Choosing a Private School

This section will provide expert advice, valuable tools, and relevant resources to aid in the decision making process. Learn more about what factors to consider when choosing a private school, what to expect at an open house, and how an educational consultant can help.

View the most popular articles in Choosing a Private School:

Traditional vs Non-traditional Schools

Updated
|
Traditional vs Non-traditional Schools
Early on in the process of choosing a private school for your child you need to decide whether to send her to a traditional or non-traditional school.

Are you thinking about sending your child off to private school? Then, you must decide which educational philosophy and approach works best for you. What it comes down to is whether you want to send your child to a school that uses a traditional approach to teaching or one that uses a non-traditional approach.

In the public school world, a traditional school is a regular public school, and a non-traditional school is a charter school. That's not what I am discussing here concerning private schools. The concept of a private school as a mainly independent self-financing corporate entity does not change. You and I will focus on what is taught in the classroom and how it is prepared.

The early years

Your child's age is a significant factor in choosing an educational approach. For example, if you send him to a Montessori school as a toddler, you expose him to a non-traditional approach to education. It is an excellent approach and is highly regarded. But non-traditional nonetheless. Start your child off in a Montessori, Waldorf, or Reggio Emilia school, and you will lay a solid foundation for learning in later life. But visit a traditional private primary school, and you will see a quite different approach to early education.

The apparent difference will be the dress code. Uniforms are required at many traditional religious schools. The curricula follow traditional blocks of science, math, language arts, and social studies. Add religion if the school is a faith-based private school.

. . .read more

Choosing a School: 5 Must Haves

Updated
|
Choosing a School: 5 Must Haves
Whether you are just beginning the process of choosing a private school or several months into it, make sure that you keep these five 'must haves' front and center in your thinking.

Perhaps you are just starting to think about private high school for your middle schooler. Or maybe you have started the process of choosing the right private school and had some questions about how to proceed. These five 'must haves' will hopefully help you focus on the things which are truly important when it comes to choosing a private school.

1. The best fit

Always number one on my list is the fit. Fit trumps everything else simply because the fit is all about how your child and the school mesh. If the fit and the school are not in synch, your child will be unhappy. Keep this in mind as you visit schools on your short list. Your child will know instinctively whether or not she likes the school.

Now, having pointed out how important fit is, it makes good sense to organize the visits so that she likes all the schools on your short list. How do you do that? The most efficient way is to hire an educational consultant who will identify schools which will be a good fit. That is what an educational consultant does. Consultants take the time to get to know you and your child. They know their schools too. Accordingly, the list of schools which a consultant presents you will be on target. Any or all of the schools will potentially be a good fit. One will be the best fit. Visiting schools on a list of schools carefully selected with

. . .read more

Why Ranking Schools Makes No Sense

Updated
|
Why Ranking Schools Makes No Sense
Journalists love to create lists because you and I love lists. But lists such as top ten private schools can be deceptive.

You've seen the articles in major publications such as Forbes and Chicago Magazine. "Top 10 Prep Schools" or "Best Private Schools in ____" These lists invariably contain the names of schools that are familiar. But are these schools the right ones for you? Let me explain why I believe that ranking private schools makes no sense for parents like us who are looking for the right school for our children.

A flawed premise

Ranking private schools is intrinsically flawed from the get-go. Why? Because each private school is a unique entity. The essence of being a private school is that it does its own thing. It accepts the students it wants to accept. It teaches the curriculum it wants to teach. It teaches that curriculum the way it wants to teach. Each private school has its own mission statement, philosophy, code of conduct, programs, and traditions. So how is it possible to compare apples to oranges? That is essentially what ranking private schools attempts to do.

For example, look at all the features of Shattuck-St. Mary's. Maybe another school has some of the same features. Maybe it doesn't. It is up to you to determine what you expect from a private school.

Yes, you can compare things like the number of AP courses, varsity sports, extracurricular activities, and so on. But you normally will make those comparisons when

. . .read more

Saving Time and Money Choosing a School

Updated
|
Saving Time and Money Choosing a School
The Internet has made finding schools and finding out more about them much more efficient than it was ten years ago.

In 2000 choosing a private school was at a crossroads. Back then you had the traditional ways of finding schools and finding out more about them. You asked around. Personal recommendations from family and friends were an important starting point. Indeed they still are. Then you contacted schools you knew about and requested a catalog or brochures. You could also buy a print directory of private schools, if indeed one was available. (I still have a vintage copy of The New York Times Guide to New York City Schools written by Grace and Fred Hechinger published in 1968.) And you could always hire an educational consultant. Researching schools was fairly labor intensive. It also took time.

It is remarkable how all that has changed in just a few short years. First schools adopted web sites as their primary means of reaching families world-wide. The transition from the printed materials to the digital media took time as there was a certain amount of worry about whether or not the web would reach families. As we adopted the web for just about all our day-to-day activities such as banking and shopping, looking for private schools on the web just made great sense. It is so easy and convenient.

20002015
Finding schoolsBooks
Word of mouth
Consultant
Internet searches
Directory listings
Association listings
Finding out more about schoolsRequest catalogs
Call the schools
Consultant
Online tours
YouTube
Social media
Consultant

Knowing what to look for and where to look

I think that the toughest part about finding anything on the web is filtering out all

. . .read more

4 Things to Know Before You Choose a Private School

Updated
|
4 Things to Know Before You Choose a Private School
There are way more than four things to know about private school. But this will get you started.

Actually there are many more things to know about private school than the four items I have chosen. But let's get you started with these. They are important.

For most of us the idea of sending your child to private school begins with that nagging feeling that she's very bright and needs the very best kind of schooling possible. She needs an enriched academic curriculum. She needs time to explore subjects which interest her. She needs an athletics program with lots of options. She wants to be on the stage. These wishes and desires on her part are not always easily fulfilled in a public school settings. As a result you start exploring your private school options. That leads you to individual private school web sites as well as resources like this site. And it also raises many questions. So the four points I am going to expand on below are really affirmations of what you probably already knew anyway.

Private schools are not ranked.

As you explore schools on the web, you quickly realize that there is no way to rank schools. It is perfectly normal to want to send your child to the best school possible. But how can you identify that school if there is no ranking system? First of all, let's deal with the reality of private schools and ranking. They cannot be ranked. Why? Because they are unique. We have approximately 400 boarding schools in the U.S. Each one is

. . .read more

Recent Articles

Leadership, Legacy, and Learning: Pillars of Top Schools
Leadership, Legacy, and Learning: Pillars of Top Schools
We explore the key elements contributing to the success of leading private schools, highlighting the importance of strong leadership, a rich legacy, and a focus on comprehensive learning experiences.
Secrets to Becoming a Great School
Secrets to Becoming a Great School
Discover the essential ingredients that drive academic success and cultivate a thriving school community.
All About JROTC
All About JROTC
Explore the multifaceted advantages of Junior Reserve Officers' Training Corps (JROTC) programs in private schools. Delve into how JROTC cultivates leadership, discipline, and citizenship skills among students, contributing to their holistic development and future success.

Choosing a Private School