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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]This is the problem with parochial.  While they are better than public schools, they have one thing in common with public, which is a sort of monopoly status.  There is one parochial option in each geographic area, and that's pretty much the only option.  So they don't really feel the pressure for continuous improvement.

It's a shame, because St. Mary's easily has the opportunity to be the best school around bar none.  All the publics and all the privates in NOVA and DC have become insane tampons-in-the-boys-room type places.  And behavior problems are increasing and allowed to persist, because there's an unofficial policy not to discipline members of marginalized groups or children of rich parents.  St. Mary's is comparatively free of all those problems.

All St. Mary's has to do is hustle!  They have to say to themselves, we can be the best K-8 school in the state.  The very fact of being a sane Catholic school already gives them a huge advantage over the competition.  They have an amazing population of families, highly educated, professional, nice, committed.  They have great kids.  And they do have some great faculty and staff, just not quite enough! 
 Now all they have to do is figure out how to hire, develop, and retain the absolute best quality faculty and staff they can.

I don't think the low pay is that big of a problem.  It doesn't help, but it's not an excuse for having less impressive teachers.  Yes public pays more, but public is a mess these days.  If you are called to teaching, you're not usually in it for the money anyway.  And if you are a traditional person or a religious person who wants to teach, you will not fit in with most of your colleagues at most publics or privates in NOVA or DC.  St. Mary's should have its pick of the kind of teachers it would want to hire anyway.

But for some reason they don't love hustling.  They don't like criticism, so they won't admit problems.  They don't feel a sense of competition because they are the only game in (old) town.  And I think that they (justifiably) feel holy because of the good work they do in faith formation, but they rest on the laurels of that a little bit.  I suspect that if you asked the administration or the rector about teacher quality, teacher hiring, and teacher retention, they would quickly steer the conversation to their good work in faith formation.  And it IS good work, but it's not a relevant answer to the question "why aren't we recruiting, developing, and retaining enough great teachers?"
[/quote]

You sound like you'd be happier sending your kid to Trinity Christian than parochial school [/quote]

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