How do private schools manage to get through everything?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I agree that those who have posted about lack-luster experience in private schools should probably rethink that decision.
Our preK-8 private is 8:30-3:15 with recess/PE everyday. The curriculum is more in-depth and thorough than what I've seen when my kids transferred temporarily to public in AAP programs.
The difference may be less tolerance for behavioral issues. Kids are kids and if allowed to mess around and disrupt the lesson, they will do so. Kids with actual learning differences/needs are accommodated as needed, with as little disruption to class time as possible.
Quizzes, tests, group projects, essays, etc. are all hand graded and returned. Once a year standardized testing shows results consistent with each student's daily academic abilities.
It is a high-value school, and I wouldn't settle for less since we're also paying taxes that (rightfully) benefit public schools.

We are at a top 5 school in all the DMV area. It is lackluster and am highly skeptical that yours is better.

Sure you are. Switch to public if true.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I agree that those who have posted about lack-luster experience in private schools should probably rethink that decision.
Our preK-8 private is 8:30-3:15 with recess/PE everyday. The curriculum is more in-depth and thorough than what I've seen when my kids transferred temporarily to public in AAP programs.
The difference may be less tolerance for behavioral issues. Kids are kids and if allowed to mess around and disrupt the lesson, they will do so. Kids with actual learning differences/needs are accommodated as needed, with as little disruption to class time as possible.
Quizzes, tests, group projects, essays, etc. are all hand graded and returned. Once a year standardized testing shows results consistent with each student's daily academic abilities.
It is a high-value school, and I wouldn't settle for less since we're also paying taxes that (rightfully) benefit public schools.

We are at a top 5 school in all the DMV area. It is lackluster and am highly skeptical that yours is better.

Sure you are. Switch to public if true.

Uh, yes we are and certainly the school know it when they get our nearly 40 grand a year. You just don’t like being called out that your school really isn’t as great as you tout and exaggerate.
I will switch if I feel like switching, you don’t tell me what to do. You stay at your lackluster private and keep pretending.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I agree that those who have posted about lack-luster experience in private schools should probably rethink that decision.
Our preK-8 private is 8:30-3:15 with recess/PE everyday. The curriculum is more in-depth and thorough than what I've seen when my kids transferred temporarily to public in AAP programs.
The difference may be less tolerance for behavioral issues. Kids are kids and if allowed to mess around and disrupt the lesson, they will do so. Kids with actual learning differences/needs are accommodated as needed, with as little disruption to class time as possible.
Quizzes, tests, group projects, essays, etc. are all hand graded and returned. Once a year standardized testing shows results consistent with each student's daily academic abilities.
It is a high-value school, and I wouldn't settle for less since we're also paying taxes that (rightfully) benefit public schools.

There are no good prek-8 privates. That is laughable. Name yours.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I agree that those who have posted about lack-luster experience in private schools should probably rethink that decision.
Our preK-8 private is 8:30-3:15 with recess/PE everyday. The curriculum is more in-depth and thorough than what I've seen when my kids transferred temporarily to public in AAP programs.
The difference may be less tolerance for behavioral issues. Kids are kids and if allowed to mess around and disrupt the lesson, they will do so. Kids with actual learning differences/needs are accommodated as needed, with as little disruption to class time as possible.
Quizzes, tests, group projects, essays, etc. are all hand graded and returned. Once a year standardized testing shows results consistent with each student's daily academic abilities.
It is a high-value school, and I wouldn't settle for less since we're also paying taxes that (rightfully) benefit public schools.

We are at a top 5 school in all the DMV area. It is lackluster and am highly skeptical that yours is better.

Sure you are. Switch to public if true.

