Percentage of Students on Financial Aid at Major Privates is Depressing

[Anonymous]

The true hypocrisy is not within private schools, which are quite generous, but actually in the public school systems that create high performing and low performing schools.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Where are you going to find these poor kids who can do the work at a Big3?

Andover and Exeter take applicant nationally and internationally. Sidwell and NCS are stuck with the DMV.

My kids came from DCPS to two different Big3 schools in 9th. They attended the best DCPS elementary/middle schools and scored 99% on the PARCC (achievement tests). They're the product of two parents with graduate degrees.
They had every advantage that such kids have: top early childhood education (private preschool), parental help all along the way from PK-->8th grade, a house full of books, private tutors if/when needed, international travel, exposure to different cultures through family friends, nanny, etc.
AND STILL---9th grade at the Big3 coming out of DCPS was ROUGTH. They had to repeat a grade in math and start over in foreign language (they were put in Spanish 101 despite having 3 years of Spanish in DCPS). They learned annotate for the first time, they finally learned to write well.

They got through it with a LOT of parental involvement, tutors, teacher office hours, etc.

Now what happens to the kid who attends many of the myriad of DC public schools where only 5% of the kids are at grade level? Kids who have none of the resources that my kids did?

It's not as easy as just giving a poor kid a free ride to Sidwell. It's really hard to find these kids who come from true poverty and will be able to hack the academics and culture at these elite schools with little (or no) support at home.

There is a nonprofit called Prep For Prep in NYC that matches low-income URMs with elite NYC privates starting in middle school. The program has a rigorous training component that the kids must commit to, and NYC is huge with robust public transportation, however.

Yes, but they're in a city of 9 million people and fund about 500 kids. Plus a large percentage are Asian immigrants.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Don’t they have to give some financial aid to maintain nonprofit status?

No.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What other schools?

milton academy: nearly 60%
roxbury latin: 40%
philips andover: 45%
philips exeter: 50%

many could do better. but still, would like to see the DC schools step it up.

Would you REALLY like to see more diversity in terms of socioeconomic at your private school? And the significant needs that many lower socioeconomic students come to school with? Probably not.

Yes. 1000 times yes.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Where are you going to find these poor kids who can do the work at a Big3?

Andover and Exeter take applicant nationally and internationally. Sidwell and NCS are stuck with the DMV.

My kids came from DCPS to two different Big3 schools in 9th. They attended the best DCPS elementary/middle schools and scored 99% on the PARCC (achievement tests). They're the product of two parents with graduate degrees.
They had every advantage that such kids have: top early childhood education (private preschool), parental help all along the way from PK-->8th grade, a house full of books, private tutors if/when needed, international travel, exposure to different cultures through family friends, nanny, etc.
AND STILL---9th grade at the Big3 coming out of DCPS was ROUGTH. They had to repeat a grade in math and start over in foreign language (they were put in Spanish 101 despite having 3 years of Spanish in DCPS). They learned annotate for the first time, they finally learned to write well.

They got through it with a LOT of parental involvement, tutors, teacher office hours, etc.

Now what happens to the kid who attends many of the myriad of DC public schools where only 5% of the kids are at grade level? Kids who have none of the resources that my kids did?

It's not as easy as just giving a poor kid a free ride to Sidwell. It's really hard to find these kids who come from true poverty and will be able to hack the academics and culture at these elite schools with little (or no) support at home.

You are buying into the barbell phenomenon. You don't need TRUE poverty to have a commitment to educating a wide range of socioeconomic backgrounds. And there are PLENTY of smart and capable kids from 2-income families with no family help or high 6 figure jobs. Even if you don't give a fig about those kids, you arguably ought to care about your own rich kid being able to communicate and collaborate with a wider range of people with a wider range of experiences.

[Anonymous]

Why the attempts to divert the discussion to public schools? I thought this was the Privates forum?

Focus.

This is about what DMV privates are doing to achieve even a tiny bit of socioeconomic diversity. And yes, there are poor kids who can do the work - esp if they had even a teeny bit of extra support from the expensive private schools that spend so much money on DEI consultants and staff.

Saying these schools cannot find any poor kids who can do the work is a massive cop-out.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'm trying to figure out there OP's complaint. Is the complaint that local DMV schools don't have bigger endowments to fund more aid? Or that they, specifically, did not receive the aid they hoped for?

OP here. There's dismay at the numbers generally. There's dismay at the lack of commitment to building an endowment for financial aid (as opposed to tons of other things). There's dismay at the perpetuation of wide economic inequality and the continued stratification of a wider range of kids to relate to people who are different from them. There's dismay at the relatively low numbers compared to schools that have made similar commitments. I don't deny the endowment effect, but where is the endowment going? Why are you building the endowment? There are some schools raising tens of millions so they can have bigger gyms. The priorities, imo, are off. Especially in light of some of the stated missions of the schools.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The true hypocrisy is not within private schools, which are quite generous, but actually in the public school systems that create high performing and low performing schools.

Multiple things can be true, in different ways and to different degrees, at the same time. Complex thought is not as elusive as it seems.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Where are you going to find these poor kids who can do the work at a Big3?

Andover and Exeter take applicant nationally and internationally. Sidwell and NCS are stuck with the DMV.

My kids came from DCPS to two different Big3 schools in 9th. They attended the best DCPS elementary/middle schools and scored 99% on the PARCC (achievement tests). They're the product of two parents with graduate degrees.
They had every advantage that such kids have: top early childhood education (private preschool), parental help all along the way from PK-->8th grade, a house full of books, private tutors if/when needed, international travel, exposure to different cultures through family friends, nanny, etc.
AND STILL---9th grade at the Big3 coming out of DCPS was ROUGTH. They had to repeat a grade in math and start over in foreign language (they were put in Spanish 101 despite having 3 years of Spanish in DCPS). They learned annotate for the first time, they finally learned to write well.

