Reply to Gifted kid - APS, FCPS, or Nysmith?

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Wow, Nysmith is $32,000? That's crazy. For that price, can't you go somewhere good like Sidwell Friends[/quote]

It's average for a private school but I think many are more.[/quote]

Nysmith parent here (6 years and counting).   Most private schools in this area are hugely (college level) expensive.   One of the things that impressed us when visiting Nysmith is how obvious it is that most of the tuition money goes straight into educating the students.  Some of the other private schools have large and expensive campuses, fancy ostentatious buildings full of over-furnished non-classroom impressive spaces designed to impress.   Nysmith has clean modern facilities but it's all workaday and child focused type spaces.    I'm not saying this is the only factor, and I have a second child at a private school that fits more into the other category here, but the down to earth spending priorities at Nysmith have always impressed me by comparison.[/quote]

[b]But they aren’t paying their teachers, which is where I would want a school to invest money.  [/b]DS has ADHD and uses an organizational tutor.  His tutor went to Nysmith for a couple years after her DC was born, rather than back to FCPS,because she could get a half time schedule. But was actively trying to move to Franklin, RRMS or Carson when I met her. I was shocked when she told me how much less she would make FT at Nysmith vs FCPS— before factoring in Nysmith crappy benefits. She also said teacher turnover was very high at Nysmith, there was less support for teachers and the math program at Nysmith was a lot weaker.  Which lines up with Nysmith’s crappy TJ admissions rates vs Carson and RRMS. [/quote]

I'm the PP who used to work at Nysmith. The bolded is true, and it's hugely important. I saw at least ten very good, experienced teachers leave for public schools during my relatively short time there. They were replaced by teachers who were either not licensed or who had very little classroom experience. Nysmith is, first and foremost, a business. They are not going to pay a licensed teacher with a Masters +10 years experience anywhere close to what FCPS will pay. I think it's telling that a lot of the teachers who teach upper-level math or science send their kids to FCPS AAP schools.[/quote]

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