Did you hire an edu consultant?

[Anonymous]

crickets

[Anonymous]

As an Ed Consult, I’ve been reading this post with great interest. My goal is to best serve the student, the family and the schools so it’s helpful to hear how we can improve as professionals. I’d like to add a few thoughts to the posting. BTW, I’m not (or don’t think I am) any of the consultants who have been referenced on this posting.

I often visit and post on DCUM to try to give advice, point families in the right direction and give information. I feel that the more correct information that parents have, the better off we all are since education is supposed to be about the children. Since so many of the posts are filled with irrelevant and often mean/unnecessary comments, it can be really frustrating to sort through all the interference to get questions answered.

If you’ve read posts on this forum about Fly on the Wall, The Heights, SPD Child Loses It, Family Compass, Worried About Class Sizes, WPPSI 99, Red Shirting or a variety of other subjects, you’ve read comments from me. These are the ways that consultants can help parents when struggling with either their current school, looking for therapists or applying to new schools. Every time I see a posting about small, little known or new schools, I try to give a few names so that parents can explore all the different options for their children.

My only concern (which I’m sure will get some feedback) is that sometimes parents try to completely control or manipulate the school admission process and the consultant . You wouldn’t do this with a tax attorney, a mechanic or a manicurist so IF you have a consultant whom you trust and you feel they understand your child, please let them follow the best practices that they have been trained in by IECA. If you don’t like how they’re working with you, let them know and give them a chance to improve their service.

As always, I hope this helps put a different perspective on hiring an educational consultant.

Go New Orleans!!

My perspective has not changed.
Sounds like a drug rep trying to sell pills.

[Anonymous]

Just curious, why do you get on this forum? There are a few of you out there that like to visit.
BTW, you are welcome on this forum.

Have you heard of the concept of marketing and self promotion.

[Anonymous]

I know an AD at a sought-after school who does not like applicants who use educational consultants. After all, they want to assess the child, not a prepared package. The prepared package screams high maintenance parents, willing to spend large sums of money to get their children somewhere they don't trust their children can get to on their own.

[Anonymous]

EC again

I actually come to the forum to learn and help and keep up-to-date on what parents are experiencing or concerned about. I also hope to give impartial information or to correct certain rumors that are untrue or exaggerated about schools, tests, etc.

No self-promotion, no phone numbers, no website. Sorry to disappoint but I'm an educator at heart and after being a teacher for years, wanted to do something a little different and that's about it.
BTW - very few consultants make enough to live on since a lot of our work isn't billable. Touring schools, meeting testers, training on Montessori, Waldorf, Learning Disabilities, Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, Phono-graphix, is all professional development. I just don't want people to think that we all make $150/hour at 40 hours per week. Not even close.

[Anonymous]

EC again
Sorry - didn't see these questions before:

"I have a question for you - I understand that one of the major inputs that an educational consultant can provide is to match the student with particular schools that best fit the student. On the other hand, I imagine that most people who come to an ed consultant are also saying "how can you help us get into the "top 3" or the "fab 4" or whatever". How does it work in these cases? Do you gently nudge people away from their dream school or do you add your list of "ideal" schools to their list?"

I always respect the parents' school choices but do often recommend or nudge a family in another direction if I feel their child needs a certain type of learning environment. It's a delicate balance between what parents want, the type of learner their child is and the type of kids a school is looking for. Of course the parents know their child best and we have to take into account their wants and lifestyle (2 parents working, driving, finances, religion, etc.)

Another Q for the Ed consultant: Perhaps you can help us resolve once and for all whether super high WPPSI s actually matter.

Also, what fraction of applications at the top schools do actually have WPPSI 99 (an issue that has pre occupied many on these forums for a while now).

The WPPSI's are a tough one since many children do test in the 90s. It also really depends on how well the tester connects with the young child.
Many of the schools use the WPPSI as a screening tool (if your child is really low or has some major discrepancies in the subtests) it's worth a discussion with the AD. Maybe the child needs to take a different cognitive eval if they do poorly. Coming from a consultant, most AD's will accept a Stanford Binet or other eval if your child is a slower processor or not a strong verbal type (and there are others)

Sorry for the typos - trying to watch the game as well

[Anonymous]

Oh - and about the schools not liking a Prepared Package. I totally agree. The child should absolutely be a good fit and be able to get into the school on their own. For young children, I'm usually more of a resource and third partner in the process. For older kids, it's more about focusing on their strengths and really getting the student to appreciate who they are and how they are a good fit with the school.

