How do private schools manage to get through everything?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:There seems to be an idea here among some parents (from both private and public schools) that there is one way of doing things in private schools. That is far from reality; there is far more diversity about what and how things get done in private school than in public schools. Number and length of school days varies greatly, in come cases amounting to more instruction and in others less. Some administer standardized tests, others don't. Some cover fewer topics in more depth, some cover a wider range of topics. Some include students with a wide range of abilities and needs in a single class, while others admit a much more narrow ability range and/or ability group students.

There are also a lot of private school parents who never planned to leave their publics but did because of Covid; many of these families had fewer private choices available because it was a matter of going where the slots were, so it's not a surprise that some group ended up in lower quality privates and are unhappy, especially if they were satisfied with their public pre-Covid.

It is entirely reasonable to feel like what you're paying for private school compared to what you would get in public isn't worth it and to make a change. That doesn't really have any bearing on whether it would be worth it at a different private, nor on whether other parents would share your evaluation.

Absolutely true, and somewhat true for publics as well, espeically when you factor in charter schools.

Univerals about public school: Heavy admin burden on teachers, larger class sizes, must educate everyone
Univerals about private school: They cost money and do not have to educate everyone

Add in Universal about public school : Testing and amount of administration greatly influenced by public society and politics.

My child’s private had a teacher who went into a rant last week about masks and ended it by saying that he expects emails from parents and laughed. He would’ve been fired or suspended from a public school.
You are dead wrong to think that private is immune to that.

What a weirdo

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:They have shorter school years and longer recesses. How do they manage to get through their curriculum? Or are they behind public school?

They assign a lot of homework. I teach in a public school and all of the reading in my middle school class is done in school. I either read the texts aloud or play an audiobook. If students took texts home to read, not only would they not read them, they wouldn't bring them back. Very few students do the assigned homework. Most can't read on grade level either. My middle school son goes to a Catholic middle school. He has assigned reading each night plus vocabulary. Every other night he has writing and grammar too.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:They have shorter school years and longer recesses. How do they manage to get through their curriculum? Or are they behind public school?

They assign a lot of homework. I teach in a public school and all of the reading in my middle school class is done in school. I either read the texts aloud or play an audiobook. If students took texts home to read, not only would they not read them, they wouldn't bring them back. Very few students do the assigned homework. Most can't read on grade level either. My middle school son goes to a Catholic middle school. He has assigned reading each night plus vocabulary. Every other night he has writing and grammar too.

Hahahahahha! My child is at Catholic too and that’s not happening. And it’s not parochial which are notoriously bad. He got more in public, you must have had a very, very bad public.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:They have shorter school years and longer recesses. How do they manage to get through their curriculum? Or are they behind public school?

They assign a lot of homework. I teach in a public school and all of the reading in my middle school class is done in school. I either read the texts aloud or play an audiobook. If students took texts home to read, not only would they not read them, they wouldn't bring them back. Very few students do the assigned homework. Most can't read on grade level either. My middle school son goes to a Catholic middle school. He has assigned reading each night plus vocabulary. Every other night he has writing and grammar too.

Hahahahahha! My child is at Catholic too and that’s not happening. And it’s not parochial which are notoriously bad. He got more in public, you must have had a very, very bad public.

NP here. My experience is the opposite. I worked in a public school that spent 15% of the school year on mandated tests (I counted) and had a policy against assigning homework. I now work in a Catholic school that only mandates 3 days of tests a year and encourages meaningful homework. Perhaps we can’t compare ALL public schools to ALL parochial schools. Perhaps we should judge each school on its own merits.

As for how my specific Catholic school gets through material, I believe we are able to make very good use of each school day. Each grade level team scrutinizes the weekly plan to make sure we aren’t straying from standards we are trying to meet. Every activity is targeted and we supplement with strategic at-home assignments.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:They have shorter school years and longer recesses. How do they manage to get through their curriculum? Or are they behind public school?

They assign a lot of homework. I teach in a public school and all of the reading in my middle school class is done in school. I either read the texts aloud or play an audiobook. If students took texts home to read, not only would they not read them, they wouldn't bring them back. Very few students do the assigned homework. Most can't read on grade level either. My middle school son goes to a Catholic middle school. He has assigned reading each night plus vocabulary. Every other night he has writing and grammar too.

Hahahahahha! My child is at Catholic too and that’s not happening. And it’s not parochial which are notoriously bad. He got more in public, you must have had a very, very bad public.

NP here. My experience is the opposite. I worked in a public school that spent 15% of the school year on mandated tests (I counted) and had a policy against assigning homework. I now work in a Catholic school that only mandates 3 days of tests a year and encourages meaningful homework. Perhaps we can’t compare ALL public schools to ALL parochial schools. Perhaps we should judge each school on its own merits.