They got through it with a LOT of parental involvement, tutors, teacher office hours, etc.

Now what happens to the kid who attends many of the myriad of DC public schools where only 5% of the kids are at grade level? Kids who have none of the resources that my kids did?

It's not as easy as just giving a poor kid a free ride to Sidwell. It's really hard to find these kids who come from true poverty and will be able to hack the academics and culture at these elite schools with little (or no) support at home.

There is a nonprofit called Prep For Prep in NYC that matches low-income URMs with elite NYC privates starting in middle school. The program has a rigorous training component that the kids must commit to, and NYC is huge with robust public transportation, however.

Yes, but they're in a city of 9 million people and fund about 500 kids. Plus a large percentage are Asian immigrants.

I really hope you're not implying the various things you're implying.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The true hypocrisy is not within private schools, which are quite generous, but actually in the public school systems that create high performing and low performing schools.

Multiple things can be true, in different ways and to different degrees, at the same time. Complex thought is not as elusive as it seems.

Do people find you this obnoxious in real life also?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm trying to figure out there OP's complaint. Is the complaint that local DMV schools don't have bigger endowments to fund more aid? Or that they, specifically, did not receive the aid they hoped for?

OP here. There's dismay at the numbers generally. There's dismay at the lack of commitment to building an endowment for financial aid (as opposed to tons of other things). There's dismay at the perpetuation of wide economic inequality and the continued stratification of a wider range of kids to relate to people who are different from them. There's dismay at the relatively low numbers compared to schools that have made similar commitments. I don't deny the endowment effect, but where is the endowment going? Why are you building the endowment? There are some schools raising tens of millions so they can have bigger gyms. The priorities, imo, are off. Especially in light of some of the stated missions of the schools.

OP you seem absolutely clueless on the challenges and finances of running a private school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Where are you going to find these poor kids who can do the work at a Big3?

Andover and Exeter take applicant nationally and internationally. Sidwell and NCS are stuck with the DMV.

My kids came from DCPS to two different Big3 schools in 9th. They attended the best DCPS elementary/middle schools and scored 99% on the PARCC (achievement tests). They're the product of two parents with graduate degrees.
They had every advantage that such kids have: top early childhood education (private preschool), parental help all along the way from PK-->8th grade, a house full of books, private tutors if/when needed, international travel, exposure to different cultures through family friends, nanny, etc.
AND STILL---9th grade at the Big3 coming out of DCPS was ROUGTH. They had to repeat a grade in math and start over in foreign language (they were put in Spanish 101 despite having 3 years of Spanish in DCPS). They learned annotate for the first time, they finally learned to write well.

They got through it with a LOT of parental involvement, tutors, teacher office hours, etc.

Now what happens to the kid who attends many of the myriad of DC public schools where only 5% of the kids are at grade level? Kids who have none of the resources that my kids did?

It's not as easy as just giving a poor kid a free ride to Sidwell. It's really hard to find these kids who come from true poverty and will be able to hack the academics and culture at these elite schools with little (or no) support at home.

There is a nonprofit called Prep For Prep in NYC that matches low-income URMs with elite NYC privates starting in middle school. The program has a rigorous training component that the kids must commit to, and NYC is huge with robust public transportation, however.

Yes, but they're in a city of 9 million people and fund about 500 kids. Plus a large percentage are Asian immigrants.

Pretty sure the program is for Black & Hispanic students.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Where are you going to find these poor kids who can do the work at a Big3?

Andover and Exeter take applicant nationally and internationally. Sidwell and NCS are stuck with the DMV.

My kids came from DCPS to two different Big3 schools in 9th. They attended the best DCPS elementary/middle schools and scored 99% on the PARCC (achievement tests). They're the product of two parents with graduate degrees.
They had every advantage that such kids have: top early childhood education (private preschool), parental help all along the way from PK-->8th grade, a house full of books, private tutors if/when needed, international travel, exposure to different cultures through family friends, nanny, etc.
AND STILL---9th grade at the Big3 coming out of DCPS was ROUGTH. They had to repeat a grade in math and start over in foreign language (they were put in Spanish 101 despite having 3 years of Spanish in DCPS). They learned annotate for the first time, they finally learned to write well.

They got through it with a LOT of parental involvement, tutors, teacher office hours, etc.

Now what happens to the kid who attends many of the myriad of DC public schools where only 5% of the kids are at grade level? Kids who have none of the resources that my kids did?

It's not as easy as just giving a poor kid a free ride to Sidwell. It's really hard to find these kids who come from true poverty and will be able to hack the academics and culture at these elite schools with little (or no) support at home.

There is a nonprofit called Prep For Prep in NYC that matches low-income URMs with elite NYC privates starting in middle school. The program has a rigorous training component that the kids must commit to, and NYC is huge with robust public transportation, however.

No such organization exists in DC.
Why do people insist on discussing what NYC does into these posts?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The true hypocrisy is not within private schools, which are quite generous, but actually in the public school systems that create high performing and low performing schools.

Multiple things can be true, in different ways and to different degrees, at the same time. Complex thought is not as elusive as it seems.

Do people find you this obnoxious in real life also?

You do realize there’s lots of hypocrisy to go around, right? IOW, PP is right, whether you like it or not.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:They’re all pathetic. Which is why I laugh when the schools taut their “diversity.” What a joke. They’re schools for rich kids.

yep