High performing public schools vs private

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My late father was the original researcher- compiled statistics, visited neighborhoods and parishes and surveyed colleagues (active duty military) and relatives to determine where exactly he should buy to put his DC in the best school district circa 1975. He even did his own study on FCPS v. Catholic schools.

He always said that he quickly determined that the FCPS of this era was far superior to any Catholic education, so that was an easy first choice and so he proudly decided to move to a modest house in a great FCPS HS pyramid.

All said, DH and I wanted same for our DC: enrolled oldest circa 2005 in FCPS. We fairly quickly became disillusioned and contend 2 decades later that we really should have sent DC to private for the now obvious, clear advantages.

So, if I had to do it all over, I’d send DC to private schools from pre-k-12. Private schools (generalizing here but very familiar with the local ones we all talk about here on dcum) have now surpassed FCPS in every academic standard. FCPS seems one experiment after another and is increasingly losing academic rigor to disciplinary and administrative issues.

This.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Yes. Read a million of posts like this in the independent school forum. So many reasons to go private. If you are thinking the only benefit is a leg up for college, stay public, unless you are legacy to a top school your kid won't benefit in the college game.

Smaller class sizes
Better students - families more focused on education
More resources
More direct attention to your kid
Tailored learning programs
Better coaching (my kid is an artist and they brought resources from outside school to develop her talent)
Engaged teachers
Better parent community
Character development
Social development
More nurturing environment
More community events
And on and on and on

Lots of folks on this forum are only focused on college placement - these are not private school suitable families

FCPS is FCPS if you don't like FCPS you should go private. If you're child is an athlete you might want to think about that but the academics will not change from one FCPS school to the next. You can have amazing teachers and teachers you don't care for across the county so....it depends what you want.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My late father was the original researcher- compiled statistics, visited neighborhoods and parishes and surveyed colleagues (active duty military) and relatives to determine where exactly he should buy to put his DC in the best school district circa 1975. He even did his own study on FCPS v. Catholic schools.

He always said that he quickly determined that the FCPS of this era was far superior to any Catholic education, so that was an easy first choice and so he proudly decided to move to a modest house in a great FCPS HS pyramid.

All said, DH and I wanted same for our DC: enrolled oldest circa 2005 in FCPS. We fairly quickly became disillusioned and contend 2 decades later that we really should have sent DC to private for the now obvious, clear advantages.

So, if I had to do it all over, I’d send DC to private schools from pre-k-12. Private schools (generalizing here but very familiar with the local ones we all talk about here on dcum) have now surpassed FCPS in every academic standard. FCPS seems one experiment after another and is increasingly losing academic rigor to disciplinary and administrative issues.

This.

Thank you. (This PP). I miss my dad so much; he prioritized our education and scrimped and saved and insisted WE WOULD ALL GET COLLEGE EDUCATIONS,
even me, the youngest and worst student of the bunch.

He paid for our in-state tuitions (and that was part of the deal) but absolutely nothing else “extra” (no spring break trips, no fraternities, no spending allowances) and certainly nothing after 4 years.

Dad contended (and was correct) that FCPS would prepare us for the rigors of college.

It pains me to see how far FCPS has fallen - my dad was its biggest fan in the 70s and 80s. He was a PTA leader and actively involved in our schools.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Each year more and more bullies and ADHD kids leave our public school for the privates.

The good private schools don't take them. So, the private schools that do either have tons of resources for them and still provide quite education or these kids move to a different public that's more tolerant. Out private school will counsel out disruptive kids, no matter what their educational baggage is.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If you were zoned for a high school such as Langley, Woodson, etc. do you think there's any benefit for going private for high school, aside from any religious aspect?

No and a huge financially ignorant thought

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If I were lucky enough to be zoned for Langley or Woodson, there's no way I'd pay for private.

I don’t know about Woodson but I once read that 25% of younger kids in the Langley pyramid attend private and 1/3 of the high school aged kids in the pyramid did.
I was blown away.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Teachers are paid less at private - you can figure out where the better teaching is….

Teachers at private are largely from wealthy families and attended private themselves, i.e., are not as money driven. Does that make them worse teachers? Not my experience!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Teachers are paid less at private - you can figure out where the better teaching is….

Teachers at private are largely from wealthy families and attended private themselves, i.e., are not as money driven. Does that make them worse teachers? Not my experience!

Snort. What's your evidence for that? That's not been the case in my experience.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If you have $40-50K/year to burn (less for the religious schools, but some of those have weak academics), I'm sure it's great. For most of the rest of us, FCPS is fine and not having to pay private school tuition gives us space to pay for enrichment activities and save for college.

+1 This. Private school parents typically fall into the categories of those who have enough money that private school tuition is not a hardship for them and it's just another luxury good that is more comfortable for them and their kids and those who scrimp to send their kids because their needs (special needs, social needs) aren't being met in public school.

[Anonymous]

A large high school better prepares your child for college. So many kids from small privates fail out of college or have to transfer to tiny liberal arts schools because they can't handle the independence.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My late father was the original researcher- compiled statistics, visited neighborhoods and parishes and surveyed colleagues (active duty military) and relatives to determine where exactly he should buy to put his DC in the best school district circa 1975. He even did his own study on FCPS v. Catholic schools.

He always said that he quickly determined that the FCPS of this era was far superior to any Catholic education, so that was an easy first choice and so he proudly decided to move to a modest house in a great FCPS HS pyramid.

All said, DH and I wanted same for our DC: enrolled oldest circa 2005 in FCPS. We fairly quickly became disillusioned and contend 2 decades later that we really should have sent DC to private for the now obvious, clear advantages.

So, if I had to do it all over, I’d send DC to private schools from pre-k-12. Private schools (generalizing here but very familiar with the local ones we all talk about here on dcum) have now surpassed FCPS in every academic standard. FCPS seems one experiment after another and is increasingly losing academic rigor to disciplinary and administrative issues.

+1
I have a very similar background and also attended the FCPS of the late 70s-1980s. Definitely received an excellent education and assumed the same would hold true for my own children, who were enrolled starting in 2001. That's when there was still a small and very selective GT program (which my kids were not in). By 2005 or so, that GT program morphed into what is now the grossly supersized AAP. And that's also when everything else started to go downhill, as you mentioned.

If I had to do it over again, I would have enrolled my kids in private from K-8 because I think the high schools (mostly) are still doing a pretty good job. But the K-8 education is sorely lacking.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If I were lucky enough to be zoned for Langley or Woodson, there's no way I'd pay for private.

I don’t know about Woodson but I once read that 25% of younger kids in the Langley pyramid attend private and 1/3 of the high school aged kids in the pyramid did.
I was blown away.

While a lot of Langley-zoned kids go private, the vast majority attend the public schools.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Woodson is nowhere near as good as Langley.

Students that attend Langley because they can’t get into Potomac or Sidwell.

Um, no.

[Anonymous]

This has been said many times but: most private school kids do well because they’re of a socioeconomic position that ensures they’ll do well. It’s not because private schools are some magic potion; rather it’s a club, and once you’re in…

Most of what passed for “rigorous” and “advanced” at the privates I worked in were child’s play compared to AP and some IB courses. The only tangible benefit was small class sizes, which of course is easy to attain when exclusion is your business model.

[Anonymous]

I get creeped out when any school claims to engage in “character development.”