Anyone plan on public HS after private Es and/or MS?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I've been a public high school teacher for many years, and my own kid left public for private for middle school (for social reasons) and will be returning to public.

Most of the kids from private whom I have taught (K-8 or just middle in private) absolutely thrive at our excellent public high school and enter with self-confidence, self-advocacy skills, and a desire (in a good way) to be known by teachers. We have a fair number of kids enter from private each year and quite a bit of transience overall in the district, so I have seen the kids from private make fast social connections and get involved in extracurricular activities.

The kids who have the hardest transitions, in my experience, are those with not properly diagnosed learning challenges who were not served well in private school. In public, despite the larger class sizes, we have way more interventions and supports for struggling learners, and teachers develop the skills to work with a wider range of learners. I have taught kids from private who are way behind in skills because of a learning challenge that wasn't caught and supported early on.

My kid went from an excellent public school for K-5 to an excellent private school for 6-8, and it's really apples and oranges in terms of academic preparation. They are definitely reading and writing more in private, which is great in itself, and yet there is way more direct instruction and scaffolding in public with reading and writing, so fewer learners are lost along the way. One thing I have learned (I teach classes of 25-30, and my kid in classes of 12-15): parents should please not presume that smaller class sizes automatically make everything about the learning better in a private school.

I know many 2e kids who aren't diagnosed until they move to private school and can't keep up with the homework and start failing quizzes and tests. IME public school will not flag a 2e kid. They "accommodate" without letting the parents know about it, and give the kid good reports, so they don't have to go through the IEP process.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If your kid is the type of kid who can handle going to a large school, there are no academic concerns that require accommodations you could only reliably get at private school, and your kid does reasonably well socially, your kid will be fine. We are at a K-8 that routinely sends kids to public HS. That said, you need to see where your child is by 7/8th grade and, after K-8 private you may find you don't want to give up the perks that come with private school. We had planned to go public for HS and all three DCs ended up staying in private (some because of the Covid situation, others because we really could not see them doing well in a huge school).

Try again Privates do not have more academic perks.

As a matter of fact they are less academic particularily in science and math.
Counselors do not have to be certified
Students with disabilities get lost in main stream privates or religious ones.

And indoctrination in religious ones is a thing.

Private for HS is a waste of $ for most students. Especically for higher end academic students and college acceptances.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:At the Parochial schools I am familiar in the west of Montgomery County, the overwhelming majority of kids go onto Catholic high schools including Good Counsel, St Johns, Gonzaga, Prep, Stone Ridge, Visitation, Holy Cross, etc., etc.

All though the eighth grade year, there is conversation and excitement among the kids and parents concerning who will go to which of these schools.

A small fraction of kids go to the public schools. Sometime the reasons for this is financial, sometimes it’s academics and sometimes it’s family preference. I’ve wondered if it’s difficult for these kids with all their friends going in a different direction.

It’s called education not indoctrination

Indoctrination poster, give it a rest.

Not that poster however any religious private is "indoctrination" what do you think they teach? Catholic schools teach the Catholic religion, Opus Dei teaches religion, Ultra conservative Jewish day schools teach religion, evangelical schools teach religion. Religion by definition is indoctrination. Most people who send their kids to a religious private absolutely are there for the "indoctrination" part. There is no reality "indoctrination" is not part of a religious education.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If your kid is the type of kid who can handle going to a large school, there are no academic concerns that require accommodations you could only reliably get at private school, and your kid does reasonably well socially, your kid will be fine. We are at a K-8 that routinely sends kids to public HS. That said, you need to see where your child is by 7/8th grade and, after K-8 private you may find you don't want to give up the perks that come with private school. We had planned to go public for HS and all three DCs ended up staying in private (some because of the Covid situation, others because we really could not see them doing well in a huge school).

Try again Privates do not have more academic perks.

As a matter of fact they are less academic particularily in science and math.
Counselors do not have to be certified
Students with disabilities get lost in main stream privates or religious ones.

And indoctrination in religious ones is a thing.

Private for HS is a waste of $ for most students. Especically for higher end academic students and college acceptances.

The reality is that the demand for private (and even charter and parochial) schools is extraordinarily high in this region. I don't know about MoCo but DCPS has plenty of glaring issues and the school system is mediocre at best.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:At the Parochial schools I am familiar in the west of Montgomery County, the overwhelming majority of kids go onto Catholic high schools including Good Counsel, St Johns, Gonzaga, Prep, Stone Ridge, Visitation, Holy Cross, etc., etc.

