Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My parents switched me in 9th and was a huge improvement. As a result, my kids never set foot in a public school through 12th. The oldest did choose a state flagship and, contrary to one of the upstream posts, was plenty prepared to self-advocate and navigate the bureaucracy inherent in those institutions. If you have the money, private is nearly always the best choice.

Private schools vary widely in this areas as do publics. The very good public HS (and I mean like the top five in either side or the river; not DCPS) beat out academically most of the mediocre private schools because we as taxpayers spend a lot on our educational systems and the base of families in the zones tend to be rich and very very educated. That being said, we live in one of those HS zones and we chose a Big3 and we did so for academic reasons.

Rational people send their kids to privates all the time so the kid can make the sports teams or can get 1:1 daily oversight on whether they are turning in their homework or just so they can be around other kids who pay for school and that social set is important to the parents. But I think it’s a really big stretch to say that private is “almost always” better than public. Frankly, I thought the kids who left our really affluent public ES for private were generally weird kids who had some difficulty and required extra attention.

For me it was a "W" school to a MoCo independent school (by choice). My sibling stayed in public (also by choice) and received an inferior education.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My parents switched me in 9th and was a huge improvement. As a result, my kids never set foot in a public school through 12th. The oldest did choose a state flagship and, contrary to one of the upstream posts, was plenty prepared to self-advocate and navigate the bureaucracy inherent in those institutions. If you have the money, private is nearly always the best choice.

Private schools vary widely in this areas as do publics. The very good public HS (and I mean like the top five in either side or the river; not DCPS) beat out academically most of the mediocre private schools because we as taxpayers spend a lot on our educational systems and the base of families in the zones tend to be rich and very very educated. That being said, we live in one of those HS zones and we chose a Big3 and we did so for academic reasons.

Rational people send their kids to privates all the time so the kid can make the sports teams or can get 1:1 daily oversight on whether they are turning in their homework or just so they can be around other kids who pay for school and that social set is important to the parents. But I think it’s a really big stretch to say that private is “almost always” better than public. Frankly, I thought the kids who left our really affluent public ES for private were generally weird kids who had some difficulty and required extra attention.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Both kids went the private for high school after mostly very good experiences in DCPS (and a DC charter school).

I don't love the money we spent (and they went to Catholic schools so while it was big money it wasn't BIG money) and wish we had more family vacations, but overall it was the bettter choice for both, for different reasons.

DC 1 went to SJC for the Benilde program, providig supports for mild learning issues

DC 2 went to a more academic Catholic school and did very well.

I was talking with some friends who had kids in DCPS one day when I suddenly realized that private school had really removed a stressor from my life. I can't describe what it was, precisely, but dealing with the school was just easier, more straightforward, fewer days off to juggle, fewer regular money/fundraiser stress, nicer facilities. I have long been a vocal supporter of DCPS and treasure the time spent in elementary and middle school, kids had wonderful teachers, made lifelong friends (the kids and also us parents) but somehow not dealing with DCPS was just.... a relief of pressure I didn't even realize we had.

Thanks for putting this into words. I feel the same - we have kids in DCPS (elementary and finishing middle) and our oldest has applied private for HS. I am sad to leave DCPS (if she gets in and chooses to) in some ways, but when I imagine how much less space in my brain I will have to dedicate to pushing this boulder up a hill - the advocacy, the emailing, the budget crises, all of it - I sense I will feel relieved. Not a reason to do it, but a nice side effect if it happens. I am very much stressed about the $$, however.

Anonymous wrote:Both kids went the private for high school after mostly very good experiences in DCPS (and a DC charter school).

I don't love the money we spent (and they went to Catholic schools so while it was big money it wasn't BIG money) and wish we had more family vacations, but overall it was the bettter choice for both, for different reasons.

DC 1 went to SJC for the Benilde program, providig supports for mild learning issues

DC 2 went to a more academic Catholic school and did very well.

