How do Spence, Brearley, Dalton, Chapin, Trinity, and Nightingale differ in terms of student body

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The documentary American Promise covers a similiar theme in which the child has a learning disability and the parents have a difficult time accepting.

To me it felt like the parents were questioning (through the exhaustive process of making the film) if their highly selective school (Dalton) actually supports students of color. Learning differences were definitely a big part of it, but it’s a larger commentary. Regardless, highly recommend.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:As a fellow public school parent who has also suffered through the problem of one kid taking up too much of a teacher's attention: a $70k/year school ought to be able to figure out a way to manage that. Heck, even a wealthy public school will have a team of paraprofessionals to pull out kids with extra needs for a big part of their day; the private school I went to 30 years ago was a whole lot dinkier than St. Ann's and yet they had a whole separate track for kids with ADHD, with their own schedule and low-ratio classes and so on. There's no reason on earth why St Ann's couldn't afford to hire a couple of people to ensure that students with learning differences are well taken care of.

Also, telling them *in February* that the kid can't return for 9th grade is particularly awful because it means their high school choices are essentially a) go to to whatever private school still has room and will take your kid, b) go to whatever public high school you get assigned to with no applications and no SHSAT, or c) move to the suburbs.

I'm the poster from above. Completely agree with you about February. I must have missed that part of it. Agree that that really tied their hands and was not cool. That changes my perspective. If you are going to counsel out, you need to make it so the child has a chance of successfully landing elsewhere. If they truly were told in February, they had no chance.

I do not think that private schools, no matter what the cost is, have an obligation to help kids with special needs. There is only so much they can do. There is a difference between a bit of extra help and building a whole universe around a specific kid. It sounds like the school you went to had several kids like that, so there were economies of scale. Doing something like this for one kid with extensive needs (unclear how extensive the needs of this kid were - that is a big part of the debate - I am speaking more generally) is not realistic. But it needs to be a process where the two sides work together. Because St. Ann's is generally more welcoming to non-traditional kids, the parents assumed that that included their different child. But this was a different situation. It is very unclear what the school told the parents and how much of it the parents chose to hear.

I first heard about this case when someone posted about it in the Private School forum. Someone had found the dockets and shared them in the thread.

If the school psychologist is to be believed, this was an ongoing conversation for several years. The parents knew there was a chance he wouldn't be offered a re-enrollment contract, and they'd already applied to other schools before the administration at Saint Ann's made its final decision.

I don't know if it was the right choice to deny him a spot in the high school. Given that kids had been locked in at home for a year by this point, it would be hard for anyone's academic performance to really improve under the circumstances. But Saint Ann's didn't just pull the rug out from under the family. I can't imagine a judge siding with the plaintiffs.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The documentary American Promise covers a similiar theme in which the child has a learning disability and the parents have a difficult time accepting.

To me it felt like the parents were questioning (through the exhaustive process of making the film) if their highly selective school (Dalton) actually supports students of color. Learning differences were definitely a big part of it, but it’s a larger commentary. Regardless, highly recommend.

That documentary was very good, but so depressing. Interesting seeing Babby on film for a few seconds!

Other documentaries about the NYC school scene (in case anyone is interested)-
Class Divide - about Avenues and the local zoned public school
Nursery University - about the crazy competition to get into nursery school feeders, from the late aughts, when there was no UPK, and private was the only form of education prior to K. I think some of those nursery schools have now closed down (Mandell, St Barts, Epiphany Community).
Waiting for Superman, The Lottery - about charter schools, Success Academy

for the OP - maybe you'd like NYC Prep, which was a reality show that aired 15 years ago and featured private school kids from Nightengale, Dwight, etc.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The documentary American Promise covers a similiar theme in which the child has a learning disability and the parents have a difficult time accepting.

To me it felt like the parents were questioning (through the exhaustive process of making the film) if their highly selective school (Dalton) actually supports students of color. Learning differences were definitely a big part of it, but it’s a larger commentary. Regardless, highly recommend.

That documentary was very good, but so depressing. Interesting seeing Babby on film for a few seconds!

