<p>In our area, a lot of the top school administrators send their kids to private schools! ;)</p>
<p>Runmanstl, 1:20 college counseling? This I've never seen before. I've seen 3 counselors for classes that size, but how does your school fund that? What's the tuition and are they all quality (former top school adcom) counselors?</p>
<p>hmom5:
Tuition is 20k. There is one full-time Director of College Counseling and 4 others who also teach. I suppose the quality of their counseling varies somewhat, however, 15% or more of the class is admitted to the Ivy League year after year. Historically the school produces 25-35 NMSF with another 15-20 Commended. Further, the incoming Director of College Counseling (Fall 2009) is leaving her current position as Director of Admissions at
a very highly ranked university in the midwest.</p>
<p>It is a very good school.</p>
<p>I agree that there are good and bad private schools, as there are good and bad public schools. And whether they're good for a particular student depends on the student. Way back when I was in high school, I attended a private (Catholic) all girls school. There were 50 people in my graduating class. Everyone went to college, and most to the college of their choice (although the aspirations weren't to HYPS - I think Duke and Bryn Mawr were the highest anyone aimed, and they got in). We had one AP course. We did not have the facilities or equipment that the public school had (it was a very good public school). We didn't have a better guidance department than the public school had. Our athletics and extracurriculars couldn't approach what the public school had. We didn't have the discipline problems the public school had, because a troublemaker would be easily expelled. We also had small class sizes and personal attention. In retrospect, I think that this school served the middle of the class extremely well. The top of the class and the bottom of the class would probably have been better off at the public school. JMO, and FWIW, my kids are attending our highly regarded public schools; I never even considered private school. One big difference I do see between my private and my kids' public is that I got a much better grounding in grammar, reading and writing, whereas they're getting a math and science education to which mine could not compare.</p>
<p>From my observation, the private high schools that a) charge very high tuition (and boarding if necessary), b) located in wealthy neighborhoods, and c) alumni attending elite colleges, are on average the same or better than the surrounding public schools. </p>
<p>Now, if you live in a district that is wealthy, the public high schools should be very competitive and elite too.</p>
<p>In the better cases, privates have smaller, more intimate and personal environments.
They have smaller classes, more conducive to class discussion and more assigning of written work. They may have groupings of children which are broken down into smaller, more homogeneous cohorts, which in theory means education can be more tailored to what a particular child may need . Versus possibly larger, less personal, less homogeneous groupings of students in publics, which may necessitate teaching a subject at a level that is not your student's level. </p>
<p>In other words, private schools facilitate a finer degree of "tracking", which may be more efficient at passing appropriate level of information to appropriate groupings of "tracked" students.</p>
<p>At the privates you are a person, not a number. On the other hand, publics may have far more programs, facilities, and course selection. And there may be programs in a particular public that fit you just as well, or better, than programs at a particular private.</p>
<p>At a smaller school you are more likely to personally be able to play a major role in extracurriculars. If there is only 1 lead in the school play, your odds of getting that part are better if there are 100 students in the class, vs. 3,000 students. On the other hand, there may be fewer extracurriculars to choose from.</p>
<p>It also depends on what kind of public school we are talking about.</p>
<p>My S1 goes to a public magnet school with competitive admission. It takes only 60 kids out of a very large, and already highly academically competitive county in NJ. It's currently ranked as #4 among public high schools in USA. We are seeing parents who relocated to the county so that their kids have a chance at this school.</p>
<p>All advanced classes and something like 10-15 kids per class. Terrific teachers (ton of them with Ph.D.) and really neat kids. It's on a local community college campus with wide open green space, and they share all facilities (e.c., cafeteria, gym, etc) So, other than the fact that it's free (public school), it's like a ultra selective private school.</p>