Uh, yes we are and certainly the school know it when they get our nearly 40 grand a year. You just don’t like being called out that your school really isn’t as great as you tout and exaggerate.
I will switch if I feel like switching, you don’t tell me what to do. You stay at your lackluster private and keep pretending.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I agree that those who have posted about lack-luster experience in private schools should probably rethink that decision.
Our preK-8 private is 8:30-3:15 with recess/PE everyday. The curriculum is more in-depth and thorough than what I've seen when my kids transferred temporarily to public in AAP programs.
The difference may be less tolerance for behavioral issues. Kids are kids and if allowed to mess around and disrupt the lesson, they will do so. Kids with actual learning differences/needs are accommodated as needed, with as little disruption to class time as possible.
Quizzes, tests, group projects, essays, etc. are all hand graded and returned. Once a year standardized testing shows results consistent with each student's daily academic abilities.
It is a high-value school, and I wouldn't settle for less since we're also paying taxes that (rightfully) benefit public schools.

There are no good prek-8 privates. That is laughable. Name yours.

I bet it’s a parochial one, lol!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I agree that those who have posted about lack-luster experience in private schools should probably rethink that decision.
Our preK-8 private is 8:30-3:15 with recess/PE everyday. The curriculum is more in-depth and thorough than what I've seen when my kids transferred temporarily to public in AAP programs.
The difference may be less tolerance for behavioral issues. Kids are kids and if allowed to mess around and disrupt the lesson, they will do so. Kids with actual learning differences/needs are accommodated as needed, with as little disruption to class time as possible.
Quizzes, tests, group projects, essays, etc. are all hand graded and returned. Once a year standardized testing shows results consistent with each student's daily academic abilities.
It is a high-value school, and I wouldn't settle for less since we're also paying taxes that (rightfully) benefit public schools.

We are at a top 5 school in all the DMV area. It is lackluster and am highly skeptical that yours is better.

Sure you are. Switch to public if true.

Uh, yes we are and certainly the school know it when they get our nearly 40 grand a year. You just don’t like being called out that your school really isn’t as great as you tout and exaggerate.
I will switch if I feel like switching, you don’t tell me what to do. You stay at your lackluster private and keep pretending.

+1.
We paid around 40k during covid and found it to not be worth that cost.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I agree that those who have posted about lack-luster experience in private schools should probably rethink that decision.
Our preK-8 private is 8:30-3:15 with recess/PE everyday. The curriculum is more in-depth and thorough than what I've seen when my kids transferred temporarily to public in AAP programs.
The difference may be less tolerance for behavioral issues. Kids are kids and if allowed to mess around and disrupt the lesson, they will do so. Kids with actual learning differences/needs are accommodated as needed, with as little disruption to class time as possible.
Quizzes, tests, group projects, essays, etc. are all hand graded and returned. Once a year standardized testing shows results consistent with each student's daily academic abilities.
It is a high-value school, and I wouldn't settle for less since we're also paying taxes that (rightfully) benefit public schools.

There are no good prek-8 privates. That is laughable. Name yours.

DP and my guess is Nysmith.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I agree that those who have posted about lack-luster experience in private schools should probably rethink that decision.
Our preK-8 private is 8:30-3:15 with recess/PE everyday. The curriculum is more in-depth and thorough than what I've seen when my kids transferred temporarily to public in AAP programs.
The difference may be less tolerance for behavioral issues. Kids are kids and if allowed to mess around and disrupt the lesson, they will do so. Kids with actual learning differences/needs are accommodated as needed, with as little disruption to class time as possible.
Quizzes, tests, group projects, essays, etc. are all hand graded and returned. Once a year standardized testing shows results consistent with each student's daily academic abilities.
It is a high-value school, and I wouldn't settle for less since we're also paying taxes that (rightfully) benefit public schools.

There are no good prek-8 privates. That is laughable. Name yours.

DP and my guess is Nysmith.

Not sure they do the learning differences/ needs thing there at the G&T program. Probably not messing around or disrupting the lesson either.
I'm guessing St Patricks which has a wide range of learners but maintains high standards and is in a good spot of blending time-tested math, reading lessons with progressive new lessons.

