Public vs. Private Schools for people living in Montgomery County

[Anonymous]

Hi everyone,

Please help me understand (since I did not grow up in this country); say you live in Montgomery County, which has an excellent public school system: what would be the advantage of sending your kids to pricey private schools, like e.g. Sidwell Friends.
I am not being cynical, I am trying to think forward; our twins are only 2 years old and we live in NW DC. I grew up in a country with free education, so I am just trying to consider what would be best, including maybe moving to Montgomery County which I know has an excellent (best in the country?) public school system. One of my friends live in Montgomery County, but they send all of their kids to private schools. Is there an advantage for later on when they enter higher education? Thanks!

[Anonymous]

Class sizes.

Cohorts.

MCPS isn't that great anymore.

[Anonymous]

Certain schools in montgomery county are great, but not all. So it depends where your kids would be going. If you can afford private schooling, then you might want to do it.

[Anonymous]

There are lots of reasons.

For example: the parents want something the public school system doesn't offer, like a religious education. Or the parents think that a private school education must be better than a public school education, because it costs a lot of money. Or the child has a particular special need that a particular private school accommodates better than the public school system. Or the parents are middle-class and live in a high-poverty area. Or the parents went to private schools and assume that's what you do. Or...

Ask on the MD schools and private schools forums.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Certain schools in montgomery county are great, but not all. So it depends where your kids would be going. If you can afford private schooling, then you might want to do it.

Translation: Schools with lots of affluent, white, and Asian parents have a good reputation. Schools with lots of poor, African-American, and Hispanic parents have a bad reputation.

[Anonymous]

For example: the parents want something the public school system doesn't offer, like a religious education.

This plus the single-sex component was why I and my sisters went to private when we grew up in Montgomery County. Only for middle and high school.

[Anonymous]

kids from all schools will go to every single top school. kids from the worst school in the county will go to harvard and the kids form the top private school will go to low ranked schools, it doesn't matter where they go but if they are sriven to succeed.

i know kids from both private and public who went tot top schools and crappy schools. some of the parents will say it was a waste of moeny some will say it was a great expense, up to you to decide but my kids went to public went to top 20 schools but top 10 grad schools and had classmates in all schools who went to private and public so go figure, it is a crap shoot some crap shoots cost more then others.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Certain schools in montgomery county are great, but not all. So it depends where your kids would be going. If you can afford private schooling, then you might want to do it.

Translation: Schools with lots of affluent, white, and Asian parents have a good reputation. Schools with lots of poor, African-American, and Hispanic parents have a bad reputation.

i thought the buzz word was diversity

[Anonymous]

also OP- depending where you are in DC, many people consider some DC schools to be equal to, or superior, to MoCo these days. Just ask the hive here about 2.0...

[Anonymous]

What is your in-boundary elementary?

[Anonymous]

You should stick with public OP if you went to them.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Certain schools in montgomery county are great, but not all. So it depends where your kids would be going. If you can afford private schooling, then you might want to do it.

Translation: Schools with lots of affluent, white, and Asian parents have a good reputation. Schools with lots of poor, African-American, and Hispanic parents have a bad reputation.

i thought the buzz word was diversity

All schools follow the same curriculum. 2nd grade math is 2nd grade math no matter what school you attend in the county. Biology is biology no matter what school. Where things start to change is the demographics....

If the population has a majority of students that need remedial assistance to get them up to par for say 2nd grade math then the teacher will focus their attention and energy to the level. If you child does not need the remedial assistance they will need to sit in class and wait for the rest of the class to learn the material. If you get a great teacher, hopefully, there will be some differentiation. But under 2.0, differentiation is not strongly encouraged anymore and truthfully it makes more work for the teachers. If your child is one of a few that is ahead of the class, they don't have a peer group to encourage higher performance. They might not like to be singled out as the "smart" kid and it might backfire. School demographics also impact the PTA which in turn impacts the extra circular activities that are offered at the school. There is no point in offering latin, yoga, or art history if the majority of the parents in the school district cannot afford the class. If the parents cannot afford the class, the chances that the PTA being able to fund the class from their funds is also slim. In addition, if the school demographics require a stronger focus on basic needs (food, clothing) teachers need to address this issue before they can teach educational material.

But from an educational curriculum standpoint, all the schools are the same.

[Anonymous]

MoCo has many good public schools as well as many good private schools. What's right for each family is a function of their own circumstances and judgments.

We initially assumed we would attend public schools, and would move from a not-so-good district to a good one when that time came. Then we hit pre-school and our child was identified as having an unusual learning profile that the school was poorly equipped to handle (very strong in some areas, but gaps in some others). We also found in various extracurricular classes that teaching methods developed for the average kid just weren't optimal for us.

We found that we needed both small class sizes as well as a high degree of individualization to permit our child to be challenged in some areas while getting extra help in others. That road led us to private.

Like a lot of things in life, where you end up isn't always where you initially plan to go. Families make decisions according to the best information they have at the moment, and life doesn't always follow the preconceived plan.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:You should stick with public OP if you went to them.

. . . that is, if your kid is exactly like you. Otherwise, you might want to decide based on a fresh assessment of what's best for them.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Certain schools in montgomery county are great, but not all. So it depends where your kids would be going. If you can afford private schooling, then you might want to do it.

Translation: Schools with lots of affluent, white, and Asian parents have a good reputation. Schools with lots of poor, African-American, and Hispanic parents have a bad reputation.

Bingo!!