Why are private school applications still at an all time high?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Public schools are under scrutiny and pressure over the scores of low-performing kids. Teachers there focus on the bottom group because that is what Principals and central office demand.

Even in FCPS AAP, the differentiation is modest, not huge, and some believe better behavior is the main benefit.

Many, not all, public elementary schools have stopped - or significantly reduced - direct instruction in areas such as spelling, grammar, multiplication table memorization, and cursive writing. Many privates still teach all of those areas explicitly and in depth, particularly consistent with this are the Catholic schools. Also, for reading, most Catholic and almost all Montessori schools stuck with Phonics-centered literacy instruction - and skipped the whole language/balanced literacy Lucy Calkins crap.

This right here...my kids in Catholic school have homework every night that they write down in a planner. They read novels. They do math with a pencil. They have spelling and grammar as subjects in school. They know their times tables.
Our class sizes are getting huge though. When we started the average class size was 14 and now it's 22. The weirdest part is that the increase is almost completely girls.

Are you in an area and at an age where there are a lot of "mean girl" bullying problems and kids start really excluding others? That might explain the increase. I've noticed a lot of girl parents pulling their kid from public in upper elementary for this reason--more so than boy parents.

Actually it's most pronounced in 1st and 2nd grade (our 2nd grade is 85% female) and when I ask parents why they switched I ALWAYS get a story about their sensitive quiet daughter being traumatized by a chair throwing style incident.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Public schools are under scrutiny and pressure over the scores of low-performing kids. Teachers there focus on the bottom group because that is what Principals and central office demand.

Even in FCPS AAP, the differentiation is modest, not huge, and some believe better behavior is the main benefit.

Many, not all, public elementary schools have stopped - or significantly reduced - direct instruction in areas such as spelling, grammar, multiplication table memorization, and cursive writing. Many privates still teach all of those areas explicitly and in depth, particularly consistent with this are the Catholic schools. Also, for reading, most Catholic and almost all Montessori schools stuck with Phonics-centered literacy instruction - and skipped the whole language/balanced literacy Lucy Calkins crap.

This right here...my kids in Catholic school have homework every night that they write down in a planner. They read novels. They do math with a pencil. They have spelling and grammar as subjects in school. They know their times tables.
Our class sizes are getting huge though. When we started the average class size was 14 and now it's 22. The weirdest part is that the increase is almost completely girls.

Are you in an area and at an age where there are a lot of "mean girl" bullying problems and kids start really excluding others? That might explain the increase. I've noticed a lot of girl parents pulling their kid from public in upper elementary for this reason--more so than boy parents.

Anecdotal but just in our neighborhood there are several girls I know of that moved to private because of exclusion and bullying issues and no boys. All kids can be mean but girls can be especially cruel, boys are more willing be civil to other kids at least even if they aren't friends.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Applications for admissions to most private schools in the DMV area area keep getting more competitive every year. One school we are applying to for 9th ( from our K-8) told us that applications have been up 70% this year.
I can understand why applications were up during the pandemic , but why are people still increasingly applying to privates five years later ?
Has the quality of education gone down at the public schools? Did people do well in the stock market over the past few years?
Just asking a genuine question.

I think you are correct on both points. People do question what public schools are doing these days. And portfolios have been skyrocketing in recent years. So there are many more families that can afford Sidwell and GDS and so on.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I just read an article that staff at Alice Deal in DC chose to eliminate reading full novels from the 8th grade curriculum.

last year's 8th grade at Maret did not read a full book or write a full essay until the end of year.

That’s outrageous and frankly if I had a kid there I’d be livid.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I just read an article that staff at Alice Deal in DC chose to eliminate reading full novels from the 8th grade curriculum.

Holy sh*t. I don’t want to start a public/ private debate but is that true? Can someone confirm. If so, what a disgrace. These kids deserve better.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Private schools in dc are super mediocre. In Massachussets the quality is way better. The only explanation is that public schools are deteriorating, not private schools improving. On top of that private school parents are more obnoxious in dc.

Totally irrelevant opinion. Clearly, someone has an axe to grind with private schools in the DC area. Hoping they got to move back to Massachusetts for their childrens sake so they can be happier........

lol. And I love the term ” super mediocre’”. Clearly the PP is the product of a “ super mediocre” education - whether public or private.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Public schools are under scrutiny and pressure over the scores of low-performing kids. Teachers there focus on the bottom group because that is what Principals and central office demand.

Even in FCPS AAP, the differentiation is modest, not huge, and some believe better behavior is the main benefit.

