PP, your hypothesis got me curious. According to the Dept of Education, there are 10x as many public school students as private school students. So assuming each school type is just as likely to produce Intel finalists, there should be a 10:1 ratio of public:private. And your theory suggests the ratio should skew even more toward public school students -- 15:1 maybe?

But when I check the Intel finalist list, it's actually only about 4:1, which suggests private school students are outperforming public school students pretty significantly.

How does that make sense under your hypothesis?

Also, FWIW, the Intel finalists seem a much more mixed bag than you suggest, with very few schools proximate to the major research facilities.

Your hypo is a nice story, but I am skeptical of it standing up to empirical scrutiny.

On average, private schools tend to do better in teaching writing, history, literature etc. The small class sizes mean that teachers can assign lots of essays and give lots of feedback. They also tend to offer courses in Latin and Art History, which public schools dropped long ago.

Public schools tend to do better in math and science. There are more funds and more students to justify the purchase of lab equipment. also, public schools pay better. Since people who have math and science skills have more lucrative private sector options, the pay needs to be more competitive to attract people in those fields into teaching. Also, scientists aren't wealthy, and they tend to send their kids public. Look at the list of Intel semi-finalists. The kids don't come from private schools. They come from public schools near laboratories, like NIH and Cold SPring Harbor. The proximity means scientists' kids creating demand for rigorous science classes and parents who can arrange lab space for interested kids.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:[

Anonymous



Of course the kids that switch from private to public are typically not the kids flourishing in private. So that's not really a reliable indicator of whether one type of school is ahead of or behind another. And that's before we get to "the "which private?" and "which public?" question.

Many (probably most) local privates have a big influx of kids from outside (public, parochial, other private schools) in HS, so 9th grade is a year that will often be structured to get everyone on the same page and tuned into expectations and standards. Basically, if your kid is used to reading and discussing complex material and is a decent writer, s/he should be good to go. Beyond that, it's a question of placement (e.g. what level of math, science, foreign language) and some schools are more flexible than others on that score.

Absolutely, completely, unequivocally, untrue.

Agree ... a silly assertion. For example, many kids leave private for financial reasons, which is not surprising given the hefty cost in this area. Many kids leave because their parents lose a job or move, indicating zilch about whether they were "flourishing" or not. No doubt SOME of the kids who switch were not doing well either due to their abilities OR due to a poor fit to the school's teaching style. But others leave to access better instruction, larger peer groups, better science and math, and so forth. Certainly not all, but the quoted statement was just wishful thinking.

Also agree PP is wrong. Our reason was different. DH felt his transition from a small elite prep school to college was too jarring so thought we should mainsream from private to public at the high school level so DS could manage University. DS is now in first year at University. ABSOLUTELY the right call. he would be so lost if we had left him in private. Also, the recession hit us hard too but we would have found a way if we thought we were getting bang for the buck, but we weren't.

Anonymous wrote:Well, we went the other direction and found our private school kid was behind fcps.

Wow, exactly what I was going to post! Twins separated at birth. Behind in math in particular.

This thread is basically useless. Not all privates are the same and neither are all publics. Silly to speculate unless you are comparing specific schools. Seems so obvious yet I'm amazed at people opinionsn as if they have it all figured out.

Back to the original question.
I went from DCPS to a big three in seventh grade.
Socially, it was tough. I missed my friends.
Academically, I was very ahead in writing and history (because I was bored at my public school and sat at my desk reading history books I brought from home after speeding through the classwork), marginally behind in math, and woefully behind in science. I did poorly in math and science first quarter, but after my older sister, who went to the same school, taught me how to study, I started getting A's in math and science. At first, I was just trying to memorize the material, but my sister taught me that I needed to understand it and be able to answer questions from all different angles.
My older sibs also went from public to private and did very well. They too had an adjustment period of about a semester or so.
When we were in public, my parents did give us lots of books, science lab equipment like microscopes and chem sets, magazines, etc. For ex, in the summer I had to read at least one academic-oriented book a week, such as a biography, historical novel, etc. If I wrote a report on the book and got a parent graded A, I got five dollars. If not, I could rewrite it with their comments and if they approved, I got two dollars. Etc etc.

