If you can afford parochial/ private, why do you stay in MCPS?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think one of the themes in these responses is that people aren't seeing the valued added for most parochial/independent schools.

Yes, my child would probably get a better education at GDS or SFS than our local public, but I don't have that kind of money. So...once you get beyond the "top" four or so schools in the region, there's just no clear advantage for most kids.

I disagree. At the elementary level, students in parochial school actually learn phonics, spelling, and grammar (and even cursive) -- nonexistent in most MCPS elementary schools. Many MCPS students are lacking in these skills and we are learning of some 3rd grade students who are illiterate due to the substandard virtual format last year. My kids were in school for the entire year last year and are thriving.

You sound like someone justifying their own decision who has no experience with MCPS. Contrary to your belief, kids do learn spelling and grammar

What about phonics? I know many families that complain that there are no spelling tests and they never learn grammar...at least not at the same level as parochial schools. My daughter has a class just for spelling and for grammar. MCPS teachers do not correct grammar in papers that students submit. I know this because I had a kid there for 9 years until we moved him to private high school and he had a lot of catch up to do with writing, etc. Math was fine though.

I think most people learn spelling by reading...or at least much more than hard core memorization for a Friday quiz. My kids are older and they had spelling tests every Friday in MCPS. One is a great speller. The other labored over those words for years in ES and is a terrible speller. If I could go back I would not spend a minute on spelling lists with him.

I'm 50 and not a great speller. I rely on spellcheck a lot. I've been making six figures for 20+ years. I'm good at analyzing, asking the right questions.. but not good at spelling. I get paid to analyze, and provide expertise in my field. Of course, everyone needs to know how to spell, but I would not make this the end all be all in choosing whether to go private or not, especially in the 21st century where spellcheck is ubiquitous.

You're right, the presence of cursive in the curriculum should obviously be the deciding factor

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:In the Whitman cluster with ES kids. We are generally happy with our teachers and love our school community, but classes for my kindergartner and 4th grader have 25+ kids. The administrators are also extremely frustrating communicators and under qualified. My oldest needed some additional assistance learning to read, which we accomplished through after school tutoring. I am not sure we are quite ready to switch to private school quite yet, but my spouse is.

If you can afford parochial or private school, why do you keep your kids in MCPS?

We'd like to retire sooner rather than later, we have college expenses to look at, and we can't see sending my kids to a parochial for for religious indoctrination that doesn't match our beliefs.

Oh, and we find MCPS to be quite good despite all the people on DCUM lambasting 'em.

Does your kid feel safe?

What planet do you live on? Public schools in this country are extremely segregated by SES because public school funding comes out of property tax bills. Thus people who can afford to send their kids to private school likely live in a neighborhood whose public school pyramid is comprised with mostly white /
Asian kids with professional parents who are well off. Yes, their kids feel safe at school.

Really? So because their school is mostly white, they are safer? What about the knife incident at Churchill and most recently the gun found on the WJ student just this weekend. Public high schools are cesspools of disturbed youth. I'm sending mine to all girls.

FYI there's some scary stuff going on there, too.

I’m sorry to say there are disturbed kids everywhere these days. It’s very sad and at least in a large pool of kids your child can try to avoid them. It’s a hard time right now.

When was the last time you heard of a violent crime in an all girls school? Shooting? Like I said, I feel my daughter will be much safer in an all girls environment and grateful we have the means for it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Because I'm not seeing better outcomes for kids in parochial/private. My neice and her friends who were in private didn't get accepted at colleges that were better than kids in public. Why would I pay $25K a year for my kid to get accepted to Catholic University or Delaware?

We had a babysitter who graduated from Visi and went to Clemson. My neighbor graduated from MCPS (non magnet) and went to Clemson also.
This point is what keeps me from moving my kids. Can’t imaging paying a so much $$ for no guaranteed outcome, or at least the same outcome
You can get for free.
That, and they’re 15 and 13. Might as well just finish out now.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:In the Whitman cluster with ES kids. We are generally happy with our teachers and love our school community, but classes for my kindergartner and 4th grader have 25+ kids. The administrators are also extremely frustrating communicators and under qualified. My oldest needed some additional assistance learning to read, which we accomplished through after school tutoring. I am not sure we are quite ready to switch to private school quite yet, but my spouse is.

If you can afford parochial or private school, why do you keep your kids in MCPS?

