Switched from Private to Public and Am Wondering If I Made the Right Choice

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We switched to public from private for early elementary. We were looking for more experienced teachers than what our private school offered, as well as slightly larger class sizes so my DD would have more friend options. However, some of the things I have noticed have caused me to wonder whether we made the right decision, namely:

1) Very little feedback from the teacher - sometimes my DD will send home corrected work with low scores - one or two assignments even resulted in 0's. But there is no feedback from the teacher during the week or expression of concern about her score. I get all of her corrected work back once a week, usually on a Friday and then will follow up with the teacher the next week. I just feel like if my kid tanked an assignment or clearly doesn't understand something that happened on Monday, I would love to know then instead of waiting 5 days until the week is over and she is even more lost.

2) Kids grading each other's work and the teachers never see it. Every day the kids switch papers and grade each other's homework. One day my DD did her homework but had done a couple of problems incorrectly and at home, we were't sure where she had gone wrong. I told her to just let the teacher know once she turned in her homework so she could get help. She said the teacher never sees the homework and never provides the correct answers. The kids just review each other's work and put a checkmark next to each other's work and it comes right back home. The kids correcting each others' work has led to kids being bullied because their peers see and correct their work.

3) There are quite a few kids who clearly have behavioral problems coupled with serious learning disabilities and that are quite disruptive. Initially, my DD had lots of difficulty concentrating. We would ask that she be moved away from particularly distracting kids, however, there are enough of these kids that it's hard to avoid. I am not talking about a kid being chatty - it is beyond that - i.e., randomly and constantly yelling at the top of their lungs; urinating randomly in inappropriate places; not honoring personal space, etc.

4) Constant worksheets! Every week, I swear there are no fewer than 25 worksheets stuffed inside of her folder. She constantly complains that she's bored and I believe it's because of the monotony and rigidity of the curriculum.

My DD was excited about the new school for about a month, stopped being excited thereafter and now for the past month, just asks not to go to school or makes up random illnesses or injuries so that I will keep her home. She's made one good friend but I think feels swallowed up in the overall environment and has lost some of her confidence.

In this situation, would you stick it out and hope it gets better or look into going back to private school?

Unfortunately this is how public school is like now.

[Anonymous]

I wasn't surprised by any of this except the urinating in inappropriate places. Are kids actually peeing all over the classroom? That's insane (and disgusting).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The only thing that surprises me is that there is any homework at all.

I don't understand this comment. Our kid had little to zero homework at private school through like 3rd grade (which seems like is the age group for OP). That was part of the philosophy...I assume it's prevalent at many private schools.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I wasn't surprised by any of this except the urinating in inappropriate places. Are kids actually peeing all over the classroom? That's insane (and disgusting).

Welcome to public school. Also, it doesn't stop in elementary school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I wasn't surprised by any of this except the urinating in inappropriate places. Are kids actually peeing all over the classroom? That's insane (and disgusting).

I've posted about this before, but when I subbed lower elementary school, I had multiple kids peeing during the school day, right in their clothing. Worse, when I sent them to the nurse, the nurse sent them right back to the classroom in wet clothes. I had them sit on papertowels.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We switched to public from private for early elementary. We were looking for more experienced teachers than what our private school offered, as well as slightly larger class sizes so my DD would have more friend options. However, some of the things I have noticed have caused me to wonder whether we made the right decision, namely:

1) Very little feedback from the teacher - sometimes my DD will send home corrected work with low scores - one or two assignments even resulted in 0's. But there is no feedback from the teacher during the week or expression of concern about her score. I get all of her corrected work back once a week, usually on a Friday and then will follow up with the teacher the next week. I just feel like if my kid tanked an assignment or clearly doesn't understand something that happened on Monday, I would love to know then instead of waiting 5 days until the week is over and she is even more lost.

2) Kids grading each other's work and the teachers never see it. Every day the kids switch papers and grade each other's homework. One day my DD did her homework but had done a couple of problems incorrectly and at home, we were't sure where she had gone wrong. I told her to just let the teacher know once she turned in her homework so she could get help. She said the teacher never sees the homework and never provides the correct answers. The kids just review each other's work and put a checkmark next to each other's work and it comes right back home. The kids correcting each others' work has led to kids being bullied because their peers see and correct their work.

3) There are quite a few kids who clearly have behavioral problems coupled with serious learning disabilities and that are quite disruptive. Initially, my DD had lots of difficulty concentrating. We would ask that she be moved away from particularly distracting kids, however, there are enough of these kids that it's hard to avoid. I am not talking about a kid being chatty - it is beyond that - i.e., randomly and constantly yelling at the top of their lungs; urinating randomly in inappropriate places; not honoring personal space, etc.

4) Constant worksheets! Every week, I swear there are no fewer than 25 worksheets stuffed inside of her folder. She constantly complains that she's bored and I believe it's because of the monotony and rigidity of the curriculum.