<p>The down side is, it's pretty lopsided. If you want a wide variety of ECs, this is not your place. Interested in variety of languages - sorry, Spanish only. No sports teams. If you play sports, you have to join your home base school team - the school you would have gone to based on your home address. </p>
<p>Also, you don't really get to learn to socially interact with kids from wide variety of backgrounds and preferences. </p>
<p>It's a perfect school for S1 (it's also only a little bit over a mile from home to boot: there are kids who spend 1.5 hours in a school bus each way since it's a very large county)</p>
<p>However, this would not have been a good school for my S2, who has different interests and preferences. He is in a local public high school and pretty happy there.</p>
<p>Also at a private the student families may also be more homogeneous. Which may impact social life in various ways. For example they may be more uniformly wealthy.</p>
<p>Our school of 3000+ puts on several plays a year - at least! Dinner theater, musicals, you name it...</p>
<p>Mathmom</p>
<p>yeah........... no such things at my S1 high school. On top of that, out of 60 kids, only 15 girls since it's a school with serious orientation for math and science - it seems that even in this day and age, girls are not as inclined this way as boys - and the school admission is ONLY based on objective qualifications with no gender or ethnicity consideration. You can imagine how difficult it is for the boys to get a prom partner. They have to "import" girls from other high schools nearby.</p>
<p>john I haven't read all the posts, but my kids are in the same situation as you (parochial vs "private"). They are there because they want to stay, in part because they leave been there their whole life. The school has convinced the youngest it is academically superior, but I don't see it, at least on average. I m sure the public school has lower lows and higher highs. My D did well in admissions, but I don't think she was exceptionaly prepared. I DO like the fact that they know my Kids, and deal with them as individuals.</p>
<p>After reading this thread with great interest, I want to touch on 1 aspect I did not see addressed re: private schools. Our children are in Catholic schools, K-high school for 1 main reason, our schools re-enforce our parenting of morals, values and Catholic tradition. While I appreciate all the wonderful extras they enjoy that others have mentioned, small classes, lots of AP's, individualized attention, amazing college counseling, athletics, etc.....having weekly Mass, social justice sewn throughout their curriculum's, working with the Missions, community service projects one after the other, are just as, if not more important to us as parents. We are closely partnered with the faculty and admin in our childrens spiritual, academic and emotional development. It's a comforting feeling to be entwined with home/school and parish. I have to admit, I really like having uniforms too!</p>
<p>in our area- public schools are not known for their ability to serve children who are twice gifted, highly intelligent but with learning/other disabilities.</p>
<p>My older daughter attended a private high school- actually she had attended this school since 6th grade. The director ( who is retiring) has been there since the beginning- over 25 years. Contrast that with the urban district, where a principal is often not at one school for more than 4 ( and often half that)</p>
<p>Teachers are highly skilled in their fields & have greater autonomy, often writing curriculum, than teachers who are told to teach what the school across the district is teaching ( at the same time).</p>
<p>Greater flexiblity in a private school, enables students to take trips like to Costa Rica for immersion Spanish and environmental learning at the same time.
Sea kayaking trips in Alaska & hiking in the Mazatzals.</p>
<p>Yes my daughter who attended an inner city public school, did go to Ghana last year as part of a global technology class. However, while her team of roughly 30 students and adults were there, the district decided that the class was to be canceled including upcoming trips by other teams. It was really a shame, because it did not cost the district any more money and it really involved the students- they did 98.9% of planning etc.</p>
<p>I am happy that my D was able to attend a strong public school- however, I feel that it took a few years off my life struggling with the district since she entered it in 3rd grade.
