Catholic schools with academic rigor in NOVA

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:To what degree are the Catholic K-8s that don’t offer it receptive to a child taking geometry in 8th grade through the Johns Hopkins program (with the parents ponying up the extra $2000)?

I’m not sure and would guess they’d be totally fine with it. But isn’t your issue that the student would need to take algebra in 7th to do the Hopkins program? If the school doesn’t offer geometry, there might not be a path to algebra in 7th.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:To what degree are the Catholic K-8s that don’t offer it receptive to a child taking geometry in 8th grade through the Johns Hopkins program (with the parents ponying up the extra $2000)?

I would just go to a school that does offer it. There are a lot.

[Anonymous]

There isn’t an Arlington diocese school (so all of NOVA) that is considered more rigorous than any other. They use the same curriculum guidelines and all roll up to the same superintendent. You’ll find some opportunity for rigor at a larger school, with tracks to geometry in 8th. But catholic k-8s don’t have gifted and talented specialists. They don’t have pull out for enrichment. They’re not actively trying to identify advanced kids so they can work with them.
At the core is religious education and a school where a community of the same faith can learn and grow up together. You’ll find motivated parents who do Odyssey of the Mind/private lessons/tutors in many schools and that’s how they supplement. My 4 above average kids were all extremely well prepared for high school and had the soft skills we wanted and had no trouble with the top classes offered and Visi and Gonzaga. If you have a truly gifted child and want true rigor, catholic school is not the place. But honestly, I don’t know why a kid needs that before high school and am happy we prioritized a solid education + sacrament prep + focus on virtues.

[Anonymous]

Isn’t St. John the Beloved considered to be very academically rigorous?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:There isn’t an Arlington diocese school (so all of NOVA) that is considered more rigorous than any other. They use the same curriculum guidelines and all roll up to the same superintendent. You’ll find some opportunity for rigor at a larger school, with tracks to geometry in 8th. But catholic k-8s don’t have gifted and talented specialists. They don’t have pull out for enrichment. They’re not actively trying to identify advanced kids so they can work with them.
At the core is religious education and a school where a community of the same faith can learn and grow up together. You’ll find motivated parents who do Odyssey of the Mind/private lessons/tutors in many schools and that’s how they supplement. My 4 above average kids were all extremely well prepared for high school and had the soft skills we wanted and had no trouble with the top classes offered and Visi and Gonzaga. If you have a truly gifted child and want true rigor, catholic school is not the place. But honestly, I don’t know why a kid needs that before high school and am happy we prioritized a solid education + sacrament prep + focus on virtues.

Ditto. My daughter went to St Mary's pre-K through 8th grade, spent 4 years at Visitation and is now at UVA. We chose Catholic school for the whole package. If you're not placing the same emphasis on sacrament prep and focus on virtues (like the above person referenced), then you may want to choose a private independent school.

[Anonymous]

FWIW, the math acceleration parents of young kids are worried about is completely unnecessary. Students in the advanced math track get into the same colleges as the kids who take a slower road to a lower level of calculus senior year. Even in engineering and computer science. Truth.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:To what degree are the Catholic K-8s that don’t offer it receptive to a child taking geometry in 8th grade through the Johns Hopkins program (with the parents ponying up the extra $2000)?

You can do that. We looked into it for my child (now 20 & in college).
If you plan to go to a NOVA Catholic HS in the Diocese, you have to have the classes on your school transcript to take the exam that will exempt you from these classes in HS.

You can go rogue and try CTY (the Hopkins thing) and miss out on some of the fun/social things of middle school to do it. Confirmation prep starts in 7th and 8th grade.

For my family, K-8 was the last opportunity to have no-cut sports, scouts, etc., because in HS kids were more specialized and only those who excelled or were recruited/did travel made the teams in soccer, baseball, basketball, etc., so we waited until 10th grade to push more math. Summer school was much cheaper than CTY, and there were opportunities to take online college courses in those math classes needed to take calc as a senior.

I've seen some kids burn out/rebel/develop anxiety from this kind of pressure.
That being said, some kids are like academic Olympians and need challenges. If so, you may be frustrated at a school that uses class time to do service projects and pray and have discussions about moral issues.

There is also a lot of time in Catholic school spent on grammar and writing well. The AAP programs look at language more than technical writing. That's part of why we selected Catholic school for our student who was eligible for AAP (95th percentile kid) and the two who were not.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:FWIW, the math acceleration parents of young kids are worried about is completely unnecessary. Students in the advanced math track get into the same colleges as the kids who take a slower road to a lower level of calculus senior year. Even in engineering and computer science. Truth.

Amen.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Isn’t St. John the Beloved considered to be very academically rigorous?

Not sure why, but our neighbors drive past SJB twice daily to take their kids to attend St Lukes.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Isn’t St. John the Beloved considered to be very academically rigorous?

Not sure why, but our neighbors drive past SJB twice daily to take their kids to attend St Lukes.

^ they are very different schools with different communities and education philosophy
In fact, we drive by our parochial school everyday for our DS school because it’s a better fit academic and social wise even though it’s 10 min further from our house. Totally worth it

[Anonymous]

Please protect your kids from insane homework loads. Catholic schools, especially HS, are supposed to be mindful of family time.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Please protect your kids from insane homework loads. Catholic schools, especially HS, are supposed to be mindful of family time.

TRUTH! For oldest and only, it's unlikely to heed this advise. But the 2nd, 3rd time around, I'm looking for the path of least resistance. Birth order is REAL lol.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Please protect your kids from insane homework loads. Catholic schools, especially HS, are supposed to be mindful of family time.

Totally your prerogative but we like catholic school because of the homework and because the other parents are the types that like the homework. We think it served our kids well. Our school had a 10 mins per grade (so 10 mins/night in 1st grade, 20 mins/night in 2nd grade, up to a solid hour/night in 6-8, plus weekend work). I know people cite studies that homework doesn't matter, but anecdotally it did to my family. The study skills and academic stamina they built mattered. Start taking away homework and you're a step closer to public school. The testing without retakes, lots of grades and tests and the homework is how you get prepared for high school.

[Anonymous]

And prep for college where most of the work is done ‘at home’.

[Anonymous]

Totally your prerogative but we like catholic school because of the homework and because the other parents are the types that like the homework. We think it served our kids well. Our school had a 10 mins per grade (so 10 mins/night in 1st grade, 20 mins/night in 2nd grade, up to a solid hour/night in 6-8, plus weekend work). I know people cite studies that homework doesn't matter, but anecdotally it did to my family. The study skills and academic stamina they built mattered. Start taking away homework and you're a step closer to public school. The testing without retakes, lots of grades and tests and the homework is how you get prepared for high school.

Then it aligns with PP who said "insane[i] homework loads." I agree, HW was helped my driven students achieve and helped me to see the holes where my less than high achieving kiddos are at.