The why matters because sending your kid to a religious school is a decision often made somewhat independently of the nearby public school quality, especially for Catholics. You could make your guess on the geographic breakdown. But you could also make a guess that privates are overrepresented in “lesser” public school zones to make up for the lower quality. The only “nonsense” is trying to use this data to confirm your priors. |
Yeah. And the Democratic party could win elections if it stopped catering to the fringe looney left. But that's not going to happen either. |
+1 |
I wouldn't be too harsh on the MCPS.
Much of the decline might be traced to the change in demographics. 33.4% of the students are Hispanic or Latino. Many of these are recent arrivals who struggle with language. This wasn't close to being true in the HeyDay of MCPS. |
The results of my own scientifically-conducted survey are in. Turns out there are 10 times more SUVs with Landon, Prep, STA, Bullis, Holton Arms, Stone Ridge and Visitation stickers on River Road than there are on Colesville Road. |
We moved the oldest of our three boys to a private school starting in 9th grade. We live in the Carderock Springs, Pyle, Whitman district.
We hadn’t had a lot of contact with the schools. We aren’t particularly demanding parents. We moved the other two boys to private schools the following year after understanding the differences. While the public schools administrators and teachers seemed primarily interested in the programs and dictates of the MCPS bureaucracy, the private schools seemed to focus on the boys. I don’t think the basic academics were all that much better. But everything else was. The root cause of this is that in the Public schools the money comes from the school district who get it from the taxpayers who are required to give it. In the privates, the money comes from the parents and everybody gets that. So the school and everybody in it strives to meet the expectations of the parents. And the expect of the parents is that this be a quality experience for their kids in every area. The athletic programs were vastly superior from coaching to facilities to fan support. Teachers and staff knew our kids and developed relationships with them beyond lecturing and grading tests. The families we met appeared to share our values and we felt confident that when our kids were at these homes things would be well controlled. We knew that when they graduated they would be welcomed into a large, loyal alumni group. I went to a very good public high school in a wealthy town. I got a good education. But the total experience my kids got at a private school here was significantly better. It has been expensive, but worth it in our estimation. |
Lol. ![]() |
I can see why you sent your kids to private schools. Math and common sense are not your forte. |
Actually, they lost because they keep pandering to the right (see Liz Cheney and AIPAC). |
Kids in private school are coddled and can struggle in the real world when they don’t get all the handholding and individual attention they got in school. Public all the way. You learn to be resilient and advocate for yourself. |
Genuine question - I thought the “best and brightest” were at big 3 schools? |
This is a line that public school proponents love to repeat, but in our experience it’s not true. In HS all of our kids schools made a point of putting responsibilities on the students (not parents) to advocate for themselves, communicate with teachers/coaches, and navigate things like the college application process. They actively told parents to give their kids space and let them figure things out with the guidance of faculty/staff. They knew our kids well so we felt comfortable with that and DCs do just fine advocating for themselves and managing their lives in college. Obviously not all parents stepped back as much as we did but the point is that’s an option at private school. My friends with kids at public are involved in their kids everything at school because (I think) their kids don’t have anyone looking out for them. |
Yeah, tell yourself that. But whose kid would an engineering co would hire? A kid with middling grade from Clemson or top student from UMD? Of course, families with money don’t obsess about where their kids go to college, because there’s always mommy’s basement. Good luck caring for special child for life. |
You have no idea how the world really works. Our kids aren’t looking for the same entry level jobs your kids apply for. Our kids may be hiring your kids though. |
Nice try, dummy! You appear to think Clemson is a private school. It’s not. It’s a South Carolina public school. |