Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We started at a “Big 3” in pre-K and are miserable. Such a waste of money. I actually hired a reading tutor to help my preker learn to read because her teachers aren’t helping her learn. Three months later- reading fluently. For our older children, we started supplementing math in 1st grade. Don’t waste your money.

What? You pay for private so your kid can be a kid a little longer. If you wanted academics, your kid should have been in K in DCPS. It is brutal.

My reaction exactly!

Your expectations were off. Pre-K kids don't need to be pushed to read, quite the opposite. The fact there are even reading tutors targeting pre-K is sad.

The research is clear: They need play, and they will learn the letters and numbers and other key life skills along the way while playing. Even DCPS teachers, some of whom get pressured by leadership and culture to drill academics and worksheets, will tell you this – and some have left DCPS entirely because they don't want to be assigning homework to four-year-olds and giving rewards for completing them. (Not all DCPS PK are like this, but some schools do)

Anonymous wrote:If you want the top 5 or so, it will be hard. If you aren't wedded to top 5, you'll be fine. For example, you mentioned you're an international family...you could always try WIS.

I think WIS is great, but not so easy to get in. We know a family whose very smart kids coming from private applied twice before getting in. The kids have since graduated and one is at an Ivy… not sure the other… so very smart kids and family.

Anonymous wrote:OP that's miserable - y'all, the schools hide behind the "joy of childhood" to deliver low academic standards. You can have both joy and learning. The teachers are inexperienced and standards are too low. Half the class is supplementing in some way. My oldest started at DCPS - there was a ton of joy. We regret the move to private.

Nobody else said the standards are low. Go back to DCPS then.

OP that's miserable - y'all, the schools hide behind the "joy of childhood" to deliver low academic standards. You can have both joy and learning. The teachers are inexperienced and standards are too low. Half the class is supplementing in some way. My oldest started at DCPS - there was a ton of joy. We regret the move to private.

To the OP,

We faced a similar decision when our eldest was in PK in DCPS. Our mind frame was to go tour the schools and apply to the schools we loved. We knew they were very selective so we didn’t assume we’d get in, even at K, and would have been happy enough to stay in DCPS for a few more years. We applied to the top 4 and got offers from 2. Getting waitlisted for 2 was enough of a warning to us that getting in later is not guaranteed.

As others have said, if you’re happy with less selective privates, then no need to overthink it yet.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We’re going to have to make a decision between public and private school in a couple of weeks for our rising K student and toddler.

We applied to see what the “other side” is like but would prefer to do k-5 in public.

How hard is it, really, to get into good private schools in DC, Bethesda, NoVa if we apply for our children to start in private in 6th?

How many would we need to apply to make sure our child got into at least one?

In case it matters, we would not need financial aid. We’re an international family, both parents work, went to top colleges. (I don’t know if any of this matters but wanted to just write it here).

My kid is in a small private (not a status symbol). But the kid is thriving. Reading and math are one or two grades ahead, and fit in perfectly and love the school. Price tag 1/2 of Big 3.

My kid in elementary is about 4 grade levels ahead in reading and math. It is pretty meaningless. By high school the other kids more or less catch up. Middle school is when serious academics should begin. This is not the point of lower school.

Anonymous wrote:
Is the Big 3 GDS? If Big 3 is Sidwell, GDS and the Cathedral schools then it has to be either GDS or Sidwell as the other two don't start in K.

K at Cathedral schools is Beauvoir.

Anonymous wrote:We’re going to have to make a decision between public and private school in a couple of weeks for our rising K student and toddler.

We applied to see what the “other side” is like but would prefer to do k-5 in public.

How hard is it, really, to get into good private schools in DC, Bethesda, NoVa if we apply for our children to start in private in 6th?

How many would we need to apply to make sure our child got into at least one?

In case it matters, we would not need financial aid. We’re an international family, both parents work, went to top colleges. (I don’t know if any of this matters but wanted to just write it here).

My kid is in a small private (not a status symbol). But the kid is thriving. Reading and math are one or two grades ahead, and fit in perfectly and love the school. Price tag 1/2 of Big 3.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We started at a “Big 3” in pre-K and are miserable. Such a waste of money. I actually hired a reading tutor to help my preker learn to read because her teachers aren’t helping her learn. Three months later- reading fluently. For our older children, we started supplementing math in 1st grade. Don’t waste your money.

What? You pay for private so your kid can be a kid a little longer. If you wanted academics, your kid should have been in K in DCPS. It is brutal.

Is the Big 3 GDS? If Big 3 is Sidwell, GDS and the Cathedral schools then it has to be either GDS or Sidwell as the other two don't start in K.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We started at a “Big 3” in pre-K and are miserable. Such a waste of money. I actually hired a reading tutor to help my preker learn to read because her teachers aren’t helping her learn. Three months later- reading fluently. For our older children, we started supplementing math in 1st grade. Don’t waste your money.

What? You pay for private so your kid can be a kid a little longer. If you wanted academics, your kid should have been in K in DCPS. It is brutal.

+1 accelerated academics in lower school is mostly a public school thing. Let your kid be a kid. It really doesn’t matter, your kid has a long way to go. Let the public school parents stress out about the PK-1st grade curriculum. The unnecessary tutoring and supplementation is probably more harmful than you think.

+2. We've been doing K-5 in public (DCPS) and plan to apply to private for MS. Oldest is in 4th, so we're getting close. DCPS really knows how to drill math and reading, but (in my opinion) at the cost of any space to be creative or exploratory. My kids already think school is "boring" and regimented, and they're way too young for that.

OP, the plus with DC is there's a few really good options that start in 6th grade, so I'd plan to apply to 1-2 of those. Even if 6th grade is an entry year at a K-12, it's still a small incoming group, but they have to build the acceptans around who is already there. (Say, you may be applying to a class that has become way gender-imbalanced.)

If I had to do it all over again, I'd put the kids in Catholic school through 8th and decide then where they should be for high school.

FWIW, we did DCPS through middle school. Many regrets, though at the time I was a huge public shcool advocate.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We started at a “Big 3” in pre-K and are miserable. Such a waste of money. I actually hired a reading tutor to help my preker learn to read because her teachers aren’t helping her learn. Three months later- reading fluently. For our older children, we started supplementing math in 1st grade. Don’t waste your money.

What? You pay for private so your kid can be a kid a little longer. If you wanted academics, your kid should have been in K in DCPS. It is brutal.

+1 accelerated academics in lower school is mostly a public school thing. Let your kid be a kid. It really doesn’t matter, your kid has a long way to go. Let the public school parents stress out about the PK-1st grade curriculum. The unnecessary tutoring and supplementation is probably more harmful than you think.