What’s Something About Your School You Would Have LOVED To Know Before Enrolling

[Anonymous]

“Your school”. You mean the ones I attended? Or do you mean my kid’s school?

The way dcum invest so much of their own identity into their kid’s school is pathological.

[Anonymous]

Lots of kids have behavior challenges, which would be coddled in class.
Lack of challenging homework or differentiation, except in certain subjects

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:“Your school”. You mean the ones I attended? Or do you mean my kid’s school?

The way dcum invest so much of their own identity into their kid’s school is pathological.

Sad but true.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We were new to private school and picked a k-8 for our child - were told by k-8 admissions office when we were applying, "we have great placement for HS, look at all the great schools our 8th graders get admitted to" - wish we had known that the HS chances were heavily influenced by whether or not you were a recruited athlete, had a sibling at the HS already, were a big donor at the k-8 school - guess it's a good lesson for college.

Ours is similar- on paper it seems to send a lot of kids to a desirable HS. But from the inside it’s well-known that they’re all legacies and disproportionately boys, with even girls who are legacies with better stats getting shut out.

This. Never count on a private to get you anywhere competitive if you don’t meet one of those categories. Your best bet is a diverse public school with some diverse activities.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:That behind the scenes, the Board was moving in the direction that it ultimately took and blindsided parents by firing (“not renewing”) several veteran and excellent white staffers who had been doing a great job. These people, ultimately about %20 of the staff were replaced by Black staff. Then the school went all equity and woke, all the time. The curriculum was overhauled and they began doing classroom exercises like the “oppressor / oppressed sorting game”. Shakespeare was no longer on the reading list for the specific grade where it had been for years.



This was years before George Floyd. The school was early to the DEI party and started paying outside contractors large sums to consult.

Lordy. What school is that?

Sheridan

Patently false. Sheridan's board -- or any board -- cannot fire teachers. They only have oversight over the head of school.

If you think boards have no influence over operational decisions made by heads of school, you are very naive.

Let's just say that I very much know what I am talking about and leave it at that.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:“Your school”. You mean the ones I attended? Or do you mean my kid’s school?

The way dcum invest so much of their own identity into their kid’s school is pathological.

If you spend 50+ a year on tuition, it's normal to be invested

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:That behind the scenes, the Board was moving in the direction that it ultimately took and blindsided parents by firing (“not renewing”) several veteran and excellent white staffers who had been doing a great job. These people, ultimately about %20 of the staff were replaced by Black staff. Then the school went all equity and woke, all the time. The curriculum was overhauled and they began doing classroom exercises like the “oppressor / oppressed sorting game”. Shakespeare was no longer on the reading list for the specific grade where it had been for years.



This was years before George Floyd. The school was early to the DEI party and started paying outside contractors large sums to consult.

Lordy. What school is that?

Sheridan

Patently false. Sheridan's board -- or any board -- cannot fire teachers. They only have oversight over the head of school.

The board fostered the events that I described through its role in strategic planning and budgeting. They also were instrumental in changing the mission statement in a significant way.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:“Your school”. You mean the ones I attended? Or do you mean my kid’s school?

The way dcum invest so much of their own identity into their kid’s school is pathological.

Don't be so obtuse. I care deeply about how my kid turns out, and so it's entirely valid to keep tabs on the culture, curriculum and operation of the entity where he spends the large majority of his waking hours. If it's unacceptable, then we leave. Or we don't go in the first place -- which is what this thread is about. Try to keep up.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We were new to private school and picked a k-8 for our child - were told by k-8 admissions office when we were applying, "we have great placement for HS, look at all the great schools our 8th graders get admitted to" - wish we had known that the HS chances were heavily influenced by whether or not you were a recruited athlete, had a sibling at the HS already, were a big donor at the k-8 school - guess it's a good lesson for college.

Ours is similar- on paper it seems to send a lot of kids to a desirable HS. But from the inside it’s well-known that they’re all legacies and disproportionately boys, with even girls who are legacies with better stats getting shut out.

This. Never count on a private to get you anywhere competitive if you don’t meet one of those categories. Your best bet is a diverse public school with some diverse activities.

This has been disproven year after year.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:“Your school”. You mean the ones I attended? Or do you mean my kid’s school?

The way dcum invest so much of their own identity into their kid’s school is pathological.

Don't be so obtuse. I care deeply about how my kid turns out, and so it's entirely valid to keep tabs on the culture, curriculum and operation of the entity where he spends the large majority of his waking hours. If it's unacceptable, then we leave. Or we don't go in the first place -- which is what this thread is about. Try to keep up.

