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This is sort of a poll. Does private high school offer better academics?
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Anonymous
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After reading many articles, I have to wonder why elite private high schools can not post better test scores than elite public schools. The concern that I have is that the elite privates cherry pick students, so the scores should be higher. It makes me think that maybe kids are actually getting an inferior education at the good privates. Heck with all the bright kids at STA, they should have higher average SAT scores than say Whitman, where there are a many unmotivated below average IQ kids that the county can not turn away.
The stats imply that STA takes bright kids and parks them below potential. ??? |
Anonymous
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I certainly wouldn't make private/public conclusions based on STA versus Whitman (or any one private versus one public). Nor would I evaluate superiority (or inferiority) by SAT scores. Test scores do not make a great school. Great teachers do.
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Anonymous
| My theory is that the privates aren't using best practices, and do not have the best trained teachers, who are taught how to teach. |
Anonymous
I disagree. If I was to spend upto $27K per year per kid to attend that school, I would expect an Ivy league admission with a full scholarship in return for that price. You can attend the state university from a public. |
Anonymous
What makes you think Ivy League admission is linked wholly to SAT scores? For that matter, what makes you think Ivy League admission translates to success? Parents send children to private schools for a variety of reasons, only one of which is test scores. And by the way, if you were to take STA's SAT scores versus any of the DC public high schools, you most certainly WOULD see higher scores at STA. The poster picked a rather superlative public high school with which to compare. |
Anonymous
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My view - yes and no.
The privates absolutely cherry pick. So they generally have a very bright student body to begin with. They also try to weed out otherwise bright kids who might be discpline problems. So, you get bright kids + fewer discpline issues, and you end up with a better academic learning environment. But the schools like BCC, with their programs like IB, have the net effect of doing the same thing. I think in the end, if you do have a bright, motivated kid, it's a wash. The privates have a strong network to work college admissions, but the publics increasingly have the leg up, as doing well in a public is seen as more of an accomplishment as doing well at a private. |
Anonymous
| Where are you getting your scores to make a comparison anyway? From what I understand, private schools don't publish test score information. |
Anonymous
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Peterson's Directory.
Also, the Washingtonian on occasions. |
Anonymous
The fact still remains that at 27K the privates should do a good job, which we often measure with test scores. FWIW, the school with the most ivy admissions in the area was a public school in VA. I am a believer in private for primary years, but in high school, it is probably a waste. A good test would be to give the private schools the public students. Something tells me they would mess those kids up. Public schools take any kid and work well with them. |
Anonymous
| Do they do a better job than the public schools in my district? Absolutely. Better than those in MoCo or NoVA? I don't know, but for my family it's a moot point- I don't live there. |
Anonymous
| The OP seems to use test scores as the means by which to judge academics. Seems a bit overly simplified and one-dimensional to me. Not to mention that is not the benchmark of successful children who have done well in school, unless of course, you are President Bush. |
Anonymous
What would you suggest using as a judge? |
Anonymous
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I think the PP meant that SAT scores should not be the gauge (which is what the OP originally referenced).
Private schools (or public for that matter) might provide a rich, complex, variegated education which will not be well measured through a college entrance exam. That doesn't mean that parents aren't getting their money's worth. I'm sure for some parents, admission to an Ivy League school would seem to be the appropriate yardstick by which to measure their investment. I am not one of them, however. Moreover, the OP picked a rather atypical public school in Whitman. If you were to compare STA with a public high school in DC, I am pretty sure the average scores for the SAT would be higher at STA (even excluding all the kids who never took the SAT in public high schools). If you are going to reduce the analysis to a score, at least make sure the samples are meaningful (all publics versus all privates, all public HSs in DC versus all private HSs in DC, etc...not one particular high school in Virginia with one particular private school in DC). |
Anonymous
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The point is that the comparison is between elite publics and elite privates. No outcome difference.
Public schools provide a rich complex varied education too. LOTS of kids in the good public schools get into Harvard. |
Anonymous
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No difference.
I would pay for private school if someone could explain what I am getting for my money. I can afford it, honestly. |