Assessing proficiency in private schools

[Anonymous]

Hello all,

Are there any assessments of private school students (that are made public) on their English and Maths proficiency, akin to the DCAS in DCPS? I suspect that it is unlikely that many schools would release such scores, but I'm trying to find some objective way to compare private school achievement with that in public school before we decide on where to send our DD in a year.

Many thanks!

[Anonymous]

No. At least not to my knowledge. One measure is placement, privates for schools that run through Grade 8 and college for schools that go through Grade 12.

[Anonymous]

Most private schools do some sort of standardized achievement testing yearly, at least through grade 6, but the results are not made public. I don't know whether they would be willing to share results with an applicant.

[Anonymous]

My kids took the ERBs in private ES. But the results, in terms of something useful like "average performance by all the kids in a given grade," were not made public. And my sense is the results will never be made public, by any private school in the area.

Some private HS publish average SAT scores. If your kid is in a K-6 or a K-8 they will take the SSATs or ISEEs (sp?) for entrance into a the next private MS or HS, but I've never seen these published.

As a PP said, the only other possible measure is placement. It represents a measurable "outcome" of sorts. But with important caveats. For example, I've heard about one K-8 feeder school that sends a lot of kids to a particular "top 5" because of the great relationship between the admissions folks at the two schools (which will remain nameless here forevermore, as the poet said). Or whether some of those kids from elite schools got into Ivies as legacies, because parents of kids in these schools are statistically more likely to have gone to Ivies themselves.

[Anonymous]

I haven't been able to find any sources for this information, and it's a frustration for us as well. I would have thought (prior to looking) that being an accredited school meeting state standards would require a record of test performance somewhere. However, that may only be true if the school accepts state or federal funding (a la single sex colleges that continue by not accepting federal funds).

At any rate, I haven't been able to find a source for this information for MD privates at all.

[Anonymous]

This mainly applies to Catholic schools, but the Blue Ribbon applications contain standardized test scores.

[Anonymous]

14:15 Yes on the placement caveats, placement depends on K-8 school director's relationships with other schools. (There are not too many, Lowell, St. Patrick's, Sheridan.) Ditto college, where legacy status is also a factor.

[Anonymous]

I meant to write "can depend" -- they are not all powerful!

[Anonymous]

Yopur private school should share the class average ERB results with you - ours does. It will tell you how well the schools is teaching each subject/section. Its the BESTway to determine how the school is doing and where your child falls in his/her class.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Yopur private school should share the class average ERB results with you - ours does. It will tell you how well the schools is teaching each subject/section. Its the BESTway to determine how the school is doing and where your child falls in his/her class.

Our school shared it's own results among school families. If they share with outsiders, that's great.

The ERB results include comparisons with, as I recall, urban/suburban kids and kids nationwide who take the ERB (private school kids). It's not a direct comparison with publics, because it's a different test. But it's still helpful.

[Anonymous]

I didn't know private schools are also obssessed with standardized tests guarding these annual results as some trade secret. What is the purpose of this annual ritual of standardized tests? Wouldn't these tests be superfluous and a waste since the education and teaching in these schools are first-rate and vastly superior?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Yopur private school should share the class average ERB results with you - ours does. It will tell you how well the schools is teaching each subject/section. Its the BESTway to determine how the school is doing and where your child falls in his/her class.

Our school shared it's own results among school families. If they share with outsiders, that's great.

Yes, I was going to ask whether anyone had success getting this information before enrolling. I would expect (hope) that it would be available once your child is already there, but it seems difficult to get it ahead of time.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I didn't know private schools are also obssessed with standardized tests guarding these annual results as some trade secret. What is the purpose of this annual ritual of standardized tests? Wouldn't these tests be superfluous and a waste since the education and teaching in these schools are first-rate and vastly superior?

I think the ERBs may be used for schools to renew their accreditation, but somebody may want to correct me here.

To our amazement, the time lost to the ERBs in private was about the same as the time lost to the MSAs in public. I.e., about a week during which there was little actual teaching that would stress precious kiddie brain cells, zero homework, and lots of letters home about the importance of getting a good night's sleep and a good breakfast. It's just that the ERBs are a state secret and the MSAs are used for punitive measures against schools, but I digress.

You can't say with confidence that "the education and teaching in these [private] schools are first-rate and vastly superior." There are some great publics, and some crummy privates.

[Anonymous]

In fact, if the privates are so "first-rate and vastly superior", you'd think they'd be trumpeting their ERB scores against the national averages (which the ERB folks helpful provide). But silence....

[Anonymous]

Thanks, but why would one use a standardized test like ERB for accreditation purposes in a private school...similar to the public school setting? Are these yardsticks that critical to setting standards in the private educational sector?