In recent weeks some kids have dropped out of our private school

[Anonymous]

Interesting. That's one of the reasons why we will probably send our child to private next year. I think DCPS schools start too early. Not much can be accomplished before Labor Day and my children gain a lot from their summer experiences.

Anonymous wrote:The fact that DCPS starts on 8/23 and privates start on 9/7 is also reason to question value:quality. We are spending a mint for two kids in private and the fact that my DC's have TWELVE weeks of summer vacation is a travesty. I know each school will try and gloss over the lesser number of instructional days but really... with $30+ tuition these private schools will have to demonstrate to us middle class people that the money we're spending is worth it.

I for one am entering the DCPS lottery this coming year. We may stick it out for another two years then that's it. September 7 my foot. Grrrrr

[Anonymous]

If you have to ask..it's probably not worth it to go private.

[Anonymous]

One cannot reasonably calculate the quality of an education by the number of days spent in school. My elder DC is in a private and gets far fewer days in school than my younger DC, who is in public but will enter the private the same grade as the elder did, yet I consider the tuition money well spent.

If all that mattered were the number of days spent in an institution, education would be easy.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Yes the 2 month dcps summer break has really done wonders to raise the proficiency of it's students vs. Private school kids. You really can tell how much smarter and more proficient in math and reading they are. I am sure the dcps kids will go on to much greater things than the private school kids because of that extra month of school every year.

Obviously I am sarcastic. Dcps starts when it does to get teenagers off the streets not to fulfill some kind of educational rigor.

Why can't it be both?

[Anonymous]

Some kids clearly benefit from the extra time in school (and away from a less productive environment) - others benefit from the enriched experiences their parents provide either through their own time or the extra money spent on such activities. We moved our kids to private specifically to ensure the extra time for enrichment and explorartion and less review.