As for how my specific Catholic school gets through material, I believe we are able to make very good use of each school day. Each grade level team scrutinizes the weekly plan to make sure we aren’t straying from standards we are trying to meet. Every activity is targeted and we supplement with strategic at-home assignments.

There isn’t a no homework policy here in public school so that is not relevant.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:They have shorter school years and longer recesses. How do they manage to get through their curriculum? Or are they behind public school?

They assign a lot of homework. I teach in a public school and all of the reading in my middle school class is done in school. I either read the texts aloud or play an audiobook. If students took texts home to read, not only would they not read them, they wouldn't bring them back. Very few students do the assigned homework. Most can't read on grade level either. My middle school son goes to a Catholic middle school. He has assigned reading each night plus vocabulary. Every other night he has writing and grammar too.

Hahahahahha! My child is at Catholic too and that’s not happening. And it’s not parochial which are notoriously bad. He got more in public, you must have had a very, very bad public.

NP here. My experience is the opposite. I worked in a public school that spent 15% of the school year on mandated tests (I counted) and had a policy against assigning homework. I now work in a Catholic school that only mandates 3 days of tests a year and encourages meaningful homework. Perhaps we can’t compare ALL public schools to ALL parochial schools. Perhaps we should judge each school on its own merits.

As for how my specific Catholic school gets through material, I believe we are able to make very good use of each school day. Each grade level team scrutinizes the weekly plan to make sure we aren’t straying from standards we are trying to meet. Every activity is targeted and we supplement with strategic at-home assignments.

There isn’t a no homework policy here in public school so that is not relevant.

I disagree. I wrote that each school should be based on its own policies / merits, so it is useless to compare “all” publics versus “all” parochials. As one example I used a public with a no-homework policy in which I used to teach. We wasted a TON of time in class through mandated tests and couldn’t supplement at home. That is ONE school, and not an entire district. My current school, a parochial school, has a different set-up that allows for a more strategic use of time. This explains how ONE private school is able to get through a lot of material in fewer days using ONE public merely as a benchmark.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:They have shorter school years and longer recesses. How do they manage to get through their curriculum? Or are they behind public school?

They assign a lot of homework. I teach in a public school and all of the reading in my middle school class is done in school. I either read the texts aloud or play an audiobook. If students took texts home to read, not only would they not read them, they wouldn't bring them back. Very few students do the assigned homework. Most can't read on grade level either. My middle school son goes to a Catholic middle school. He has assigned reading each night plus vocabulary. Every other night he has writing and grammar too.

Hahahahahha! My child is at Catholic too and that’s not happening. And it’s not parochial which are notoriously bad. He got more in public, you must have had a very, very bad public.

NP here. My experience is the opposite. I worked in a public school that spent 15% of the school year on mandated tests (I counted) and had a policy against assigning homework. I now work in a Catholic school that only mandates 3 days of tests a year and encourages meaningful homework. Perhaps we can’t compare ALL public schools to ALL parochial schools. Perhaps we should judge each school on its own merits.

As for how my specific Catholic school gets through material, I believe we are able to make very good use of each school day. Each grade level team scrutinizes the weekly plan to make sure we aren’t straying from standards we are trying to meet. Every activity is targeted and we supplement with strategic at-home assignments.

There isn’t a no homework policy here in public school so that is not relevant.

I disagree. I wrote that each school should be based on its own policies / merits, so it is useless to compare “all” publics versus “all” parochials. As one example I used a public with a no-homework policy in which I used to teach. We wasted a TON of time in class through mandated tests and couldn’t supplement at home. That is ONE school, and not an entire district. My current school, a parochial school, has a different set-up that allows for a more strategic use of time. This explains how ONE private school is able to get through a lot of material in fewer days using ONE public merely as a benchmark.

Your anecdotal story means nothing.

[Anonymous]

Former public school teacher here: if I subtracted all the time student spent taking PARCC tests and interim tests like MAP, and prepping for those tests (even though we were not known as a test prep-heavy school), we would probably have had a number of school days similar to private schools. PARCC tests alone are something like 6 days. There's just so. much. time. spent. on. testing.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:They have shorter school years and longer recesses. How do they manage to get through their curriculum? Or are they behind public school?

They assign a lot of homework. I teach in a public school and all of the reading in my middle school class is done in school. I either read the texts aloud or play an audiobook. If students took texts home to read, not only would they not read them, they wouldn't bring them back. Very few students do the assigned homework. Most can't read on grade level either. My middle school son goes to a Catholic middle school. He has assigned reading each night plus vocabulary. Every other night he has writing and grammar too.

Agree 100%. I posted earlier in the thread about private schools (mine is also Catholic) assigning more homework and therefore students are able to master material sooner and more efficiently. It is amazing to me how many public school teachers send their kid to Catholic schools. I can't blame them frankly.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:They have shorter school years and longer recesses. How do they manage to get through their curriculum? Or are they behind public school?

