If you chose private for middle school, over a decent public school, what did you gain?

[Anonymous]

I'm on the fence about whether to choose private or Montgomery County public for my rising 6th grader. I see plenty of "advantages" to public -- diversity, cost, a school bus that picks up and drops off at my front door, local friends so I don't spend my weekend driving my super social kid around.

On the the other hand, I assume that private has advantages too. I imagine higher expectations, a more enriched curriculum, a stronger writing curriculum, teachers more accessible for help, and more arts and sports. But I wonder if people have found that to be true.

For the sake of imagination, let's say I'm choosing between Westland/BCC, and one of the non-top tier private schools, maybe Bullis or St. Andrew's.

[Anonymous]

We tried Westland for one year, then switched to private; 4 years later, no regrets. We'll do the same with our younger child. Here's what we got:

1) Much smaller classes, so teachers really got to know our son and could focus on his individual strengths and challenges. At Westland, where classes ranged from 28-30 kids, he could put in little effort and get "A"s, while remaining below the radar. In particular, writing instruction was almost non-existent; his teacher gave very little feedback -- who can blame her when she had 28 papers to grade.

2) More lab work in science classes. Again, this was largely a function of smaller class size; it's just easier to supervise 10-12 kids in the lab than 28-30.

3) More opportunities to practice speaking in foreign language classes. Again, all about class size.

4) An advisor who followed a small group of students for 2 years, developing a close relationship with him and keeping tabs on his academic and social-emotional development . Her insights and guidance were invaluable.

5) Overall, more class discussion and a curriculum and teaching style that emphasized getting kids to think critically, rather than teaching to the test. Even in math, where MCPS is perceived as cutting edge, our son commented that the teachers at his current school "want you to think" -- in contrast to his experience in MCPS, even though he was in the most accellerated classes.

6) Much greater opportunity for kids to participate in sports. There are very few middle school teams in MCPS and none in the sports our son plays.

All in all, we were disappointed with MCPS at the middle school level and are very glad we made the move.

[Anonymous]

Yeeks ... and we were planning to move to BCC/Westland cluster soon. Maybe we will reconsider the private school route. This sounds like what would happen to our son as well.

[Anonymous]

We chose a pk-8 over Pyle (although chose is too strong a word since the child has been in the school since PK so it wasn't about Pyle specifically). We got a lot of what 6:46 indicated. We also got diversity - which Pyle doesn't have as much of as our particular private school. What we didn't get is accelerated math. I have been concerned about this especially as the kid may go to Whitman for HS and because he is taking Alg 1 in 8th grade while many of the Pyle kids took Alg 1 in 7th grade he will be a year behind. But at a recent G'town Prep open house the math department said they are finding that a lot of MCPS kids have been pushed too fast and don't have a solid enough foundation in math and are requiring that many kids repeat some of the foundation courses (e.g., Algebra 1 in 9th grade). The other thing we didn't get in the private school is much sports. The school is just too small to field much of a team in anything. This has been fine since the kid is involved in club sports, but is wearing on us because it all requires a lot of driving. This would obviously not be a problem at a school like Bullis.

[Anonymous]

OP, I would look at Norwood or WES if you are trying to get something much better than public school.

[Anonymous]

We moved our child from MCPS to a good private school this year (6th grade). Wish we had done it a year or two sooner. Many of the same reasons as stated above. Also, our very bright and equally social child now wants to do well in school, where he never cared before. He is motivated by the other students as well as by his teachers and the interesting work he is doing. He is so happy at school this year and doing really well. Coming from MCPS, he is a little ahead in Math, but definitely needed to catch up in his writing skills. He has also had less science and social studies coming from MCPS, where all the emphasis seems to be in reading and math.

[Anonymous]

Seems like MS is the best time to look at private school.

[Anonymous]

Yes, MCPS is weakest for middle school. They keep talking about revising the curriculum, but they sure aren't there yet.

[Anonymous]

We switched to a Catholic school at Gr. 6 last year and have been thrilled. It was a bit of an adjustment but we and our daughter are happy with the choice.

[Anonymous]

One of the best parts of putting my child in a private middle school was knowing that he was developing positive relationships with adults who interacted with him everyday in a manner of kindness and respect.

As he started wanting more independence from me, I knew there were teachers that he liked and who liked him and were guiding him when he needed them. And since all the students had this, it was cool and expected to enjoy being with your teachers! I used to love hearing " during break Mr --- and a group of us hung out in his room and listened to the new U2 song on iTunes"

[Anonymous]

OP here,

OK, you guys have convinced me! So, anyone want to clue me in on which private middle schools are giving your kids these great experiences?

My first choice would be a middle school that leads into a high school. Even though we might well not stay, I'd like to at least have the same option. I'd also like to stay in MoCo or DC, just because of logistics.

[Anonymous]

In MC, look at Norwood, WES, or Holton (for a girl). I am not a big fan of Landon, Bullis, or St. Andrews, but that is my bias. I have a child at Norwood. One child I know that just left WES is glad to be out of there b/c she described it as too strict or restrictive(?), but I have heard other good things about it.

[Anonymous]

Hmmm, can you elaborate a little more on why not Landon, Bullis, or St. A's. All 3 are on my list to look at.

Since Landon is on my list, I'll let you guess why Holton isn't. I can go and look at Norwood and WES, I hadn't really considered the K-8 schools.

[Anonymous]

19:03 here - My son went to Potomac

Please consider Landon and St.Andrews - they both have wonderful, nurturing faculty (spoken from experience)

[Anonymous]

19:20 Definitely focus on schools that go through K so you don't have to go through the applications process again. We thought we were only going to stay in private for Grades 7 and 8 but DC is so happy, he is absolutely thriving, that he's staying for Grade 9 and maybe all the way through Grade 12.