Anonymous wrote:I think that culturally, a lot of private schools are run by humanities types who prize the humanities and arts over math and science. And until pretty recently, most parents either didn't care or were like that, too.

I attended a few boarding school information sessions last year, almost none of which mentioned math or science, and in answer to a question about accelerated math, an admissions rep said, "well, we aren't as concerned about kids learning a lot of calculus as we are at kids being able to participate in sports and theater and be their whole selves..." I thought it was interesting, as a parent who is actually pretty interested in her kid learning calculus.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My kid entered 9th grade at a Big3 this fall from public as a super accelerated math kid--took algebra in 6th. We quickly found that despite having all As in math (Algebra 1, geometry, Algebra 2), she didn't really know much math.
The Big3 math was so much deeper and more difficult than what she was used to in public. After a month we dropped her down a level (from honors precalc to honors algebra 2) and she is doing really well (second year of algebra 2)

Now, some of this may be pandemic related and your mileage may vary but in *our* experience, the public school "acceleration" was a mile wide and a foot deep.

BS my kids are extremely math oriented we did Big 3 and public there is zero comparison Public wins hands down full stop.

Parent of MIT and Stanford

We did the opposite and found private more difficult and comprehensive.

Parent of Cal Tech and Stanford.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My kid entered 9th grade at a Big3 this fall from public as a super accelerated math kid--took algebra in 6th. We quickly found that despite having all As in math (Algebra 1, geometry, Algebra 2), she didn't really know much math.
The Big3 math was so much deeper and more difficult than what she was used to in public. After a month we dropped her down a level (from honors precalc to honors algebra 2) and she is doing really well (second year of algebra 2)

Now, some of this may be pandemic related and your mileage may vary but in *our* experience, the public school "acceleration" was a mile wide and a foot deep.

We do the private summer math classes as prep, not for credit and they are very rushed and did not have as much as the public school classes, especially in Geometry. Its not necessarily deeper. Its just different. The only advantage is that many of the privates do more traditional teaching and use textbooks.

Gee a summer school class doing an entire year in ten weeks feels rushed? I wonder why?

Anonymous wrote:OP, you might find this article interesting: https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2016/03/the-math-revolution/426855/

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My kid entered 9th grade at a Big3 this fall from public as a super accelerated math kid--took algebra in 6th. We quickly found that despite having all As in math (Algebra 1, geometry, Algebra 2), she didn't really know much math.
The Big3 math was so much deeper and more difficult than what she was used to in public. After a month we dropped her down a level (from honors precalc to honors algebra 2) and she is doing really well (second year of algebra 2)

Now, some of this may be pandemic related and your mileage may vary but in *our* experience, the public school "acceleration" was a mile wide and a foot deep.

We do the private summer math classes as prep, not for credit and they are very rushed and did not have as much as the public school classes, especially in Geometry. Its not necessarily deeper. Its just different. The only advantage is that many of the privates do more traditional teaching and use textbooks.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My kid entered 9th grade at a Big3 this fall from public as a super accelerated math kid--took algebra in 6th. We quickly found that despite having all As in math (Algebra 1, geometry, Algebra 2), she didn't really know much math.
The Big3 math was so much deeper and more difficult than what she was used to in public. After a month we dropped her down a level (from honors precalc to honors algebra 2) and she is doing really well (second year of algebra 2)

Now, some of this may be pandemic related and your mileage may vary but in *our* experience, the public school "acceleration" was a mile wide and a foot deep.

BS my kids are extremely math oriented we did Big 3 and public there is zero comparison Public wins hands down full stop.

Parent of MIT and Stanford

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I wouldn’t necessarily buy the private math is harder. It might be it might not. My kids thought math at their private school was plenty challenging but had no way to compare.

How far and fast do you want your kid to go? I think a number of privates here go beyond multi variable as part of their normal accelerated track and some have independent study beyond that. For science it’s the usual AP classes.

Where the privates tend to lag is in the science and math competitions. I don’t think they encourage that or facilitate independent research like some of the magnets.

More kids, more classes. Public will always have the incentive to offer more. If that’s your thing then stay with public but it doesn’t seem that where the privates are is all that lacking for most students.

It is not.

Anonymous wrote:My kid entered 9th grade at a Big3 this fall from public as a super accelerated math kid--took algebra in 6th. We quickly found that despite having all As in math (Algebra 1, geometry, Algebra 2), she didn't really know much math.
The Big3 math was so much deeper and more difficult than what she was used to in public. After a month we dropped her down a level (from honors precalc to honors algebra 2) and she is doing really well (second year of algebra 2)

Now, some of this may be pandemic related and your mileage may vary but in *our* experience, the public school "acceleration" was a mile wide and a foot deep.

Anonymous wrote:My kid entered 9th grade at a Big3 this fall from public as a super accelerated math kid--took algebra in 6th. We quickly found that despite having all As in math (Algebra 1, geometry, Algebra 2), she didn't really know much math.
The Big3 math was so much deeper and more difficult than what she was used to in public. After a month we dropped her down a level (from honors precalc to honors algebra 2) and she is doing really well (second year of algebra 2)

Now, some of this may be pandemic related and your mileage may vary but in *our* experience, the public school "acceleration" was a mile wide and a foot deep.

Anonymous wrote:I wouldn’t necessarily buy the private math is harder. It might be it might not. My kids thought math at their private school was plenty challenging but had no way to compare.

How far and fast do you want your kid to go? I think a number of privates here go beyond multi variable as part of their normal accelerated track and some have independent study beyond that. For science it’s the usual AP classes.

Where the privates tend to lag is in the science and math competitions. I don’t think they encourage that or facilitate independent research like some of the magnets.

More kids, more classes. Public will always have the incentive to offer more. If that’s your thing then stay with public but it doesn’t seem that where the privates are is all that lacking for most students.