Private High School That Doesn't Have Insane Levels of Homework

[Anonymous]

DD attends a "W" school in MoCo and is in advanced and AP classes. Overall, we think the quality of instruction is good, but the class sizes are large (31 kids and up) and the homework levels are insane. She's up until midnight most nights doing homework and spends about two-thirds of her weekend time on homework, too.

Is there a decent private high school alternative in Maryland or NW DC with a good academic reputation and yet the homework load is more reasonable? I'm thinking smaller class sizes and more accessible teachers would be helpful to her, too.

I realize that moving to private in high school can be a tough proposition because most don't regularly have open slots after 9th grade.

TIA for any guidance you can provide.

[Anonymous]

What kind of academic reputation are you looking for?

Both my kids go to single gender Catholic high schools with block schedules. They are both able to manage it because the block schedule allows them to plan their weeknights a little and there is a free period for catchup/get ahead every other day.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:What kind of academic reputation are you looking for?

Both my kids go to single gender Catholic high schools with block schedules. They are both able to manage it because the block schedule allows them to plan their weeknights a little and there is a free period for catchup/get ahead every other day.

Forgot to add- they both spend about 1-2 hrs a night and hardly anything weekends except the odd project every now and then.

[Anonymous]

This was asked earlier in the year and lots of answers provided.

https://www.dcurbanmom.com/jforum/posts/list/1193908.page

[Anonymous]

OP - if your DC takes the most rigorous path in private school - they will have a lot of homework there too. You might want to think about schedule balance whether you move schools or not.

However - as pp noted - block schedules where students don't have the same class every day can help spread things out a little (but not if teachers give 2 days worth of homework each time....)

[Anonymous]

This topic was addressed a few weeks ago also.

https://www.dcurbanmom.com/jforum/posts/list/1193908.page

[Anonymous]

There are lots of places where you can have a schedule without insane amounts of homework. But that depends on not taking the most rigorous path available. If you take a path packed with AP and advanced classes, you are going to end with a lot of homework everywhere

[Anonymous]

Burke has little homework

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This was asked earlier in the year and lots of answers provided.

https://www.dcurbanmom.com/jforum/posts/list/1193908.page

OP here. I was unaware of this previous thread. Thanks to the PPs who posted it here!

[Anonymous]

DD had a block schedule and that was a game changer. More similar to college in terms of not having same classes every day and required planning. Allowed her some flexibility which was key when juggling sports and other ECs.

[Anonymous]

Maret, Burke and Field.

[Anonymous]

OP, you can probably keep your daughter in the same school and cut down on her workload.

I've had two kids in two different DCC MCPS high schools. They take the hardest classes available to them and still only have half an hour to an hour of homework a night. Their unweighted GPAs are/were both in the 3.8 range and weighted around 4.6.

Does your kid do a lot of activities? Mine do not. They get plenty of sleep.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP, you can probably keep your daughter in the same school and cut down on her workload.

I've had two kids in two different DCC MCPS high schools. They take the hardest classes available to them and still only have half an hour to an hour of homework a night. Their unweighted GPAs are/were both in the 3.8 range and weighted around 4.6.

Does your kid do a lot of activities? Mine do not. They get plenty of sleep.

OP said her DC is at a W school in MoCo - so highest rigor will be a boatload of AP classes. This comes with a lot of work. OPs student would need to cut back on the number of AP courses in order to achieve a lighter homework load at her current school.

[Anonymous]

OP again. Spent some time reading the previous thread and this one -- thank you for all the replies.

I am coming around to the idea that the problem is more about her hard class schedule than about the school, though I remain convinced that a private high school with smaller classes and more accessible teachers could be helpful.

On the other hand, a few schools -- Field, Burke -- seem to consistently surface as campuses with a less breakneck approach to homework levels.

Definitely food for thought. We will talk to her about whether she would like to dial back the difficulty levels in some of her classes as a first resort (rather than changing schools).

And maybe find a time management tutor; if anyone has names to recommend on that front, I'm all ears.

Thanks again, everyone.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP, you can probably keep your daughter in the same school and cut down on her workload.

I've had two kids in two different DCC MCPS high schools. They take the hardest classes available to them and still only have half an hour to an hour of homework a night. Their unweighted GPAs are/were both in the 3.8 range and weighted around 4.6.

Does your kid do a lot of activities? Mine do not. They get plenty of sleep.

OP said her DC is at a W school in MoCo - so highest rigor will be a boatload of AP classes. This comes with a lot of work. OPs student would need to cut back on the number of AP courses in order to achieve a lighter homework load at her current school.

Maybe, but my kids take/took almost all AP or IB. One is in a STEM magnet, taking multivariable calculus this year, and has also taken two AP English classes and five AP social science classes in addition to his many AP STEM classes. I guess it's possible the same classes are harder at the W school than at the DCC school, but it's the same school system.

I suspect the issue is a) OP's kid is probably aiming for a 4.00 UW and b) OP's kid probably spends a lot of time doing sports or other activities.

It's also possible her kid wastes a lot of time while doing homework because she's doing other things online.

I went to a top private and it was waaaaaaaaay more work than my kids have ever had, even the one in the highly regarded STEM Magnet who also takes AP English/Social Science classes.

But if you can afford private, I'd go for it so your kid can learn how to write. The lack of writing instruction/feedback at MCPS is horrific. But don't switch to private because you think it will be less work.