Depends on the kid, if your child is ambitious a private school will often help them get an edge in getting into a great college. If your kid is struggling then the more competitive private high schools will be tough.

Anonymous wrote:I have kids in public high school in Arlington and 1 staring senior year of top private high school in DC. Three years into it and still can't decide if it's worth the money.

Correction: had kids in public high school in Arlington.

I have kids in public high school in Arlington and 1 staring senior year of top private high school in DC. Three years into it and still can't decide if it's worth the money.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You should post this in the public school forum too. You are getting biased info by only asking people who have made the choice for private.

But she is asking people who have already made the choice. If you post in pubic schools, you will get responses from people who did not even consider private. Even more biased in my opinion.

You get extremely biased options from both forums. A lot of opinions, non very helpful.

Yes, of course. The problem with even the good public high schools is there are so many kids that unless a kid is a real standout, no one will even know his/her name.

We have found DCPS Elementary Schools to be superb, so from that perspective, private school for elementary grades isn't worth it for pre-K through 5th. After that though, being in a Hardy Middle School district, we send our older kids to DC privates. If only Hardy were to get a little better, we'd very gladly send our kids there though instead of private.

And many private school families did not even consider public so posting in both gives a nice mix. Of course the topic has ben debated to death in many old posts too.

Anonymous wrote:You should post this in the public school forum too. You are getting biased info by only asking people who have made the choice for private.

But she is asking people who have already made the choice. If you post in pubic schools, you will get responses from people who did not even consider private. Even more biased in my opinion.

You should post this in the public school forum too. You are getting biased info by only asking people who have made the choice for private.

Anonymous wrote:For those of you who had a child public K-8 and then did private HS....do you think it was worth the big money for HS?

Depends on the details of your family situation. Care to share anything?

I took a little time to read the MD public school forum. You are always hearing about the hipsters feeling to the suburbs when their toddlers get to school age. After reading about the class evaluations, the class size and overcrowding and facilities, there is no doubt that if you can make it work financially and can find the right fit for your kid that it is absolutely worth it.

For us, no doubt the best investment we could make. Class size jumps significantly in high school. I have heard upwards of 40 kids in a class in some classes. By moving DS from pubic to private, his largest class last year was only 24 with his smallest class 17. Also, the teachers in his new school are, well, better, as he put it. I think you need to decide what is the best fit for your child and go with it.

I also learned that our public high school will eliminate final exams starting next year. I find this very disturbing and am so glad that we have opted for private, where exams are given and the focus is not on standardized testing. It is a much better preparation for college.

Yes absolutely

We have found private school to be worth every penny.

For those of you who had a child public K-8 and then did private HS....do you think it was worth the big money for HS?