[Anonymous]

Neither of those are what I would call good or boast about like poster was boasting about her k-8.

[Anonymous]

There seems to be an idea here among some parents (from both private and public schools) that there is one way of doing things in private schools. That is far from reality; there is far more diversity about what and how things get done in private school than in public schools. Number and length of school days varies greatly, in come cases amounting to more instruction and in others less. Some administer standardized tests, others don't. Some cover fewer topics in more depth, some cover a wider range of topics. Some include students with a wide range of abilities and needs in a single class, while others admit a much more narrow ability range and/or ability group students.

There are also a lot of private school parents who never planned to leave their publics but did because of Covid; many of these families had fewer private choices available because it was a matter of going where the slots were, so it's not a surprise that some group ended up in lower quality privates and are unhappy, especially if they were satisfied with their public pre-Covid.

It is entirely reasonable to feel like what you're paying for private school compared to what you would get in public isn't worth it and to make a change. That doesn't really have any bearing on whether it would be worth it at a different private, nor on whether other parents would share your evaluation.

[Anonymous]

One factor no one has mentioned - public school teachers also often have at least one (and often several) students who are still learning English in their classes, which also slows down the pace of instruction. This is rare in private schools.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:There seems to be an idea here among some parents (from both private and public schools) that there is one way of doing things in private schools. That is far from reality; there is far more diversity about what and how things get done in private school than in public schools. Number and length of school days varies greatly, in come cases amounting to more instruction and in others less. Some administer standardized tests, others don't. Some cover fewer topics in more depth, some cover a wider range of topics. Some include students with a wide range of abilities and needs in a single class, while others admit a much more narrow ability range and/or ability group students.

There are also a lot of private school parents who never planned to leave their publics but did because of Covid; many of these families had fewer private choices available because it was a matter of going where the slots were, so it's not a surprise that some group ended up in lower quality privates and are unhappy, especially if they were satisfied with their public pre-Covid.

It is entirely reasonable to feel like what you're paying for private school compared to what you would get in public isn't worth it and to make a change. That doesn't really have any bearing on whether it would be worth it at a different private, nor on whether other parents would share your evaluation.

All the more reason to do your homework. Bad fit schools are the worst.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:One factor no one has mentioned - public school teachers also often have at least one (and often several) students who are still learning English in their classes, which also slows down the pace of instruction. This is rare in private schools.

No one has mentioned it because it’s silly. Never has my child been in a class in public with a student who is learning English. I’m sure it happens but you are dramatic. However, there is a Polynesian family at our private.

[Anonymous]

The international kids who speak other languages at home in our school improve their English quite quickly. It helps that there are literate in their home language and went to school daily in their previous country.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:They can ditch the problematic and dumb kids. They don't have to waste time on stupid state testing that proves nothing other than that the majority of kids in public can't read or write at grade level.

As Op said, and most of us know, the private schools here have about 15-20 less days of school instruction.

And we’d appreciate some level setting and standardized tests at this point. No meaningful feedback to date except On Grade Level, Nationally.
Quite the goal…

My private school lower school kids take the ERBs annually, this year the lowest score for either of them on any section was 90th percentile nationally. If your school isn’t doing this maybe you should do some testing yourself or switch schools, but it’s strange to lump all private schools into this misleading group. We also aren’t missing 15-20 days, as we start classes in August and have over an hour of extra school time every day.

You must not be in the Wash DC area where 95% if the private schools start after Labor Day. Not helpful.

Plus most schools are range from progressive to extremely progressive topics, so kids don’t test well in ERBs or MAP.

Who are these PPs going on about "progressive schools"? What private schools are not teaching the basics? If they don't, WHY on earth do you PAY to send your kids there?

Our kids are in a K-8 Catholic school and get plenty of instruction and do well (high 90s) on any standardized tests they have taken.

It’s a weird RWNJ fantasy about scary “progressive” schools. K-12 independent here, and our kid has smashed the ERBs every time.