Whittle School

[Anonymous]

anyone's kid participate in the summer adventure program last week?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:anyone's kid participate in the summer adventure program last week?

We can’t afford it

[Anonymous]

There’s no way they’re going to enroll 2500 kids. Absurd.

[Anonymous]

If they take a few STEM+foreign language pages (and pricing) from the Stratford Schools in CA they could do very well.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:anyone's kid participate in the summer adventure program last week?

We can’t afford it

There was an email on our neighborhood listserve, the camp was $500 for the week.
my kids didnt do it but it was not only for applicant to the school.
i wonder if they got anyone to sign up.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Burke parent here. I have zero worries about it impacting the enrollment of the "fringe" (hilarious!!) independent schools in DC. But I am curious as to how a for-profit school model will work. If the they aren't accredited by NAIS, or have an endowment or board, and their assumed primary mission is profit, where does that leave their educational pedagogy?

I haven't heard much about how or what they are going to teach, just that it will be a Chinese immersion school in the States, and a English immersion school in China. And if they are going to scale up to 2500, with 400 boarders, those students are going to have to come from all over the country. I can't imagine that many DC families shelling out 45K for a for-profit school when there are so many great private and public options already. I don't know of any families who are attracted to for-profit colleges, so why would they want their kids attend a pricey for-profit HS? It just seems sketchy.

In a nutshell you summarized what my husband and I were discussing. There is a lot of flash but unclear substance

This. +100. A for-profit model is the LAST kind of mission I would want my child's school to espouse. I haven't talked to a single family at my daughters independent school who is the least bit interested in a new, unestablished, HUGE, super expensive, for-profit middle/high school. Seriously???

[Anonymous]

The school is not going to attract anyone who wants a private school with a track record and it is too expensive to act as a Charter for DC residents. Other than children of foreign nationals, who have their pick of the Sidwell and GDS's of the world, it is hard to understand who would apply there as a new student. Maybe 2500 kids from China where the Chinese govt is willing to pay for it?

[Anonymous]

I think the prevailing thought is that you can "combat parental skepticism with an elite leadership and faculty team." What motivated and inspired the people to leave dream jobs to join the Whittle School & Studios?

It is intriguing and perplexing.

[Anonymous]

No doubt 2500 is a long-term, best-case scenario. That’s what start-ups do — crow about their big dreams. It’s supposed to generate enthusiasm and confidence; sometimes it sounds absurd.

This case does beg a question though — if a large, for-profit, Chinese-immersion school does not appeal to people here, what does? If there is more demand than supply for private schools here, how does a new school of reasonable size get started?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:No doubt 2500 is a long-term, best-case scenario. That’s what start-ups do — crow about their big dreams. It’s supposed to generate enthusiasm and confidence; sometimes it sounds absurd.

This case does beg a question though — if a large, for-profit, Chinese-immersion school does not appeal to people here, what does? If there is more demand than supply for private schools here, how does a new school of reasonable size get started?

By not being for-profit and being accredited to start. Without proven results or a track record to sell the school to parents you are going to need to have independent agencies to give it a stamp of approval. This is not the best analogy but when you go to the grocery store and there's a new product that claims to be organic or kosher you want to see the seal of approval from existing entities that certify that to be the case. There's none of that here.

I also think the lack of transparency on where the funding for the school is coming from is a big part of it too.

[Anonymous]

I live in Baltimore and saw an ad for an info session here soon. I looked at the school's website and read this thread. The idea that Baltimore parents would be interested in this school is laughable. They don't know their audience. The parents with money here send their kids to established private schools that generations have attended. The few parents with the kind of money this school requires aren't interested in a new boarding school without a track record. Even new money folks know enough the send their kids to the older, well-established private schools here.

[Anonymous]

The for-profit part is crazy!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The for-profit part is crazy!

Why is this crazy? How does for profit hurt you?

[Anonymous]

[url]https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.townandcountrymag.com/society/money-and-power/amp22084801/chris-whittle-to-launch-global-academy-whittle-school-and-studios/

A friend forwarded this to us - not the most flattering look behind the scenes of this organization

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The for-profit part is crazy!

Why is this crazy? How does for profit hurt you?

How does for profit benefit the students?

From the article:

In truth, Whittle has never had much to say about the things most people talk about when the subject is schools: teaching methods, subject areas, the mysterious working of children’s minds. “He promotes education reform but can’t name a single reformer,” a journalist noted in 1990, and this still seems more or less true. In a conversation that lasts an hour and three quarters, not one education thinker comes up. Prospective parents, staring at a $40,000-plus tuition and thumbing through the sumptuous catalog, with its 30 pages on “The Team and Extended Family”—dazzling re?sume?s, studio-quality headshots—won’t find much of an answer to one obvious question: What will my kid be learning?