High performing public schools vs private

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This has been said many times but: most private school kids do well because they’re of a socioeconomic position that ensures they’ll do well. It’s not because private schools are some magic potion; rather it’s a club, and once you’re in…

Most of what passed for “rigorous” and “advanced” at the privates I worked in were child’s play compared to AP and some IB courses. The only tangible benefit was small class sizes, which of course is easy to attain when exclusion is your business model.

+1

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If I were lucky enough to be zoned for Langley or Woodson, there's no way I'd pay for private.

I don’t know about Woodson but I once read that 25% of younger kids in the Langley pyramid attend private and 1/3 of the high school aged kids in the pyramid did.
I was blown away.

While a lot of Langley-zoned kids go private, the vast majority attend the public schools.

Bravo!
How long did you sit there tiring out your brain to figure out that 2/3 is greater than 1/3?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I get creeped out when any school claims to engage in “character development.”

That makes you part of the problem

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If I were lucky enough to be zoned for Langley or Woodson, there's no way I'd pay for private.

I don’t know about Woodson but I once read that 25% of younger kids in the Langley pyramid attend private and 1/3 of the high school aged kids in the pyramid did.
I was blown away.

While a lot of Langley-zoned kids go private, the vast majority attend the public schools.

Bravo!
How long did you sit there tiring out your brain to figure out that 2/3 is greater than 1/3?

You sound extremely unpleasant. Not to mention, you have no actual citation for those numbers.
DP

[Anonymous]

Some very wealthy families also prefer the community aspect of neighborhood public schools, where the neighborhood kids all grow up together, and where neighbors aren’t strangers.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My late father was the original researcher- compiled statistics, visited neighborhoods and parishes and surveyed colleagues (active duty military) and relatives to determine where exactly he should buy to put his DC in the best school district circa 1975. He even did his own study on FCPS v. Catholic schools.

He always said that he quickly determined that the FCPS of this era was far superior to any Catholic education, so that was an easy first choice and so he proudly decided to move to a modest house in a great FCPS HS pyramid.

All said, DH and I wanted same for our DC: enrolled oldest circa 2005 in FCPS. We fairly quickly became disillusioned and contend 2 decades later that we really should have sent DC to private for the now obvious, clear advantages.

So, if I had to do it all over, I’d send DC to private schools from pre-k-12. Private schools (generalizing here but very familiar with the local ones we all talk about here on dcum) have now surpassed FCPS in every academic standard. FCPS seems one experiment after another and is increasingly losing academic rigor to disciplinary and administrative issues.

+1
I have a very similar background and also attended the FCPS of the late 70s-1980s. Definitely received an excellent education and assumed the same would hold true for my own children, who were enrolled starting in 2001. That's when there was still a small and very selective GT program (which my kids were not in). By 2005 or so, that GT program morphed into what is now the grossly supersized AAP. And that's also when everything else started to go downhill, as you mentioned.

If I had to do it over again, I would have enrolled my kids in private from K-8 because I think the high schools (mostly) are still doing a pretty good job. But the K-8 education is sorely lacking.

I think at some point - probably soon but I might be wrong - the high school education will start to go down hill simply because even the most involved parents can't paper over the huge gaps FCPS is leaving, for even the "grossly supersized" (as you say, not in any way arguing) AAP program kids. At some point the high school teachers are going to have to start slowing down and catching up even honors courses because kids don't know how to manage their time to do homework since they didn't have it in elementary, don't have a solid foundation in any subject maybe math, and so on.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I get creeped out when any school claims to engage in “character development.”

That makes you part of the problem

I had a friend whose kids were at DRES who was thrilled by their character development program...

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Some very wealthy families also prefer the community aspect of neighborhood public schools, where the neighborhood kids all grow up together, and where neighbors aren’t strangers.

+1

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My late father was the original researcher- compiled statistics, visited neighborhoods and parishes and surveyed colleagues (active duty military) and relatives to determine where exactly he should buy to put his DC in the best school district circa 1975. He even did his own study on FCPS v. Catholic schools.

He always said that he quickly determined that the FCPS of this era was far superior to any Catholic education, so that was an easy first choice and so he proudly decided to move to a modest house in a great FCPS HS pyramid.

All said, DH and I wanted same for our DC: enrolled oldest circa 2005 in FCPS. We fairly quickly became disillusioned and contend 2 decades later that we really should have sent DC to private for the now obvious, clear advantages.

So, if I had to do it all over, I’d send DC to private schools from pre-k-12. Private schools (generalizing here but very familiar with the local ones we all talk about here on dcum) have now surpassed FCPS in every academic standard. FCPS seems one experiment after another and is increasingly losing academic rigor to disciplinary and administrative issues.

+1
I have a very similar background and also attended the FCPS of the late 70s-1980s. Definitely received an excellent education and assumed the same would hold true for my own children, who were enrolled starting in 2001. That's when there was still a small and very selective GT program (which my kids were not in). By 2005 or so, that GT program morphed into what is now the grossly supersized AAP. And that's also when everything else started to go downhill, as you mentioned.

If I had to do it over again, I would have enrolled my kids in private from K-8 because I think the high schools (mostly) are still doing a pretty good job. But the K-8 education is sorely lacking.

I think at some point - probably soon but I might be wrong - the high school education will start to go down hill simply because even the most involved parents can't paper over the huge gaps FCPS is leaving, for even the "grossly supersized" (as you say, not in any way arguing) AAP program kids. At some point the high school teachers are going to have to start slowing down and catching up even honors courses because kids don't know how to manage their time to do homework since they didn't have it in elementary, don't have a solid foundation in any subject maybe math, and so on.

There’s a reason companies like Fairfax Collegiate not only exist but are booming. Between them and the tutors, the teachers at high schools with the wealthiest parents shouldn’t have to adjust much.

And with homeschooling continuing to rise, lots of children will actually be taught the basics in elementary.