Regret public school for your kids?

[Anonymous]

We could barely afford private, but don't want the stress, and would rather have the $ in our 401K. But I don't want to wake up in a few years wishing we had gone private. I have heard from many people who regret sending their kids to private-- are there any folks out there who regret going public?

[Anonymous]

If you can't afford it, don't even waste your time worrying about it. Public schools have produced many fine, upstanding, and successful people! Your kids will be fine and they will appreciate the fact that you don't need for them to earn extra to pay for your upkeep in retirement!

[Anonymous]

Public school can be fine. Each school [public or private] should be analyzed on it's own merit, school culture, and curriculum. Class sizes can be larger in public but many school districts have low ratios for schools with gradations of free and reduced price meal students and ESL. Check for ability grouping in reading and math, explicit phonics, direct instruction, investigate texts, class books, etc. I was surprised when I heard that certain private schools used Everyday Math. Google "Crayola Curriculum" and read the article. If you pay for privates stuff like Everday math and whole language will require academic supplementation by you.

Ask questions since in any case you're paying for it. Save your disposable income for private high school if the costs require intensive budgeting or create stress.

Many parents who can afford private but stay public are defensive about their decision. The regrets are for high school not elementary or middle. Of course, it also depends on the school. The DC area has huge school districts and there are wide variations in competency among public school administrators. I have a higher degree of confidence in City of Falls church and arlington than Montco or Fairfax.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Many parents who can afford private but stay public are defensive about their decision. The regrets are for high school not elementary or middle. Of course, it also depends on the school. The DC area has huge school districts and there are wide variations in competency among public school administrators. I have a higher degree of confidence in City of Falls church and arlington than Montco or Fairfax.

I have a few years before my kids enter school, but I'm curious about this last comment. I though that Mongomery and Fairfax counties had some of the best schools in the country. Why would you have a lower degree of confidence in them? This is strictly a curiosity question, as I really start researching which way to go with our kids.

[Anonymous]

I think the reason she cited Ffx and MoCo schools is that they are HUGE school districts, with a lot of room to cover (at least that's my opinion). Whereas City of FC and Arl co are smaller, have more resources to cover the student body, etc.

To go to the OPs question: I agree with what one PP said which is to not even worry about it if you can't afford it. I thought for a millisecond about whether to send my kids to private, but I don't have the money. So, I focused my efforts on finding a good school and neighborhood to live in. The main advantage I see to a private school is a smaller class size. Otherwise, I think the playing field can be equal depending on which public school you send your child to, and then what you supplement with at home.

[Anonymous]

From what I have seen and heard from other parents, Fairfax and Montgomery tend to be much more oriented towards test results, even early on, and as a result often expect things during the early years that are not developmentally appropriate (for example, reading kindergartners).

[Anonymous]

Why is reading not developmentally appropriate for kindergartners? Genuinely curious.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:From what I have seen and heard from other parents, Fairfax and Montgomery tend to be much more oriented towards test results, even early on, and as a result often expect things during the early years that are not developmentally appropriate (for example, reading kindergartners).

Many kindergarteners are 6 when school begins or turn 6 prior to the 4rth quarter. The public school curriculum is designed for the lowest common denominator which includes those who are just turning 5 and might never have attended preschool, know no letters -numbers, never color, etc. The Fairfax and Montco test focus is due to No Child Left Behind and Title 1 schools after NOT meeting certain sub-groups criteria have transfer provisions to more successful schools. In general, the higher performing students use the transfer provision.

Virginia had enacted Standards of Learning Tests a few years prior to NCLB. It is a synchronization of basic curriculum content to avoid duplication and provide a well-rounded curriculum. Research Ed Hirsch's Core Knowledge Program to understand the genesis. These SOL's ensured content delivery for specific subjects including those for verified credit to get high school diplomas. In elementary school they cover reading, math, plus some other areas. Those tests and the ones in Maryland are MINIMUM competency tests.

The phrase MINIMUM competency tests is a direct quote from the prior FCPS Supt Daniel Domenech. If a child has difficulty or is less than grade level on internal assesments like the DRA [Developemental Reading Assessment] in kindergarten and grade 1 it is a red flag for a parent on possible learning issues or low average academic capabilities. Otherwise, those tests are nothing to worry about and should be easier than the assessment materials [tests, etc] used by the teacher. Otherwise expectations are too low.