They assign a lot of homework. I teach in a public school and all of the reading in my middle school class is done in school. I either read the texts aloud or play an audiobook. If students took texts home to read, not only would they not read them, they wouldn't bring them back. Very few students do the assigned homework. Most can't read on grade level either. My middle school son goes to a Catholic middle school. He has assigned reading each night plus vocabulary. Every other night he has writing and grammar too.

Hahahahahha! My child is at Catholic too and that’s not happening. And it’s not parochial which are notoriously bad. He got more in public, you must have had a very, very bad public.

If your Catholic school isn't delivering and your public school is so much better, why are you there? Go back to the public school forum troll. LOL

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:They have shorter school years and longer recesses. How do they manage to get through their curriculum? Or are they behind public school?

They assign a lot of homework. I teach in a public school and all of the reading in my middle school class is done in school. I either read the texts aloud or play an audiobook. If students took texts home to read, not only would they not read them, they wouldn't bring them back. Very few students do the assigned homework. Most can't read on grade level either. My middle school son goes to a Catholic middle school. He has assigned reading each night plus vocabulary. Every other night he has writing and grammar too.

Hahahahahha! My child is at Catholic too and that’s not happening. And it’s not parochial which are notoriously bad. He got more in public, you must have had a very, very bad public.

NP here. My experience is the opposite. I worked in a public school that spent 15% of the school year on mandated tests (I counted) and had a policy against assigning homework. I now work in a Catholic school that only mandates 3 days of tests a year and encourages meaningful homework. Perhaps we can’t compare ALL public schools to ALL parochial schools. Perhaps we should judge each school on its own merits.

As for how my specific Catholic school gets through material, I believe we are able to make very good use of each school day. Each grade level team scrutinizes the weekly plan to make sure we aren’t straying from standards we are trying to meet. Every activity is targeted and we supplement with strategic at-home assignments.

There isn’t a no homework policy here in public school so that is not relevant.

I disagree. I wrote that each school should be based on its own policies / merits, so it is useless to compare “all” publics versus “all” parochials. As one example I used a public with a no-homework policy in which I used to teach. We wasted a TON of time in class through mandated tests and couldn’t supplement at home. That is ONE school, and not an entire district. My current school, a parochial school, has a different set-up that allows for a more strategic use of time. This explains how ONE private school is able to get through a lot of material in fewer days using ONE public merely as a benchmark.

Your anecdotal story means nothing.

NP I have had kids in both public and Catholic middle school. Public school gives very little homework (MCPS W school). Maybe 20 minutes. My daughter, currently in 8th grade Catholic school spends up to 2 hours on homework. She is much better prepared for HS than my public school son every was. We did move him to Catholic HS and he had so much catch up to do to and had to learn how to actually write well. Luckily he had excellent teachers with small class sizes and was able to rise to the occasion. I don't believe that would have been the case in his W public school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:They have shorter school years and longer recesses. How do they manage to get through their curriculum? Or are they behind public school?

They assign a lot of homework. I teach in a public school and all of the reading in my middle school class is done in school. I either read the texts aloud or play an audiobook. If students took texts home to read, not only would they not read them, they wouldn't bring them back. Very few students do the assigned homework. Most can't read on grade level either. My middle school son goes to a Catholic middle school. He has assigned reading each night plus vocabulary. Every other night he has writing and grammar too.

Hahahahahha! My child is at Catholic too and that’s not happening. And it’s not parochial which are notoriously bad. He got more in public, you must have had a very, very bad public.

If your Catholic school isn't delivering and your public school is so much better, why are you there? Go back to the public school forum troll. LOL

No Catholic school is delivering and you can stop pretending and lying to people that yours does. Go back to trolling, troll. LOL

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:They have shorter school years and longer recesses. How do they manage to get through their curriculum? Or are they behind public school?

They assign a lot of homework. I teach in a public school and all of the reading in my middle school class is done in school. I either read the texts aloud or play an audiobook. If students took texts home to read, not only would they not read them, they wouldn't bring them back. Very few students do the assigned homework. Most can't read on grade level either. My middle school son goes to a Catholic middle school. He has assigned reading each night plus vocabulary. Every other night he has writing and grammar too.

Hahahahahha! My child is at Catholic too and that’s not happening. And it’s not parochial which are notoriously bad. He got more in public, you must have had a very, very bad public.

NP here. My experience is the opposite. I worked in a public school that spent 15% of the school year on mandated tests (I counted) and had a policy against assigning homework. I now work in a Catholic school that only mandates 3 days of tests a year and encourages meaningful homework. Perhaps we can’t compare ALL public schools to ALL parochial schools. Perhaps we should judge each school on its own merits.

