Does anyone know about the School of the Cathedral in Baltimore?

[Anonymous]

This is one of the schools we are looking at for middle school for our DC next year. She is currently in public school but we are looking for a Catholic middle school for her. We are Catholic but not at a parish with a school. Does anyone know about its reputation? Any info would be appreciated.

[Anonymous]

Cathedral has a good reputation, but I will give two caveats.

1. While parents are still happy with the lower school, there is a lot of dissatisfaction with the middle school. There was a tidal wave of departures this year, with people jumping to other schools now, instead of waiting until 9th grade as had previously been the norm. Some of it has been around the Diocese's decision to adopt Common Core but there are other issues as well.

2. Maybe also consider Maryvale or Notre Dame Prep? But my sense is that these schools, along with Loyola and to a certain extent, Calvert Hall, have kind of a halo syndrome, where some in Baltimore consider them equivalent in quality to the non-Catholic private schools, but at a significant cost savings. My experience has been that they are a good value, but that they don't offer as much as the independent schools do, particularly in terms of personalized attention.

[Anonymous]

Thanks PP. We cannot afford Maryvale or NDP right now. Between now and HS, I hope to be able to afford it. While I am not a fan of the Common Core (the math is pretty awful IMO), it wouldn't bother me that the diocese has decided to adopt it. Thankfully, there will be no PARCC testing there. What are some of the other issues in middle school?