A Note on Teacher Quality At Privates

[Anonymous]

I'm the poster upthread who left public for private. Just to add one more data point, I pay more in health insurance now, but the private not only matched my public school salary, in subsequent years my income rose far faster than it would have had I stayed on the public school's step schedule.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'm the poster upthread who left public for private. Just to add one more data point, I pay more in health insurance now, but the private not only matched my public school salary, in subsequent years my income rose far faster than it would have had I stayed on the public school's step schedule.

NP, I'm really glad to hear this. I love our private school teachers and am bothered by the idea we might not be paying them well.

FWIW, my child had excellent teachers in public, too.

[Anonymous]

I've had kids at both. My kids have had exceptional teachers at both, and also ones at both who have been fine and professional but not exceptional (for my kids) at both. But by far the worst teacher was in public, and was untouchable because of tenure. She mocked my kid for having dyslexia in front of the class (which was the last straw for public and we pulled DC). She was deliberately mean to other kids with disabilities. But nothing happened. That is the problem with public: the worst of the worst are protected by unions.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don't know how kids learn in a classroom of 25-30+ kids. Class sizes in public education are a joke. Once you've experienced class sizes of 8-12 kids, you realize there's just no comparison whatsoever.

Weird, my public school kid learned tons and went to Columbia on the strength of demonstrating that knowledge on the APs and SATs. But keep telling yourself what makes you feel good.

Thanks for your data point of ONE. What year did your kid graduate from high school? Do you have kids in the public system right now? Things have changed.

Bet your kid prepped for the tests, like the vast majority of public school students. Mine didn’t, so there’s another data point of one.

NP. The APs and SATs are meant to be prepped for. It’s not a badge of honor that yours didn’t. It’s just laziness

[Anonymous]

Most privates would rather have a PhD with zero teaching experience over a talented, experienced teacher without a doctorate because it looks better on paper and that’s what really matters.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Most privates would rather have a PhD with zero teaching experience over a talented, experienced teacher without a doctorate because it looks better on paper and that’s what really matters.

I don't see this at the elementary level at all. Maybe HS? And at HS, I could see the pluses of having a PhD (who will accrue teaching experience and may be talented) along with teachers of other backgrounds.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Nearly all of the teachers at my kid’s private have taught in public schools and hold graduate degrees and additional certifications. They’ve moved to public because they (like us) became frustrated with the public system. They WANT to treat children as individuals, and in a class with 15 children, they can do that.

In any case...

There’s very little empirical evidence that a degree in education = better teaching based upon standardized measures (at least in my field, early childhood).

There IS evidence that education majors typically have the lowest SAT scores of all other majors.

Make of those facts what you will, but for me, arguing that public is better bc of teacher certification isn’t a good argument. All that means is that those teachers jumped through hoops to become part of the bureaucracy. (And yes, I hold teacher certification. I don’t think it makes me better qualified to teach than someone with a degree in classics who is passionate about teaching and learning.)

+ 1

Plus, this whole "public schools pay more" argument is ridiculous. It's a much harder job to teach at a public school, and at many public schools being a teacher has become more like being a social worker than being in education.

Regardless, the vast majority of teachers at my kids' private school have spouses who earn enough that they don't really care that they make a bit less at private. They choose to teach at a private school because it's actually a pretty comfortable job with good hours that are compatible with raising a family.

My god, would people STOP spreading this myth. I read this all the time on this board but it's simply NOT TRUE. Private school parents love to tell themselves this so they don't have to feel bad that the teachers at their kids' schools are underpaid. Just because you know a handful of teachers with high earning spouses, it does NOT mean it's the norm. At all.

Hi. I don't know about high earning spouses, but compatible with raising a family made it an OK trade off for me. I wouldn't want to be the primary earner - don't really see how it's possible in our high cost of living area unless you are just starting out and making all the sacrifices that one does. It is the road I chose as the secondary earner. And sure, I think salary could be looked at, but my balance of life is MUCH better in private than public and I would trade money for that. - teacher

That’s all well and good, but completely misses the point. Parents on this board continually justify low salaries for private school teachers by saying, “Well, they have high earning spouses.” Like, somehow that makes it ok. 1) It’s not ok, and 2) it’s not even true.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Much is made of the fact that private schools can cast their nets far afield and hire teachers that wouldn’t normally be certified to teach in public schools.

This is true but it comes at a cost.

Many teachers in privates, particularly new hires, believe that grading and sorting are their real responsibilities not developing student potential. That’s because, many private school teachers may never even have attended a public school and have little understanding of or patience for students that don’t immediately grasp the concept or exhibit the required behavior. What occurs is that they employ curriculum (many times pulled from a website not self developed) as a class control mechanism providing for little classroom differentiation. In the end, they teach solely to the students who could most likely teach themselves.

You have to be aware of this when dealing with issues related to grading and grades which many times are irrelevant.

Your writing is strange and quite bad. Is English your native language? Where did you learn to put commas in that way?

Sounds like troll writing. Like those Amazon product descriptions that are written by a computer.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Yeah, I will never understand private school above a certain level of public school. DC publics pay pretty well so you attract the best talent. I'm also confused because I have friends whose kids have special needs and they somehow think privates will be better for them when privates don't have people to support those needs and eventually counsel you out. If you have speech, motor, LDs, whatever, public schools come with teams of people passionate about supporting you. And my kids have never been held back in their learning by having those kids in their class. I mean, you do you, but my kids' teachers in DC have been phenomenal.

It's not all about the salary you can see. This has been said SO MANY TIMES. I'm glad you've enjoyed your kids' teachers, truly. But you're being myopic on this point.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Much is made of the fact that private schools can cast their nets far afield and hire teachers that wouldn’t normally be certified to teach in public schools.

This is true but it comes at a cost.

Many teachers in privates, particularly new hires, believe that grading and sorting are their real responsibilities not developing student potential. That’s because, many private school teachers may never even have attended a public school and have little understanding of or patience for students that don’t immediately grasp the concept or exhibit the required behavior. What occurs is that they employ curriculum (many times pulled from a website not self developed) as a class control mechanism providing for little classroom differentiation. In the end, they teach solely to the students who could most likely teach themselves.

You have to be aware of this when dealing with issues related to grading and grades which many times are irrelevant.

Be aware that private school teachers can also control a room while public school teachers just watch as students distract others or wander around.

What in heaven’s name are you talking about? Public school teachers in general have a lot stronger classroom management experience and technique because they have a broader range of students to support, a few in each class with behavior issues. There isn’t one teacher in my public school who would just watch helplessly.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Much is made of the fact that private schools can cast their nets far afield and hire teachers that wouldn’t normally be certified to teach in public schools.

This is true but it comes at a cost.

Many teachers in privates, particularly new hires, believe that grading and sorting are their real responsibilities not developing student potential. That’s because, many private school teachers may never even have attended a public school and have little understanding of or patience for students that don’t immediately grasp the concept or exhibit the required behavior. What occurs is that they employ curriculum (many times pulled from a website not self developed) as a class control mechanism providing for little classroom differentiation. In the end, they teach solely to the students who could most likely teach themselves.

You have to be aware of this when dealing with issues related to grading and grades which many times are irrelevant.

Be aware that private school teachers can also control a room while public school teachers just watch as students distract others or wander around.

What in heaven’s name are you talking about? Public school teachers in general have a lot stronger classroom management experience and technique because they have a broader range of students to support, a few in each class with behavior issues. There isn’t one teacher in my public school who would just watch helplessly.

I'm betting your kids are still in elementary school.