Yes, it was a challenge at first for dd but she survived.

Anonymous wrote:True of my DC's big 3. Kids at or near the top of the class academically don't leave for HS unless the family moves out of town. Kids who aren't getting what they need/want and/or whose parents assume they'll do better elsewhere are the ones who leave at that point.

Our public HS has many kids come in from k-8s. Mine was one of them and is in the top 5% of the class. Fewer are leaving big 3 schools since they go through 12th grade but we certainly have a few. There is one family that moved their kids from one of the Big 3 and both went on to Ivy League colleges so one assumes that they weren't total duds. So our experience is that there are plenty of very talented kids coming in from private schools to our public school. And yes, they tend to be behind in math and, surprisingly, language.

True of my DC's big 3. Kids at or near the top of the class academically don't leave for HS unless the family moves out of town. Kids who aren't getting what they need/want and/or whose parents assume they'll do better elsewhere are the ones who leave at that point.

Anonymous wrote:[

Anonymous



Of course the kids that switch from private to public are typically not the kids flourishing in private. So that's not really a reliable indicator of whether one type of school is ahead of or behind another. And that's before we get to "the "which private?" and "which public?" question.

Many (probably most) local privates have a big influx of kids from outside (public, parochial, other private schools) in HS, so 9th grade is a year that will often be structured to get everyone on the same page and tuned into expectations and standards. Basically, if your kid is used to reading and discussing complex material and is a decent writer, s/he should be good to go. Beyond that, it's a question of placement (e.g. what level of math, science, foreign language) and some schools are more flexible than others on that score.

Absolutely, completely, unequivocally, untrue.

Agree ... a silly assertion. For example, many kids leave private for financial reasons, which is not surprising given the hefty cost in this area. Many kids leave because their parents lose a job or move, indicating zilch about whether they were "flourishing" or not. No doubt SOME of the kids who switch were not doing well either due to their abilities OR due to a poor fit to the school's teaching style. But others leave to access better instruction, larger peer groups, better science and math, and so forth. Certainly not all, but the quoted statement was just wishful thinking.

[

Anonymous



Of course the kids that switch from private to public are typically not the kids flourishing in private. So that's not really a reliable indicator of whether one type of school is ahead of or behind another. And that's before we get to "the "which private?" and "which public?" question.

Many (probably most) local privates have a big influx of kids from outside (public, parochial, other private schools) in HS, so 9th grade is a year that will often be structured to get everyone on the same page and tuned into expectations and standards. Basically, if your kid is used to reading and discussing complex material and is a decent writer, s/he should be good to go. Beyond that, it's a question of placement (e.g. what level of math, science, foreign language) and some schools are more flexible than others on that score.

Absolutely, completely, unequivocally, untrue.

Of course the kids that switch from private to public are typically not the kids flourishing in private. So that's not really a reliable indicator of whether one type of school is ahead of or behind another. And that's before we get to "the "which private?" and "which public?" question.

Many (probably most) local privates have a big influx of kids from outside (public, parochial, other private schools) in HS, so 9th grade is a year that will often be structured to get everyone on the same page and tuned into expectations and standards. Basically, if your kid is used to reading and discussing complex material and is a decent writer, s/he should be good to go. Beyond that, it's a question of placement (e.g. what level of math, science, foreign language) and some schools are more flexible than others on that score.

Multiple folks have said they're kids were behind when they switched from private to public.

What FCPS high school are you trying to avoid?

Well, we went the other direction and found our private school kid was behind fcps.

We plan to send our kids to AAP in Fairfax County and will switch to private high school. Wondering what difficulties children face who may have gone through the same transition.