I was talking with some friends who had kids in DCPS one day when I suddenly realized that private school had really removed a stressor from my life. I can't describe what it was, precisely, but dealing with the school was just easier, more straightforward, fewer days off to juggle, fewer regular money/fundraiser stress, nicer facilities. I have long been a vocal supporter of DCPS and treasure the time spent in elementary and middle school, kids had wonderful teachers, made lifelong friends (the kids and also us parents) but somehow not dealing with DCPS was just.... a relief of pressure I didn't even realize we had.

Anonymous wrote:Depends on the private. Some yes, others marginally better.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My parents switched me in 9th and was a huge improvement. As a result, my kids never set foot in a public school through 12th. The oldest did choose a state flagship and, contrary to one of the upstream posts, was plenty prepared to self-advocate and navigate the bureaucracy inherent in those institutions. If you have the money, private is nearly always the best choice.

Private schools vary widely in this areas as do publics. The very good public HS (and I mean like the top five in either side or the river; not DCPS) beat out academically most of the mediocre private schools because we as taxpayers spend a lot on our educational systems and the base of families in the zones tend to be rich and very very educated. That being said, we live in one of those HS zones and we chose a Big3 and we did so for academic reasons.

Rational people send their kids to privates all the time so the kid can make the sports teams or can get 1:1 daily oversight on whether they are turning in their homework or just so they can be around other kids who pay for school and that social set is important to the parents. But I think it’s a really big stretch to say that private is “almost always” better than public. Frankly, I thought the kids who left our really affluent public ES for private were generally weird kids who had some difficulty and required extra attention.

Anonymous wrote:My parents switched me in 9th and was a huge improvement. As a result, my kids never set foot in a public school through 12th. The oldest did choose a state flagship and, contrary to one of the upstream posts, was plenty prepared to self-advocate and navigate the bureaucracy inherent in those institutions. If you have the money, private is nearly always the best choice.

Anonymous wrote:My parents switched me in 9th and was a huge improvement. As a result, my kids never set foot in a public school through 12th. The oldest did choose a state flagship and, contrary to one of the upstream posts, was plenty prepared to self-advocate and navigate the bureaucracy inherent in those institutions. If you have the money, private is nearly always the best choice.

Anonymous wrote:No. I am not happy. We made the move in middle school because middle school is just a hard few years socially and emotionally for all tweens. We figured private might offer a bit of a "safer" space for all the physical and emotional changes that kids are going through at that age. I suppose that was true. However, we made the choice to stay for upper school and this I very much regret. Public schools on the whole has much more to offer academically and for extra curriculars. I also don't think the "bubble" that exists with most private schools prepares you for college and beyond. And of course there's the financial investment. It's not worth the money. The problem is that once you start in private upper school it can be a pain to transfer back to public just in terms of requirements. For example, we looked into transferring at the end of 10th grade and because our private counts sports as P.E. our kid would have had to take PE in public in lieu of other more interesting electives. Also, our private does the science sequencing different than public schools so our kid would have been an 11th grader taking science with 9th graders in public. It just all seemed like a pain to switch at that point.

Anonymous wrote:Moved in 2nd grade due to COVID to a K-8. Very happy with smaller class sizes, actually differentiated instruction, socio-emotional learning, overall school environment.

DD is in middle school now and the small overall class size can be difficult from a social perspective. We are planning on public for high school.

Anonymous wrote:Moved my first two in 9th and will do it with my last as well. Zero regrets. They were nervous and man their private school friends and teachers made them think that they were going to be entering a war zone by attending a public high school in Fairfax County.

After the first two days it was all fine. Public school gave them more friend groups, class choices and extracurricular activities. I think private did some things very well (Science not one of them),prepared them to be better writers, know how to study, etc. But the one thing that they have said to me is the worse teachers in high school, the ones everyone hates are not that different from the mid-level private school teachers they had. They told me private school prepared them to deal with difficult teachers and that really hit home.

In two years at public and some 20 something teachers they have had one "bad" one which they said would have been normal at private school. For the most part they think that the quality of the teaching is much better in public.

Since they are 15 and 16 now, I think that they are old enough to make an informed opinion and I value it. No regrets.