I have very mixed feelings about public schools as well as many private schools/boarding schools. Most of these are really no better than a really good public. Really good publics ,despite the efforts of the teachers and theeir union to dumb and numb them into oblivion, are a product of the parents in that community. You see this most predominantly in heavily Jewish and Asian towns/communities. Northern Virginia, Rye, NY, Scarsdale, NY, Brookline, Ma, Newton, Ma.
^ @center You really are an appalling snob.
Actually no. Critical thinking and observation, review of the many rankings of public and private schools across the country and deep skepticism about education, both in public and private schools, makes me a snob? I am the exact opposite. Merely pointing out facts as a pragmatist.
No, really. I stand by my earlier comment. You denigrate an entire profession … That is not pragmatism.
There are really academically strong public schools, and really good public school teachers and students. We have some in S.F. Bay area.
But there those schools are not good. Not nice to teachers and students. Students are miserable to the level of committing suicides. I would not dream of sending my child to one of them. That’s a major reason that we have been homeschooling.
My daughter would be miserable there even if she can handle the academic pressure, because she would be surrounded by miserable friends.
In our school district there is a policy that the school will only provide grades and attendance figures for applications. There is no “school recommendation” that often is sought from a guidance counselor for applications to private schools. The teachers and principals at the district have taken this to mean that no teacher is permitted to write a recommendation for a student for any school. When confronted on this assumption, the head of the district said that the no-rec policy only applies to a “school recommendation” and does not apply to any recommendations by teachers, who are free to write what they want. When this “write what they want” observation was made to the principal of one of the school, the principal adamantly denied this was possible, referring to the “no school recommendation” policy. Obvious bureaucratic confusion and mis-direction, but it results in NO recommendations from teachers from this district. And, as such, since all private schools require recommendations, it is very difficult to get into a private school from the district. Only a very personal and warm relationship with a teacher will encourage the teacher to write, and even then he/she feels they are taking a risk in doing so.
O, by the way, the district gets $$ from the State depending on enrollment . . .
Not that that doesn’t figure at all into the district “policy” on recommendations . . .
interesting article http://www.theatlantic.com/education/archive/2015/01/bridging-private-and-public-schools/384673/?utm_source=SFFB
My DD is now in 9th grade at an excellent private school, and she previously attended public school in a similar profile public school district as the poster. We had enormous difficulty getting records sent, despite putting in our request more than 6 weeks ahead of the deadline and providing all materials (stamped addressed envelopes, etc). Other applicants in the district had the same problem, and when I called each school to check on the records and apologize (even though it wasn’t our fault), they told me they were accustomed to this from our school and similar schools. When I confronted our public school guidance counselor about that status of the records transfer, I was told that the deadline wasn’t hard and fast and didn’t matter as long as it was dropped in the mail on the deadline or the day after. The records did eventually get to the schools, but I think it might have been sometime in early February.
I don’t think there is any vendetta against private school applicants. It’s just business as usual. I think it just shows that some people can’t follow through on simple tasks and have other priorities. For us, it was yet another example and confirmation that we were making the right decision to move to private school. We did not have trouble with the teacher recommendations, and the schools that my DD applied to did not hold the tardiness of the records against her application.
I come from a small school and I was worried about the same thing. My school has a huge sense of pride. However, when I went to my teachers (who quite frankly loved me) they were very understanding. I think it really helped that the child was the one coming to the teachers . I simply explained I loved my school but I had grown out of it, this was something that they could see. Hope this helps! @Center
Asdf789: my child did the same as did we, there was just an attitude …further, one teacher became completely hostile. Via email! I truly think that leaving public school at natural ending periods like 5th/6th or 8th (depending on how middle schools are structured) is very different than leaving after 9th. We are in a very highly ranked public school with ridiculous town hubris. It is what it is…
I think this is less of a problem when you’re doing at a natural break for the school (i.e., 8th, when everyone is going to transition to a 9-12 high school.) Some part of it is that you’re asking people who are already inundated with paperwork to do more (that isn’t satisfying the boss’s request) and part of is, in all likelihood, that you are saying that their school wasn’t the best for your kid. While this is almost always going to sound like “not good enough” to the school, you can try to frame it as this being about “fit”, which is less likely to ruffle feathers. Because we were leaving a small public that fed into a large regional HS, we were able to say “being in a small school was so great for DS that we want to go somewhere more like this for the next 4 years.” Another friend played the “DS is an only child and we’d like him to go to BS to have something closer to a sibling experience.” All of these things were true, just not the primary reasons for leaving. A girl who started BS at 10th grade basically said (honestly) that she was socially miserable at her HS (one of the best in a state with good schools). I think the teachers had seen this and recognized that this had nothing to do with them and were very helpful. At this juncture, something like suggesting your job may require relocation (always true!) and you don’t want your child to have to switch schools in 11th or 12th could work. I’m not advocating for dishonesty but for finding a reason – even if it’s not the primary one – that has nothing to do with the school.
@Center go up the chain of command. if the principal can’t help, go to the school board and superintendent.