FCPS is huge and will transfer around employees that have had poor job performance to give them a fresh start. It has site based management without the same level of oversight found in a smaller school system or a private school. Principals have a great deal of authority and some communities have experienced extreme duress when it took as much as 7 years to remove someone that was incompetent at the high school level. That school is in recovery mode under a good principal but the damage in the eyes of the public has been extreme. One PTA petitionned for the removal of a principal as the last straw when no disciplinary action was taken when students started a fire in the school. transferred the person around---another drove past a loading school bus in the school parking lot- hit the bus then drove away.

In general, the schools can be fine with many good teachers but if you want a surer thing on which school [attendance areas], tight chains of command , involved fiscally responsible school board members , etc then City of Falls church and Arlington are preferable. The school communities are smaller and their is more focus on instruction. Fairfax has a current school board that is most focussed on political school boundaries and preserving some special programs. The budget situation in FCPS is really tight so many anticipate other class size increases which will mainly impact schools with higher socioeconomic levels. It is not good to have 30-35 students in elementary classrooms. Parents can contribute to schools and pay user fees in some areas but they cannot support teachers paychecks. FCPS has decided to allocate funds to political issues and other items rather than actual classroom instruction.

[Anonymous]

Plugging your small child into the HUGE public school systems in this area can be daunting. We did it and could not be happier. Our kids were free to grow in ways that would have been limited in a smaller private school setting. I think if the parents are invested in negotiating their kids choices, public school is the way to go. It is not the same world we grew up in. Both my husband and I attended all private schools. Our experience with public schools is: Met great people, made great friends, have many choices and absolutely no regrets!

[Anonymous]

Why is reading not developmentally appropriate for kindergartners? Genuinely curious.

Why is anything not developmentally appropriate? I mean, it just isn't, or to be precise, it isn't necessarily appropriate for a given developmentally normal five-year old. Many kids can be forced to learn to read earlier than they're naturally inclined to, but doing so screws up their development so that when they're older, they have unusual difficulty with the more intricate, interpretive aspects of reading.

Some kids who aren't reading at the end of kindergarten are among the best readers in their grade a year or two later, but beating litercay into them isn't the way to get them there.

I'm not saying that kids who are learning to read early should be stopped out of a fear of what's going to happen five or six years later. I am saying that if the principal and the teachers assure you that all their students are reading at the end of K, you should grab your kid and run.

[Anonymous]

Sure - some days I do regret. The school we were considering was very nice, and offers my son some things he can't get in public.

However, he's thriving in public, and life is about choices. I am fortunate in that mine (for elementary school) were all good ones.

You can always make a new decision later.

And, pp is dead on. Precocious and smart are not synonyms. Some kids just aren't ready. Just like Spanish II is a lousy introduction to Spanish. There are skills to work on about listening comprehension, how a book works, predicting the end of a sentence.... all of which precede decoding words.

Plus (take this from a Jew who can "read" Hebrew), reading the words and comprehending the sentence are completely separate skills. I can even read Hebrew with the right inflection and unless I've studied the passage (in english), it could probably be about martians and I'd just zip along the page.

RUN from a school that claims "all" are reading. It just won't be true.

[Anonymous]

We went public for elementary and then private after. We are SO happy we went public for those early years. First of all, we saved a lot of $$ (2 kids). Just as importantly, our kids got a fine education and learned to get along with a very diverse group of kids. They are very tolerant and open minded, and even though they might not have had the best of everything for elementary school, it doesn't seem to have held them back in any way. Plus, I'm dubious that "the best of everything" even means that much in the early years. Go where you think your child will be happy and will learn.

[Anonymous]

PP, why did you switch to private?

[Anonymous]

Correct me if I'm wrong here, but doesn't the latest research tell us that small class sizes and low teacher-pupil ratios have more positive, quantifiable impact in the lower grades, rather than in high school?

In other words, if a given family has X dollars to spend but no more on a private education -- and some public school will therefore be in play at some point -- would it not make more sense to spend that money at the lower grades (and switch to public later)?

Of course I'm making a lot of assumptions here about class size in public schools, and more.

[Anonymous]

I'm the PP who switched to private after elementary school. We live in DC, and I just wasn't happy with the choices for middle school. We felt that we could fill any gaps in elementary school at home or with enrichment classes (music, etc.). But we thought middle and high school was where the resources the private schools offered were worth it -- smaller classes, better labs and arts programs, less disciplinary issues. Sure, we have some concerns about the narrow socioeconomic demographic at their school, but we plan on keeping them very firmly grounded at home, and feel good that their early experiences were in a less rarefied atmosphere.