Hope this makes sense...

[Anonymous]

Dear EC - Thanks. Re the WPPSI, it it the case that even a 99 FSIQ is not considered exceptional as "everyone has a score in that range" - as some in this forum assert?

[Anonymous]

EC, could you please clarify what you mean by parents trying to "completely control or manipulate the school admission process and the consultant". Isn't the fact that they hired you exerting enough control--in the sense that they are willing to spend thousands of dollars to get what they want? What are parents doing that is crossing the line?

Anonymous wrote:As an Ed Consult, I’ve been reading this post with great interest. My goal is to best serve the student, the family and the schools so it’s helpful to hear how we can improve as professionals. I’d like to add a few thoughts to the posting. BTW, I’m not (or don’t think I am) any of the consultants who have been referenced on this posting.

I often visit and post on DCUM to try to give advice, point families in the right direction and give information. I feel that the more correct information that parents have, the better off we all are since education is supposed to be about the children. Since so many of the posts are filled with irrelevant and often mean/unnecessary comments, it can be really frustrating to sort through all the interference to get questions answered.

If you’ve read posts on this forum about Fly on the Wall, The Heights, SPD Child Loses It, Family Compass, Worried About Class Sizes, WPPSI 99, Red Shirting or a variety of other subjects, you’ve read comments from me. These are the ways that consultants can help parents when struggling with either their current school, looking for therapists or applying to new schools. Every time I see a posting about small, little known or new schools, I try to give a few names so that parents can explore all the different options for their children.

My only concern (which I’m sure will get some feedback) is that sometimes parents try to completely control or manipulate the school admission process and the consultant . You wouldn’t do this with a tax attorney, a mechanic or a manicurist so IF you have a consultant whom you trust and you feel they understand your child, please let them follow the best practices that they have been trained in by IECA. If you don’t like how they’re working with you, let them know and give them a chance to improve their service.

As always, I hope this helps put a different perspective on hiring an educational consultant.

Go New Orleans!!

[Anonymous]

EC again

I've written and re-written an answer to the question about parents controlling the process and I can't figure out anyway to get my point across without being misinterpreted.

So-
3 (very, very rare) examples:
I've had a family hire me and another consultant at the same time, not tell either of us, and have us both contact the school on the child's behalf. This caused confusion, frustrated the school and completely undermined the child's application process. And it didn't work.

I've had families who have gone to 3-4 different psychologists to have their child take the WISC over to try to get a higher IQ score (they can only take it once a year)

I've had parents insist that I help place their child in a prestigious school when it is completely the wrong fit for that child (which was later confirmed by the AD after the disasterous playdate which I wasn't informed of)


Assuming that you like and trust the professional that you've hired, they should be allowed to do the professional job (ie educational consulting) that you've hired them for. Having said that, I'd be very upset if I'd had some of the experiences that people have posted as well.

[Anonymous]

OK, EC, that clarifies things. I wouldn't characterize these examples as parents controlling the process -- as parents should -- but rather parents cheating, or at least manipulating the process. I've got to guess that in each of these examples, they didn't get what they wanted.

[Anonymous]

Dear EC,

I was one of the PPs who asked for further clarification and I'm glad that you provided it. The instances that you cited were crystal clear as opposed to speaking in generalities. I have another question for your consideration. What happens if you have 10 clients and they are all trying to get their children in the same difficult-to-get spot (i.e. Pre-K at Sidwell). How do you handle that? Do you push more for one particular child, if you think it would be a better fit? Or do you advocate for all families equally? Do you tell your clients that you have several other clients vying for the same spots?

Thanks in advance.

Anonymous wrote:EC again

I've written and re-written an answer to the question about parents controlling the process and I can't figure out anyway to get my point across without being misinterpreted.

So-
3 (very, very rare) examples:
I've had a family hire me and another consultant at the same time, not tell either of us, and have us both contact the school on the child's behalf. This caused confusion, frustrated the school and completely undermined the child's application process. And it didn't work.

I've had families who have gone to 3-4 different psychologists to have their child take the WISC over to try to get a higher IQ score (they can only take it once a year)

I've had parents insist that I help place their child in a prestigious school when it is completely the wrong fit for that child (which was later confirmed by the AD after the disasterous playdate which I wasn't informed of)


Assuming that you like and trust the professional that you've hired, they should be allowed to do the professional job (ie educational consulting) that you've hired them for. Having said that, I'd be very upset if I'd had some of the experiences that people have posted as well.