Anonymous wrote:Can you do middle and upper school private? If so, that’s what I’d choose. Kids should learn necessary skills in middle school - compensating for any lower school deficit) and be in good shape academically and socially for upper school.

Agree with this option—6-12 private or 7-12 private.

Can you do middle and upper school private? If so, that’s what I’d choose. Kids should learn necessary skills in middle school - compensating for any lower school deficit) and be in good shape academically and socially for upper school.

One of my kids did k-2 public then 3-12 private, and the other did k-12 private. I pulled my older kids because even pre pandemic the state of public education was declining, at least in our big county. If we hadn’t been able to swing private, we would have moved to a town-based school district. My point is that it’s not so much public vs private but the strength of a specific public program vs the strength of a specific private program, at least for kids without any specific learning needs. But I agree with the college professor. A strong private tends to be the best prep for college. My kids are aware that they’re more prepared than many (but not all of course) public HS graduates. Things are different now in education. For lots of reasons, public school education isn’t thriving the way it did when many of us parents attended ourselves. For what it’s worth I work in the field.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We are doing private k-8 then public. Small, nuturing classes during the most fundamental years, followed by an academically rigorous public high school.

The flaw in that is your kid will not be on the rigorous math track once the get to HS which makes getting the most rigorous curriculum box checked hard assuming that you care about college admissions

No flaw. Kids are evaluated vis a vis what is available in their school.

And the public high school kids will be at least a year ahead of the kids coming from private for HS in math.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We are doing private k-8 then public. Small, nuturing classes during the most fundamental years, followed by an academically rigorous public high school.

The flaw in that is your kid will not be on the rigorous math track once the get to HS which makes getting the most rigorous curriculum box checked hard assuming that you care about college admissions

No flaw. Kids are evaluated vis a vis what is available in their school.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We are doing private k-8 then public. Small, nuturing classes during the most fundamental years, followed by an academically rigorous public high school.

The flaw in that is your kid will not be on the rigorous math track once the get to HS which makes getting the most rigorous curriculum box checked hard assuming that you care about college admissions

I'm the PP and I don't care about college admissions.

Public k-3, private 4-8 (in a K-8 private school) then back to public for 9-12.

Starting off at neighborhood public allowed our kids to meet neighborhood kids and at those grades it is cheap and easy to supplement in reading and math.

Private is great for grades 4-8 or 5-8 because it is such an impressionable age where who your friends are really start to matter. We also wanted our kids to be held accountable, develop good study habits, and earn their grades.

Public high school has so many choices with AP and/or IB classes and dual enrollment.

Anonymous wrote:We are doing private k-8 then public. Small, nuturing classes during the most fundamental years, followed by an academically rigorous public high school.

The flaw in that is your kid will not be on the rigorous math track once the get to HS which makes getting the most rigorous curriculum box checked hard assuming that you care about college admissions

As it turns out, I have one of each kid.

My younger child started private in early ES for a variety of reasons, and stayed through 8th. The other stayed in public while being offered a change at natural transitions (MS/HS) and is happily a junior in private HS.

I really wanted private HS for both, and still think it would have been best for both. We'll see how things play out for my public school freshman.

I was a long-time college professor, and I believe college prep is better coming out of private. There are more opportunities for discussion and especially writing. For me, it has never been about which colleges, but how prepared they will be when they get there. And I am against the AP overload in public.

We are doing private k-8 then public. Small, nuturing classes during the most fundamental years, followed by an academically rigorous public high school.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I did public K-9, then private 10-12. I liked that because I got to choose the high school that worked best for me. If you're doing public HS, you can't tailor it to the kid's personality and interests as easily unless you're willing to move (and what if your kids need different things).

I did the same as you and it worked for me but I'm looking to do the opposite for my child because of the state of post-pandemic public education with elementary curriculum changes , teacher burnout/shortages, and current policies allowing disruptive behavior in large districts.

I can definitely see this point of view! My kids are still preschool-age and I'm dreading the amount of computers I see in the elementary schools in this area. I'm looking to move soon and kind of hoping a LCOL area will be better for that, weirdly.

Anonymous wrote:I did public K-9, then private 10-12. I liked that because I got to choose the high school that worked best for me. If you're doing public HS, you can't tailor it to the kid's personality and interests as easily unless you're willing to move (and what if your kids need different things).

I did the same as you and it worked for me but I'm looking to do the opposite for my child because of the state of post-pandemic public education with elementary curriculum changes , teacher burnout/shortages, and current policies allowing disruptive behavior in large districts.

I did public K-9, then private 10-12. I liked that because I got to choose the high school that worked best for me. If you're doing public HS, you can't tailor it to the kid's personality and interests as easily unless you're willing to move (and what if your kids need different things).

Anonymous wrote:We have the funds for of these options but not all 12/13 years...which would be best for kids. No social/academic issues. Happy kid. Like the idea of some kind of private for all the reasons people send to private.
I keep hearing k-8 foundation trumps private hs. What do you think?

And I don't care about the big 3 so don't come at me saying I won't get into one .

Pay fir K-8 then send public

We have the funds for of these options but not all 12/13 years...which would be best for kids. No social/academic issues. Happy kid. Like the idea of some kind of private for all the reasons people send to private.
I keep hearing k-8 foundation trumps private hs. What do you think?

And I don't care about the big 3 so don't come at me saying I won't get into one .