Does anyone send their child to private school instead WW/WJ/Churchill/Wooton?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Yes we are zoned for One of these and went private.

Very poor handling of pandemic education.

Poor communication between home and school.

Hard to get on the sports teams unless you are top athlete.

Bureaucratic approaches that lack common sense.

Academics and writing more rigorous so we fell student will be better prepared for college.

We prefer private although college outcomes are probably similar or better at the public due to grade inflation.

Our DC prefers private.

What surprised me is that my DS gets less writing at private than he did at public. We’ve had to hire a tutor to fill that gap but should not have to do so with what we pay in tuition. Apart from class size, academics are not better and are actually worse in English. This is one of the top privates in DC so I am skeptical that any private is “better” than public in the DMV area.

That is surprising - our experience has been opposite … I can see why you might be skeptical about private school if that was your experience.

Our private is not a Big 3 but a top 10 (whatever that means really) and is balanced between academics, arts, athletics, spiritual and service. Big emphasis on science and math but does not see religion and science as being in conflict. That is very important to our family - to value both science and faith.

It is a good fit for our DC but I think some kids are better served in public. We are blessed in this area to have good choices. 😄

I would love to know which Catholic school you are speaking of. SAAS is the top in the area and not better at all in writing and science with a hyper focus on Latin which is not what should be most important.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We are zoned for Wootton and have had DD in private since elementary school. Yes class size and general chaos was top reason. And overall lack of academic rigor.

I can’t relate to this at all.
We are zoned to Wootton and I send my kid to private because Wootton is a pressure cooker and I don’t feel like my kid would do well there. Sent older siblings to Wootton and junior year was just a level of stress I was not comfortable with.

Can you explain what this means? What are examples of the pressure/stress?

It is an ultra competitive group of kids.
Pressure to take APs, pressure for sat/ACT scores, pressure for extracurricular. Not all kids need to take differential equations senior year. If you are white or Asian, college admissions aren’t even great. Privates do better for some reason. My kid was resume perfect (35 ACT) and ended up at a state college.
The upside was they got to college and found it way easier than Wootton.

[Anonymous]

My kid is currently in a MoCo public elementary school. The teachers and teaching quality are actually pretty good. And the school itself is good too with nice new facilities. However, it is the class size and lack of sufficient attention to individual student that made me apply for a private school. She is joining a private elementary school in D.C. in the fall. It was actually nice that we tried out a year in her Moco school.

[Anonymous]

Two kids - zoned for Churchill. Both in private for different reasons. The smaller classes require them to be attentive and present, which makes such a difference in their ability to actually retain information. MCPS high schools have gotten too big and way too easy to disappear into the noise. I don't have a reference point to compare Churchill academics to my kids education, but their elementary & middle school learning has far exceeded MCPS.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We are zoned for Wootton and have had DD in private since elementary school. Yes class size and general chaos was top reason. And overall lack of academic rigor.

I can’t relate to this at all.
We are zoned to Wootton and I send my kid to private because Wootton is a pressure cooker and I don’t feel like my kid would do well there. Sent older siblings to Wootton and junior year was just a level of stress I was not comfortable with.

Can you explain what this means? What are examples of the pressure/stress?

It is an ultra competitive group of kids.
Pressure to take APs, pressure for sat/ACT scores, pressure for extracurricular. Not all kids need to take differential equations senior year. If you are white or Asian, college admissions aren’t even great. Privates do better for some reason. My kid was resume perfect (35 ACT) and ended up at a state college.
The upside was they got to college and found it way easier than Wootton.

Sounds like Sidwell, minus the AP part.


[Just kidding!]

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Two kids - zoned for Churchill. Both in private for different reasons. The smaller classes require them to be attentive and present, which makes such a difference in their ability to actually retain information. MCPS high schools have gotten too big and way too easy to disappear into the noise. I don't have a reference point to compare Churchill academics to my kids education, but their elementary & middle school learning has far exceeded MCPS.

No being sarcastic, I’m just wondering how that could be? I send my child to a top school in DC and it’s not much better academically and actually in some ways worse than what was being taught at mcps. I cannot understand what these schools are because as I already stated my child attends a top one but people on here say they are getting better education than mcps. I am so skeptical of that. In reality, I’m paying for the smaller class size and nicer facility. Nothing more.

[Anonymous]

I would send my child to private if I could afford it. She is at WJ. While the school offers a lot in terms of clubs, extracurriculars and AP classes, it’s just very easy to get lost in the shuffle there. “Honors” classes are not really high quality. Overall just not impressed with the academics and not sure if most kids are being adequately prepared for college.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:There is a night and day comparison between top privates and these overcrowded public’s. MoCo public schools have been resting on their laurels for 15 years. If you have the means, and can get into one of the better privates in the area, do that.

We have been at one of the “better privates” and it hasn’t been better. Paying tuition for polish rather than academics that they successfully market to parents like myself who assume private has to be superior to public. Not so. Will return to public after foolishly wasting trusting that private has to be better.

Where do the wealthy send their kids? To private schools.

What percentage of families with over 10 million net worth go to private school vs public schools in the area? Do what the wealthy do if you can afford it.

So send child to private that is not better academically than public?

People are not just at privates for the academics - they go for other things too.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Two kids - zoned for Churchill. Both in private for different reasons. The smaller classes require them to be attentive and present, which makes such a difference in their ability to actually retain information. MCPS high schools have gotten too big and way too easy to disappear into the noise. I don't have a reference point to compare Churchill academics to my kids education, but their elementary & middle school learning has far exceeded MCPS.