All though the eighth grade year, there is conversation and excitement among the kids and parents concerning who will go to which of these schools.

A small fraction of kids go to the public schools. Sometime the reasons for this is financial, sometimes it’s academics and sometimes it’s family preference. I’ve wondered if it’s difficult for these kids with all their friends going in a different direction.

how sad and small. seems that they can keep their old friends and make a bunch of new friends with fresh perspectives. then what? do this again in college, never go abroad, never go backpacking around the world and move back to boring DC. some of those schools have classes solely constructed of a single feeder school, how boring. i often wish i went for all As at the public i was chosing between (whose program is likely now considered far more prestigious than my Dc private). + for a wider variety of people. but a las we were not thinking that strategically then. was very deliberate about this for college (law school non issue)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If your kid is the type of kid who can handle going to a large school, there are no academic concerns that require accommodations you could only reliably get at private school, and your kid does reasonably well socially, your kid will be fine. We are at a K-8 that routinely sends kids to public HS. That said, you need to see where your child is by 7/8th grade and, after K-8 private you may find you don't want to give up the perks that come with private school. We had planned to go public for HS and all three DCs ended up staying in private (some because of the Covid situation, others because we really could not see them doing well in a huge school).

Try again Privates do not have more academic perks.

As a matter of fact they are less academic particularily in science and math.
Counselors do not have to be certified
Students with disabilities get lost in main stream privates or religious ones.

And indoctrination in religious ones is a thing.

Private for HS is a waste of $ for most students. Especically for higher end academic students and college acceptances.

The reality is that the demand for private (and even charter and parochial) schools is extraordinarily high in this region. I don't know about MoCo but DCPS has plenty of glaring issues and the school system is mediocre at best.

because of the excessive weird charter system. NYC turned their schools around and now they are great

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:At the Parochial schools I am familiar in the west of Montgomery County, the overwhelming majority of kids go onto Catholic high schools including Good Counsel, St Johns, Gonzaga, Prep, Stone Ridge, Visitation, Holy Cross, etc., etc.

All though the eighth grade year, there is conversation and excitement among the kids and parents concerning who will go to which of these schools.

A small fraction of kids go to the public schools. Sometime the reasons for this is financial, sometimes it’s academics and sometimes it’s family preference. I’ve wondered if it’s difficult for these kids with all their friends going in a different direction.

It’s called education not indoctrination

Indoctrination poster, give it a rest.

Not that poster however any religious private is "indoctrination" what do you think they teach? Catholic schools teach the Catholic religion, Opus Dei teaches religion, Ultra conservative Jewish day schools teach religion, evangelical schools teach religion. Religion by definition is indoctrination. Most people who send their kids to a religious private absolutely are there for the "indoctrination" part. There is no reality "indoctrination" is not part of a religious education.

Do you think this about BC and Georgetown? They teach 1 hour about the Catholic religion for 1 yr in HS then 1 hr of World religion etc akin to college the other three. In college There is little to no discussion of religion outside this. in college, none. Most do not attend for the religion but rather community (like the moco perspective above) or "best" school they got into

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:At the Parochial schools I am familiar in the west of Montgomery County, the overwhelming majority of kids go onto Catholic high schools including Good Counsel, St Johns, Gonzaga, Prep, Stone Ridge, Visitation, Holy Cross, etc., etc.

All though the eighth grade year, there is conversation and excitement among the kids and parents concerning who will go to which of these schools.

A small fraction of kids go to the public schools. Sometime the reasons for this is financial, sometimes it’s academics and sometimes it’s family preference. I’ve wondered if it’s difficult for these kids with all their friends going in a different direction.

Well - OP - sounds like you won't want to go the parochial school route. Our K-8 on the other hand has a mix and does a really great job at managing the 8th grade frenzy to be supportive and thoughtful to all students...whether it be a choice to go public, an end result of public because they prefer it after getting the decisions on private admissions, or end up at a private that was not the one they had hoped. It's a hard process on many levels but I appreciate that they do their best to keep the students supportive of one another and don't have them talking about 9th grade to the point that it ruins the year.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:No one does thisat the private schools my kids attend, so I think it’s a good idea to find a school where it is common. If all a child’s friends are staying at private schools, they will want to as well.

