Growing up and attending a private K-12 (ok, another experience from the past but it still seems to be the case based on what I hear) far more people came to the private from a public school as the years went by than started at the private and switched to public. Big intakes in 6th and 9th grade. The ones who left early mostly did so for relocation reasons or transferred to another private. Very few left to go to a public school.

My personal preference is as good as a public elementary school as possible then private for high school (middle school too if possible). My reasoning for this is that in the early years the child is still heavily influenced by what goes on at home and his parents. In high school, the school influence starts to replace the parents (fellow students in particular). Private schools have a much better quality control when it comes to students.

Having said all the above, I am completely open to both public and private and we will see what happens and where we live and local zoned schools versus our child's individual needs. Not ruling anything out.

A lot depends on the quality of the public and private options. Our public elementary school was bad, and we didn't win the lottery for a magnet school, so we went private. The most affordable option for us was a local parochial school, and a lot of kids from the neighborhood were there, also avoiding the public elementary.

A good magnet school can be a good reason to go public. Our public schools generally aren't very good, but we have a good magnet high school, so many parents opt for private school through grade 8 and then the public magnet.

Regarding whether to invest in private elementary or high school, besides weighing the differences between your public and private options, consider whether you care more about launching into school or launching toward college. I think early differences are disproportionately important so I would want the best available early education.

Private high schools often (too often) justify themselves with their college placements. (I'd prefer they emphasize the intrinsic quality of the education.) They devote a lot of resources to college counseling and their graduates go to good colleges. Even the best colleges, though, recruit most of their students from public high schools. If your public high school offers good curricular and extracurricular opportunities, and your student takes advantage of them, and you can help him navigate the college selection and application process, you can get as good a placement from a public high school as you would get from a private.

Another consideration is that students' life paths diverge more by the end of high school than they do at the beginning of elementary school. Bad influences among a student's peer population can therefore be more of a concern in high school. It's not much of a concern if your child is independent. If your child goes with the crowd, though, you need to consider what the crowd is like at the different schools you're considering.

Another issue that I haven't seen mentioned, and may not be important to you, but was important to me, is whether you want a single-sex school, which usually means private. Hormones rage in middle school and high school, and those are great years to keep the sexes apart during the school day. Of course, the pros and cons of single-sex education could be hashed out in another thread, but it's a consideration if you plan to give your child a limited number of years in private school.

my concern with starting in public and switching is that if we start in public K and find that we want to switch to private before grades 6 or 9, won't there be significantly fewer spots available at the private schools and much less opportunity to get in? It seems like most schools take a whole new class in K but might only have a handful of openings in 1st or 2nd grade because the only openings come from people moving or leaving.

This is exactly right. the K-6/8s don't expand and take kids only through attrition in grades 1-5. the better K-12s do add two, three or four kids in grades before 4th (thinking GDS, Sidwell, Maret here). 4th is an entry point for NCS and STA of course, and Sidwell takes several.

OTOH, there are many applicants at 4th, coming from Beauvoir, Primary Day, and Concord Hill (by design), plus kids trying to switch and improve their odds from St. Patrick's, NPS, WES.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If you are in bound for a good elementary school I would absolutely save my money for private high school, no contest. OTOH, getting in to a private school is probably easier early on.

We did private elementary for our first two kids, and that seemed good. They did miss out on neighborhood friendships though, which was a definite downside. They are now in private middle school.

For our third child, due to finances, we decided to send her to our public elementary in Bethesda and we love it. It has been such a great experience, and our DD has so many neighborhood friends.

For the OP, the answer to your question depends on the child. If the child is just an average student, perhaps private elementary is the right way to go. If the child is a top student, then perhaps wait until 6th or 9th grade to apply to private.

100% agree. Private lower grades are not great for gifted children or high achievers who need differentiation or above grade level curriculum, just like public schools do a disservice to middle of the pack kids.

Anonymous wrote:If you are in bound for a good elementary school I would absolutely save my money for private high school, no contest. OTOH, getting in to a private school is probably easier early on.

We did private elementary for our first two kids, and that seemed good. They did miss out on neighborhood friendships though, which was a definite downside. They are now in private middle school.

For our third child, due to finances, we decided to send her to our public elementary in Bethesda and we love it. It has been such a great experience, and our DD has so many neighborhood friends.

For the OP, the answer to your question depends on the child. If the child is just an average student, perhaps private elementary is the right way to go. If the child is a top student, then perhaps wait until 6th or 9th grade to apply to private.

Anonymous wrote:We are also in MoCo and are sending our child to a private K-8. MoCo schools are having over-crowding issues (26-28 in a K class with one teacher and one aid in our IB school), and the curriculum is guided too much by standardized test results. Our progressive K-8 is a whole different world, and our child is thriving.

We specifically chose a K-8 because we are hoping to send our child to public for high school (IB school or one of the magnets). We are also open to sending him private for HS, but we wanted to keep our options open, and a K-8 makes for a natural exit point.