Other documentaries about the NYC school scene (in case anyone is interested)-
Class Divide - about Avenues and the local zoned public school
Nursery University - about the crazy competition to get into nursery school feeders, from the late aughts, when there was no UPK, and private was the only form of education prior to K. I think some of those nursery schools have now closed down (Mandell, St Barts, Epiphany Community).
Waiting for Superman, The Lottery - about charter schools, Success Academy

for the OP - maybe you'd like NYC Prep, which was a reality show that aired 15 years ago and featured private school kids from Nightengale, Dwight, etc.

There’s also a series of 6 or 7 docu-shorts on youtube called Getting In… Kindergarten. It’s old, but it’s interesting.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:
There’s also a series of 6 or 7 docu-shorts on youtube called Getting In… Kindergarten. It’s old, but it’s interesting.

Thanks, I didn't realize how traumatic the experience can be.

[Anonymous]

It’s significantly easier post pandemic to get into most of these schools. Nightingale just revealed its admissions stats and it’s like 35%.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It’s significantly easier post pandemic to get into most of these schools. Nightingale just revealed its admissions stats and it’s like 35%.

That’s still really low. Whether a school accepts a third of applicants or a tenth - that’s still a lot of 5 year old applicants that don’t get offered a place.

On a more optimistic note, I think a lot of these schools can tell if they are truly your first choice (not one of your first but your actual first choice ) and offers are most likely to go to those kids. So if 100 kids applied to school A and school A has a 20% acceptance rate, it may have been the 20 kids/families who really wanted it, leaving more ‘qualified’ applicants shut out of schools they may have not ranked as high.

[Anonymous]

Thats why first choice letters exist; we had that experience. Once we indicated (only at the target school) they were our FC, all the interest from the other schools (who supposedly shouldnt know) dissolved and we didnt get into many more extras. Obviously word went out from our preschool director.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It’s significantly easier post pandemic to get into most of these schools. Nightingale just revealed its admissions stats and it’s like 35%.

where did they post that, very interesting

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It’s significantly easier post pandemic to get into most of these schools. Nightingale just revealed its admissions stats and it’s like 35%.

That’s still really low. Whether a school accepts a third of applicants or a tenth - that’s still a lot of 5 year old applicants that don’t get offered a place.

On a more optimistic note, I think a lot of these schools can tell if they are truly your first choice (not one of your first but your actual first choice ) and offers are most likely to go to those kids. So if 100 kids applied to school A and school A has a 20% acceptance rate, it may have been the 20 kids/families who really wanted it, leaving more ‘qualified’ applicants shut out of schools they may have not ranked as high.

Yeah, quite frankly, I’m surprised that Nightingale’s acceptance rate is that low!

[Anonymous]

Nightingale sold municipal bonds to finance their new athletic building. The admissions stats are in the offering document.

[Anonymous]

It was 20% and below every year from 1999-2003.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Nightingale sold municipal bonds to finance their new athletic building. The admissions stats are in the offering document.

Found the Official Statement. Really interesting stuff. For 25-26 they had 255 apps for K, accepted 90, 49 matriculated (54% yield). Acceptance rate and yield have been fairly consistent going back six years. 5.6% attrition last year. Lots of college info aggregated over five years. Impressive but not off the charts.

$7MM of financial aid. 131 of 716 kids get aid (some of those are kids of faculty, etc.). They raise about $4MM a year. $98MM endowment.

Total cost of the new rec facility on 108th Street is $92MM - mainly $17MM to buy the land and $59MM construction. They issued $40MM of bonds to help pay for it.

Chapin has also issued debt so published an official statement in 2017 that has lots of disclosure. Their latest financials are available but just has financial data, nothing about anything else. I think a few other schools (Packer? blanking on the others) also have public debt so have outstanding public disclosure.

[Anonymous]

In 2017, Chapin was a 20% admission rate at K, only 8% in HS.

Admissions have been easier in the post pandemic classes so wouldn’t be surprised if it’s in the 25-35% area now? But that is just a guess.

[Anonymous]

Can you add a few more schools?