We took one out and still have one in. The one in is mainly because of friends, but also we cannot afford two in private. They have a good cohort that they developed through CES and I feel good that the kids themselves are stronger than the school system itself. However I do worry about and think about it every day.

The private school experience has been a godsend in many ways but also a lot different than public in other ways that also makes me uncomfortable. For example, through the combination of MAP testing and conferences you get a very good idea in MCPS where your kid is objectively in terms of their development and where they sit vis-a-via their classmates. This has felt more opaque at the private school and I would suspect that they make those comparisons difficult by design. On the other hand, a huge benefit of the difference in private versus public is that we don’t need to feel constantly on guard and hovering over everything. In MCPS it feels like you are penalized for not helicoptering and not being constantly in communication with the school and teachers, even if they treat you like you are being a PITA.

With that said, in ES in particular when both were in MCPS, we expended a lot on outside tutoring.

For what it’s worth, a lot of kids at the private live in the Whitman cluster. So you would not be alone in making that choice.

Good luck OP. It’s a hard decision and it’s different for everyone. I would honestly love to leave MCPS completely in the rear view mirror if I could.

Private schools offer standardized testing are are very transparent with results. The big difference is most students do well on the testing whereas at MCPS the learning loss has been abysmal.

I’m the PP you are responding to and my kid that is in one of the top privates in DC does not have testing. By contrast, with MAP testing the kids get the results immediately and compare scores and we also get the report to contextual the scores in terms of nationally and the district. When I combine that objective data with the subjective responses from teachers during conferences I don’t feel that there is a lot of ambiguity about where they stand in MCPS. The problem with MCPS though is that it’s hard to get direct and honest feedback about improvement. Teachers like to talk retrospectively but not prospectively. When I ask about areas of improvement it’s always the same, “your kid is doing great”. Which I understand from their perspective because they have to deal with a lot of different educational levels and behavioral issues in the classroom. But they never really give objective feedback about what my kid needs to do to reach the next level.

By contrast, the private school is actually very good about this kind of feedback but, for obvious reasons, is loathe to provide objective or comparative information so it’s hard to get a sense where the kid sits vis-a-vis other kids in the class. Presumably all of the kids in the private school compare favorably nationally.

There is a lot of things you can criticize MCPS for and there are a lot of reasons why so much testing is bad. But there are also reasons why it can be good.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:In the Whitman cluster with ES kids. We are generally happy with our teachers and love our school community, but classes for my kindergartner and 4th grader have 25+ kids. The administrators are also extremely frustrating communicators and under qualified. My oldest needed some additional assistance learning to read, which we accomplished through after school tutoring. I am not sure we are quite ready to switch to private school quite yet, but my spouse is.

If you can afford parochial or private school, why do you keep your kids in MCPS?

We took one out and still have one in. The one in is mainly because of friends, but also we cannot afford two in private. They have a good cohort that they developed through CES and I feel good that the kids themselves are stronger than the school system itself. However I do worry about and think about it every day.

The private school experience has been a godsend in many ways but also a lot different than public in other ways that also makes me uncomfortable. For example, through the combination of MAP testing and conferences you get a very good idea in MCPS where your kid is objectively in terms of their development and where they sit vis-a-via their classmates. This has felt more opaque at the private school and I would suspect that they make those comparisons difficult by design. On the other hand, a huge benefit of the difference in private versus public is that we don’t need to feel constantly on guard and hovering over everything. In MCPS it feels like you are penalized for not helicoptering and not being constantly in communication with the school and teachers, even if they treat you like you are being a PITA.

With that said, in ES in particular when both were in MCPS, we expended a lot on outside tutoring.

For what it’s worth, a lot of kids at the private live in the Whitman cluster. So you would not be alone in making that choice.

Good luck OP. It’s a hard decision and it’s different for everyone. I would honestly love to leave MCPS completely in the rear view mirror if I could.

Private schools offer standardized testing are are very transparent with results. The big difference is most students do well on the testing whereas at MCPS the learning loss has been abysmal.

I’m the PP you are responding to and my kid that is in one of the top privates in DC does not have testing. By contrast, with MAP testing the kids get the results immediately and compare scores and we also get the report to contextual the scores in terms of nationally and the district. When I combine that objective data with the subjective responses from teachers during conferences I don’t feel that there is a lot of ambiguity about where they stand in MCPS. The problem with MCPS though is that it’s hard to get direct and honest feedback about improvement. Teachers like to talk retrospectively but not prospectively. When I ask about areas of improvement it’s always the same, “your kid is doing great”. Which I understand from their perspective because they have to deal with a lot of different educational levels and behavioral issues in the classroom. But they never really give objective feedback about what my kid needs to do to reach the next level.

