<p>In this case, I'm talking about HS. I've been asked to sit on a panel representing various HS options for eighth-graders and their parents. There will be parent reps from various programs in town -- neighborhood HS, magnet/alternative programs, area private schools. I guess I see this as bit of a sales job on my part, and I'm wondering what would be a compelling reason to pick my option. Reasons I assume people pick their school:</p>
<p>1) convenience
2) cost
3) college preparation
4) specific program at the school that aligns with child's interest, etc.</p>
<p>I feel like our school does a great job w/college prep. I know this is cc and it's all about college now, but were you thinking that way when your child was in eighth grade?</p>
<p>I made the decision to seek out a college prep private school education for my S beginning in 4th grade (we missed the application date for 3rd grade by a few weeks) to have him challenged to avoid the problems that can come with boredom in school matters. So college preparation was part of it. “Specific programs” weren’t really part of it. </p>
<p>Convenience/Location? --No, we actually moved to be near the private school once he was admitted.</p>
<p>Cost? --I could handle it, but private “costs” are significant.</p>
<p>I have never regretted my decision. Summer after his college freshman year, my S said that he felt that he would not have had the same educational opportunities and experiences anywhere else.</p>
<p>I think a student’s perspective might be different from a parent’s on this one. I can tell you for our son, his initial motivating factor was #4 (and yes, I’m afraid to say it was a sports program!)</p>
<p>However, for us, his parents, it was definitely #3. (He did take #3 into consideration as well. He’s always known that academics really do come first.) #1 and #2 didn’t even come into the picture (it was a private school located about 40 minutes away, as compared to our excellent public school which is not only tuition-free but also located about a block from home!)</p>
<p>The choice, by the way, was an excellent one. He absolutely excelled and blossomed in h.s., graduated at the top of his class, and is currently at a wonderful college not even playing his sport at this point.</p>
<p>We live in Wisconsin. The public schools here are better than the private ones, even in blue collar towns. There was no reason to pay for a lesser education. There are only a few places in WI with better academics than the public schools offer, and those districts have quality education available. I would tell all parents to save their money for college in our state. We are lucky people support their public schools so they offer a good education, our state taxes reflect this. The public education was supplemented with summer programs and some private music lessons when son was interested although there was an excellent school music program and gifted education programs.</p>
<p>When we toured D1’s school, the magnet coordinator told her that she should look at the students at the school. “If you feel like these are your kind of people, then you belong here.” That was really what clinched it. It also helped that the magnet coordinator didn’t present the school as the greatest thing since sliced bread, the absolute best high school in the entire city, and that we would be fools to consider having D1 go anywhere else. </p>
<p>I remember being kind of stunned when the school info session included a powerpoint slide on where students were accepted to college. That seemed over the top to me, three years ago. Now I understand why people want to see that information.</p>
<p>We chose our school system when our oldest was a baby. I went to the library and did some research. At the time the high school had recently won a blue ribbon award for one of the best schools in the country. The school system was very diverse, both economically and racially, but it looked like a critical mass of bright kids stayed with the school system. There were some interesting and popular magnet programs in the elementary schools. Real estate taxes in our town are considerably less high than in many parts of the county though I’d hardly call them low! I figured if worse came to worse we could always send our kids to private school for high school - a choice my parents had made. In the end the school system always seemed to be good enough, though I seriously considered homeschooling my oldest in the early years when he was very precocious.</p>
<p>Hey YDS - sorry I missed our date yesterday!!! but I’m much better now :)</p>
<p>Anyway, we are lucky to live in a great school district where the public schools are considered as good (or close) to any private nearby. </p>
<p>That being said, my oldest decided to go to a private all boys Jesuit high school because he felt more comfortable in the more academically centered environment. It ended up being the perfect place for our “Bohemian Intellectual”, he found his people. :)</p>
<p>My next two kids went to our local public high school. They opted for that because of the more “all American-ish” high school environment - mix of athletics, theatre, etc, but also tough academics.</p>
<p>In all 3 cases, they ended up in the best environment for them. They were all convenient location-wise; the cost of the private was high, but worth it for that particular kid; and they all ended up extremely well prepared for college.</p>
<p>I will say that after having had kids in both private and public, (at least at our schools) the maths and sciences were comparable, the English and history were better at the private, but not so woeful at the public to warrant demanding that my younger kids go to Jesuit.</p>