My kid did this from a competitive K-12 private often mentioned on this forum. Happy as a clam.

I suspect the environment at a "competitive K-12 private" might be different than at the Parochial schools. In these, the small minority not considering and choosing between the highly popular Catholic high schools are very much swimming against the tide of enthusiasm for much of their 8th grade year.

Who cares. I think Catholic kids can manage making an independent decision. I think you are not giving kids generally enough credit

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:At the Parochial schools I am familiar in the west of Montgomery County, the overwhelming majority of kids go onto Catholic high schools including Good Counsel, St Johns, Gonzaga, Prep, Stone Ridge, Visitation, Holy Cross, etc., etc.

All though the eighth grade year, there is conversation and excitement among the kids and parents concerning who will go to which of these schools.

A small fraction of kids go to the public schools. Sometime the reasons for this is financial, sometimes it’s academics and sometimes it’s family preference. I’ve wondered if it’s difficult for these kids with all their friends going in a different direction.

how sad and small. seems that they can keep their old friends and make a bunch of new friends with fresh perspectives. then what? do this again in college, never go abroad, never go backpacking around the world and move back to boring DC. some of those schools have classes solely constructed of a single feeder school, how boring. i often wish i went for all As at the public i was chosing between (whose program is likely now considered far more prestigious than my Dc private). + for a wider variety of people. but a las we were not thinking that strategically then. was very deliberate about this for college (law school non issue)

If this is OP, apologies this came off harsh. To clarify, I would not make the decision based on FOMO when all the kids will just be doing the same thing at a new place. Esp if DC is on board and it is a mutual decision.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:For a variety of reasons, we would like for our kids to go to public high school. Our zoned school is strong, and there are also specialty/magnet programs if they are interested. However, we think we would like for them to attend a private/parochial K-8, at least through 5th but likely through 8th grade. If you have gone this route, did it work out okay for your child? Was the transition very difficult?

Gross

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If your kid is the type of kid who can handle going to a large school, there are no academic concerns that require accommodations you could only reliably get at private school, and your kid does reasonably well socially, your kid will be fine. We are at a K-8 that routinely sends kids to public HS. That said, you need to see where your child is by 7/8th grade and, after K-8 private you may find you don't want to give up the perks that come with private school. We had planned to go public for HS and all three DCs ended up staying in private (some because of the Covid situation, others because we really could not see them doing well in a huge school).

Try again Privates do not have more academic perks.

As a matter of fact they are less academic particularily in science and math.
Counselors do not have to be certified
Students with disabilities get lost in main stream privates or religious ones.

And indoctrination in religious ones is a thing.

Private for HS is a waste of $ for most students. Especically for higher end academic students and college acceptances.

The reality is that the demand for private (and even charter and parochial) schools is extraordinarily high in this region. I don't know about MoCo but DCPS has plenty of glaring issues and the school system is mediocre at best.

because of the excessive weird charter system. NYC turned their schools around and now they are great

If you really believe NYC schools now are uniformly great, then I have a bridge in Brooklyn that I am trying to sell….are you interested ?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:No one does thisat the private schools my kids attend, so I think it’s a good idea to find a school where it is common. If all a child’s friends are staying at private schools, they will want to as well.

My kid did this from a competitive K-12 private often mentioned on this forum. Happy as a clam.

I suspect the environmenth at a "competitive K-12 private" might be different than at the Parochial schools. In these, the small minority not considering and choosing between the highly popular Catholic high schools are very much swimming against the tide of enthusiasm for much of their 8th grade year.

Who cares. I think Catholic kids can manage making an independent decision. I think you are not giving kids generally enough credit

Well, maybe so,

But each May the local Parish Times publishes the list of high school destinations of graduates of a good number of Catholic K-8's. The overwhelming majority of kids are going on to Catholic high schools. A few are going to public and very occasionally one is going onto a non-Catholic private school.

It would probably help if the kid was aware of this strategy going in and understood and could explain the reason for it.

[Anonymous]

We did this. In our district, the selective magnet programs start in 6th, so that's when my kid switched. The magnet programs draw kids from all over the city, so it wasn't a situation where anyone had established cliques. This was always our plan and so far it has worked well. We'll probably have her apply to private schools for 9th, in case she doesn't get into her preferred public program, but Plan A is to stay public the rest of the way through.

[Anonymous]

What about Jackson Reed after private?