By contrast, the private school is actually very good about this kind of feedback but, for obvious reasons, is loathe to provide objective or comparative information so it’s hard to get a sense where the kid sits vis-a-vis other kids in the class. Presumably all of the kids in the private school compare favorably nationally.

There is a lot of things you can criticize MCPS for and there are a lot of reasons why so much testing is bad. But there are also reasons why it can be good.

I absolutely would never send my kid to a public school without the testing. Teachers are typically not accountable without the testing. In private school, teachers tend to be more vested in your child.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Because I'm not seeing better outcomes for kids in parochial/private. My neice and her friends who were in private didn't get accepted at colleges that were better than kids in public. Why would I pay $25K a year for my kid to get accepted to Catholic University or Delaware?

We had a babysitter who graduated from Visi and went to Clemson. My neighbor graduated from MCPS (non magnet) and went to Clemson also.
This point is what keeps me from moving my kids. Can’t imaging paying a so much $$ for no guaranteed outcome, or at least the same outcome
You can get for free.
That, and they’re 15 and 13. Might as well just finish out now.

Parochial schools serve a purpose. If you live in Hyattsville and have low housing costs or you live in Brightwood and had a bad charter lottery, parochial would be an excellent option. It would also be a good option for certain types of kids that really need structure and a disciplined environment.

I’m not sure though it makes a lot of sense if you live in North Bethesda or something similar and you kid can navigate large school environments and can cope with some distraction.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think one of the themes in these responses is that people aren't seeing the valued added for most parochial/independent schools.

Yes, my child would probably get a better education at GDS or SFS than our local public, but I don't have that kind of money. So...once you get beyond the "top" four or so schools in the region, there's just no clear advantage for most kids.

I disagree. At the elementary level, students in parochial school actually learn phonics, spelling, and grammar (and even cursive) -- nonexistent in most MCPS elementary schools. Many MCPS students are lacking in these skills and we are learning of some 3rd grade students who are illiterate due to the substandard virtual format last year. My kids were in school for the entire year last year and are thriving.

You sound like someone justifying their own decision who has no experience with MCPS. Contrary to your belief, kids do learn spelling and grammar

What about phonics? I know many families that complain that there are no spelling tests and they never learn grammar...at least not at the same level as parochial schools. My daughter has a class just for spelling and for grammar. MCPS teachers do not correct grammar in papers that students submit. I know this because I had a kid there for 9 years until we moved him to private high school and he had a lot of catch up to do with writing, etc. Math was fine though.

I think most people learn spelling by reading...or at least much more than hard core memorization for a Friday quiz. My kids are older and they had spelling tests every Friday in MCPS. One is a great speller. The other labored over those words for years in ES and is a terrible speller. If I could go back I would not spend a minute on spelling lists with him.

I'm 50 and not a great speller. I rely on spellcheck a lot. I've been making six figures for 20+ years. I'm good at analyzing, asking the right questions.. but not good at spelling. I get paid to analyze, and provide expertise in my field. Of course, everyone needs to know how to spell, but I would not make this the end all be all in choosing whether to go private or not, especially in the 21st century where spellcheck is ubiquitous.

You're right, the presence of cursive in the curriculum should obviously be the deciding factor

no need for sarcasm here. What I wrote is the truth. Heck, even this forum will underline in red words that are misspelled. Now a days, everything is done on the computer in school. Kids need to know how to keyboard from a young age. My kids do almost all their assignments on the computer. They can type 60 to 80 wpm. Yesterday, I saw DC who is taking BC Calc doing graphing on a website (can't remember the name now). DC said they don't even bother with their graphing calculator anymore. They all use this website. Oh, and this DC is in a highly competitive magnet program, straight A student, 1580 SAT, but not a great speller, either.

[Anonymous]

I like the smaller class sizes, but not all privates are more challenging / advantageous academically. Moreover, I value the diversity MCPS offers - warts and all. I want my kids to be around people of different SES, cultures, races. Many privates / parochial schools are not diverse.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:In the Whitman cluster with ES kids. We are generally happy with our teachers and love our school community, but classes for my kindergartner and 4th grader have 25+ kids. The administrators are also extremely frustrating communicators and under qualified. My oldest needed some additional assistance learning to read, which we accomplished through after school tutoring. I am not sure we are quite ready to switch to private school quite yet, but my spouse is.

