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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Country Day is an expensive, mediocre alternative. But if I were facing J-H, I'd find the $30,000 tuition somewhere.[/quote]

As an education expert who looked at Alexandria Country Day for her own children, I have to disagree with your characterization of the school as "mediocre."  Pedagogically, they are very strong, and there is no other private in Alexandria  that is as good at differentiation.

We chose not to attend for other reasons, but if we had decided to go private, we would have chosen ACDS.  [/quote]

Interesting. As a parent who researched the Alexandria privates I found ACDS to be the one who lacked any clear understanding of the type of education they were offering. It seemed like a public school with a private school label.  The Country Day is supposed to imply a progressive type attitude but the school is more traditional but not traditional in the way Grace Episcopal or Immanuel  Lutheran are.  It seems they just have a mix and it depends on what teacher is assigned and what teaching style they have.  [/quote]

PP, the fact that ACDS did not label itself "traditional" or "progressive" confused you?  While the progressive education is tied to a specific movement and core values, the label "traditional" carries no standard meaning.

[b]ACDS is child-centered and offers more structure than a progressive, but still responds to individual children's needs and preferences in a way that many "traditional schools," such as SSSAS and Brown do not. Perhaps that blend is why you're confused.  Burgundy also outperforms SSSAS and Brown on individualizing instruction.  [/b]

As for being a public school with a private school label, you're radically mistaken if you think ACDS is similar to a public school.  There is no way that you would get the level of individualized instruction in any Alexandria City public school.  That's what ACDS parents pay for -- the quality of teaching.  Aside from individualized, caring instruction based on each child's needs, the teachers and administration are on top of academic research.  ACDS is the ONLY private in the area that has switched to Singapore math.

I admit their physical space is not as impressive as SSSAS, Brown, or Burgundy's, but the actual education the kids receive is hands down better. 
[/quote]

I am the PP you were replying to and I bolded your statement because that doesn't clarify anything.  Every single school is going to be "child centered" so that language is meaningless.  And "responds to individual children's needs and preferences"  -   Again, that doesn't tell me anything. Every school will say they are responsive to a child's individual needs.

It's that lack of clear guiding philosophy that hurts them.  If they clearly defined it and then practiced it, more parents might give it more serious consideration.

[/quote]

No, not every school is child-centered.  Obviously, you don't understand what "child centered" means in terms of teaching technique, which is why you can't figure out the difference between the various schools under discussion.

In fact most public and traditional schools are not child-centered, and certainly do not respond to individual children's needs and preferences.  SSSAS, Grace, and Browne are less child-centered than ACDS and Burgundy.  SSSAS and Browne are more "traditional."  Child-centered teaching means being able to adapt curriculum and scaffold learning for each child, based on where they are on understanding various concepts and skills. Child-centered teaching requires intensive differentiation, which is a skill that most teachers have not been trained to do well.  Further, while every school may say they respond to an individual child's needs, the extent to which that is reality is what distinguishes high-quality teaching from mediocre schools.  Among the schools that we looked at (read list above), if interested, ACDS was the best among the A
Alexandria private at implementing child-centered education.  Burgundy was fairly strong, too, but they had not codified their assessments to the same extent as ACDS.

[/quote]

Blah blah blah re "child-centered learning" and the BS PhD pedagogy cited above. Look at the schools and make the right decision for each child that you know best. Personally, I think LCTA is child centered. Not because I have a PhD but because my child had received very impressive differentiation, both in the gifted TAG program, and for when DC was struggling earlier on in K and needed extra help and child-specific projects and individualized learning strategies that we worked out with his teachers. And we didn't pay $30k for it! So much of a child's success depends on the individual teacher, parent involvement, and not some pedagogy that may or may not be followed.

If you have a bright kid at Jefferson Houston, supplement with Kumon or other programs, sign the child up for lots of extracurricular activities like music lessons, chess, and sports, then that child will thrive. [/quote]

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