Catholic schools rigor?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Friend’s kids go to local Catholic school for 3rd grade and 5th grade. It seems like every other day they go to mass, have some prayer event, have a student assembly, etc. Do kids at these schools have enough instruction time for ACADEMICS?

How do they compete with public and non-religious schools whose total number of school days are the same (or more) but without all the religious extracurricular?

Depends on the school. Prep, for example, is extremely rigorous.

[Anonymous]

1. Our school day is longer.
2. Mass is once a week.
3. Standardized testing only 2x/year and no real "prep" for it since the students know the material.
4. After-school tutoring every day and kids are expected to show up.
5. Families care about education, so kids care about education.

Our facility kind of stinks, but who cares? My son does far better in Catholic school than public by any objective measure. They're not trendy or modern, but they're really effective. I don't understand why some people get so butthurt over the idea that Catholic schools are doing something right. Rigor and high expectations are good.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My kids have mass for approx 45 mins once a week.

My oldest is doing the math sequence that ends with geometry in 8th (pre-a in 6th, algebra in 7th).

They have focused on the fundamentals (math, grammar, writing, spelling).

I think the weakest area is specials (art, PE, music).

Also, quite a bit of homework. They give zeroes and there isn’t a ton of leeway if you mess something up.

+1

My daughter switched to public middle this year from a Catholic school and went from probably around a C average to straight As in mostly honors classes, almost entirely because of the new ability to retake tests and turn assignments in late for credit.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Friend’s kids go to local Catholic school for 3rd grade and 5th grade. It seems like every other day they go to mass, have some prayer event, have a student assembly, etc. Do kids at these schools have enough instruction time for ACADEMICS?

How do they compete with public and non-religious schools whose total number of school days are the same (or more) but without all the religious extracurricular?

Depends on the school. Prep, for example, is extremely rigorous.

Most Catholic schools have high expectations for academic habits and behavior. Both of these will allow a student to reach their academic potential. I've never heard of an "easy" Catholic school. Most schools (except for St. Anselm's, I guess) teach kids at every academic level, but even the students who struggle academically are expected to have good academic habits and work hard to achieve their level best, whether that level (in math) is Geometry in 8th or remedial 8th grade math.

Also, to the PPs who want to measure rigor by math class alone, I'm not a fam of acceleration for acceleration's sake. Slow and steady, with greater depth and complexity, is a far more useful approach, even for the future math PhD.s. Just my opinion based on experience with my kids, who had both experiences and ended up in the same place.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My kids have mass for approx 45 mins once a week.

My oldest is doing the math sequence that ends with geometry in 8th (pre-a in 6th, algebra in 7th).

They have focused on the fundamentals (math, grammar, writing, spelling).

I think the weakest area is specials (art, PE, music).

Also, quite a bit of homework. They give zeroes and there isn’t a ton of leeway if you mess something up.

+1

My daughter switched to public middle this year from a Catholic school and went from probably around a C average to straight As in mostly honors classes, almost entirely because of the new ability to retake tests and turn assignments in late for credit.

The same goes in reverse, we had a bunch of Mann DCPS show up at our K-12 all girls Catholic school and they were overwhelmed by the rigor. A few got tutors to try and keep up.

[Anonymous]

I think this conversation misses that there are benefits to mass and prayer that are outside of the religious benefits. Mass and other religious activities like praying the rosary help kids learn to sit still, quiet their brain and focus. It teaches them that there are times when you have to be respectful. Frequently my child's class has a prayer leader which is a daily practice in public speaking. I personally like these practices for the religious reasons but I also think they provide educational benefits. I'm not sure how these are done in public schools but I can see the benefit at my kids k-8.

[Anonymous]

Don’t states have required instruction time? Our catholic k-8 is makes sure to meet all state requirements.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Don’t states have required instruction time? Our catholic k-8 is makes sure to meet all state requirements.

"Instruction time" is loosely defined.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Our Catholic school starts the day at 7:40 and ends at 3:20, our public elementary starts at 9:30 and ends at 3:30, so we have an extra nearly 2 hours a day of school time. We do one 2 hour long standardized test per year, seems like our public peers are spending more time in testing than we spend in mass. We start and end our school year earlier but we also have some days off for Catholic holidays, then again we have zero days off for Jewish, Muslim or other religious holidays.

Our kids do extremely well compared to their public peers academically, you really don’t need to have such grave concern for this neighbor of yours.

I have my complaints about public schools, but they don't have standardized testing weekly. It's maybe 4x per year.

Our school has probably 6 masses per year, very few schools have it weekly. And with so much extra time in school per day we would still come out way ahead.

ok, sure, but the PP made it seem like standardized testing at public schools was weekly. It's not.

Also, I kind of like knowing where my DC is. Grades only tell you so much.

Sounds like your kids should be in a school with a good amount of testing then, good for you. No need to criticize anyone who chooses a different option for their children, move along!

? I wasn't criticizing. I was making an observation about a PP's post.

You seem quite defensive.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My kids have mass for approx 45 mins once a week.

My oldest is doing the math sequence that ends with geometry in 8th (pre-a in 6th, algebra in 7th).

They have focused on the fundamentals (math, grammar, writing, spelling).

I think the weakest area is specials (art, PE, music).

Also, quite a bit of homework. They give zeroes and there isn’t a ton of leeway if you mess something up.

+1

My daughter switched to public middle this year from a Catholic school and went from probably around a C average to straight As in mostly honors classes, almost entirely because of the new ability to retake tests and turn assignments in late for credit.

And are we looking at this as a plus?

[Anonymous]

Our Catholic school has more actual instruction hours on the schedule than our public school did, and according to the kids, the Catholic school uses the time for instruction, whereas in public school a lot of that time was spent on discipline (or a teacher leaving the room with a misbehaving student) or just quieting everyone down or trying to get everyone's attention.

Just their experience, not a universal statement.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Our Catholic school has more actual instruction hours on the schedule than our public school did, and according to the kids, the Catholic school uses the time for instruction, whereas in public school a lot of that time was spent on discipline (or a teacher leaving the room with a misbehaving student) or just quieting everyone down or trying to get everyone's attention.

Just their experience, not a universal statement.

In addition to the above, our private school doesn't fill the last week before winter break, or before summer vacation, with a week of movies. It's actual instruction. We also only have a rare early dismissal in the calendar.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It depends on the school but there are mixed views on that. Many people find that the basic writing and math skills taught in Catholic schools give them a stronger foundation than public schools when the kids get to high school.

What seems to lack is a broader degree of differentiation that you might get in public schools. Few if any K-8 Catholic kids get to Geometry for example. Advanced learners who might be in AAP and students at the other end of the spectrum don't necessarily have their needs met.

Catholic schools are a good fit for a run-of-the-mill student who also wants a religious component to their education.

LOL the bolded made me laugh. In my daughter's 8th grade class, almost half were taking geometry in 8th grade. This is a small Catholic parochial in Rockville. Clearly you know little about Catholic education.

[Anonymous]

I mostly went to Catholic school and we had mass once a week K-8 and only a few times a year (holy days of obligation) in high school. I switched to public middle school for grades 7 and 8 because we moved. I was astounded when I realized that the kids in this well-regarded public (like a top 3 school district in a state with really good schools overall) were an entire grade behind where I was in math, and the other classes (English, social studies, were on par with the work in had been doing 2 or 3 grades earlier. The bar was just so much lower.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Well, they don’t have to evacuate classrooms for desk-throwers, so there’s that.

Burn!