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Does anyone send their kiddos to private school? We are considering pulling our 2 boys (1st & 3rd grade) out of the Texas public school system and sending them to parochial school in the fall. Their elementary school now is an "open-concept" school, which basically means that there are hardly any walls inside. For example, there are 4 third grade classes going on in one large room that is divided by shoulder high filing cabinets, cupboards, and such. (When standing, you see every class.) It gets fairly noisy at times. I dread being "reader mom" because the environment is usually that of controlled chaos. Also, my 3rd grader has three different core teachers: one for spelling/language arts, one for science, and one for math/social studies. They rotate their teaching through the 4 third grade classes, so they essentially have to keep track of the progress of 100+ kids. Because of this, it seems as though not one teacher really knows how my son is doing in school. They can give me test scores, but that's about it.
We are considering private school because of the smaller class size and more personalized attention. Both my husband and I attended parochial school and loved it. We sent our boys to public school because we were impressed with the "Exemplary" status of our local elementary school. I recently found out (from a teacher there) that it doesn't mean very much--just that a high % of students pass a district standardized tests. She freely admits that the teachers "teach to the test!"
Any thoughts on our situation? Thanks in advance for your insight.
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I don't send my kids to private school. There are none close by. We do have small classes here and they are not open like yours. I went to private school like you did and loved it. I think you should send them, I am a big fan of smaller classes. Since ours are the kids get a good amount of attention are are doing well. If we lived in Chicago still you bet my kids would be in private school.
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There are so many variables to consider that no one else can probably tell you. I send my kids to public school, but I think it's the best (or at least one of) system in our state. 99% of the time I'm very happy with it, and both of my kids LOVE their school and can't imagine going anywhere else. But if I wasn't happy with it, or they weren't I'd definitely be looking for other options. I'm very big on education, and would want to insure that my children were getting a good regardless of what I had to do. My children's school DID have that open concept thing (I think that was a big thing a few years ago) but with the last renovations, they eliminated that and went back to individual classrooms, It wasn't as open as yours, there were walls, but the central portion was open, so you could hear other classrooms, I admit it was somewhat distracting. As far as test scores...well I have to disagree on that. Unfortunately, when comparing schools, there's not much hard data to use EXCEPT test scores, graduation rates, etc. So if the school has really high test scores, then I would assume it's doing a good job.
I would think some things to think about when considering whether or not to move them would be:
Cost--can you afford private school and would the cost be a burden for your family, or limit other things you could do?
Social--are there other kids in your neighborhood who would go to that private school also so your children would have other kids nearby to play with? Or are you able to drive them to play dates on a regular basis (I mention this because a girl in our neighborhood that went to a small christian school complained constantly about this because she had no "friends" nearby)
Test scores--are the private schools at least as good or are they better?
Services offered--If your child needs special things such as speech or tutoring does the school offer that?
After looking at all those things, you would just have to decide what's best for you and your child. I do think it's important to have a school that's a good fit for child and parent. HTH
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My kids have always attended private schools. It's just the best choice for us for where we were living. The public schools are/were horrible. We're moving to a new city and in the fall, they'll go to the public school. Thankfully the costs of private schools have not been a burden to us...if they were, we would have moved a long time ago! We were looking forward to high school and what we wanted for our kids, where we wanted to live, did we want to stay here in this house and pay for private high school? Did we want to move within this city and pay for private high school? Did we want to move to different city and pay for private high school? Did we want to move to a different city a top notch public school? What were the pros/cons etc We had lots of lists! L.OL!
It's a choice each family has to make on their own and what's important to one family, won't be to another...our school was always large enough for our kids to have tons of friends, lots of activities, supportive "like minded" parents etc It was a good fit for us. Tour the schools you're interested in, hopefully when they're in session so you can get a good feel for what's going on and the atmosphere in the school. Definately check out test scores but also, I think a school is much more than test scores IMO, that's part of it but there's so much more to consider too.
My kids participate in activities that encompass kids from other schools and areas, so we're never lacking for friends. They have friends from their current school, friends from sport activities, friends from friends of ours in other areas/school districts etc My older son has only one friend within walking distance that goes to his school, my other son...none. It's just not a big deal to us. We have playdates all the time - back and forth etc It is just the way it's always been so it feels normal to us.
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I have learned that no matter which school you select, it is important to observe classes while in session. In short, this is a perfect time to make the decision.
We have our little one in a charter school and I love it. The school receives state funding so it is free to us but it operates like a private school because it doesn't have to listen to the school district rules. For us, this has been the best of both worlds.
We live in an awesome school district with great public schools. However, the schools' reputations have gotten the best of us and now the schools are terribly over-crowded. I wanted my DD to have an option in case the public schools didn't work for her. That's one of the ways we ended up at the charter school.
Interestingly, the private schools - especially the parochial schools - in our area aren't that great. I was all geared up to enroll DD in a parochial school (since that's how I went to school - and loved it) until I spoke with other parents in our parish. Seems many of the kids in our local parochial schools are troublemakers and their parents are sending them there to 'straighten them out'. I started to get the distinct impression that there was a specific kind of parochial school education I didn't want my DD to receive. However, I would have loved for her to have religious education as apart of her regular curriculm.
We will be moving and sadly I know we'll have to take DD out of her current charter school. I don't know where she will go next but I am definately planning the move mid-school year just so I can observe the classes before we buy a house.
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We too are considering sending our youngest to private school. He is now in forth grade, we would wait until entering sixth grade to make the transition less difficult. We feel waiting until then would be better since he would be making a school change anyway, leaving elementary and entering middle school. Do you think this sounds logical? Or move him upon enter fifth so he may know children already when he begins sixth grade? The private school we are considering is K-12. We just move from another state in November '04, and don't want to uproot him again. This has been a tough decision. We feel/know he's not being challenged here in the public school. The cost would be significant and the commute much longer, however education is so important. I'm sorry I haven't any advice and that I may have taken away from your post. If this should be the case please except my apologies and feel free to remove my post.
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I agree with needing to evaluate the schools in your area to make the decision. We are going to try public school. If it doesn't meet our standards then we will see if we can somehow afford to send our daughters to private school. We toured the private schools in our area and were very pleased with one of the schools but it is out of our price range.
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Both of my children attend a parochial school. The class size is smaller and I really feel a sense of community there. Additionally the school district we live in only offered full day kindergarten and our current school offered half day. Joe wasn't ready for full day yet. The school has a lot going for it especially the principal and the trachers. I've heard older parents say that each teacher really enjoys their job there. it may not be very up to date or esthetically pleasing as the public schools but the core beliefs are there. Kids attend Mass once a week and on Fridays during Lent the go to the Stations of the Cross. In Kindergarten the kids go once a month. I know that our diocese has a very liberal scholarship program that makes it affordable to people who really want to send there kids there. Several parents pay on a monthly basis. I pay all at once since I have money taken out of my paycheck directly deposited into a credit union for their school fund. I find it an excellent investment for their future.