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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]We sent our kids to APS all the way through 8th and then private Big3 HS.   Our kids did very well and had no issue coming from APS, they were well prepared.  But, our private HS experience was vastly different than our public school friend at W&L and Yorktown.  To each their own, but we were very happy for the children to experience the rigor of private for the HS years.  I would not send my kids to private ES and expect some big difference…unless I was at a not great ES or alternatively my kid had a lot of needs.  Just my two cents.  [/quote]

Was it mostly a difference in academic rigor between your experience and your friends W&L/Yorktown experiences?[/quote]

Academic and social differences.  I wouldn’t pay for private school for a different social experience, however.  Plenty of great/bright kids in APS that I would’ve been more than happy for my kids to socialize with.  Some weirdos in both systems so whatever; sort of a wash and kid dependent.

Academically, there were many differences but two biggest for us were: (1) amount of homework and (2) writing.   My kids were doing 1.5-3 hours of homework starting in 9.  Nothing like this for kids’ APS peers.  Freshman/sophomore years in APS, kids peers in APS were still not really doing homework.   This meant there lives were very different.  My kids didn’t have free time in the same way that APS kids do.  Many families don’t want this, I get it.  Next, the writing.  My kids were writing many page papers starting in 9, many times per year, with significant feedback/editing from their teachers with multiple rounds of submission.  This wasn’t possible in APS and wasn’t the experience of my children’s peers.   [/quote]

Weird. My kid in private had less homework than friends in public for 9th/10th. WL kids started doing APs in 9th and/or were doing IB.

By 11th, it seemed about the same. 
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My post was specific to my children’s experience at a Big3 private.  I am certain you could find a range of different experiences at the various private schools across DC. [/quote]

Your kids were doing APs in 9th? 
[/quote]
That’s fairly common in APS, at least with families I know. It makes sense considering you can start high school credit classes in 7th grade. [/quote]

Public is more advanced in math, though the quality of instruction is a concern. But the curriculum is well defined.

But it is “toss into deep end” from[b] no-homework MS[/b] to AP HS. [/quote]

Which MS did your kids attend?

Our kids have/had homework at DHMS. 
[/quote]

Homework at DHMS is just classwork that is not finished.  My kid always completed it in the allotted classtime.[/quote]

Do they assign class-wide novels now?  It was all "readers choice" and excerpts then. We were there in earlier years when it was a bit unpolished (but Principal was and is a gem).

What about weeks long projects, such as researching a topic and building a display and presenting on it?

[/quote]
Yes— my kid has had all of those (class wide novels, papers, weeks long projects) that have to be done at home.  The intensified classes are more work than the classes used to be.  [/quote]

Yes, they started intensified this year at DHMS right?  That is great.  We are considering what to do for our elementary, and were hoping to stay with DHMS and then figure out high school.

How well does DHMS coach on executive function (such as setuping binder folders for every class, running a daily planner and calendar, setting due dates and breaking up projects into smaller manageable dated tasks)?[/quote]
Dhms does a great job with that.  They have a binder for all classes, and are expected to clean it out regularly and put things in it.  They check that your kid is using their agenda.  My kid still has executive functioning missteps (mostly because I think all middle school boys do), but that’s more due to him not using the tools given him.  For example, he will just throw things into his binder or put them in the section for the wrong class.  Or write down his homework in his agenda but not actually look at his agenda when starting his homework.  [/quote]

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