Many, not all, public elementary schools have stopped - or significantly reduced - direct instruction in areas such as spelling, grammar, multiplication table memorization, and cursive writing. Many privates still teach all of those areas explicitly and in depth, particularly consistent with this are the Catholic schools. Also, for reading, most Catholic and almost all Montessori schools stuck with Phonics-centered literacy instruction - and skipped the whole language/balanced literacy Lucy Calkins crap.

Well, this must just be true for the low income, low performing schools. Otherwise so many successful, well educated parents wouldn’t be sending their kids to public school and claiming their child is getting a great education to private school parents.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Applications for admissions to most private schools in the DMV area area keep getting more competitive every year. One school we are applying to for 9th ( from our K-8) told us that applications have been up 70% this year.
I can understand why applications were up during the pandemic , but why are people still increasingly applying to privates five years later ?
Has the quality of education gone down at the public schools? Did people do well in the stock market over the past few years?
Just asking a genuine question.

I don’t think your promise is actually true. I’d be interested to know what school said their applications were up 70%.

I, too, doubt the premise without more backup. One anecdote from one school is not conclusive

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I just read an article that staff at Alice Deal in DC chose to eliminate reading full novels from the 8th grade curriculum.

This is such a succinct and perfect response, assuming it’s truthful

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Because public school class sizes are huge, there's a range of abilities that is impossible for even the most seasoned teacher to accommodate, and well behaved kids who are on or above grade level are ignored. The established private schools aren't stupid and have done a good job advertising to UMC families of solid students who are increasingly fed up. Throw in a modest merit scholarship for the ones with top grades and test scores and it's not a hard sell.

There are not merit scholarships for top grades at local independent schools

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I just read an article that staff at Alice Deal in DC chose to eliminate reading full novels from the 8th grade curriculum.

This is such a succinct and perfect response, assuming it’s truthful

You can find an OpEd from a current parent here.

https://51st.news/opinion-dcps-middle-schoolers-should-be-reading-novels/

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Public schools are under scrutiny and pressure over the scores of low-performing kids. Teachers there focus on the bottom group because that is what Principals and central office demand.

Even in FCPS AAP, the differentiation is modest, not huge, and some believe better behavior is the main benefit.

Many, not all, public elementary schools have stopped - or significantly reduced - direct instruction in areas such as spelling, grammar, multiplication table memorization, and cursive writing. Many privates still teach all of those areas explicitly and in depth, particularly consistent with this are the Catholic schools. Also, for reading, most Catholic and almost all Montessori schools stuck with Phonics-centered literacy instruction - and skipped the whole language/balanced literacy Lucy Calkins crap.

Well, this must just be true for the low income, low performing schools. Otherwise so many successful, well educated parents wouldn’t be sending their kids to public school and claiming their child is getting a great education to private school parents.

Study “confirmation bias”. It explains why all parents think they made the best educational choice, even when those choices are directly contradictory.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Public schools are under scrutiny and pressure over the scores of low-performing kids. Teachers there focus on the bottom group because that is what Principals and central office demand.

Even in FCPS AAP, the differentiation is modest, not huge, and some believe better behavior is the main benefit.

Many, not all, public elementary schools have stopped - or significantly reduced - direct instruction in areas such as spelling, grammar, multiplication table memorization, and cursive writing. Many privates still teach all of those areas explicitly and in depth, particularly consistent with this are the Catholic schools. Also, for reading, most Catholic and almost all Montessori schools stuck with Phonics-centered literacy instruction - and skipped the whole language/balanced literacy Lucy Calkins crap.

Well, this must just be true for the low income, low performing schools. Otherwise so many successful, well educated parents wouldn’t be sending their kids to public school and claiming their child is getting a great education to private school parents.

I am surrounded by successful and smart parents at our local public school, which is not low income. Most think the education is "good enough" and sweep a lot of incidents under the rug.
Many neighbors who have been through the system told us they wished they had gone private.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I just read an article that staff at Alice Deal in DC chose to eliminate reading full novels from the 8th grade curriculum.

This is such a succinct and perfect response, assuming it’s truthful

You can find an OpEd from a current parent here.

https://51st.news/opinion-dcps-middle-schoolers-should-be-reading-novels/

Makes me glad we are not in DCPS. So sorry for those who are.

My school (in a different metro) had us read both To Kill a Mockingbird and Tale of Two Cities, full length, with essays and extensive in-class discussions in 8th grade.

[Anonymous]

Public schools have always been kind of mid but even more so in the last few years. We (admin) are begging and bribing kids to come to school. The poor attendance is now counted in MD public school ratings. Show up, don’t cause trouble, do some work and get an A. That’s why so many kids have straight As. It isn’t that hard.