Private/Public school question....

[kasar]

It seems like everyone I know who sends their kids to private schools started right away in K or Gr. 1. Either that or they pulled their kids out of public school because of some huge issue. I've been going back and forth about this issue for so long that I can't think straight.

See, our public schools are fine - not the "best" in the state but certainly not the worst (on last year's state exams (MCAS) we were above state average). It's a nice middle-class town that has it's share of budget problems but manages to give the kids a solid education and graduates nearly all seniors (most to college - even Ivy League and other great schools). They do use some funky "teaching methods" that I'm not that crazy about, but most of the curriculum is fine.

The problem is we have these two kids who are sailing along nicely but not really being challenged. Part of me says, good for them - they'll have a nice easy school experience but the other part of me wonders how much they'd really shine in a different environment. We can afford private school and have even considered moving to one of the "best" school districts but we'd be taking our kids from the school they've always known and all their friends. So, our problem is we're HAPPY here (tough problem, huh?). Is it better to be a big fish in a small pond or a small fish in a big pond?

 

[Beauty]

Do you mind me asking the age of your children? We pulled our son from Public School after the 3rd grade and he started 4th in Private School. It was the best move that we personally ever made!

He LOVES his school now. There are a total of 13 6th graders in the entire school and he gets wonderful one on one attention. The course of study is much more strict and he has learned so much more than he ever could have in public school.

However public schools here are NOT good after 6th grade. 1-6 are okay and do alright on testing.....the Excel School where he went from K-3 even scored the highest in the state BUT even scoring that high it still didn't compare to what the Private School has given him.

But it varies so much from situation to situation.

 

[binny]

can you visit the school and see what your kids think?

If you can observe the classroom in action you'll get a better feel for it.


Im in the same position right now and trying to do what is best is driving me insane!


On one hand I want ds to be challenged and reach his potential, on the other hand I still want him to able to be a kid- he'll be a grown up soon enough.
Then theres the boredom factor.. he's bored out of his tree there.

round and round she goes where she stops nobody knows


I wish I had a
to tell me what the future holds lol


Good luck in your decision~

 

[CBRorBust]

I have gone to:

Public (K-1)
Private (2-10)
Public (11-12)
Public (College)

And personally, I have two view points on this. In Public School (k-1) I was SO BORED in class because I was not being challenged at all! So my mom moved me to a private school where I made not straight A's, but always on honor roll.

When I was a Sophomore in High School, I made the decision that I wanted to leave private school and experience public school. I thought it would be easier for me to make a transition to College. See, not academically. I knew that I had pretty much learned all that I was going to "need" to get into college, but I had been very restricted ethnically/socially. I had never been forced to realize that there were other races other than my own and different religions in the world around me.

It was a HUGE culture/economic/religious shock when I walked into my Public High School the very first day. But it was WORTH EVERY thing that I gave up to experience it!

I would not have made it a large state school where I wound up going to college.

I am now having the same issues as I did in 1st grade. I am not challenged in College at all. I make A's with very little to no studying at all! Are there times when I'm stressed out about school? Sure. But am I getting by with minimal effort? Yes.

It's boring to me not to be challenged. I'm sure it's boring to your kids too. I've been thinking of transferring to a private university because of it.

Having said all that...

I say try private school on for size, if it doesn't fit, just ask that your children take AP/honors classes once they get a little older.

 

[nuke]

Does your area offer any kind of enrichment classes that he can take? In our area they have math, sciences, lanquage, history and reading classes that are offered on Saturday mornings. They run the entire school year.

Something like this might challenge them a little more.

 

[daughter_of_amid_chaos]

I started attending private school in 7th grade as the school was 7th through 12th grade.
I LOVED IT! I was so happy with my decision and now my brother has started there.
I just wasn't doing well in public school but I soared in private school.

I am from MA and Igot out right before MCAS started so I was lucky lol.

 

[Beauty]

I will agree that going to Private School myself from 2-12 that once I got in college I did get a culture shock. The first time a boy called the teacher a (B)Witch and didn't get expelled I was in total shock! That being said though, I breezed through college....academically I was more than ready for college. The classes there were actually easier than some of my A.P. classes in high school had been.

In my experience the Private School Education more than prepared me for college and although "shocking" the culture shock soon passed and I got used to it. I wouldn't give up my education for anything.


Well maybe I should have paid closer attention in spelling...but besides that...LOL!

 

[Mishetta]

I'm giving my DS the best edge in life that I can....even though we can't afford it, we've sacrificed a lot to put him through private school. It's a tough world out there & he needs to be the best he can be.

If you can do it & you feel that they will be challenged, then do it!

Good luck on your decision!

 

[daughter_of_amid_chaos]

I am also at a private college so I was only in public school through 6th grade.

 

[jwsqrdplus2]

You are lucky kasar. Here the public schools are awful (only 20% of HS graduates go on to 4-year colleges, with another 20% going to 2-year schools), so we really have no choice but to use private schools. That being said, I love the private school my DDs are in and will be in until 8th grade. After that, we will see. They will definitely be going to a private HS if we stay here (DH can retire and we can move when DD1 is 12/13 range). Ideally, I would like to move to a state and neighborhood where my kids can attend public school. But if not, they will be in private school from pre-K to 12th grade!

 

[JESW]

I think about that a lot and our kids are 4 & 8. So far the schools have been ok, but I often wonder if they could be challenged more. You are fortunate if you have local private schools as there aren't any close to us in SE MA.

Jill

 

[geetey]

Hi Kasar,

That's a tough question. My best advice would be to check out the private school! Just because it is private, doesn't mean it will offer a more challenging environment for your children. And I say that as a mother of 2 in private school.

Some private schools simply do not have the resources available to gear their studies to any children other than the typical student. Our school is such a school.