<p>If there is a choice, I think it is really up to the kid and the particular family’s circumstances.</p>
<p>When we lived in Calif, and we found out that we were being transferred to a different state, I told my H that the new area had to have a Catholic grade school and Catholic high school. It did.</p>
<p>Our kids, at first, didn’t understand why we “wasted” our money when public school is free. However, now that they are in college, they understand. LOL</p>
<p>We started on the private school path when my then-fourth grade son was reading books during school, because there was nothing new being taught in class, and my then first-grade daughter told me how much she enjoyed school because she got to help the other kids with their worksheets (plus the day she came home, having taught herself the sign language alphabet which was on a poster in the board – she studied the board while the teacher was teaching the other kids how to read). Convenience was never an issue – the schools were very far away and my kids would wake up at 5:30 to get to school on time. It wasn’t even about colelge at the time, it was about finding a school that was willing to teach them something they didn’t already know.</p>
<p>We moved last year. H’s job is in top public district in the state. No-brainer to live in this district for good schools and convenience to work. Of the two closest high schools, I heard that one of them had a “snobby” reputation, so we decided to live near the other one. We found a house with elementary, middle, and high schools within walking distance (if you consider 1.5 miles to middle school “walking distance”–that kid only walks one way). There are private schools in the area, but the convenience and quality of the public schools make the privates not worth $/gas/driving time, IMO. Can’t afford them anyway, with older kids in private colleges. (I also homeschooled for 13 years, due to poor quality schools where I lived).
BTW, we are Catholic, but H & I both graduated from public high schools.</p>
<p>We switched D from public to private in 4th grade for the reasons BurnThis lists above. It had nothing to do with college, and everything with putting her into an environment where she would be truly challenged. </p>
<p>The public high school here is very good, and sends plenty of kids to HYP et al. And if we had kept D in the public system, it would have eventually brought her the challenges she needed. But she needed a lot more in elementary school than was being offered at the time, and the switch was definitely the right decision for her. </p>
<p>S, on the other hand, has been very happy in public school; he has a completely different style of learning and social skills than his sister. I agree with ag54 that the curricula are comparable, except for the fact that D was able to learn Ancient Greek as well as Latin (only the latter is offered at the public).</p>
<p>Our two daughters, both now happily ensconced at Harvard, went to the only public HS in our small town / semi-rural county. There were a couple of private options, but neither with a strong record of sending graduates to college outside the state. While the quality of their instruction varied greatly, my wife and I realized that we were the constant teaching presence in our kids’ lives.</p>
<p>Though they were in a gifted program, we were aware all along that they weren’t getting access to the kinds of outstanding educational opportunities they could have gotten at the top schools in the Atlanta area. But what they got was a real-world education in working with and bonding with kids of all backgrounds, races, and economic levels. They’re both very active readers and they got great benefits from the excellent music and theatre programs at the county HS. There’s a state university in our town, and both girls did >30 academic credit hours of coursework there in completing their HS requirements. It’s my impression that the extra lengths to which they went to supplement the limited opportunities at their HS were significant assets for them in the admissions process.</p>
<p>Daughter picked a magnet program because 1) it had an excellent academic reputation; 2) it gave her the chance to NOT attend the neighborhood high school, which is a bit of a zoo and where she would have few friends (because most people from her middle school lived in a different high school district); and 3) several of her middle school friends were going to the magnet.</p>
<p>Son went to the neighborhood high school and refused to consider any other options because 1) other options would have meant working harder; and 2) his friends were going to the neighborhood high school.</p>
<p>Private school was never considered in our family for reasons of cost.</p>
<p>We’re fortunate to live in an area with outstanding public schools; in fact my opinion is that our public K-8 district is better than most of the privates in the area. Besides, it’s so nice for kids to live and go to school in the same community with their friends. No driving all over for play dates.</p>
<p>When my D was in 4th grade she said, “My dad went to LocalHS, so I’m going to LocalHS,” and she never wavered from that. When the younger kid was in 8th grade I said, “The car is going to LocalHS, so you’re going to LocalHS.” He was totally fine with that, since most of his friends were going there too. LocalHS is excellent academically, plus it’s large enough to have the somewhat arcane sports that my kids were interested in, and as a bonus a wonderful construction/engineering program not duplicated by any of the privates that are within a reasonable commute distance.</p>
