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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]This is all true. The kids can’t write. I work in MCPS and have kids in the schools.

The lucky few get into humanities magnets in middle school and do learn. And then go on to high school and college well prepared.

If you have a choice between high quality stem instruction and high quality English and writing instruction, choose the latter. There are so many ways to find math enrichment for your child. Not so many for writing- let me know if you find them!

So if private schools are an acceptable option (ideologically/financially) and you really care about this issue, go for it. And then buy the enrichment in math a la carte.

I made the opposite choice- turning up my nose at the math/science available at the privates, but I don’t think I’d do it again. The kids really don’t learn how to write with the exception of some of the magnets.  [/quote]

I’m curious what your opposition to math at private school was? I know they don’t accelerate as much, but my understanding is that’s actually recommended, from a pedagogical standpoint.

Holton Arms has a particularly thorough explanation of the reasoning why they approach math the way they do (aka without acceleration for the vast majority of students until high school): https://docs.google.com/document/d/1dQXiD9zHmP29RbpgGFTxXUs4YEfamalltpkL3MtWNEg/edit

I’m not sure that science is worse at the best private schools. Bullis’ engineering/makerlab space is unbelievable, for example. [/quote]

That’s rich.  [b]I looked at the privates.[/b]  My kid started algebra in 6th and none of the schools could accommodate that and few had true differentiation as the class sizes were small.  We did private summer math classes, sine good, one really bad.  How the school responded to the really bad was to dismiss the concerns and I could not imagine any of the classes we had were worth that kind of money.  Our mcps teachers were better.

Lab space is nice, good teachers are nicer.  [/quote]

Name “the privates” because I can think of at least 10 off the top of my head that accommodate advanced math students. My kid is at a very competitive single sex Catholic high school where each kid is given a standardized math test, is individually tested and then in conjunction with a review of middle school grades and a consultation with the previous year’s math teacher, the school determines where your child should be placed in math. And the placement is right 99% of the time because the assessment is so thorough.  MCPS wins for accelerating in math but private schools win when it comes to ensuring that the proper foundation is there before moving a student forward in math. Which do you prefer?  On the private school board we never have parents asking about moving their kids down in math because it is too hard. Never. There is a reason why - the kid is properly placed up front. The “private schools have bad math” is the defensive cry of the uninformed and under resourced. [/quote]

Not the PP, and I wonder how much of the complaints are coming from parents who hope to get into a magnet for HS.  Because it's pretty much impossible to get into the Blair magnet if your child was not on the accelerated math track starting with compacted math in ES, right?  And it's generally not that hard to get into compacted math in MCPS, whereas it may be more uncertain where the child is placed at a private.[/quote]

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