Reply to Families who can afford private but go public, why?

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]There is a growing consensus in our neighborhood that as the population of the publics continue to go up and the County does more 'experimenting' with curriculum and pathways, the overall education is getting worse by the year.  It is not the same school system neighbors with even fairly recent college graduates had.

There has been an ever growing increase in the number of private school families in our NoVa neighborhood.  Some switched in elementary, some in MS, but a great deal more switch for 9th.   The large grade sizes also mean a lot less opportunity to participate on sports teams, etc.  There are the same number of spots for a HS with 3,000 students as other public HS with 1,500, etc.

We had a great public elementary school.  Middle school has been 'okay'.  My kids don't seem to have to do much of anything for As.  There is very little focus on writing/grammar and the math acceleration pathways are a known problem for not teaching 'depth' in the subject.  Sure, kids can go and score a 600 on a MULTIPLE choice Algebra SOL--but the foundation is not solid.[/quote]

Also, this is not a matter of getting kids into a better college.  In fact, given that it is much harder to gets As in many competitive privates you might have a better chance with your 4.85 public school GPA, BUT when they do get to college they are so much better prepared.[/quote]

The impossible task of closing achievement gaps that form in very early childhood and don’t get wider after 1st grade has consumed many school districts. It’s a problem that consumes a larger share of resources every year. That’s why people go private. 20 years ago there was just a greater acceptance of these gaps. Not anymore. Public schools are supposed to fix society’s problems and function as social services offices.[/quote]

There has been a huge "teach to the test" push for the past decade or so--whether its SOLs, AP tests, etc.  The type of 'deep thinking' vs learn facts to regurgitate is what is missing.  Sure- kids come out fine and will be able to succeed, but it is an entirely different type of intelligence and depth that is lacking.  Public school teachers are held to a strict curriculum and most of it is so that their kids can regurgitate on a multiple choice test at the end of the year.  [b]It's just the way it is which is why America is ranked so low when they rank education in countries around the world.[[/b]/quote]

Isn't the achievement gap the real culprit for this?  in other words, we have many more students who don't have access to a quality education than the more-egalitarian countries who outperform us.  The public-school education MC/UMC in the D.C. area (and other well-to-do areas) do fine on the international tests.  Or am I wrong about that? [/quote]

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