MCPS to private school - what to expect?

[Anonymous]

Considering moving DC to private middle school from MCPS - what do you wish you knew if you made the same move? What if we would consider moving DC back to MCPS public HS? What to look out for/what did you wish you knew? Thanks!

[Anonymous]

What are you looking for?
I was looking for small class sizes and less violence than our local mcps MS.
We have great teachers who care about my kid, but we had great teachers in mcps elementary school too.
I’ve made friends but I volunteer at school when I can do made friends that way at first.
My kid made friends easily too but that’s not usually an issue for her.
I wasn’t expecting all the fundraising on top of tuition but I know now that’s pretty standard.

[Anonymous]

Same - calmer and safer environment with more focus on learning and social/emotional support and where we can communicate easier with teachers if needed around DC's learning needs.

[Anonymous]

My daughter's good friend transferred from MoCo public to private and was surprised at the amount of attention she received in class. You can't fly under the radar as much in a private.

[Anonymous]

My DD wasn't used to everything she completed in class being graded and not being allowed retakes on quizzes/tests.

I think this is a great thing, but it took her a few months to get used to.

[Anonymous]

Not being able to fly under the radar in class, not being able to take re-takes, teachers being accessible if there are issues, school being able to make policy changes when things are not working vs all of MCPS making the change (that goes for snow day decisions too). I still remember being blown away in our first parent-teacher conference how well our DD's teacher knew her. Understood who she was as a learner, but also just knew her as a person as well. Both DCs really enjoyed being able to play sports because the hurdle for making the team wasn't as high given crazy number of kids who came out for the teams.

[Anonymous]

Some of the downsides of private school, less transparency, families are spread out more making get together harder. There are kids who transfer back to public for HS, but this is a very small majority.

[Anonymous]

Homework load was the biggest adjustment

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Homework load was the biggest adjustment

What's the typical HW load in middle school at MCPS vs a private school?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Homework load was the biggest adjustment

What's the typical HW load in middle school at MCPS vs a private school?

DC moved from public to private in MS. Went from 0 - 15 minutes of HW in public to 1 hr in private. Once he learned to use study hall time and stay on top of his work, it's been smooth sailing, but the first year was a tough adjustment.

[Anonymous]

0-15 minutes was DS’s workload at MCPS even through 8th. It was crazy. Freshman year private HS jumped to 1.5 hours per night on average which seems much more reasonable at that age, if a little light. DD started private in MS and typically had 1-1.5 hours per night by 8th grade then 1-2 hours for freshman/sophomore year. Block schedule was key to managing homework load in HS.

[Anonymous]

Million dollar question - does a student really need 1 hour of HW a night in middle school, or is 0-15 minutes ok? If it's reviewing concepts like in language or math, and not just busywork, that makes sense. How does MCPS not assign math or language hw?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Million dollar question - does a student really need 1 hour of HW a night in middle school, or is 0-15 minutes ok? If it's reviewing concepts like in language or math, and not just busywork, that makes sense. How does MCPS not assign math or language hw?

I have a 7th grader who went FCPS -> private, and from no homework in 6th to 1+ hour a night. For her, we already knew from 6th grade that not reviewing math concepts was causing issues. She understood everything just fine as it was taught, but she'd make careless mistakes because she would forget due to lack of practice. For language arts she read all the time but really didn't feel comfortable with the basic literary analysis they do in elementary school because it was never explicitly taught and practiced - she was just expected to kind of do it. With writing she was told things like "vary your sentence structure" without being taught enough grammar to even know what that meant. Social studies concepts never stuck because most social studies learning was projects. She would know her particular project OK, but quickly forget whatever her classmates were supposed to be "teaching" the class through their projects. Science was basically non-existent.

Now there's just a lot more committing basic concepts to memory that form a basis for mastery of each of the subjects. She's having to catch up to her peers that have been at the school for longer and who committed some of these concepts to memory in elementary school (especially in science and grammar). What is review for them is sometimes initial learning for her. That makes the learning curve steep, but at least she's getting it before high school.

I don't expect the load to go down next year because the classes will be harder, but I expect each class to take less time in the evenings.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Million dollar question - does a student really need 1 hour of HW a night in middle school, or is 0-15 minutes ok? If it's reviewing concepts like in language or math, and not just busywork, that makes sense. How does MCPS not assign math or language hw?

I have a 7th grader who went FCPS -> private, and from no homework in 6th to 1+ hour a night. For her, we already knew from 6th grade that not reviewing math concepts was causing issues. She understood everything just fine as it was taught, but she'd make careless mistakes because she would forget due to lack of practice. For language arts she read all the time but really didn't feel comfortable with the basic literary analysis they do in elementary school because it was never explicitly taught and practiced - she was just expected to kind of do it. With writing she was told things like "vary your sentence structure" without being taught enough grammar to even know what that meant. Social studies concepts never stuck because most social studies learning was projects. She would know her particular project OK, but quickly forget whatever her classmates were supposed to be "teaching" the class through their projects. Science was basically non-existent.

Now there's just a lot more committing basic concepts to memory that form a basis for mastery of each of the subjects. She's having to catch up to her peers that have been at the school for longer and who committed some of these concepts to memory in elementary school (especially in science and grammar). What is review for them is sometimes initial learning for her. That makes the learning curve steep, but at least she's getting it before high school.

This is a great analysis and makes a lot of sense. Thanks!

I don't expect the load to go down next year because the classes will be harder, but I expect each class to take less time in the evenings.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Million dollar question - does a student really need 1 hour of HW a night in middle school, or is 0-15 minutes ok? If it's reviewing concepts like in language or math, and not just busywork, that makes sense. How does MCPS not assign math or language hw?

My kid's homework in private middle school was never "busy work." Think of it as home learning, not homework. If you didn't do the learning required at home, you could not keep up in class.