Curriculum and Academics

You want the best possible education for your child. The local school district is reasonably good but is facing some drastic budget cuts next year and, as far as you can tell, probably for many years after that. You don't want to sacrifice your child's educational opportunities or spend money needlessly on other educational options, such as private school or homeschooling.

Private school makes sense on so many levels because everything's there. Academics, activities, sports, facilities, and staff are the critical components of every private school's package. In a private school, learning and teaching are continuous. It doesn't matter whether your child is in the classroom or on the playing field; she will be learning.

Perhaps you are considering homeschooling. While homeschooling is doable, you must track everything and make sure all the paperwork is completed, submitted, and approved by local and state authorities. It's a lot of work—indeed, it is a full-time job. Now contrast that with the kind of life and activities your child can have at private school, as shown in this video.

So, what about some of those rumors you have heard about private schools? Are they true? False? Are things changing? Are private schools different from what they were fifty years ago? Well, things have indeed changed over that period. Most of what the popular media says about private K-12 schools today can be charitably categorized as misconceptions.

"Everybody does it." Sadly that excuse is one of several reasons why there is so much cheating in America's high schools. Children learn by example. When they see adults cheating, they assume that there is nothing wrong with cheating. Adults cheat for a variety of reasons although I suspect that expediency probably tops the list of reasons why. Students seem to cheat because they are under tremendous pressure to be successful. Getting the best marks constantly so that Ivy League colleges will accept them has been many students' mantra ever since they could remember. We parents are to blame for putting that kind of pressure on our kids.

Michael Winerip's article on the cheating scandal in Philadelphia public schools underscores one of the intrinsic differences between public and private schools. Private schools do not have to teach to the test. Public schools do. That is as a result of The No Child Left Behind legislation which required that minimum test scores be attained, among other requirements. The consequences for not achieving the benchmarks are serious. The net result is that some unethical teachers and administrators are alleged to have cooked the books in the Philadelphia schools. And they got caught. A similar situation occurred in Atlanta's public schools with several educators jailed for their role in a wide-spread cheating scandal.

Private schools are not covered by NCLB or its replacement legislation the Every Student Succeeds Act. Consequently private schools do not have to

You would think that education in the United States has been public since colonial days. But that is not the case. The earliest schools were private and religious schools. Only in the mid-19th century did governments begin to compel children to attend K-12 public schools. Here, then, is a brief timeline of private K-12 education.

The purpose of this article is not to cast blame. Instead, I want to highlight the disturbing trend that many of us have heard and read about: enrollment in American Catholic schools has declined severely over the past 50 years.

The following is quoted directly from the National Catholic Education Association's Annual Statistical Report on Schools, Enrollment, and Staffing.

"U. S. Catholic school enrollment reached its peak during the early 1960s when there were more than 5.2 million students in almost thirteen thousand schools across the nation. The 1970s and 1980s saw a steep decline in both the number of schools and students. By 1990, there were approximately 2.5 million students in 8,719 schools. From the mid 1990s though 2000, there was a steady enrollment increase (1.3%) despite continued closings of schools. Between the 2000 and the 2011 school years, 1,755 schools were reported closed or consolidated (21.5%). The number of students declined by 587,166 (22.1 %). The most seriously impacted have been elementary schools."

This short video gives us an overview of the issue.

Personally, it saddens me to see any private school in decline. It is even worse to discover that schools have closed. But the sheer magnitude of these numbers is just plain scary. Let's examine some of the reasons why Catholic education finds itself in this state.

The Economy

The economy has been a major factor in the decline

"How do they teach?" is a question that you need to ask as you evaluate schools on your shortlist. This question has been on your mind ever since you began considering sending your child to private school. While it certainly is relevant at almost any stage of the school selection process, it becomes critically important now that you are circling around those final few schools on your list. Be sure to have the question answered. You can do this by asking the admissions staff how the teaching is done at their school. They are accustomed to answering the question and will provide a detailed explanation for you. Furthermore, I do recommend that you ask the identical question at each school you visit. Then you will be able to compare apples to apples, having asked the same question at each school.

Whether you are looking at your options for preschool, primary school, middle school or high school, how the teachers teach is just as important as what they teach. As you review each school's curriculum, familiarize yourself with how that curriculum is taught. Make sure that everything matches your requirements and expectations.

Laying the Groundwork for an Education

Let's look at three areas of concern that we as parents have faced outside the classroom as we raised our children. From infancy, we have had control of what we are taught. We have shaped our child's thinking up to the point where she went off to preschool and kindergarten. In