Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:DCUM loves to post about how private school teachers aren't qualified. We have had kids in independent schools in the area for 12 years and we have never had an unqualified teacher for our kids. Most have Master's degrees and certification.

I was very happy last year their independent schools were back to school in person and keeping kids safe while other schools were still virtual. The quality of the education was so much better.

It’s fine and understandable if you were happy that your kids were in person last year, but your post makes it sound like you were extra happy that other children were having what you consider an inferior educational experience. Their experience had no bearing on your child’s — why be so gleeful that your experience was “so much better” than that if other children, none of whom had a choice in the matter?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The quality of private schools differs vastly. Schools like Sidwell, GDS, and St. Albans are going to have their pick of teachers. It doesn't matter that they pay less than public schools - they care about the ability to design their own curriculum, having resources to teach, having resources to improve their own pedagogy, and having students and families that care a lot about education. A number of private school teachers move over from public schools because they're frustrated so much that they're willing to take a pay cut in order to do what they love.
OTOH, there are a lot of crappy private schools that have a hard time finding high quality teachers.

Do you have experience in all of these schools? Seems like a major generalization.

Anonymous wrote:Yeah, I will never understand private school above a certain level of public school. DC publics pay pretty well so you attract the best talent. I'm also confused because I have friends whose kids have special needs and they somehow think privates will be better for them when privates don't have people to support those needs and eventually counsel you out. If you have speech, motor, LDs, whatever, public schools come with teams of people passionate about supporting you. And my kids have never been held back in their learning by having those kids in their class. I mean, you do you, but my kids' teachers in DC have been phenomenal.

Anonymous wrote:The quality of private schools differs vastly. Schools like Sidwell, GDS, and St. Albans are going to have their pick of teachers. It doesn't matter that they pay less than public schools - they care about the ability to design their own curriculum, having resources to teach, having resources to improve their own pedagogy, and having students and families that care a lot about education. A number of private school teachers move over from public schools because they're frustrated so much that they're willing to take a pay cut in order to do what they love.
OTOH, there are a lot of crappy private schools that have a hard time finding high quality teachers.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I have 12 years of experience as a parent in public and private schools, catholic and independent. Our experience:

- public school teachers - hit or miss. Some were spectacular, some were very mediocre. Most were unfortunately overwhelmed.
- private school teachers - we loved them all, the young and the more experienced. They all care, they give useful feedback, and they seem to be very happy with their jobs.

So, interesting, and so dependent on the schools/ teachers you experience. Our public school HS student is really enjoying the teachers they have, and feels like they are finally learning a lot, whereas they did not have all great teachers in their private k8 (I'd estimate about 40 percent were just okay, 30 percent good, 20 percent great, with only 10 percent being fantastic).
Totally school dependent!

Anonymous wrote:I have 12 years of experience as a parent in public and private schools, catholic and independent. Our experience:

- public school teachers - hit or miss. Some were spectacular, some were very mediocre. Most were unfortunately overwhelmed.
- private school teachers - we loved them all, the young and the more experienced. They all care, they give useful feedback, and they seem to be very happy with their jobs.

Anonymous wrote:Nearly all of the teachers at my kid’s private have taught in public schools and hold graduate degrees and additional certifications. They’ve moved to public because they (like us) became frustrated with the public system. They WANT to treat children as individuals, and in a class with 15 children, they can do that.

In any case...

There’s very little empirical evidence that a degree in education = better teaching based upon standardized measures (at least in my field, early childhood).

There IS evidence that education majors typically have the lowest SAT scores of all other majors.

Make of those facts what you will, but for me, arguing that public is better bc of teacher certification isn’t a good argument. All that means is that those teachers jumped through hoops to become part of the bureaucracy. (And yes, I hold teacher certification. I don’t think it makes me better qualified to teach than someone with a degree in classics who is passionate about teaching and learning.)

Anonymous wrote:I have taught at independent schools for 25 years. I also taught for 5 years at a public high school, and I have both state and national certification. There are of course excellent teachers and poor teachers at all schools. Whether or not they are certified teachers seemed to have no correlation on their effectiveness. Personally, I learned very little in my education courses that was useful to me as a high school teacher. I have done a lot of professional development over the years that was paid for or provided by my independent school, and I learned a great deal about teaching through experience and from my colleagues. Your generalization that independent school teachers are more concerned with grading and sorting, rather than developing student potential is not something I have experienced. The many independent school teachers I have worked with over the years are generally attracted to their work because they can more effectively get to know their students, form relationships with them, and personalize and differentiate their teaching in the smaller class sizes with very little discipline issues, that are found in most private schools.

Anonymous wrote:Yeah, I will never understand private school above a certain level of public school. DC publics pay pretty well so you attract the best talent. I'm also confused because I have friends whose kids have special needs and they somehow think privates will be better for them when privates don't have people to support those needs and eventually counsel you out. If you have speech, motor, LDs, whatever, public schools come with teams of people passionate about supporting you. And my kids have never been held back in their learning by having those kids in their class. I mean, you do you, but my kids' teachers in DC have been phenomenal.

Anonymous wrote:In my experience ADHD was treated as more of a nuisance in public. There was definitely not a team passionate educators helping my child reach his potential.