<p>Money - why pay more? Save it for college, for a down payment on a house some day, or seed capital for a new venture. Or hey, just go on a fabulous family vacation. As my mom said back when the kids were little, you can buy a lot of enrichment with what you save on private school. But only if your public schools can actually teach your kids something.</p>
<p>We have no private schools within driving distance, a dreadful public high school, and another pretty good public half an hour away. D goes there, and is fairly happy. For middle school, we sent her to a charter school where the education was just great. The difference? The teachers respected and really cared about the kids, were interested in them, expected a lot from them and shared their own enthusiasm and curiosity. There was lots of hands-on, ‘experiential’ stuff-- they built things, they were always out taking water samples at a pond or visiting a videographer’s studio or…the list went on and on. The place had NO $$$$-- it was dingy and crowded and the kids there LOVED it. The thing was that there was a real connection with the teachers–kids are hungry for that and it’s rare. There’s no question it left my D more confident and able. So–that’s the quality I’d look for in a school…if I happened to have any choice at all!</p>
<p>It is going to depend on the student but in my case, my daughter attends an independent school (same school I work at).</p>
<p>She attended public school thru elementary school and then switched to private school. Reasons being:</p>
<ol>
<li><p>Small class sizes (largest class she has had is 17, smallest is 5. Most average around 12)</p></li>
<li><p>Academic vigor. She coasted in our public school. She is much more challenged now</p></li>
<li><p>College Prep and placement - goes hand in hand with #2 but I will add the placement results for the school she attends is far superior to our public school. So this gives her the best chance to go to the college of her choice that is the best fit for her.</p></li>
<li><p>The quality of kids she is with - this may be controversial, but I have coached the students at our public school and our private school - and there is no comparison. The kids she is with now are brighter, much more polite, polished and not petty / cliqueish. Here it is ok to be smart. Not always the case in public school.</p></li>
<li><p>Cost - no, I don’t like paying for her to attend when I already pay a boatload of taxes supporting public school but it is very well worth it to see her development and the opportunities it has and will continue to provide her.</p></li>
</ol>
<p>No regrets whatsoever in choosing a top independent school</p>
<p>We have an outstanding public school that is one of the best in the state. It’s small. It’s personal. It has a basic but rigorous curriculum. There was no reason to pull the kids and put them somewhere else when they were thriving. The onlyl issue for us was that two of my three kids play a sport that is not a sport at this high school, but in the grand scheme of things it was no big deal. S1 is participating in college and S2 doesn’t care. I have four friends who pulled their kids. Two sent their kids to the father’s prep school. The third pulled their daughter and sent her to a magnet school that was strong in her passion (art). The fourth pulled their’s and sent to Interlochen just because LOL.</p>
<p>D went to a charter school within biking distance of where we live in a red state in the West.</p>
<p>1) cost – mostly free – was crucial.</p>
<p>2) convenience: I work, DH works, long hours. We wanted her to be independent. She biked her first two years, then public transport improved. Yay public transportation!</p>
<p>3) other: only public school anyplace nearby that offered serious language study. Yay languages and the liberal arts!</p>
<p>We wanted a school with the best quality academics at the lowest price with least amount of commute time. I figured that college prep or counseling would take care of itself.</p>
<p>We chose a private independent school over a fairly decent public HS for both Ds for the following reasons:</p>
<p>1)single sex education…lets girls be whoever they want to be without a thought about what anyone else thinks
2)avg class size of 15, rigorous academics - our public HS is pretty strong also, but classes are much larger
3)facilities are outstanding, technology strongly integrated into curriculum, incredible library, excellent visual arts, vocal, band/orch and drama programs relative to school size, sports ECs include crew, swimming, lacrosse, you name it.
4)cost…while not cheap by any means, far less than other independents - I could not differentiate results at the more expensive schools and the one they attend(ed).<br>
5)girls are legacy admits through my mother which made them feel connected; large and strong alumni network
6)selective admissions so they were automatically with very bright and motivated classmates
7)caring school community, very involved and friendly parents, passionate teachers</p>
<p>I had a hard time with doing the cost/benefit analysis over the local public HS, but results are not always measured in objective statistics - though the statistical differences in admission rates to various schools, SAT scores, numbers getting 3s and higher on APs, were definitely stronger at the private school. D1 thrived there, and I don’t think she would have at the other school. D2 is thriving as well.</p>