A Note on Teacher Quality At Privates

[Anonymous]

Much is made of the fact that private schools can cast their nets far afield and hire teachers that wouldn’t normally be certified to teach in public schools.

This is true but it comes at a cost.

Many teachers in privates, particularly new hires, believe that grading and sorting are their real responsibilities not developing student potential. That’s because, many private school teachers may never even have attended a public school and have little understanding of or patience for students that don’t immediately grasp the concept or exhibit the required behavior. What occurs is that they employ curriculum (many times pulled from a website not self developed) as a class control mechanism providing for little classroom differentiation. In the end, they teach solely to the students who could most likely teach themselves.

You have to be aware of this when dealing with issues related to grading and grades which many times are irrelevant.

[Anonymous]

Yes, private school teachers csn often not egg. Have degrees in education and are not required to pass teacher license exams before teaching, unlike public schools

[Anonymous]

Weird spellcheck above… sorry

[Anonymous]

OP - I have not had this experience in our 11 years of private. Our teachers have been amazing at two different schools.

[Anonymous]

It varies widely just as it does at public schools. We have decades of experience with both. At DD’s Lower School, I was particularly struck by the acceptance that the 5th grade teacher was weak because the 4th and 6th grade teachers were so strong. DS was at a different MS school that was so excited that they’d hired a new male teacher —because he had later minor league ball and was going to coach the upper school team. The teacher was horrible at science, but good at coaching.

[Anonymous]

I have taught at independent schools for 25 years. I also taught for 5 years at a public high school, and I have both state and national certification. There are of course excellent teachers and poor teachers at all schools. Whether or not they are certified teachers seemed to have no correlation on their effectiveness. Personally, I learned very little in my education courses that was useful to me as a high school teacher. I have done a lot of professional development over the years that was paid for or provided by my independent school, and I learned a great deal about teaching through experience and from my colleagues. Your generalization that independent school teachers are more concerned with grading and sorting, rather than developing student potential is not something I have experienced. The many independent school teachers I have worked with over the years are generally attracted to their work because they can more effectively get to know their students, form relationships with them, and personalize and differentiate their teaching in the smaller class sizes with very little discipline issues, that are found in most private schools.

[Anonymous]

My experience with Kids in two private schools also was very different. Some of the youngest teachers were not great as is tru in public’s too. But some teachers had other careers in business, consulting, etc and decided they really wanted to teach and found privates give them more flexibility to engage with the whole child rather than just grades. The other day my son’s former Latin teacher sent him a sweet email because he read about a career success he had. That same teacher came to wrestling matches to cheer on his students who usually were not the best wrestlers. Both my kids have lasting mentorship relationships with multiple former private school teachers. I am coming around to thinking an undergraduate degree in education is not as good preparation as life experience and maybe a few grad courses or seminars in teaching.

[Anonymous]

DCUM loves to post about how private school teachers aren't qualified. We have had kids in independent schools in the area for 12 years and we have never had an unqualified teacher for our kids. Most have Master's degrees and certification.

I was very happy last year their independent schools were back to school in person and keeping kids safe while other schools were still virtual. The quality of the education was so much better.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Much is made of the fact that private schools can cast their nets far afield and hire teachers that wouldn’t normally be certified to teach in public schools.

This is true but it comes at a cost.

Many teachers in privates, particularly new hires, believe that grading and sorting are their real responsibilities not developing student potential. That’s because, many private school teachers may never even have attended a public school and have little understanding of or patience for students that don’t immediately grasp the concept or exhibit the required behavior. What occurs is that they employ curriculum (many times pulled from a website not self developed) as a class control mechanism providing for little classroom differentiation. In the end, they teach solely to the students who could most likely teach themselves.

You have to be aware of this when dealing with issues related to grading and grades which many times are irrelevant.

Be aware that private school teachers can also control a room while public school teachers just watch as students distract others or wander around.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Much is made of the fact that private schools can cast their nets far afield and hire teachers that wouldn’t normally be certified to teach in public schools.

This is true but it comes at a cost.

Many teachers in privates, particularly new hires, believe that grading and sorting are their real responsibilities not developing student potential. That’s because, many private school teachers may never even have attended a public school and have little understanding of or patience for students that don’t immediately grasp the concept or exhibit the required behavior. What occurs is that they employ curriculum (many times pulled from a website not self developed) as a class control mechanism providing for little classroom differentiation. In the end, they teach solely to the students who could most likely teach themselves.

You have to be aware of this when dealing with issues related to grading and grades which many times are irrelevant.

Your writing is strange and quite bad. Is English your native language? Where did you learn to put commas in that way?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP - I have not had this experience in our 11 years of private. Our teachers have been amazing at two different schools.

This is me posting again... we have had 2 dud teachers in 11 years. Neither was inexperienced - both had been teaching for 10 or more years. One was new to the school and a bad fit and was gone by the end of the year. The other was a longer tenured teacher at the school, who may have been better at some point but had been struggling for a few years before finally leaving (we were newer at the time, so not sure of that history).

You won't go through all years of your child's education without having at least one dud -- if you do - you are lucky.

As for age of teacher, I have found that young teachers often bring a freshness and eagerness to the classroom. They also tend to be less jaded about parents and, as a result, more forthcoming with parents. That is generally more relevant for younger grades (as HS interactions between parents/teachers is limited), but even at our HS, I was really surprised one year when our child's new teachers said they loved communicating with parents and were eager to hear for anyone (not just for issues).

[Anonymous]

Between my two kids, we've attended 5 private schools. Teacher quality has varied, but not one teacher has been more focused on "grading and sorting" than helping students reach their potential. Not a single one. We've also had good teachers in public school, but those teachers necessarily had to deal with more bureaucracy and "sorting" and so had less time to make sure every kid reached their full potential.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:DCUM loves to post about how private school teachers aren't qualified. We have had kids in independent schools in the area for 12 years and we have never had an unqualified teacher for our kids. Most have Master's degrees and certification.

I was very happy last year their independent schools were back to school in person and keeping kids safe while other schools were still virtual. The quality of the education was so much better.

It’s fine and understandable if you were happy that your kids were in person last year, but your post makes it sound like you were extra happy that other children were having what you consider an inferior educational experience. Their experience had no bearing on your child’s — why be so gleeful that your experience was “so much better” than that if other children, none of whom had a choice in the matter?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Between my two kids, we've attended 5 private schools. Teacher quality has varied, but not one teacher has been more focused on "grading and sorting" than helping students reach their potential. Not a single one. We've also had good teachers in public school, but those teachers necessarily had to deal with more bureaucracy and "sorting" and so had less time to make sure every kid reached their full potential.

What schools were your kids at?

[Anonymous]

Yeah, I will never understand private school above a certain level of public school. DC publics pay pretty well so you attract the best talent. I'm also confused because I have friends whose kids have special needs and they somehow think privates will be better for them when privates don't have people to support those needs and eventually counsel you out. If you have speech, motor, LDs, whatever, public schools come with teams of people passionate about supporting you. And my kids have never been held back in their learning by having those kids in their class. I mean, you do you, but my kids' teachers in DC have been phenomenal.