Do you think public schools can learn anything from private schools?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Sure, class sizes of 15 and restricting entry only to those who they think will succeed leads to success.

If public school did that our taxes would be 3x as expensive and we'd be paying for 9870398475 lawsuits.

None of the private schools my don has attended have had class sizes this small. In many years, his class sizes have been larger than the ones at my public school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Having experience with both, I think public can learn from how private schools create community (and I recognize that not all privates may be great at this and that some publics may better than others). I wish the communications from our public school weren't so sterile, for instance.

Like report card comments... Every friend of mine was so disappointed in the sterile report card comments. "Larlo is able to count to 100. He is able to identify 26 out of 26 letters." Thanks for the info. I'd rather they just wrote nothing!

What do you want them to write on an academic report card? "Larlo loves the color blue and enjoys playing king of the castle at recess."

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Sure, class sizes of 15 and restricting entry only to those who they think will succeed leads to success.

If public school did that our taxes would be 3x as expensive and we'd be paying for 9870398475 lawsuits.

None of the private schools my don has attended have had class sizes this small. In many years, his class sizes have been larger than the ones at my public school.

Public schools used to have much bigger classes, but around the late 90s they started emphasizing class size and pushed for hiring more teachers, with the federal government even providing some funds for this.

[Anonymous]

No

[Anonymous]

We live in a wealthy neighborhood in a highly regarded school cluster in MCPS. The income of my neighbors (other than a couple of super high net worth families, which is not the norm at our independent school) is similar to our private school. Parents are super involved at the local ES and the kids are all well-resourced from families who are deeply invested in their kids.

This ES did not work for our first two children, for very different reasons, and so we now have all our kids in private school. Three of our kids have special needs, and they are thriving in private school, although we supplement with tutoring (dyslexia) and other supports (OT, speech).

Both DH and I work FT, and I felt completely disconnected from the teachers and administrators at our public school, because I couldn’t volunteer a lot, so I never saw them. Private school offers more opportunities (at times I can attend) for interaction with teachers at administrators. They have a new parents zoom breakfast, presentations quarterly (at 8:15 am) for parents to see what the kids have done in the classroom, and other opportunities on weekends and evenings. I feel much more connected with my kids teachers.

I get 30 minutes twice each year for parent-teachers conferences. Enough time to learn about my child and ask questions. I can ask for additional time, but these are available to all parents.

My kids go outside twice each day to play, and have PE four times per week. They go out in most weather. It’s great for kids to move their bodies and be active, and I think this is a huge benefit.

The teachers tell me when my child isn’t doing well or is falling behind. We get helpful feedback at parent teacher meetings, including telling us when our child isn’t doing well. One of our kids wasn’t doing well at MCPS (because they were dyslexics) and the teachers kept telling us DC was fine when we directly asked if we should get DC a tutor. I imagine this is because they didn’t want to have to provide services, but in practicality it meant that we delayed testing DC for a couple of years because we trusted the teachers.

There are also things our private could learn from public schools, but I wont elaborate since that’s not the question. It’s silly to think either approach knows everything or doesn’t have its own challenges.

[Anonymous]

Frequent outdoor recess for every single grade.

[Anonymous]

Sure, don’t admit kids from families with $0 disposable income, low-income, ESOL, behaviorally challenged, undocumented immigrant or first-generation kids. Metrics will skyrocket!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Oh yes! But most of it requires more money-

-Smaller class sizes
-Reducing the responsibilities of teachers. Right now they have so much paperwork, documents, 504/IEP meetings. It’s too much.
-Improving teacher-student relationships. Private schools have teacher mentors, family groups, picnics and events to create a “family like” environment.
-textbooks!!! Please for the love of god
-required reading
-more rigorous course work
-less pre-programmed curriculum. Greater flexibility and trust in teachers.
-higher quality teachers

Public school doesn't have much pre-programmed curriculum, at least not where I live. Those teachers-pay-teachers worksheets don't show up from the central office.

[Anonymous]

The threat of being counseled out keeps behavior in line. Public school is required to educate all.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The threat of being counseled out keeps behavior in line. Public school is required to educate all.

Meh. Our private school has plenty of behavioral issues.
I just had a chat with some of the teacher about it.
Private schools don’t like to push out rich kids.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I went to “bad” public schools, but looking at the NCS Instagram page, it just looks so idyllic. The nature activities, arts etc.

You should see the Bullis campus or Potomac campus, or better yet the Madeira campus… priceless views of the potomac river.