Reply to HB Woodlawn and ATS

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]I wonder what “private school experience” means to PP other than the fact that her kids weren’t able to get in. Private schools range from progressive (Sidwell, Potomac, Georgetown Day etc.) to traditional (e.g. catholic schools) and many many schools in between. Some are speciality schools such as Montessori schools, bilingual/immersion schools teaching a specific language. There is no one “private school experience.” There are three things that most private schools have in common though: (1) you have to apply to get in (2) most students pay tuition and (3) the school tends to have low student-teacher ratios and small class sizes. (2) and (3) don’t apply to ATS. ATS has large classroom sizes, a high student teacher ratio and very large grade level cohorts. This begs the question what is ATS doing right that enables it to achieve such high results with such large classroom sizes? It is motivated parents, a specific teaching methodology or both? ATS is an example of public education gone right. Low student teacher ratios are just not workable for public schools so we need to figure out how to teach effectively with larger classroom sizes. It is obviously still worth aiming for the lowest student ratio possible. For what it’s worth my kids go to Jamestown, which has a more “private school” vibe than ATS since it is much smaller.[/quote]

For me private school means that parents take the initiative to place the child and have capacity and competency to navigate that process, and a school that will not be overcrowded.  Overcrowding is really what a causing all the ire at HB; they enjoy a capped school size in a brand new $$$ building (oh and I know they wanted to stay in their old building on its enormous acreage, same difference), while the rest of the county contemplates remote school and night classes. [/quote]

Thanks for sharing. I don’t know much about HB because my kids are young, so I was just responding to the ire directed at ATS. We never applied because (a) Jamestown is a great school and (b) ATS is too large for my very shy kids. That being said they must be doing something right. They are getting the same results as Jamestown but have a much larger student-teacher ratio and a higher population of socio-economically disadvantaged students[/quote]

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