And don’t forget to bicker with other anonymous parents over rankings on anonymous message boards

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:For our HS - that the college counseling office will limit the number of colleges that you can apply to. That certain classes are restricted in class size because of "equipment" issues and your child won't get the electives they want because of that.

This is pretty typical. I have kids at 2 different Big3 schools. Electives start in 11th and almost no one gets their choices in 11th. In 12th grade you maybe got one of your choices. One of my kids (now a senior) has the most random selection of courses ever. I sometimes worry that colleges are going to wonder "huh, why the heck would this kid take THIS history class and THIS English class? " Uh, because that's what she was given and there was no ability to switch (other sections were full or they would require her to switch a math section but this wasn't possible because other sections of the math class were full. These schools: WILL NOT add a kid to a class above the determined roster size. There is ZERO flexibility like in public. If the course size is 12, there will 12 students enrolled--doesn't matter if there is a desk in the room, etc.

Big3 course selection in our experience: "You get what you get and you don't get upset."

Wow! I wouldn’t have expected that. Good to know. I thought a benefit of private school is you get to do most electives you want. They should have enough teachers and space to support this.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:For our HS - that the college counseling office will limit the number of colleges that you can apply to. That certain classes are restricted in class size because of "equipment" issues and your child won't get the electives they want because of that.

This is pretty typical. I have kids at 2 different Big3 schools. Electives start in 11th and almost no one gets their choices in 11th. In 12th grade you maybe got one of your choices. One of my kids (now a senior) has the most random selection of courses ever. I sometimes worry that colleges are going to wonder "huh, why the heck would this kid take THIS history class and THIS English class? " Uh, because that's what she was given and there was no ability to switch (other sections were full or they would require her to switch a math section but this wasn't possible because other sections of the math class were full. These schools: WILL NOT add a kid to a class above the determined roster size. There is ZERO flexibility like in public. If the course size is 12, there will 12 students enrolled--doesn't matter if there is a desk in the room, etc.

Big3 course selection in our experience: "You get what you get and you don't get upset."

Wow! I wouldn’t have expected that. Good to know. I thought a benefit of private school is you get to do most electives you want. They should have enough teachers and space to support this.

If that were the case, your tuition would be about $10k more a year.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:For our HS - that the college counseling office will limit the number of colleges that you can apply to. That certain classes are restricted in class size because of "equipment" issues and your child won't get the electives they want because of that.

Aren't all classes restricted in size? No one would want a 40 person class. Kids aren't guaranteed their first choice electives anywhere.

You can EASILY go through these high schools having never received your top 3 choices for any English or History class. Then you're paying $56K for super specialized stuff that your particular kid doesn't care about: a year of Asian history or a year of Shakespeare. My history loving kid is having to take African American Culture as a history class (which I'm sure will be great but this kid would have killed for a spot in an actual history class).

African-American history is American history, so your kid is taking an actual history class.

Exactly. Thank you for calling this out

The class is African American culture. Not history but it's the only history class this kid will get for the year.

Listen, I'd be just as frustrated with "Asian Culture" or "Native American Culture" as my kid's history class.

Don't make this into a race thing.

Interesting how YOU made the other two examples about race.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:For our HS - that the college counseling office will limit the number of colleges that you can apply to. That certain classes are restricted in class size because of "equipment" issues and your child won't get the electives they want because of that.

This is pretty typical. I have kids at 2 different Big3 schools. Electives start in 11th and almost no one gets their choices in 11th. In 12th grade you maybe got one of your choices. One of my kids (now a senior) has the most random selection of courses ever. I sometimes worry that colleges are going to wonder "huh, why the heck would this kid take THIS history class and THIS English class? " Uh, because that's what she was given and there was no ability to switch (other sections were full or they would require her to switch a math section but this wasn't possible because other sections of the math class were full. These schools: WILL NOT add a kid to a class above the determined roster size. There is ZERO flexibility like in public. If the course size is 12, there will 12 students enrolled--doesn't matter if there is a desk in the room, etc.

Big3 course selection in our experience: "You get what you get and you don't get upset."

Wow! I wouldn’t have expected that. Good to know. I thought a benefit of private school is you get to do most electives you want. They should have enough teachers and space to support this.

If that were the case, your tuition would be about $10k more a year.

Wouldn’t everyone pay that extra $10k if that was what you received in return?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I was on the board of our kid's school for six years, and we absolutely stayed away from weighing in on operational issues.

We get that. You post often about your experience. It does not match the experience of others. Open your mind to other's experiences.