Tuition in private schools
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Anonymous
Well, STEM in local private high schools seems sufficient to carry students where they want to go. In my personal circle, I know 2 kids who went to DC privates and ended up at MIT. Both were unhooked. Neither supplemented outside their school. Broad sweeping statements usually don’t paint an accurate picture. |
Anonymous
Of course, really smart kids will do well in either private or public. In my experience math is way too basic in most private schools, and that’s why I see a lot of kids from those schools doing math tutoring. Typically the tutoring is more advanced and is challenging and not repetitive like the one taught in school. |
Anonymous
The real question is why. Why do they only teach so basic stuff? Why is the science feel like an after-thought in middle school? Why do people have to supplement math in such expensive schools? |
Anonymous
Answer: Because 1) most private school parents don’t believe that science and math in privates are subpar 2)private parents think that their private is better for their kid than their local public (why else would they ay tuition) and 3) putting aside comparisons, science/math in privates is clearly sufficient because private school kids do well in life. All three of the above have to be true or else private schools would go out of business. |
Anonymous
Not really, another possibility is that math a science quality is not really the top criterion for choosing a private school. Parents may have different priorities. |
Anonymous
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If I didn’t have the inclination or the means to send my children to private school I might also look for ways to make myself feel better about the public school education my kids were receiving. My kids are both STEM oriented and we have been very pleased with the level of instruction and curriculum “rigor” at private school. If it wasn’t up to our standards, we would go elsewhere. Simply not having the same number of APs as our zoned public is not a negative and it’s silly to pretend that AP classes are the only valid measure of rigor. DC took AP BC Calc senior year and is a math major at a DCUM top school. They were not hindered by not taking math beyond BC Calc in the least and started college with a very solid foundation.
Re—Tuition: it is a big hurdle for some private school parents and a drop in the bucket for others. If you don’t feel the day to day experience has value, you go elsewhere. |
Anonymous
| STEM is not better in public. This is completely wrong. |
Anonymous
You really have no idea what you're talking about and it's frustrating that you opine like you do ("Well, I know how it is at private schools although my kid doesn't attend one"). My child graduated from a top private this year and did no math supplementation and is now at an Ivy for STEM. We knew the cohort of high achievers at this school (about 15 kids) very well and none were doing outside math. No math competitions either. They're all at top15 universities: one at MIT, 13/15 at Ivies, the other 2 at other top10s. Many are studying STEM. My own kid is now getting As in both STEM classes they're taking this fall. |
Anonymous
Can someone explain to me where the "private schools suck at STEM" comes from? I had never heard this until frequenting DCUM. |
Anonymous
There are more science options at public for advanced learners. Math is the same whether public or private. English and History are much better at privates. |
Anonymous
Some local public school systems, MCPS comes to mind, push math acceleration for all kids. Many parents equate acceleration with quality education. This, despite the fact that there are studies out there that show that acceleration often isn’t the best way to teach kids math. The public school posters here also seem to think that private school kids who top out at Cal AB or Calc BC (some obviously go further )are getting a subpar math education even though very selective colleges think that is just fine for most majors. |
Anonymous
There are different aspects of this. Different privates are also different. Some have more rigor and teaches math better in middle schools than others. Some have more emphasis and options of course offerings in high schools. I don’t think STEM only meant more AP classes z |
Anonymous
It seems to be the preferred narrative of folks who think the only measure of “strong in stem” is how fast and how far a school will accelerate math, with a minimum of two years post-AP Calc BC or else the school/student is “weak in STEM”. Private schools don’t typically accelerate to that level, and acceleration to that level is not required for entry to or success in top STEM schools and programs for college. But some folks see that as the only way to evaluate STEM strength. |
Anonymous
Our private has crazy nice engineering and science labs in addition to advanced science and math course offerings that go well beyond AP classes. Every school is different. |
Anonymous
Which one is this? |