Good luck with your decision!

 

[geetey]

Hi Kasar,

That's a tough question. My best advice would be to check out the private school! Just because it is private, doesn't mean it will offer a more challenging environment for your children. And I say that as a mother of 2 in private school.

Some private schools simply do not have the resources available to gear their studies to any children other than the "typical" student. Our school is such a school.

Good luck with your decision!

 

[suzannen]

This is such a difficult question. The answer really depends on your faith in your local public school system. I was lucky in that I grew up in a fabulous public school system where 98% of the students went on to graduate college, one of the tops in the country. Unfortunately, where I live now, they are so worried about students bringing weapons/drugs into school and having to split the day into 3 separate flex schedules to try to accomodate the overload of students, that no one wants to send their kids to public school if they don't have to.

That said, my DD's private school provides her with fabulous one-on-one attention with only 15 in her class (as opposed to 35 in the public classes), a challenging curriculum, as well as rich cultural, racial and religious diversity. I don't think she'll have much "culture shock" except for how large some university classes can be.

Good luck with your decision, whatever it may be.

 

[fklhou]

This is a tough issue. My DS and older DD both attend a private school with extremely high academic standards. My DS's class set a record for the school of having 75% of the students qualify as either National Merit Commended Students or National Merit Semi-Finalists. This means that there are kids who are National Merit Semi-finalists or Commended Students who are in the bottom half of their class. Officially the school does not rank the students but the colleges are given the information to figure out the rough class standings of each kid.

My children are getting a first rate education at this school but the college application process at times seem to be gear toward class rank In my son's class, he had a number of kids leave at the end of eight grade to go to public school where these students were assured of being in the top 10% of their class. One of my lawpartners put his son (who is a year older than my son) in public school instead of St. Johns so that he would have a higher class rank. The boy had a lower SAT than my son but was number 8 in his class and was accepted in all of his top choice schools.

On top of everything else, Texas has a stupid law that students in the top 10% of their class are automatically admitted to state universities. This top 10% provision has made it difficult for some kids from private schools to get into state schools. Rumor has it that with the University of Michigan decision upholding affirmative action, the top 10% rule may go away.

You got to balance the consequences of a good private education against the detriments of getting into the school of ones choice. My son is shooting for a program at the University of Texas called Plan II which is very competitive. His counselor thinks that he has a shot due to test scores and extra-curricular activities (my son is Governor of the State of Texas for Junior State of America and is an Eagle Scout with five palms).

Based on my son's expierence we are thinking about letting my dd go to a pubic school with a gifted and talented program so as to improve his college chances. It is a very hard decision.

Good luck. You have a hard decision to make.

 

[KathyFP]

I never thought about the class ranking.

DD is in a charter school because our public schools are terrible and we can not afford private school. It was 11,000 for K.

I am satisfied with the academics at the charter school; I am unsatisfied with their behavior management techniques.

I hope to go back to school next year and do not see how I can afford two tuitions.

Unfortunately there is not much scholarship money for lower grades.

 

[bsnyder]

We have some of the same issues here, with regard to GPA and college admissions. The top private high schools don't offer many AP classes, (they consider their basic cirriculum to be an honors level cirriculum) nor do they give the same weight to those classes as the public schools do. Therefore, the students from the private schools have lower GPA's and have taken less AP's than their public school peers.

I moved my younger DS (who's now a high school senior) from a mediocre catholic school to a more challenging private school in 3rd grade. He was bored to death before the move, and it was starting to affect his behavior in the classroom. It was definitely the right thing to do for him.

DD is now in 4th grade at that same school, and we are thinking of moving her to public school, because the coursework is just really too hard for her.

Good luck with your decision. In the end, you just have to go with your gut feelings, on what's best for your child!

 

[fklhou]

The private school that my older two children attend does offer both honors classes and AP classes. My DS is taking four AP classes right now and took two last year and one the year before that. My DD (a sophomore is taking one AP class).

One of the things that we have heard from the college admissions counselors and others is that the schools look at the strength of the courses taken. The better schools want students who do take the tougherand more challenging courses.

Luckily, St. Johns does provide each college with a booklet with a set of statistics for its students includding the breakdown of National Merit Semifinalists and Commended students and stats on scores on AP tests. We are told that most schools will weigh the strenght of the various schools and some top schools have taken students from this private school who are in the bottom half of their class. This is nice since my son's class has 75% of the class qualifying as National Merit Semi-Finalist or Commended Students and so there are some great students in the bottom half of the class.

Finally, hopefully your state does not have a top 10% type provision. Under these plans, students in the top 10% (or such other percentage as is set by that state) get into state schools automatically regardless of other qualifications and test scores. Rumor has it that with the Supreme Court decision in the University of Michigan case, the top 10% rule will be abolished in Texas. Bush was pushing this plan for other states but with the decisions in the Universtiy of Michigan case (espicially the law school case), these plans may fade away.

Good luck. This is a difficult decision.

 

[dianeschlicht]

Around here the trend is to go to private school through 6th or 8th grade and then switch to public. Our DS did it the other way around. He didn't like how the trouble makers got all the attention in class, so he chose to go to a private high school for 9-12. He loved doing it that way!

 

[kasar]

Wow! Thanks for all the input. It is great to get so many opinions, I'm reading them all - keep 'em coming!

One point that no one has addressed (I don't think) is the whole friends thing. Were your kids unduly upset over leaving their friends? My girls are very outgoing and friendly and I'm sure they'd be able to make new friends, but there's something to be said for growing up with the same kids (of course there are a few I'd prefer they get away from!) and having a sense of belonging. My family moved a lot when I was growing up and I was always envious of the memories that everyone shared. I know they'd get over it, but it's just one more thing for me to agonize over!