Is Little Langley worth the $$$

[Anonymous]

It costs as much as a K-12 but you also get the pleasure of going through the application process AGAIN. What is their special sauce, the thing that sets it apart vs. public schools? Genuinely curious, we may consider applying.

[Anonymous]

Have you searched for the billion other threads on this topic?

[Anonymous]

Yes

[Anonymous]

No

[Anonymous]

Worth it is all relative - what are you solving for? We moved our kids to private during covid to be in school. That was worth it. We've stayed for the smaller class sizes, but I'm not thrilled with the school socially so we might pivot the kids back to public.

[Anonymous]

Compared to the going rate of top privates in the area, yes it’s worth it. Just about all the schools regularly discussed in DCUM are overpriced.

[Anonymous]

If the public schools weren’t failing our kids, then maybe it wouldn’t be worth it, but Langley solves for the faults in the public school right now. We started sending our kids to Langley before the pandemic when the teacher couldn’t control the unruly kids in the classroom (in AAP) and we were told that there was nothing we could do about it. And then we now have watched the public school fail in the pandemic (Langley was open the whole time), fail in class sizes (23-26 kids is not an acceptable class size to me in 1st grade with one teacher), and fail to give kids the emotional and academic support they need. Langley has a lot of resources and they are able make it so you don’t have to worry about things like that. At back to school night, Langley noted that they have their biggest student body size ever and the highest retention rate ever (I think it was 96%). Is it perfect? No. But I read somewhere on this board that the difference is like dealing with the DMV vs returning something at Nordstrom’s - if everything goes well, then the DMV isn’t that bad, but the second something goes wrong, then you want better customer service and you won’t get that at public school. But “worth” is a very very personal question.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If the public schools weren’t failing our kids, then maybe it wouldn’t be worth it, but Langley solves for the faults in the public school right now. We started sending our kids to Langley before the pandemic when the teacher couldn’t control the unruly kids in the classroom (in AAP) and we were told that there was nothing we could do about it. And then we now have watched the public school fail in the pandemic (Langley was open the whole time), fail in class sizes (23-26 kids is not an acceptable class size to me in 1st grade with one teacher), and fail to give kids the emotional and academic support they need. Langley has a lot of resources and they are able make it so you don’t have to worry about things like that. At back to school night, Langley noted that they have their biggest student body size ever and the highest retention rate ever (I think it was 96%). Is it perfect? No. But I read somewhere on this board that the difference is like dealing with the DMV vs returning something at Nordstrom’s - if everything goes well, then the DMV isn’t that bad, but the second something goes wrong, then you want better customer service and you won’t get that at public school. But “worth” is a very very personal question.

This is a very, very good analogy. Some people cannot afford Norstrom so it's not even in the cards. If you can easily afford $42k per kid per year, then sure it's probably a lot better than your average public school. If you can't easily afford that and save for retirement, then I'd say no.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Worth it is all relative - what are you solving for? We moved our kids to private during covid to be in school. That was worth it. We've stayed for the smaller class sizes, but I'm not thrilled with the school socially so we might pivot the kids back to public.

What do you not like about it socially?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If the public schools weren’t failing our kids, then maybe it wouldn’t be worth it, but Langley solves for the faults in the public school right now. We started sending our kids to Langley before the pandemic when the teacher couldn’t control the unruly kids in the classroom (in AAP) and we were told that there was nothing we could do about it. And then we now have watched the public school fail in the pandemic (Langley was open the whole time), fail in class sizes (23-26 kids is not an acceptable class size to me in 1st grade with one teacher), and fail to give kids the emotional and academic support they need. Langley has a lot of resources and they are able make it so you don’t have to worry about things like that. At back to school night, Langley noted that they have their biggest student body size ever and the highest retention rate ever (I think it was 96%). Is it perfect? No. But I read somewhere on this board that the difference is like dealing with the DMV vs returning something at Nordstrom’s - if everything goes well, then the DMV isn’t that bad, but the second something goes wrong, then you want better customer service and you won’t get that at public school. But “worth” is a very very personal question.

Is there actually good academic support at Langley? My child has ADHD and is medicated but still needs some supports in elementary.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Have you searched for the billion other threads on this topic?

I was just going to post this!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If the public schools weren’t failing our kids, then maybe it wouldn’t be worth it, but Langley solves for the faults in the public school right now. We started sending our kids to Langley before the pandemic when the teacher couldn’t control the unruly kids in the classroom (in AAP) and we were told that there was nothing we could do about it. And then we now have watched the public school fail in the pandemic (Langley was open the whole time), fail in class sizes (23-26 kids is not an acceptable class size to me in 1st grade with one teacher), and fail to give kids the emotional and academic support they need. Langley has a lot of resources and they are able make it so you don’t have to worry about things like that. At back to school night, Langley noted that they have their biggest student body size ever and the highest retention rate ever (I think it was 96%). Is it perfect? No. But I read somewhere on this board that the difference is like dealing with the DMV vs returning something at Nordstrom’s - if everything goes well, then the DMV isn’t that bad, but the second something goes wrong, then you want better customer service and you won’t get that at public school. But “worth” is a very very personal question.

Is there actually good academic support at Langley? My child has ADHD and is medicated but still needs some supports in elementary.

There are great academic supports - the reading specialists, especially in the Lower School, are very good. However, without knowing what additional supports you are looking you, you would need to talk to the school. That said, they are not a public school and not required to provide additional classroom accommodations, so I do know that if Langley feels like that can't accommodate your child and it is at the detriment to your child and the others in the classroom, they do suggest that some kids leave.

[Anonymous]

I like Langley because the school and classes are smaller than these mega public schools. My children could participate in most activities- sports, theater, robotics, because they weren’t competing against 400 kids for 1 spot on the team.

[Anonymous]

We left public for Langley before the Pandemic and have been very pleased. We actually like the K-8 model because it gives us an opportunity to look at high schools with a much better understanding of the type of children we have. For example, we know much more about where our children's interest really are with regard to sports, theater and music. Different private schools offer more opportunity in different areas. Our son doesn't have any interest in Football so that means certain schools that do not have football are still in the mix for our son whereas they might not be for other families. Our kids may go to different high schools. One may go single sex and the other may not. Langley works with families on the application and admissions process during the transition to help families make the best choices for their children and the family.

[Anonymous]

Helpful to read.