Why are so many public school kids applying to Catholic high school?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:… there are other independent (not tied to either parish or diocese) Catholic schools in the area, but they go beyond K-8, for example Brookewood and Avalon are K/1 through 12

Georgetown Prep, Stone Ridge, Gonzaga, Visitation, Holy Child, Holy Cross, Mater Dei, St John’s, the Heights… all are independent Catholic schools

Right, but this thread is about K-8… only Stone Ridge in your list includes those grades

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:… there are other independent (not tied to either parish or diocese) Catholic schools in the area, but they go beyond K-8, for example Brookewood and Avalon are K/1 through 12

Georgetown Prep, Stone Ridge, Gonzaga, Visitation, Holy Child, Holy Cross, Mater Dei, St John’s, the Heights… all are independent Catholic schools

Right, but this thread is about K-8… only Stone Ridge in your list includes those grades

^^^ to be clear, the post you quoted was responding to a question about K-8

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I recently switched my oldest to parochial mid-middle school. We had been at DCPS since PK. The difference in the education has been eye-opening. My child never had homework, papers, projects, etc. that required out of school work in 7 years of schooling. I don’t recall a class ever reading a full novel. They did not learn grammar. The only place where my child was at or ahead of the grade level was math. Woefully behind in composition, reading comprehension, etc. And this is a child who got straight As in 6th grade, 5s on all sections of the various PAARCs taken, etc.

My only regret is that we didn’t switch years ago. Consequently we are now moving our younger children as well.

Same except I switched in 3rd grade. It really truly different in the catholic school. Two hours of homework a night and projects. My son is in 8th.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I recently switched my oldest to parochial mid-middle school. We had been at DCPS since PK. The difference in the education has been eye-opening. My child never had homework, papers, projects, etc. that required out of school work in 7 years of schooling. I don’t recall a class ever reading a full novel. They did not learn grammar. The only place where my child was at or ahead of the grade level was math. Woefully behind in composition, reading comprehension, etc. And this is a child who got straight As in 6th grade, 5s on all sections of the various PAARCs taken, etc.

My only regret is that we didn’t switch years ago. Consequently we are now moving our younger children as well.

Same except I switched in 3rd grade. It really truly different in the catholic school. Two hours of homework a night and projects. My son is in 8th.

+2

[Anonymous]

+3 Switched in 5th during the pandemic. It was only then, when my daughter had to write a paper, that I realized she had never written an essay or report before. I was actually embarrassed by it.

[Anonymous]

We’re one of the families you’re talking about and are thinking about switching out our DS for 9th. He got accepted to SJC. We have been unhappy with MCPS for a bit. We’re not Catholic or particularly religious but I was raised in church (Methodist) and think learning about religion and the associated values would be good for him, and it’s closer to home than our zoned public. We are pretty liberal though which is my only hesitation. But I’m leaning towards enrolling.

[Anonymous]

DC are at 2 Catholic HSs and we love the experience they are having at each school. We are Catholic and coming from a Catholic K8 school.

I just hope these parents who are jumping the public school ship realize they now have an obligation to maintain order, discipline, and respect for the teachers, admin and student body. This includes Catholic doctrine. Even our DC question some Catholic theology, which is fine, but do it thoughtfully and respectfully.
There is a reason these schools have maintained different standards. Don’t complain if DC isn’t a straight A student or that they need to be treated differently.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:… there are other independent (not tied to either parish or diocese) Catholic schools in the area, but they go beyond K-8, for example Brookewood and Avalon are K/1 through 12

Georgetown Prep, Stone Ridge, Gonzaga, Visitation, Holy Child, Holy Cross, Mater Dei, St John’s, the Heights… all are independent Catholic schools

Mater Dei is also K-8, HC starts in middle school. The Heights starts in 3rd grade.
Right, but this thread is about K-8… only Stone Ridge in your list includes those grades

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This was 8 years ago, but our son, who attended MCPS through middle school, moved to a Catholic HS. At the time, this was unusual and he had very few classmates coming from public MS. I think it has shifted significantly since then with more coming from public schools. This is positive for Catholic high schools as it widens the applicant pool and provides opportunities to diversify the student body. This likely also elevates the academic levels of the students entering the HS due to the wider applicant pool.

Oh, please.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This was 8 years ago, but our son, who attended MCPS through middle school, moved to a Catholic HS. At the time, this was unusual and he had very few classmates coming from public MS. I think it has shifted significantly since then with more coming from public schools. This is positive for Catholic high schools as it widens the applicant pool and provides opportunities to diversify the student body. This likely also elevates the academic levels of the students entering the HS due to the wider applicant pool.

Oh, please.

Agreed. PP has it backwards, it's the kids coming from public who find they are struggling to keep up having coasted along in public with their inflated grades and minimal work.

[Anonymous]

This post in another thread captures it well:

Anonymous wrote:
Having sent DD to Catholic hs as a non Catholic, I probably would make a different choice in the future. We were attracted to a lot of things about the school (including the lower tuition!), but we did not adequately understand how tight the Catholic social “scene” or networks are and felt like total outsiders for four years. People were nice, our DD got a good education, but we never felt comfortable or a part of any community there. DD had a similar experience vis a vis friends.


https://www.dcurbanmom.com/jforum/posts/list/1188811.page

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This post in another thread captures it well:

Anonymous wrote:
Having sent DD to Catholic hs as a non Catholic, I probably would make a different choice in the future. We were attracted to a lot of things about the school (including the lower tuition!), but we did not adequately understand how tight the Catholic social “scene” or networks are and felt like total outsiders for four years. People were nice, our DD got a good education, but we never felt comfortable or a part of any community there. DD had a similar experience vis a vis friends.


https://www.dcurbanmom.com/jforum/posts/list/1188811.page

And? Plenty of people have bad experiences in public high schools beyond just feeling like outsiders, and actually much worse.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:… there are other independent (not tied to either parish or diocese) Catholic schools in the area, but they go beyond K-8, for example Brookewood and Avalon are K/1 through 12

Georgetown Prep, Stone Ridge, Gonzaga, Visitation, Holy Child, Holy Cross, Mater Dei, St John’s, the Heights… all are independent Catholic schools

Mater Dei is also K-8, HC starts in middle school. The Heights starts in 3rd grade.
Right, but this thread is about K-8… only Stone Ridge in your list includes those grades

Mater Dei is 1-8, no K.

Anyway the question was about something specific - no need to be listing all this unrelated stuff!

[Anonymous]

Behavioral issues top the list. There are so many behavioral problems in public MS and HS that bathrooms routinely are locked (see many threads on this in FCPS and MCPS).

But also academic rigor. My kid is reading real books in 9th grade; her friends who remained in public school are reading YA books ("The Hate U Give" and "Hunger Games"). Yes, in Honors.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Behavioral issues top the list. There are so many behavioral problems in public MS and HS that bathrooms routinely are locked (see many threads on this in FCPS and MCPS).

But also academic rigor. My kid is reading real books in 9th grade; her friends who remained in public school are reading YA books ("The Hate U Give" and "Hunger Games"). Yes, in Honors.

The Hate U Give you racist is a real book. As are sex ed books