If I had to do it over again, I would have opted to have her stay in private schools.</p>
<p>"it seems that even in this day and age, girls are not as inclined this way as boys"</p>
<p>As I pointed before, it is sooo untrue. The cream of the crop at D's HS for several years have been girls and they are the ones going to Ivy's and other very selective colleges and programs. And it is particularly much more true in math and science. The top boys problem that D and I observed is lack in work ethic attitude.</p>
<p>^^^^
I observed the complete opposite situation in my son's graduating class of 2006. Out of a class of 100, 2 boys had perfect SAT scores, another 2390, another 2360 and my own son's score was 2340...one-sitting. The two highest GPAs belonged to male students, and matriculation to the Ivys was split 60/40 male. Further, two of the girls that were accepted into HYP were URM, whereas all of the males were unhooked.</p>
<p>runmansti -- I believer that statistically, males are more likely to be at either end of bell curve in terms of intelligence, girls may have more work ethic earlier (oops, hope I dont get flamed). But every person is an individual. </p>
<p>hyeonjlee -- if your S is going to a top technical school, he better be used to this.</p>
<p>
[quote]
The top boys problem that D and I observed is lack in work ethic attitude.
[/quote]
</p>
<p>Wrong. My sister has been an educator in highly rigorous private schools for 25 years and while she teaches biology also has her PHd in counseling. Her anecdotal observations fit with other models of study that show that "school" as it is traditionally set up is more geared to girls and therefore, teachers tend to like the girls better. What we see is that gpa's of girls might be slightly higher but when it comes to standardized tests boys typically do as well if not slightly better than the girls. </p>
<p>It was my sister's determination that if you gave boys more hands on learning, had them get up and move around more often in class instead of just listening to lecture they were far more focused and involved in the class. It's just the way boys are hard wired. And while that may change has they mature, you will never convince me that 9th grade girls and boys have the same strengths. For the most part I see boys as large puppies whose hands and feet haven't quite caught up with the rest of them and when they are just about to explode in growth they have a lot of energy all around. Channeling that in ways that work for them can make all the difference to their academic success. Then and going forward.</p>
<p>Modadunn-- your sister's real world observations support the value of single sex private schools. </p>
<p>At the all boy private my S attended, the teachers could and did acommodate the male learning style. From post-HS conversations with now Soph S, the all male environment really facilitated the learning process.</p>
<p>^^Absolutely agree with 07DAD and Modadunn. K-8th is coed for our kids, for the all important HS years, our experience <to date,="" still="" have="" more="" to="" follow=""> supports this also. Our son graduated from an all-boys Catholic HS, daughter attends all-girls Catholic HS, those environments have allowed our children to soar in every aspect. Yet, very different approaches to teaching, campus culture, activities, assembly speakers, etc.... As a parent, observing 2 completely different school environments, is fascinating.</to></p>
<p>The underlying difference that guides both types of schools, is the reality that public schools are required to provide an education for all kids in its district. Privates don't have to abide by that. </p>
<p>The prominent, largest high school in our county happens to be in our town. When kids hit 8th grade, you hear many parents trying to decide where their kids will go to high school... the local public, or the parochial. When both my kids were in middle school, they offered a humanities-based gifted program, that was multi-aged (grades 6-8). At most, there were seven kids from each grade, and always the top students. With both my kids, when it came to high school, 1-3 kids from their 8th grade class that were in the humanities program went to the parochial, or another private. I never understood why. Our public high school, although better than some, does not begin to compare to the New Triers, Stevensons, etc. But our public offers many APs and honor classes, and when you get to those level of classes, they are smaller in size, probably comparable to privates. And the teachers teaching those classes are quality teachers. My kids scored fours and fives on all their AP tests.</p>
<p>But to me the most telling difference was senior year when the newspapers published the names of students who made National Merit Semifinalist, and Finalist. None of the kids from the humanities class who went private, made these lists. The ones from our town who did make the lists, were public school students. </p>
<p>Our town also has many families at and below poverty level, and illegal immigrants. Our school is required to educate them, yet somehow they manage to provide an educational system that allows those who are prepared for college prep material, to excel. Yet, the parochial school brags that it sends such a high percentage to college. Well, if our public school could screen who came in and not be responsible for educating everyone, our public would have the same percentages. </p>
<p>And for those who mention international travel opportunites, community service opportunites, etc., that their privates offer, so does our public school. Last year, we had two different groups going to Greece, and Italy.</p>