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cpt of the house writes:
The fundamental reason for my sending my kids to a private school is that I could see that they got more opportunities for high level academics, sports, music and a lot of other things as compared to their highly regarded high school. Now some kids were able to get those same goodies at their public schools, and that is a wonderful thing. I did not enjoy those years of paying that tuition and if our public school, or any public school in the area could have provided the benefits that the privates could, I would have jumped on it. But they did not. I had kids who could not get into AP programs at our county school districts, but got into them in the private schools and got all 4s and 5s on the tests.and:
Now in our case, we were taking chances since our kids were not the top grade academic kids in K-12 that are at these private schools and were in the bottom half and even quarter of their class in high school. They needed every bit of positive push we could give them....they would not have had those advantages and choices from our public school. They would not have gotten into the top classes there that are gate kept (I checked), they could not get the number of ECs in terms of performing arts, and they would not have gotten the athletic opportunities. Their peers would not have been the kids who were assuming they were going to go to college as our high school is very diverse in socio economic situations and since they would not be in the classes where college is the main goal.This is what Paul Attewell documented in his study of elite public high schools. Kids who are capable of earning 4s and 5s on Advanced Placement exams are tracked out of the most advanced courses.
Paul Attewell's Winner-Take-All in bullet points
The Winner-Take-All High School: Organizational Adaptations to Educational Stratification. Paul Attewell. Sociology of Education, Vol. 74, No. 4 (Oct., 2001), 267-295
6 comments:
Our experience is that it isn't just the elites. It's every high school that runs on winner takes all. The 'winners' are the children of the local politicians and businessmen as well as any highly gifted students.
On the other hand, being in a Regent's class isn't too bad in this type of high school. Usually the number of functioning students in that type of class is less than 8, so if the teacher is actually teaching it works out to be a better class for those who want to learn than an honors class of 35-40, due to the teacher's ability to differentiate as well as not having half your honors classmates sitting silent not able to discuss the material (due to the politics getting them in the class rather than merit). We're finding being in Regent's rather than Honors isn't impacting test scores or material mastery one bit and both paths lead to the same end -dual enrollment since AP is no longer available.
Assuming that neither the public high school or the private academy is a dud, I would argue that average students will do better at the academy. Their goal is to not let kids fall through the cracks, and to prepare all students for college.
However, there is also the issue of size. Our 1700+ student public high school uses that size to offer many advanced opportunities in all sorts of areas, such as sports, clubs, and performing arts. This gives average students a much higher level of opportunity in non-academic areas. At a well-regarded (small) local academy, all students are forced into athletics whether they want it or not. At another private school, they don't have enough students to form an orchestra or band. We see these kids at non-academy music schools. Their parents have to pay for that too. My son plays in his school orchestra and goes to the independent music schools. I assume that many of the private school parents also pay extra for SAT tutoring.
I ran into a friend who seemed to think that my son would get more opportunities (academically) at one of these private schools. I don't see that. With fewer students, you can't afford to separate kids by ability. Besides, $28,000+ (day school) can buy a lot of custom tutoring and fancy summer camps. The costs are insane.
The 'winners' are the children of the local politicians and businessmen as well as any highly gifted students.
wow
Assuming that neither the public high school or the private academy is a dud, I would argue that average students will do better at the academy. Their goal is to not let kids fall through the cracks, and to prepare all students for college.
Right!
I've got to post sections from my book on private schools---
While most of us have come to think of NY area private schools as being essentially K-12 Ivies, in fact private schools have traditionally catered to the "C student" offspring of affluent parents.
When I say "catered to," I mean that private schools have prepared the very average children of affluent parents for college.
lgm - so you have larger Honors classes than Regents classes?
The class size max and min is the same. Honors students don't skip class or need to be removed for behavior. Regents students that wish to be disruptive instead of quiet or participative are ejected in the first few minutes, if they are even allowed in the door. Total active participants are far less in a Regents class than an honors class.
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