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[quote=Anonymous]One thing to consider on the APS vs. private question is whether your child is more math/science or humanities/social sciences focused.  I find that public schools have more options, and the pace is often much more accelerated, in math, than are private schools.  As others have said here, TJ is great option and I think that's especially true if you child is more math/science focused.  Private schools will tell you that their math curriculum is more "rigorous" than the equivalent public school, but that is all marketing fluff and not founded in reality.

On the other hand, private schools do a much better job when it comes to reading and writing instruction.  I think a lot of the benefit comes from private schools being smaller and being able to provide good feedback on written essays.  I am sure that there are great English teachers in public schools, but they have to contend with larger class sizes and so they will not be inclined to provide extensive written feedback on 120 essays and to facilitate discussions in classes of 30-35 kids.

I wish that there were a school that were excellent with both, but unfortunately I have not seen.

Not to be all doom and gloom though because I think if you have a good kid with a smart head on his/her shoulders, he/she will figure things out, whether at public schools or at private schools.  The data on private schools is pretty unequivocal that they don't provide much of a boost if you take household income into account.  Even TJ, as great as it is, it's not a coincidence that TJ has the highest average household income for any Fairfax County Public School.  This is not to say that everyone is wealthy, but there's a massive self-selection bias going on of who has the time and energy to get their kid into TJ.[/quote]

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