No being sarcastic, I’m just wondering how that could be? I send my child to a top school in DC and it’s not much better academically and actually in some ways worse than what was being taught at mcps. I cannot understand what these schools are because as I already stated my child attends a top one but people on here say they are getting better education than mcps. I am so skeptical of that. In reality, I’m paying for the smaller class size and nicer facility. Nothing more.

I was just going to type basically the same thing. I think people here sometimes have a hard time admitting that private is just not worth it in many cases. I'm not saying this as an outsider. Both of our kids are enrolled in private school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:There is a night and day comparison between top privates and these overcrowded public’s. MoCo public schools have been resting on their laurels for 15 years. If you have the means, and can get into one of the better privates in the area, do that.

We have been at one of the “better privates” and it hasn’t been better. Paying tuition for polish rather than academics that they successfully market to parents like myself who assume private has to be superior to public. Not so. Will return to public after foolishly wasting trusting that private has to be better.

Where do the wealthy send their kids? To private schools.

What percentage of families with over 10 million net worth go to private school vs public schools in the area? Do what the wealthy do if you can afford it.

So send child to private that is not better academically than public?

People are not just at privates for the academics - they go for other things too.

Yes I agree, but academics has to be biggest factor as to why. Wouldn’t it? And actually, not much else is better at the private, club choices are minimal, teachers aren’t necessarily better, just to name a few. Yes class size is smaller but I can’t think of much else that’s better.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:There is a night and day comparison between top privates and these overcrowded public’s. MoCo public schools have been resting on their laurels for 15 years. If you have the means, and can get into one of the better privates in the area, do that.

We have been at one of the “better privates” and it hasn’t been better. Paying tuition for polish rather than academics that they successfully market to parents like myself who assume private has to be superior to public. Not so. Will return to public after foolishly wasting trusting that private has to be better.

Where do the wealthy send their kids? To private schools.

What percentage of families with over 10 million net worth go to private school vs public schools in the area? Do what the wealthy do if you can afford it.

wealthy people also buy Range Rovers, but those suvs aren't reliable. They buy it because they can and because it's a badge that shows "I have money".

That said, there are benefits to private school, like class sizes, and I don't blame people for sending their kids to private, especially during the pandemic. I have thought of sending my MSer to private during VL last year.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Two kids - zoned for Churchill. Both in private for different reasons. The smaller classes require them to be attentive and present, which makes such a difference in their ability to actually retain information. MCPS high schools have gotten too big and way too easy to disappear into the noise. I don't have a reference point to compare Churchill academics to my kids education, but their elementary & middle school learning has far exceeded MCPS.

No being sarcastic, I’m just wondering how that could be? I send my child to a top school in DC and it’s not much better academically and actually in some ways worse than what was being taught at mcps. I cannot understand what these schools are because as I already stated my child attends a top one but people on here say they are getting better education than mcps. I am so skeptical of that. In reality, I’m paying for the smaller class size and nicer facility. Nothing more.

I was just going to type basically the same thing. I think people here sometimes have a hard time admitting that private is just not worth it in many cases. I'm not saying this as an outsider. Both of our kids are enrolled in private school.

It’s been hard to swallow that our private hasn’t been better than public. It has one of the highest rankings for boys school. It was surprising and we’ve been upset at how disappointing it turned out to be. Pretty upsetting when parents like ourselves trust and work hard in the process of choosing a school to be misled of what they tout. I can take it but it really sad for children.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Yes we are zoned for One of these and went private.

Very poor handling of pandemic education.

Poor communication between home and school.

Hard to get on the sports teams unless you are top athlete.

Bureaucratic approaches that lack common sense.

Academics and writing more rigorous so we fell student will be better prepared for college.

We prefer private although college outcomes are probably similar or better at the public due to grade inflation.

Our DC prefers private.

Same here, all of the above reasons. Will stay and graduate from private

No snark but I would really like to know what private has better academics and more specifically writing than public here. That was touted at my child’s school and it is not better and has a reputation of a well-respected private.

This is the only area I have lived in that people actually think publcs are any good. It is shocking to me.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Yes we are zoned for One of these and went private.

Very poor handling of pandemic education.

Poor communication between home and school.

Hard to get on the sports teams unless you are top athlete.

Bureaucratic approaches that lack common sense.

Academics and writing more rigorous so we fell student will be better prepared for college.

We prefer private although college outcomes are probably similar or better at the public due to grade inflation.

Our DC prefers private.

Same here, all of the above reasons. Will stay and graduate from private

No snark but I would really like to know what private has better academics and more specifically writing than public here. That was touted at my child’s school and it is not better and has a reputation of a well-respected private.

This is the only area I have lived in that people actually think publcs are any good. It is shocking to me.

But we switched to private and it’s not better at all. Not one bit.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Yes we are zoned for One of these and went private.

Very poor handling of pandemic education.

Poor communication between home and school.

Hard to get on the sports teams unless you are top athlete.

Bureaucratic approaches that lack common sense.

Academics and writing more rigorous so we fell student will be better prepared for college.

We prefer private although college outcomes are probably similar or better at the public due to grade inflation.

Our DC prefers private.

Same here, all of the above reasons. Will stay and graduate from private

No snark but I would really like to know what private has better academics and more specifically writing than public here. That was touted at my child’s school and it is not better and has a reputation of a well-respected private.

This is the only area I have lived in that people actually think publcs are any good. It is shocking to me.

But we switched to private and it’s not better at all. Not one bit.

Are you going back to public?