GDS vs. Maret - cultural and curricular differences?

[Anonymous]

Though different schools (notably in size) with different histories, they seem to have a lot of similarities: rigorous curricula, more "unbuttoned" liberal feel, social justice values, focus on each individual student, strong outplacement to college. Does anyone have children at both schools or choose one school instead of the other? Any reports on the Malone Schools Online Network? Would love some insight. Thanks.

[Anonymous]

I do not have kids at either school, but we toured both with our middle schooler this year.

Maret seemed very small, and had all the kids (K-12) on the same small campus. I guess I liked how GDS had the high school kids on a separate campus (but I know that will change in the future.)

[Anonymous]

Size is the main differentiator IMO.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Though different schools (notably in size) with different histories, they seem to have a lot of similarities: rigorous curricula, more "unbuttoned" liberal feel, social justice values, focus on each individual student, strong outplacement to college. Does anyone have children at both schools or choose one school instead of the other? Any reports on the Malone Schools Online Network? Would love some insight. Thanks.

+1

Following - and thanks for asking because we're wondering the same.

[Anonymous]

I have no kids at either one, but we have visited both in the past. Since not many folks are responding, I'll take a shot: the biggest difference we noticed was the more casual atmosphere at GDS - calling teachers by first names, giving students more freedom/choice during the day, letting students leave campus, etc.

Again, others probably know way more, but that was our impression: very similar schools, but a bit more "progressive" atmosphere at GDS.

I'm sure someone else has more insight.

[Anonymous]

Maret has much more of a focus on sports. GDS is the laughing stock of their league in every sport but running. it is much harder for an average kid to play on sports team at Maret then GDS.

[Anonymous]

GDS is a much stronger school academically. A more extensive course offering. Better college acceptances.

[Anonymous]

Which is less of a pressure cooker?

[Anonymous]

For PP (21:54) - This may have been true in the past, but it seems that Maret has really caught up in both regards: course offerings (due to being a Malone school) and college placement. This survey conducted by a tutoring service rates Maret above GDS based on several criteria: https://www.lotusprep.com/best-high-schools-dc/. 10.42% of Maret seniors went on to top 15 colleges compared to 9.54% from GDS. Anyway, seems more like "po-tay-toes, po-tah-toes" to me rather than one school being "much stronger academically" than the other...

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Which is less of a pressure cooker?

Both are pretty intense.

[Anonymous]

For hs, GDS has much more of a college feel than a high school feel. The level of intellectual engagement, breadth of interests, rapport between students and teachers, seriousness of purpose, independence, and respectful socializing with each other is truly impressive. All of the stats are impressive too, but the atmosphere of the school is unlike any other high school, private or public, I've ever visited. It feels much more like a small liberal arts college than a high school. It's certainly a distinctive school, and you and your child should visit to see if it works for your child.

I should add that I don't say any of this in contrast to Maret (the premise of the A v. B thread is a little silly). Lots of great things to say about Maret, but I just don't know it well enough to write.

[Anonymous]

For hs, GDS has much more of a college feel than a high school feel. The level of intellectual engagement, breadth of interests, rapport between students and teachers, seriousness of purpose, independence, and respectful socializing with each other is truly impressive. All of the stats are impressive too, but the atmosphere of the school is unlike any other high school, private or public, I've ever visited. It feels much more like a small liberal arts college than a high school. It's certainly a distinctive school, and you and your child should visit to see if it works for your child.

I should add that I don't say any of this in contrast to Maret (the premise of the A v. B thread is a little silly). Lots of great things to say about Maret, but I just don't know it well enough to write.

[Anonymous]

We are a Maret family, so I wanted to comment on the previous posts as they speak to some of my thoughts about the school as well. First though, we LOVE the school, the parent community, the emphasis on building strong and kind children, and the attention to academic achievement. It has been an ideal fit for both of my children who are both very different.

But... my kids are in LS. As a public school kid, I do worry about a graduating class size of 80 and that so many years together could be stifling. But, the attrition rate is very low and kids very rarely leave, so Likely somehow, it all works out. In MS, Maret does something similar to a college/house system where kids across grades do fun competitions, get-togethers - so there is mixing across the MS grades and there are more options socially than just the kids in your exact grade.

As for all of the kids being on one campus, this was also a worry of mine. So far, the kids are pretty separate physically day-to-day, so that the more mature issues, etc. of US does seem removed and the younger kids are able to be younger. On the other hand, the intermingling between the grades is done thoughtfully so that the older kids are buddies to the younger ones, and this brings the whole community together. My Kindergardener lights up when one of the older kids high-5s him and knows his name, and somehow, this also seems to keep the older kids sweet in a special way. So far, so good, I guess.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:For hs, GDS has much more of a college feel than a high school feel. The level of intellectual engagement, breadth of interests, rapport between students and teachers, seriousness of purpose, independence, and respectful socializing with each other is truly impressive. All of the stats are impressive too, but the atmosphere of the school is unlike any other high school, private or public, I've ever visited. It feels much more like a small liberal arts college than a high school. It's certainly a distinctive school, and you and your child should visit to see if it works for your child.

I should add that I don't say any of this in contrast to Maret (the premise of the A v. B thread is a little silly). Lots of great things to say about Maret, but I just don't know it well enough to write.

An interesting, if humorous, variant on the claim made by schools with larger and more impressive campuses that they look like small liberal arts colleges. People, it's high school, chill.

[Anonymous]

I'm another Maret lower school parent, so I can only comment on how the culture seems to differ for little kids.
DC came to maret from another very progressive school (not local) and there were definitely some differences, but I don't know how our prior compares to GDS.

while it's still somewhere on the 'progressive' scale, my conversations with other parents make it seem like Maret is more traditional that GDS.

By that I mean things at Maret run like clockwork so there's less of the spontaneous investigation of an interesting topic or deviations from the carefully planned curriculum than we experienced at our former progressive school. It feels like similar teacher types and attitudes, but with a more strictly planned and organized day which obviously has pros and cons depending on what you're looking for. Personally, the vibe at Maret works better for me than at our old school which sometimes felt a bit like a free-for-all. So I guess you're trading some level of freedom, learning to self-motivate and self-direction for more hands on support, planning and organization.