FAQ: Comparing Public versus Private School Education
![[Post New]](/jforum/templates/default/images/icon_minipost_new.gif){kind=icon}
Anonymous
| In private schools, teachers and admin tend to be much more responsive to parent queries. Emails get responses within a few hours, typically. |
Anonymous
|
I agree with other posts, and here are mine
Public: + neighborhood -- free per neighborhood + some are nearer, so more free time, less travel time + can stand out b/c not all students are equally motivated - can get lost in crowd, very crowded in some districts - teach to the test--can be very mechanical - teacher quality. some good many just mailing it in Private + smaller class size = more opportunities + smaller class size = more attention to each student - can be far away from home and attendant problems - transportation not provided in all schools - small classes can be stifling -- same cliques - high cost |
Anonymous
| Just be aware that the common assumptions of public vs. private may not hold in all cases. My child's public elementary classroom has 17 students in it. We are in Silver Spring. |
Anonymous
|
Religious affiliation.
+ kid becomes fundamentalist like family - kid becomes atheist |
Anonymous
My children attend a K-12 independent school and, while we obviously believe it offers them the best education in many ways, I would disagree with this somewhat. In our experience teachers and administrators vary widely in terms of their responsiveness -- both in terms of a prompt reply and, more substantively, in terms of considering the need for change when something isn't working for a particular child -- or even a sizeable group of children. Sometimes you can encounter a teacher or administrator whose attitude is, "Well, if you don't want to send your kid here, there are plenty of people who do." |
Anonymous
To me at least, this definitely disproves the sterotypes. Our experience was the opposite. No responsiveness in private; prompt and thorough responsiveness in public. |
Anonymous
| Another private school parent who has experienced nonresponsiveness in SOME private school teachers. Overall - the school has worked well for DS - less standardized testing, more hands on learning, smaller classes, more art and music, BUT not all teachers are good. |
Anonymous
| Not a valid question because private is only mandatory in DC where as in Virginia and Maryland Public is a good option. |
Anonymous
has been hit and liss for us in private and public. more to do with indiv teachers vs the school itself. |
Anonymous
Not a valid response because you are talking out of your white-flight ass (from Fairfax, amiright?) Mandatory, really? To OP: + hugely better arts offerings during school hours. I no longer buy the "you can make it up in extracurriculars" logic. My children don't want to be in organized instruction from 8:15 am until 6 p.m, Mon-Friday. I want them to have painting, instrument instruction and choral practice before 4 pm. - despite racial and country-of-origin diversity at our particular NW DC private, I nevertheless feel like DCs live in a rarefied world. Nothing is messy, ever. No one is poor. No one is "rowdy." I feel this is calming, and yet not good training for life. |
Anonymous
|
I was forced by financial constraints (brought about by divorce) to pull my DS from the private elementary school that he and I both loved. Broke my heart to have to do it. Now that he's entering high school and my cash flow's a bit better, we're looking at going back to private again. I must say, I can't wait. The single best thing I would say about his years in public is that DS can get along, really, really comfortably, with just about anyone -- the kids with the "street-wise" affect, blue-bloods, newly arrived immigrants, you name it. His middle school, remarkably, had an almost equal balance of black, white, Latino and Asian kids. True diversity is the norm for these kids. As I say, I loved his old private school, but I don't believe he would be as nonplussed by racial, social and class differences had he gone to private straight through. The downside: unquestionably, his academics have suffered. The classes at the public schools he has attended are bursting at the seams. The curriculum often seems wanting. The arts are given short shrift: he had to choose in middle school between art and foreign language. The testing culture has run amok. There isn't nearly enough time to run and play. And -- my pet peeve -- there has been this odd little common thread of commercialism that has been woven into the curriculum since elementary school: "write a travel brochure" or "analyze a television commercial." In third grade, one assignment was to basically create a marketing plan: "If you were to open up a lemonade stand in our neighborhood, show where you would place it and why." What gives, MCPS? There have been a ton of "completion grades" for homework assignments -- the teachers don't actually look to see what you've done, just that you did the assignment. How qualitatively good does the students' work turn out to be in that instance? There are also a lot of times when students swap papers with their desk mates for grading, or when the teacher, overwhelmed by the sheer numbers of kids, decides by a lottery system whose homework will actually be checked and graded. The assignment for a recent writing class in English was to take two weeks to read a book -- no book in particular -- which would later become the basis for a take home writing work. But really? Pick a book, ANY book? And while I know any school can have the random teacher who is less than adequate, my son in middle school had a science teacher who basically stopped coming to class: She would phone in sick, usually on very short notice, making it a scramble for the school to even find a substitute teacher for her. It was a struggle to get rid of her, and the entire school year had elapsed before they did. A whole year of learning lost. In most privates, the unions not being a factor, I assume this problem would have been dealt with much more quickly. I hope I can be clear-eyed as my son goes back to private. I know it won't be perfect. As I recall, private school was much complicated to navigate socially and sometimes unpleasantly clubby, both for the kids and their parents. But I'll take that snootiness ten times out of ten, compared to class sizes double or even triple what he's looking at in private -- to say nothing of all the other disappointments I've experienced in public schools these past few years. |
Anonymous
|
One in public one in private school.