If you can afford parochial or private school, why do you keep your kids in MCPS?

We'd like to retire sooner rather than later, we have college expenses to look at, and we can't see sending my kids to a parochial for for religious indoctrination that doesn't match our beliefs.

Oh, and we find MCPS to be quite good despite all the people on DCUM lambasting 'em.

Does your kid feel safe?

What planet do you live on? Public schools in this country are extremely segregated by SES because public school funding comes out of property tax bills. Thus people who can afford to send their kids to private school likely live in a neighborhood whose public school pyramid is comprised with mostly white /
Asian kids with professional parents who are well off. Yes, their kids feel safe at school.

Really? So because their school is mostly white, they are safer? What about the knife incident at Churchill and most recently the gun found on the WJ student just this weekend. Public high schools are cesspools of disturbed youth. I'm sending mine to all girls.

FYI there's some scary stuff going on there, too.

I’m sorry to say there are disturbed kids everywhere these days. It’s very sad and at least in a large pool of kids your child can try to avoid them. It’s a hard time right now.

When was the last time you heard of a violent crime in an all girls school? Shooting? Like I said, I feel my daughter will be much safer in an all girls environment and grateful we have the means for it.

It was all eating disorders, suicide attempts, unplanned pregnancy, and addiction disorders at my all-girl HS. I guess that’s better?? Much more expensive to treat than a gunshot wound, though, my dad would want me to add.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Because I'm not seeing better outcomes for kids in parochial/private. My neice and her friends who were in private didn't get accepted at colleges that were better than kids in public. Why would I pay $25K a year for my kid to get accepted to Catholic University or Delaware?

We had a babysitter who graduated from Visi and went to Clemson. My neighbor graduated from MCPS (non magnet) and went to Clemson also.
This point is what keeps me from moving my kids. Can’t imaging paying a so much $$ for no guaranteed outcome, or at least the same outcome
You can get for free.
That, and they’re 15 and 13. Might as well just finish out now.

This! Our neighborhood is split between kids who go to private HS and kids who go to public in the DCC. The private and public school kids end up at many of the same schools and the few who’ve gone onto the truly elite schools and ivies are the public school kids. There are many factors here, but i just don’t know that privates offer the advantage I’d want them to in terms of college admission and success, particularly because so far my kids seem to be doing well at MCPS schools and have good teachers, peer group, and support. That said, when I visit private schools for games, etc I can totally see the appeal: gorgeous campuses, smaller classes, etc.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:In the Whitman cluster with ES kids. We are generally happy with our teachers and love our school community, but classes for my kindergartner and 4th grader have 25+ kids. The administrators are also extremely frustrating communicators and under qualified. My oldest needed some additional assistance learning to read, which we accomplished through after school tutoring. I am not sure we are quite ready to switch to private school quite yet, but my spouse is.

If you can afford parochial or private school, why do you keep your kids in MCPS?

We'd like to retire sooner rather than later, we have college expenses to look at, and we can't see sending my kids to a parochial for for religious indoctrination that doesn't match our beliefs.

Oh, and we find MCPS to be quite good despite all the people on DCUM lambasting 'em.

Does your kid feel safe?

What planet do you live on? Public schools in this country are extremely segregated by SES because public school funding comes out of property tax bills. Thus people who can afford to send their kids to private school likely live in a neighborhood whose public school pyramid is comprised with mostly white /
Asian kids with professional parents who are well off. Yes, their kids feel safe at school.

Really? So because their school is mostly white, they are safer? What about the knife incident at Churchill and most recently the gun found on the WJ student just this weekend. Public high schools are cesspools of disturbed youth. I'm sending mine to all girls.

FYI there's some scary stuff going on there, too.

I’m sorry to say there are disturbed kids everywhere these days. It’s very sad and at least in a large pool of kids your child can try to avoid them. It’s a hard time right now.

When was the last time you heard of a violent crime in an all girls school? Shooting? Like I said, I feel my daughter will be much safer in an all girls environment and grateful we have the means for it.

