Types of students at schools- stereotypes and personifications

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Sidwell: Smart kids who will one day run the country
STA: Smart kids who will one day be senior vice presidents.
Landon: the ultimate lax bro school.
Potomac: It's kinda too far away for me to really care.

like yale

a k-12 school could never be Yale...

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:No one even mentions St. Andrew's on here. Any opinions about St. Andrew's academics and overall profile?

That's because its largely invisible to the crowd that posts here.

It's also by design, and a huge part of the appeal. My DD was accepted to Sidwell, Maret, and GDS and choose St. Andrew's. It's under the radar, thank goodness.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:He was not expelled. The parents withdrew him -- supposedly because they were mad because the situation got into the press (some students tipped off the Washington Post supposedly).

Ummm... perhaps you should check the in depth Vanity Fair article on this. As you know Gore Sr. went to St. Alban's and his daughters went to NCS. Son was suspended for Pot and not invited back. They transer son to Sidwelll and then there were (perhaps unfounded) allegations they went to the board to have the Head of School removed. Students started a website (a big deal back then) to expose the Gore parents and all that they did to punish St. Alban's for their son being held accountable. Go to the library there' a major story in Vanity Fair.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:No one even mentions St. Andrew's on here. Any opinions about St. Andrew's academics and overall profile?

Not bad, but it fits into the category of why pay for what you can get for free. Similar to Bullis but without the obsessive focus on athletics, which begs the question, why bother.

[Anonymous]

My kids attended a MoCo elementary school, then switched to a DC K-12 independent for MS and HS. I've also worked with a number of students at other independent schools, including Bullis and St. Andrew's. IME there are significant differences between MoCo publics and independent schools. While the MoCo publics are generally very good, they are much bigger than most independent schools, both overall and in terms of individual class size. This affects the nature of the classroom experience as well as the relationships between students and teachers. Notably, there is less opportunity for class discussion, for collaborative learning, for oral presentations and debates, and for iterative writing with in-depth editing and revision. While the curriculum may look the same on paper, it's very different in practice. For some families, including ours, this is a significant difference and one worth paying for.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My kids attended a MoCo elementary school, then switched to a DC K-12 independent for MS and HS. I've also worked with a number of students at other independent schools, including Bullis and St. Andrew's. IME there are significant differences between MoCo publics and independent schools. While the MoCo publics are generally very good, they are much bigger than most independent schools, both overall and in terms of individual class size. This affects the nature of the classroom experience as well as the relationships between students and teachers. Notably, there is less opportunity for class discussion, for collaborative learning, for oral presentations and debates, and for iterative writing with in-depth editing and revision. While the curriculum may look the same on paper, it's very different in practice. For some families, including ours, this is a significant difference and one worth paying for.

we went private for ES, public for MS and HS. It really depends on what private you are talking about. Our experience was the exact opposite. DC was not prepared for MS from private. DC is doing a lot more writing in public MS than at private. Yes it is harder to to have a more connected relationship with a teacher but the educational experience is far above what DC was receiving at private. GAPS are huge and Dc is still making those up. We have found teachers to be very supportive of providing extra help either during lunch or before school.

We were not at a big "3" so this may have something to do with it but all privates do not provide the same level of education or even close to what the public's do.

[Anonymous]

St. Andrew's has great academics but the degree of difficulty /speed of any given course will depend on the specific course level (standard, accellerated or AP in upper school). The school places a premium on producing well rounded kids and trying to help each student reach his/her own potential - so they celebrate the strong students but also the strong athletes, artists, musicians, etc. In some ways, the culture of the school really tries to defy stereotypes, so it is understandable that it may not be as well known as some other schools. Seems like in DC the trend is to think of schools as either offering steller academics or a nuturing environment, and St. Andrew's doesn't really fit this "either / or" characterization.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My kids attended a MoCo elementary school, then switched to a DC K-12 independent for MS and HS. I've also worked with a number of students at other independent schools, including Bullis and St. Andrew's. IME there are significant differences between MoCo publics and independent schools. While the MoCo publics are generally very good, they are much bigger than most independent schools, both overall and in terms of individual class size. This affects the nature of the classroom experience as well as the relationships between students and teachers. Notably, there is less opportunity for class discussion, for collaborative learning, for oral presentations and debates, and for iterative writing with in-depth editing and revision. While the curriculum may look the same on paper, it's very different in practice. For some families, including ours, this is a significant difference and one worth paying for.

we went private for ES, public for MS and HS. It really depends on what private you are talking about. Our experience was the exact opposite. DC was not prepared for MS from private. DC is doing a lot more writing in public MS than at private. Yes it is harder to to have a more connected relationship with a teacher but the educational experience is far above what DC was receiving at private. GAPS are huge and Dc is still making those up. We have found teachers to be very supportive of providing extra help either during lunch or before school.