Atmosphere: much nicer in this particular private school. DC is very happy. However, curriculum and teachers are not as good as public. DC loves school and that counts! DC believes in the teachers, even though I think that they are not the best. Hence, DC learns more because and only because of the enthusiasm. Private school could do a better job to make things closer to perfect wrt curriculum and teachers. Public atmosphere is lame. DC #2 not enthusiastic about school. Hates to go. Better curriculum, better teachers, less "fun". Did not bond with teachers, but they are excellent. DC 2 has an attitude problem. Don't know if I can "blame" public school. It might have been the same in private, but I suspect that public school has killed the joy of learning. You never know. pardon typos |
Anonymous
|
PP, I'm curious. You say the teachers are better in your DC2's public classroom than in DC1's private classroom, but how do you define "better"? It seems from just your description that the DC1 teachers are doing a much better job than DC2 teachers. Can you please explain why you think DC2 teachers are better?
Note: I'm NOT trying to start a fight or criticize your viewpoint. I'm sure your assessment is correct. And of course I gather from your post that you recognize how individualistic this all is -- in other words, the quality of teachers each of your children have is not necessarily indicative of all teachers in either public or private schools. But I ask my question because I just don't see any indication in your post of why you rate your particular public school teacher as better than the particular private school teacher, and in fact, your post seems to suggest the opposite. TIA |
Anonymous
|
I think the comparison between private and public also needs to be made in the context of your child. A child with special needs may be better served by facilities in a public school that are lacking in a private school. A child with special needs may also find more kids like them and a greater range of "kid types" and therefore have an easier time fitting in socially at a public school than a private school where he is the only child who is different. A truly gifted (not just a smart kid with parents who educate at home) may do better in public school with the gifted programs. A highly motivated, academically competitive kid will do well in public. An average kid who can easily get lost in the middle at a public school may do much better at a private school where they get more attention to push themselves and achieve to their potential.
In terms of outcome indicators, I don't know if class size or the extra presence of arts, PE, drama and better facilities makes a huge difference as parents in public school can and often just have their kids do these things after school. The big difference that I see is that public school intentionally only pushes kids to achieve up to the baseline standard. A kid must be independently motivated to challenge themselves. This also has to be done outside of class as their is no allowance for kids to try to challenge themselves in the class. In private school, if it is reputable, there is a more focused attempt to get each child to reach his/her own potential and challenge themselves beyond the state baseline standard. |
Anonymous
Objectively, I have entered the classrooms both formally and informally. The difference is HUGE. The public school teachers have a MUCH better grasp on what comes next, what the plan of the day should be. Even with the larger classes they know what is going on in the room, like eyes in the backs of their heads. They anticipate trouble and jump on it early. They have more fluid speech and sound more like they know exactly what they are talking about and exactly what they expect. More scripted (better curriculum?) and confident, less making it up as they go along. I KNOW that public school has rotten eggs, but I have not come across them. Private school teachers have been very nice, but some rare ones border on incompetent, and some can be described as unmotivated and sloppy, IMO. Maybe a tad bit too much creativity in their day. In the evaluations when I meet with them about my children, the private school teachers seem more unsure about what they think DC needs to do. They have a lot of vague positives, always. That might be because they don't want to sound too bossy or risk upsetting the parent, but someone has to be incharge. The public school teachers say this is what YOUR child needs to work on..., these are the weak areas..., these are the strengths..., don't worry about X, pay more attention to Y. |