As for how my specific Catholic school gets through material, I believe we are able to make very good use of each school day. Each grade level team scrutinizes the weekly plan to make sure we aren’t straying from standards we are trying to meet. Every activity is targeted and we supplement with strategic at-home assignments.

There isn’t a no homework policy here in public school so that is not relevant.

I disagree. I wrote that each school should be based on its own policies / merits, so it is useless to compare “all” publics versus “all” parochials. As one example I used a public with a no-homework policy in which I used to teach. We wasted a TON of time in class through mandated tests and couldn’t supplement at home. That is ONE school, and not an entire district. My current school, a parochial school, has a different set-up that allows for a more strategic use of time. This explains how ONE private school is able to get through a lot of material in fewer days using ONE public merely as a benchmark.

Your anecdotal story means nothing.

NP I have had kids in both public and Catholic middle school. Public school gives very little homework (MCPS W school). Maybe 20 minutes. My daughter, currently in 8th grade Catholic school spends up to 2 hours on homework. She is much better prepared for HS than my public school son every was. We did move him to Catholic HS and he had so much catch up to do to and had to learn how to actually write well. Luckily he had excellent teachers with small class sizes and was able to rise to the occasion. I don't believe that would have been the case in his W public school.

I’ve had children in both as well and what you are saying is simply not true.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:They have shorter school years and longer recesses. How do they manage to get through their curriculum? Or are they behind public school?

They assign a lot of homework. I teach in a public school and all of the reading in my middle school class is done in school. I either read the texts aloud or play an audiobook. If students took texts home to read, not only would they not read them, they wouldn't bring them back. Very few students do the assigned homework. Most can't read on grade level either. My middle school son goes to a Catholic middle school. He has assigned reading each night plus vocabulary. Every other night he has writing and grammar too.

Hahahahahha! My child is at Catholic too and that’s not happening. And it’s not parochial which are notoriously bad. He got more in public, you must have had a very, very bad public.

If your Catholic school isn't delivering and your public school is so much better, why are you there? Go back to the public school forum troll. LOL

No Catholic school is delivering and you can stop pretending and lying to people that yours does. Go back to trolling, troll. LOL

Really? Then why are you here? You are the troll hun. Kind of pathetic actually.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:They have shorter school years and longer recesses. How do they manage to get through their curriculum? Or are they behind public school?

They assign a lot of homework. I teach in a public school and all of the reading in my middle school class is done in school. I either read the texts aloud or play an audiobook. If students took texts home to read, not only would they not read them, they wouldn't bring them back. Very few students do the assigned homework. Most can't read on grade level either. My middle school son goes to a Catholic middle school. He has assigned reading each night plus vocabulary. Every other night he has writing and grammar too.

Hahahahahha! My child is at Catholic too and that’s not happening. And it’s not parochial which are notoriously bad. He got more in public, you must have had a very, very bad public.

NP here. My experience is the opposite. I worked in a public school that spent 15% of the school year on mandated tests (I counted) and had a policy against assigning homework. I now work in a Catholic school that only mandates 3 days of tests a year and encourages meaningful homework. Perhaps we can’t compare ALL public schools to ALL parochial schools. Perhaps we should judge each school on its own merits.

As for how my specific Catholic school gets through material, I believe we are able to make very good use of each school day. Each grade level team scrutinizes the weekly plan to make sure we aren’t straying from standards we are trying to meet. Every activity is targeted and we supplement with strategic at-home assignments.

There isn’t a no homework policy here in public school so that is not relevant.

I disagree. I wrote that each school should be based on its own policies / merits, so it is useless to compare “all” publics versus “all” parochials. As one example I used a public with a no-homework policy in which I used to teach. We wasted a TON of time in class through mandated tests and couldn’t supplement at home. That is ONE school, and not an entire district. My current school, a parochial school, has a different set-up that allows for a more strategic use of time. This explains how ONE private school is able to get through a lot of material in fewer days using ONE public merely as a benchmark.

Your anecdotal story means nothing.

NP I have had kids in both public and Catholic middle school. Public school gives very little homework (MCPS W school). Maybe 20 minutes. My daughter, currently in 8th grade Catholic school spends up to 2 hours on homework. She is much better prepared for HS than my public school son every was. We did move him to Catholic HS and he had so much catch up to do to and had to learn how to actually write well. Luckily he had excellent teachers with small class sizes and was able to rise to the occasion. I don't believe that would have been the case in his W public school.

Baloney, this stuff you name is uncreative. It just gets repeated and has no meaning. Excellent teachers-doubt it as privates don’t pay as well and other reasons and you may can’t back up that they are “excellent.” Smaller class size-that’s about the only better thing and meh. Writing well-big fat lie and it’s just the typical reason that just automatically gets repeated. Nothing of substance. These are all just the same tired “reasons” parent try to justify the cost.