My DD was excited about the new school for about a month, stopped being excited thereafter and now for the past month, just asks not to go to school or makes up random illnesses or injuries so that I will keep her home. She's made one good friend but I think feels swallowed up in the overall environment and has lost some of her confidence.

In this situation, would you stick it out and hope it gets better or look into going back to private school?

A few things to consider:

1. Receiving all of a child's work once a week is a pretty good record for "feedback".

2. I attended private school, and we corrected one another's work every day. I recall the teacher putting all of the scores in her grading book, but that seems very normal to me.

3. In this no-textbook era, I have found more use of worksheets as well because teachers don't have other materials. I'm afraid this has become widespread, even outside the U.S.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We switched to public from private for early elementary. We were looking for more experienced teachers than what our private school offered, as well as slightly larger class sizes so my DD would have more friend options. However, some of the things I have noticed have caused me to wonder whether we made the right decision, namely:

1) Very little feedback from the teacher - sometimes my DD will send home corrected work with low scores - one or two assignments even resulted in 0's. But there is no feedback from the teacher during the week or expression of concern about her score. I get all of her corrected work back once a week, usually on a Friday and then will follow up with the teacher the next week. I just feel like if my kid tanked an assignment or clearly doesn't understand something that happened on Monday, I would love to know then instead of waiting 5 days until the week is over and she is even more lost.

2) Kids grading each other's work and the teachers never see it. Every day the kids switch papers and grade each other's homework. One day my DD did her homework but had done a couple of problems incorrectly and at home, we were't sure where she had gone wrong. I told her to just let the teacher know once she turned in her homework so she could get help. She said the teacher never sees the homework and never provides the correct answers. The kids just review each other's work and put a checkmark next to each other's work and it comes right back home. The kids correcting each others' work has led to kids being bullied because their peers see and correct their work.

3) There are quite a few kids who clearly have behavioral problems coupled with serious learning disabilities and that are quite disruptive. Initially, my DD had lots of difficulty concentrating. We would ask that she be moved away from particularly distracting kids, however, there are enough of these kids that it's hard to avoid. I am not talking about a kid being chatty - it is beyond that - i.e., randomly and constantly yelling at the top of their lungs; urinating randomly in inappropriate places; not honoring personal space, etc.

4) Constant worksheets! Every week, I swear there are no fewer than 25 worksheets stuffed inside of her folder. She constantly complains that she's bored and I believe it's because of the monotony and rigidity of the curriculum.

My DD was excited about the new school for about a month, stopped being excited thereafter and now for the past month, just asks not to go to school or makes up random illnesses or injuries so that I will keep her home. She's made one good friend but I think feels swallowed up in the overall environment and has lost some of her confidence.

In this situation, would you stick it out and hope it gets better or look into going back to private school?

A few things to consider:

1. Receiving all of a child's work once a week is a pretty good record for "feedback".

2. I attended private school, and we corrected one another's work every day. I recall the teacher putting all of the scores in her grading book, but that seems very normal to me.

3. In this no-textbook era, I have found more use of worksheets as well because teachers don't have other materials. I'm afraid this has become widespread, even outside the U.S.

1. Yes, once a week seems fine to me, public or private! Our private has an online portal where you can check grades real time with each assignment and test, which I like, but graded work doesn't come home every single day. I'm told the local public systems also do grade portals with constant parent access, but not until sometime in middle school.

2. Agree, correcting each other's (or your own) work is normal, but only for small assignments graded for completion, or assignments with only 1 clear answer like grammar worksheets or math problems. Tests, quizzes, and written work shouldn't be graded this way.

3. Our private has textbooks, and the kids still use worksheets. Gosh, so many worksheets. Partly it's so the kids don't have to lug around all of the textbooks plus workbooks. It makes more sense for the teacher to give the one or two pages from the workbook rather than have them carry the whole book. I think worksheets are fine as long as they are part of a planned curriculum and not one-off sheets that are printed off TPT and other websites with no longterm goal.

[Anonymous]

What grade is your kid in, OP? I actually don't think expecting a teacher to reach out mid-week about one messed up assignment is realistic at all -- especially a public school with a range of academic levels -- but really a private school either. Mid week about one assignment when it sounds like there are lots of them?

[Anonymous]

OP, between my three kids, I have experience at seven different schools (2 DCPS, 1 DC charter, 4 privates). The variability due to specific school, specific teacher, specific kid is vast, so your child may have a completely different experience next year if you stay in public and some of the things you dislike about this year might not be fixed with a move to private. I would talk to as many other parents as you can to learn what their experiences were (knowing yours may be different just because your child is unique and you may have different expectations). What is undoubtedly different about private is that you will pay tuition and they can get rid of problematic students more easily. But even there, one of the privates was full of misbehaving, disruptive students so private isn't even a full guarantee for that. Good luck.