As others have mentioned, it really does depend on your specific school choices. If your MoCo elementary school is like ours, I would recommend you take a look at private starting at K. If not, give it a try for a few years and look to enter private later.

Good luck.

OP here. Please tell me which K-8 private school your kid goes to. The issues you mention with MoCo public schools are EXACTLY what I'm concerned about. The classes seem large, and the curriculum seems overly standardized and a bit too technology-focused at the expense of other learning. I'd be very interested in which private school you felt met your needs, given that you seem to have similar desires from the school as we have.

For the others -- my concern with starting in public and switching is that if we start in public K and find that we want to switch to private before grades 6 or 9, won't there be significantly fewer spots available at the private schools and much less opportunity to get in? It seems like most schools take a whole new class in K but might only have a handful of openings in 1st or 2nd grade because the only openings come from people moving or leaving.

We are also in MoCo and are sending our child to a private K-8. MoCo schools are having over-crowding issues (26-28 in a K class with one teacher and one aid in our IB school), and the curriculum is guided too much by standardized test results. Our progressive K-8 is a whole different world, and our child is thriving.

We specifically chose a K-8 because we are hoping to send our child to public for high school (IB school or one of the magnets). We are also open to sending him private for HS, but we wanted to keep our options open, and a K-8 makes for a natural exit point.

As others have mentioned, it really does depend on your specific school choices. If your MoCo elementary school is like ours, I would recommend you take a look at private starting at K. If not, give it a try for a few years and look to enter private later.

Good luck.

Our kids went to a BCC cluster public for elementary because we figured why not just try the public first. They got a great educational foundation and made lots of friends in the neighborhood. We switched them to an independent K-12 in DC for middle school. By that time, we-- and they -- knew what they needed as learners and we could look for a school that would serve their needs. They all had a smooth transition and have done well in middle and high school.

FWIW, my cousin, who teaches 5th-grade in a K-12 independent on the west coast, also started her kids in public for elementary before switching to private for high school. She advises people who ask her about this to do the same.

Learn to know the schools and then find the best fit. Once you know the name of your best fit, you'll know if it costs or not.
If you can't easily afford 12 years of private, but you find private be a better fit, do private from 6-12 or 9-12.
You can learn that love of learning at home too, not just

I sent my DC to private all the way through, and loved it, but we made many sacrifices along the way. Having said that, I agree with the public-private posters, and would add that an additional benefit to private in HS is the quality of college counseling.

OP, honest question here. *Why* do you want to go private? Is it just for the sake of sending your child to private school or is there a real tangible benefit you can explain? If you can't explain the real tangible benefit, which I think you can't since you can't choose whether to start for elem or not, why are you going to spend the $$ each year? It's not chump change, especially if you are already choosing between private for younger vs older years based on what you can afford.

[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][b]Once you start in private it can be really hard to leave.[/b] If finances are tight enough you can't see paying for it K-12, I recommend starting out in public. You might find out public works well for your child and you never need to move over to private.[/quote]

Genuinely curious why this is. Is it because your kids friends are all there, and it's hard to leave them? Is it because you've gotten used to things being good and it's hard to go to something that might not be as good?[/quote]

NP here. As a parent who sacrifices all over the place to send one kid to a NWDC independent year after year (when our IB is Murch/Deal), I'll answer.

It's very hard to consider leaving the amazing environment. It's the entire milieu, not just one aspect. Also, separately, the entire curriculum is significantly different in the first 6-8 years (not essential math, obviously, but the arts, humanities and especially the social curriculum).

Some of it is inertia, and a little part of it is our child's friendships. But mainly, it's hard to be at peace with switching out the day-to-day environment. They're not actually interchangeable, as people on DCUM would have you believe.

This... my husband and I are now planning to keep our children in private school.

Could you swing a less expensive private for the earlier, like a small Catholic school or Montessori, and then switch to one of the more expensive independent schools for high school?

I would start in public. We had our 3 oldest in public in FCPS in AAP. When HS came we went local private and 1 is in boarding school. All this talk about only learning to dig deeper and have critical thinking in private lower levels is interesting to me. My kids got this and are faring better than some of their peers who have never stepped foot in a public school. My 2 youngest are currently still in public. 1 is a 5th grader in AAP and the youngest is a rising 3rd grader who just got into AAP. It has worked out great for us and saved a ton of money. With 5 kids, they couldn't all be in private for 12 years. And the experiences we had with our children in AAP have been wonderful and more than prepared them for private HS. If we lived in a different area who would have stayed public but our HS is just ok and we had our eye on several privates. My 2 who go to local privates are in two different schools and one of my children is at Hotchkiss in CT.

OP, what are your local public schools like? I dont know much about MoCo (live in Ffx County) schools, but assume they are much like Ffx Cty--some are awesome, some are just ok, some are what we call "terriblle" but are really acceptable. Anyway, why dont you start in your neighborhood public, see what happens, how the school is, how your kid is doing, and take it from there? You could make it 12 years with out the "need" to transfer to private. If your child is thriving in public, why spend the money? Conversely, if you see a need to make the switch, at least you gave public a try.