It was all eating disorders, suicide attempts, unplanned pregnancy, and addiction disorders at my all-girl HS. I guess that’s better?? Much more expensive to treat than a gunshot wound, though, my dad would want me to add.

LOL, all that stuff exists at public schools as well on a larger scale. Try again.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Because I'm not seeing better outcomes for kids in parochial/private. My neice and her friends who were in private didn't get accepted at colleges that were better than kids in public. Why would I pay $25K a year for my kid to get accepted to Catholic University or Delaware?

We had a babysitter who graduated from Visi and went to Clemson. My neighbor graduated from MCPS (non magnet) and went to Clemson also.
This point is what keeps me from moving my kids. Can’t imaging paying a so much $$ for no guaranteed outcome, or at least the same outcome
You can get for free.
That, and they’re 15 and 13. Might as well just finish out now.

This! Our neighborhood is split between kids who go to private HS and kids who go to public in the DCC. The private and public school kids end up at many of the same schools and the few who’ve gone onto the truly elite schools and ivies are the public school kids. There are many factors here, but i just don’t know that privates offer the advantage I’d want them to in terms of college admission and success, particularly because so far my kids seem to be doing well at MCPS schools and have good teachers, peer group, and support. That said, when I visit private schools for games, etc I can totally see the appeal: gorgeous campuses, smaller classes, etc.

Sorry, try again. Most people pay for private school for reasons other than college admissions. Although we did have a very good outcome with my son's admission out of a private high school. But that was not the reason for enrolling him in private. Many many more important reasons.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Because I'm not seeing better outcomes for kids in parochial/private. My neice and her friends who were in private didn't get accepted at colleges that were better than kids in public. Why would I pay $25K a year for my kid to get accepted to Catholic University or Delaware?

We had a babysitter who graduated from Visi and went to Clemson. My neighbor graduated from MCPS (non magnet) and went to Clemson also.
This point is what keeps me from moving my kids. Can’t imaging paying a so much $$ for no guaranteed outcome, or at least the same outcome
You can get for free.
That, and they’re 15 and 13. Might as well just finish out now.

This! Our neighborhood is split between kids who go to private HS and kids who go to public in the DCC. The private and public school kids end up at many of the same schools and the few who’ve gone onto the truly elite schools and ivies are the public school kids. There are many factors here, but i just don’t know that privates offer the advantage I’d want them to in terms of college admission and success, particularly because so far my kids seem to be doing well at MCPS schools and have good teachers, peer group, and support. That said, when I visit private schools for games, etc I can totally see the appeal: gorgeous campuses, smaller classes, etc.

Just wait...you will learn just how badly your kids' grades are inflated. It is a big problem and college admissions officers know about this. Good luck.

[Anonymous]

BBC cluster and I went to Quince Orchard. The schools are really good, especially elementary.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Because I'm not seeing better outcomes for kids in parochial/private. My neice and her friends who were in private didn't get accepted at colleges that were better than kids in public. Why would I pay $25K a year for my kid to get accepted to Catholic University or Delaware?

We had a babysitter who graduated from Visi and went to Clemson. My neighbor graduated from MCPS (non magnet) and went to Clemson also.
This point is what keeps me from moving my kids. Can’t imaging paying a so much $$ for no guaranteed outcome, or at least the same outcome
You can get for free.
That, and they’re 15 and 13. Might as well just finish out now.

This! Our neighborhood is split between kids who go to private HS and kids who go to public in the DCC. The private and public school kids end up at many of the same schools and the few who’ve gone onto the truly elite schools and ivies are the public school kids. There are many factors here, but i just don’t know that privates offer the advantage I’d want them to in terms of college admission and success, particularly because so far my kids seem to be doing well at MCPS schools and have good teachers, peer group, and support. That said, when I visit private schools for games, etc I can totally see the appeal: gorgeous campuses, smaller classes, etc.

Just wait...you will learn just how badly your kids' grades are inflated. It is a big problem and college admissions officers know about this. Good luck.

DP.. bethesda beat publishes a class of xxxx in MCPS where they accepted for college. Pretty impressive list. Not arguing that there is no grade inflation in public schools, MCPS, but it's a mistake to say that MCPS students aren't going to elite univ, and not just the magnet kids.

of course, a lot of private school kids end up in elite univ too, but let's remember that a large % of admits in elite univ are based on legacies, which many private school parents are.

You'd have to compare like for like, and also recall that unlike private schools, public schools cannot choose who they admit as students.