Families who have gone from public to private: what has been the biggest difference?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Really getting tired of 40+ year olds coming commenting that they went to public schools and turned out just fine so their kids will be too. No, they will not be unless you spends thousands supplementing with tutors and ride their ass everyday.

I suppose that depends on your public school.

Of course it does, but do you think public schools (on the whole) are better now, or when the 40+ year olds were attending?

Exactly

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My child learned actual content, not just reading strategies over and over and over again. He had social studies all year long as well as science. They didn't alternate like in public school. In science, they had to write up labs and then actually did them. He was taught actual grammar and received a grade for it. He was taught vocabulary and spelling finally counted in his writing. He was taught how to write and then his writing was critiqued and he was able to make changes to it before it was due. His teacher did this through writing conferences with each student and comments on Google classroom. He took a foreign language and it was a regular class. There was none of this ridiculous redoing of assignments and tests. A test or quiz was given and the date was known in advance. If you didn't study and did poorly, oh well. Do better next time. He teachers expected a lot more from him. He got straight As in public school and a year and a half later, still gets mostly Bs and Cs and I'm happy about it. Public school parents who think their child is doing well live in Fantasyland. Oh and he was in the highest group in math in public school (and got straight As) and he scored in the 70% percentile in basic math skills when he started private school. A tutor and myself are now catching him up on basic math since the Common Core crap math he learned is useless. Oh and the grading scale is harder.

Very similar experience. I was shocked.

Us too although my child did score 90’s in math because at the time her public did accelerate. But her grammar, vocabulary, reading comprehension was abysmal. She scored 10% on vocabulary. This was a straight A highest reading and spelling groups. Eye opening. Her first few papers were ripped to pieces. More teacher writing than her actual writing. So much feedback. Her public school papers had a grade and maybe 1-3 Mark-ups. No commentating either. It isn’t that the teachers are bad, but they just don’t have the time with 30 kids in 4-5 classes.

[Anonymous]

Do kids in Privates read their assignments, reading books or textbook sections on the ipad or laptop half the time?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My child learned actual content, not just reading strategies over and over and over again. He had social studies all year long as well as science. They didn't alternate like in public school. In science, they had to write up labs and then actually did them. He was taught actual grammar and received a grade for it. He was taught vocabulary and spelling finally counted in his writing. He was taught how to write and then his writing was critiqued and he was able to make changes to it before it was due. His teacher did this through writing conferences with each student and comments on Google classroom. He took a foreign language and it was a regular class. There was none of this ridiculous redoing of assignments and tests. A test or quiz was given and the date was known in advance. If you didn't study and did poorly, oh well. Do better next time. He teachers expected a lot more from him. He got straight As in public school and a year and a half later, still gets mostly Bs and Cs and I'm happy about it. Public school parents who think their child is doing well live in Fantasyland. Oh and he was in the highest group in math in public school (and got straight As) and he scored in the 70% percentile in basic math skills when he started private school. A tutor and myself are now catching him up on basic math since the Common Core crap math he learned is useless. Oh and the grading scale is harder.

Very similar experience. I was shocked.

+1. Very well put. fyi, delusional parents are being conned by rampant grade inflation - 50% of all high school seniors have an A average GPA!

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/2017/07/17/easy-a-nearly-half-hs-seniors-graduate-average/485787001/

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Do kids in Privates read their assignments, reading books or textbook sections on the ipad or laptop half the time?

NE boarding schools we applied to also seemed to rely a lot on the iPad - classroom requirement.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Do kids in Privates read their assignments, reading books or textbook sections on the ipad or laptop half the time?

NE boarding schools we applied to also seemed to rely a lot on the iPad - classroom requirement.

Which ones did that?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Do kids in Privates read their assignments, reading books or textbook sections on the ipad or laptop half the time?

NE boarding schools we applied to also seemed to rely a lot on the iPad - classroom requirement.

Which ones did that?

Look at the expenses breakdown or books, nearly all of them had an iPad listed.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:No more tests.

Really? Private schools don't give tests?

He didn’t have tests until 5th grade, and even then there were no grades. Grades started at the end of 6th grade.

But I was specifically referring to SOLs. They overtook the entire last quarter of the year.

[Anonymous]

We went to from private to public because we are in a "good" district and we are putting them right back into private after this year.
Take your child for an independent assessment at a Kumon or Mathnasium and you will be shocked at the results.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Really getting tired of 40+ year olds coming commenting that they went to public schools and turned out just fine so their kids will be too. No, they will not be unless you spends thousands supplementing with tutors and ride their ass everyday.

I suppose that depends on your public school.

Of course it does, but do you think public schools (on the whole) are better now, or when the 40+ year olds were attending?

Exactly

Much, much better now. My kids public schools are significantly better than my highly ranked public school system from the 70s and 80s. I am constantly stunned by what my kids are expected to know and do in school. It has served them well. But we are not in MD, and I've heard nothing but complains from MD people.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We went to from private to public because we are in a "good" district and we are putting them right back into private after this year.
Take your child for an independent assessment at a Kumon or Mathnasium and you will be shocked at the results.

"Independent" assessment from someone who wants to convince you that your kid needs their expensive tutoring program? Right.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Much, much better now. My kids public schools are significantly better than my highly ranked public school system from the 70s and 80s. I am constantly stunned by what my kids are expected to know and do in school. It has served them well. But we are not in MD, and I've heard nothing but complains from MD people.

That's not apples to apples. The issue is whether any given school system has improved or regressed over the last 30 or 40 years.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Much, much better now. My kids public schools are significantly better than my highly ranked public school system from the 70s and 80s. I am constantly stunned by what my kids are expected to know and do in school. It has served them well. But we are not in MD, and I've heard nothing but complains from MD people.

That's not apples to apples. The issue is whether any given school system has improved or regressed over the last 30 or 40 years.

Well, the relevant question for me is what kind of education my kids got at their public school compared to my really great public school of yesteryear -- mine was great, but my kids' was better. They were very well prepared for private high school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Much, much better now. My kids public schools are significantly better than my highly ranked public school system from the 70s and 80s. I am constantly stunned by what my kids are expected to know and do in school. It has served them well. But we are not in MD, and I've heard nothing but complains from MD people.

That's not apples to apples. The issue is whether any given school system has improved or regressed over the last 30 or 40 years.

Well, the relevant question for me is what kind of education my kids got at their public school compared to my really great public school of yesteryear -- mine was great, but my kids' was better. They were very well prepared for private high school.

What district are you in?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Send your kids to high school abroad. Anybody watched "It's Academic" today? 9 smart kids couldn't calculate 15% of 60.
I work with college kids from US and abroad. US kids can't calculate. I'm done asking them anything.
Foreign kids come here, speak English as their foreign language and start learning Spanish since we need it at our work. American kids tell me they forgot the Spanish they learned in high school.
You all go ahead argue public vs private. They both suck. The only reason some kids do well is because they they'd be awesome even without school.

And this couldn't possibly involve any selection bias in the set of foreign kids who have the money and academic background to study overseas in the US. /s