We were not at a big "3" so this may have something to do with it but all privates do not provide the same level of education or even close to what the public's do.

A lot more work, writing or otherwise, does not correlate to a better education. My daughter did a lot more writing in public too, but much of it was busy work, not at all creative, and there was much stressing about whether her opinions were 'correct' because her grades would suffer if she did not regurgitate what the teachers wanted. Privates do a better job teaching students how to think, rather what to think.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My kids attended a MoCo elementary school, then switched to a DC K-12 independent for MS and HS. I've also worked with a number of students at other independent schools, including Bullis and St. Andrew's. IME there are significant differences between MoCo publics and independent schools. While the MoCo publics are generally very good, they are much bigger than most independent schools, both overall and in terms of individual class size. This affects the nature of the classroom experience as well as the relationships between students and teachers. Notably, there is less opportunity for class discussion, for collaborative learning, for oral presentations and debates, and for iterative writing with in-depth editing and revision. While the curriculum may look the same on paper, it's very different in practice. For some families, including ours, this is a significant difference and one worth paying for.

we went private for ES, public for MS and HS. It really depends on what private you are talking about. Our experience was the exact opposite. DC was not prepared for MS from private. DC is doing a lot more writing in public MS than at private. Yes it is harder to to have a more connected relationship with a teacher but the educational experience is far above what DC was receiving at private. GAPS are huge and Dc is still making those up. We have found teachers to be very supportive of providing extra help either during lunch or before school.

We were not at a big "3" so this may have something to do with it but all privates do not provide the same level of education or even close to what the public's do.

A lot more work, writing or otherwise, does not correlate to a better education. My daughter did a lot more writing in public too, but much of it was busy work, not at all creative, and there was much stressing about whether her opinions were 'correct' because her grades would suffer if she did not regurgitate what the teachers wanted. Privates do a better job teaching students how to think, rather what to think.

Disagree completely. Broad generalizations like this are almost always wrong, without the context of specific public or private schools, and even specific teachers within those schools. Plus, my son almost wanted to kill himself after spending 6 weeks on haiku at private ES, and the rest of the writing wasn't impressive either.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My kids attended a MoCo elementary school, then switched to a DC K-12 independent for MS and HS. I've also worked with a number of students at other independent schools, including Bullis and St. Andrew's. IME there are significant differences between MoCo publics and independent schools. While the MoCo publics are generally very good, they are much bigger than most independent schools, both overall and in terms of individual class size. This affects the nature of the classroom experience as well as the relationships between students and teachers. Notably, there is less opportunity for class discussion, for collaborative learning, for oral presentations and debates, and for iterative writing with in-depth editing and revision. While the curriculum may look the same on paper, it's very different in practice. For some families, including ours, this is a significant difference and one worth paying for.

we went private for ES, public for MS and HS. It really depends on what private you are talking about. Our experience was the exact opposite. DC was not prepared for MS from private. DC is doing a lot more writing in public MS than at private. Yes it is harder to to have a more connected relationship with a teacher but the educational experience is far above what DC was receiving at private. GAPS are huge and Dc is still making those up. We have found teachers to be very supportive of providing extra help either during lunch or before school.

We were not at a big "3" so this may have something to do with it but all privates do not provide the same level of education or even close to what the public's do.

A lot more work, writing or otherwise, does not correlate to a better education. My daughter did a lot more writing in public too, but much of it was busy work, not at all creative, and there was much stressing about whether her opinions were 'correct' because her grades would suffer if she did not regurgitate what the teachers wanted. Privates do a better job teaching students how to think, rather what to think.

Please private school teachers can be just as "politically correct" as public's. As people have stated, not every private is equal in terms of education. The school we were at was not doing a good job of educating my child. It is not just my opinion. Lots of evidence based on the results of the SSAT, and the diagnostic that DC took when we got to public. DC was not prepared well in basics of reading, math and grammar. Creative writing is great but if you don't know how to write correctly, to me that is a little more important. In the first few months we have seen a great leap in DC's knowledge and skills. It works for us.

Sounds like your child's school works for you. But not every private is good and it is hard to justify spending $32,000 when your child is not learning the basics.

[Anonymous]

Students can't think/reason/debate/compare/contrast/contradict/analyze or synthesize until they've learned the facts. It's sad but almost laughable watching students trying to debate topics they were never taught.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Sidwell: Smart kids with parents who run the country. Verdict still out on the kids.
STA: Smart kids who will one day be senior vice presidents.
Landon: the ultimate lax bro school
Potomac: It's kinda too far away for me to really care.