Private v Public, can someone summarize the difference?

[Anonymous]

^If you get in off the lottery….which is getting harder and harder each year.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We switched from public to private this year. My previously straight A student is now a solid D. Completely unprepared for a single class, in spite of doing homework for hours every night.

Nice. What schools?

[Anonymous]

We moved from public to private last year, and agree with the post below, except our private school is fairly diverse (at least in terms of race/ethnicity), and the kids socialize in a bit more integrated way than in the public school. We are also getting better support from a learning specialist than we got in public school. A big downside of private school, other than the cost, is that kids usually don't live near each other and it's much harder to get together after school. In contrast, all the kids from our child's public school live nearby and our child still socializes more with them than with kids from the private school.

Anonymous wrote:We moved to private last year, HS students after 10 years in public. For us, the big differences are:

Class size - our public usually had 35 in their HS classes, our private caps at 15

School size - from well over 2,500 to 1,000 for the entire school

Responsiveness - we had to call the school about something relatively minor and it was addressed/resolved in less than 24 hours. In public it can take days to get an answer, longer to set up a meeting, and even longer for any change to happen

Diversity- our public school had more (races socioeconomic, religion, just about every metric you can think of)

[Anonymous]

private school: pay to be a client

public school: don't pay, be treated like you're at the DMV

[Anonymous]

My MCPS (magnet) public kid is friends with a DC Private Kid in college (T10). They both agree she is much more prepared for college.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My MCPS (magnet) public kid is friends with a DC Private Kid in college (T10). They both agree she is much more prepared for college.

Sorry, which one is better prepared? The MCPS kid?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My MCPS (magnet) public kid is friends with a DC Private Kid in college (T10). They both agree she is much more prepared for college.

Sorry, which one is better prepared? The MCPS kid?

Of course PP will say that. She has to justify her decision!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We switched from public to private this year. My previously straight A student is now a solid D. Completely unprepared for a single class, in spite of doing homework for hours every night.

Nice. What schools?

I'm curious about this too. I also wonder the age of your child and the impact of covid on mental health. I think it (covid) is silently sucking the teens emotional vitality.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My MCPS (magnet) public kid is friends with a DC Private Kid in college (T10). They both agree she is much more prepared for college.

Sorry, which one is better prepared? The MCPS kid?

Of course PP will say that. She has to justify her decision!

I genuinely can't figure out which one is better prepared based on PP's post.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We switched from public to private this year. My previously straight A student is now a solid D. Completely unprepared for a single class, in spite of doing homework for hours every night.

Nice. What schools?

I'm curious about this too. I also wonder the age of your child and the impact of covid on mental health. I think it (covid) is silently sucking the teens emotional vitality.

PP are you the former Deal parent who posted a few days ago?

[Anonymous]

The probability of your child getting shot in a private school is substantially lower. I can’t think of one private school mass shooting or random shooting. And generally smaller classes and cleaner classrooms.

[Anonymous]

OP, be mindful that you have posted this in the private schools forum. You will get different answers in another forum.

[Anonymous]

I’m a teacher who switched from teaching in a public school to a private school. My own children attend private schools. From my experience (20 years and 3 schools), the private schools are able to meet individual student’s needs with ease and personalized care. I will not bash public schools because I have worked with many wonderful professionals in public school settings. I do think, however, that public school teachers are hindered by massive, unresponsive systems. Private schools can respond more quickly and effectively.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We switched from public to private this year. My previously straight A student is now a solid D. Completely unprepared for a single class, in spite of doing homework for hours every night.

Nice. What schools?

I'm curious about this too. I also wonder the age of your child and the impact of covid on mental health. I think it (covid) is silently sucking the teens emotional vitality.

PP are you the former Deal parent who posted a few days ago?

No, I have kids out of state at an equivalent to Big 3, where they’ve been lifers. There was a suicide in the high school this year, which was devastating to the community, which is very small. I can’t help but wonder if it is stress related to Covid and all that the pandemic brought with it. I’m trying so hard to make everything “normal” for my kids, but their socialization really suffers. I think high school is especially tough given how much they develop socially during this time. If kids are also changing schools and friends, then a drop in grades may signify nothing more than the kid is stressed by the changes.

[Anonymous]

Here's a big difference - at my kids' private the lowest level is at grade level and there are no kids with any learning issues beyond mild adhd or other very mild issues that don't keep them below grade level. At our former public school my kids wanted to go faster but the class had a lot of kids who couldn't and the teachers always had to help a lot of other kids keep up.

There are some real downsides to not having any peers in school who are slow, our private school is extremely competitive and kids who would be average in another setting feel like they're slow or bad students. Also, some of the lifers have had zero life experiences with people with learning or other disabilities and I wonder how they will interact later in the real world.