Evaluating Schools: Check All The Boxes

How to Keep Teens Safe While Traveling Alone

Traveling in uncertain times is a challenge for most of us adults.So, imagine how many dangers, real and imagined, a young person will face when she travels alone.

• Increased Anxiety: Teens may face heightened anxiety due to the uncertainty of travel conditions, such as changing health guidelines and travel restrictions.

7 Reasons Why Private School May Be The Right Choice

We parents who send our children to private school have a lot in common.

• Most of us want our children to think critically, analyze information, and read widely.
• For example, Nancy and I wanted to stretch our girls academically. That's why we sent them off to private school.
• Those poor kids never stood a chance because my late wife read to her daughters almost from birth.

Nancy was a voracious reader. She read real books made out of paper, not books on an iPad or Kindle.

• She had earned an honors degree in French language and literature and Spanish language and literature.
• She attended private schools in New York City. Academic excellence was simply a given from her point of view.

I was passionate about music and made a career in church music as an organist and choir director.

• I mention these facts about us because I know your upbringing and educational experiences have shaped you and your views.
• Those will shape how you plan your child's schooling at every level.

Many of us also have public schools that are considered very good or excellent.

• In our case, we were fortunate to have excellent public schools.
• However, we didn't like the large class sizes and the limited curriculum that they offered.
• So those were among the reasons we started looking for other options

Mistakes Everybody Makes When Choosing Private Schools

Because you and I are not professional educational consultants with an intimate knowledge of private schools, we often waste time and make mistakes as we search for a private school for our children.

• For this article, we will be discussing private K-12 schools that do not focus on special requirements, such as therapeutic schools and schools for students with acute special needs.
• Read When Should You Consider A Therapeutic School? and When Should You Consider A Special Needs School? for suggestions about choosing those schools.

Canva generated this picture.

Here are some of the pitfalls you and I tend to encounter as we look at private schools.

1. Only looking at ranks
2. Thinking you can't afford it
3. Waiting until the last minute to submit applications
4. Thinking that schools are elitist
5. Not visiting schools
6. Not preparing adequately for the standardized admissions tests
7. Not hiring an educational consultant

1. Only looking at ranks.

I know what you're thinking. You want your daughter to attend a highly-rated school, the best school, a top-ranked school.

• Trust me. I get it. I wanted the same things for my daughters.
• However, here's the hard truth: rankings have very little to do with finding the best private school for your child.
• Find schools that fit your requirements and her needs as best as possible.
• You are looking for schools that fit

Marketing the small private school is a challenge in the best of times. In the post-pandemic world we all live in, that challenge often seems impossible. It is not when you handle it head-on. You can't ignore it or make excuses. Denial or procrastination will not solve the problem. Identifying your school's brand will help point you in the right direction. So, here are a couple of things you can do to improve the marketing of your school. While I am writing this article for the head or owner of a school, many points fit a parent's viewpoint.

What follows are primary questions you need to ask yourself and your marketing committee if you have one. The answers will help drive your marketing program.

Who are your prospective families?

What are the demographics of your community? The U.S. Census Bureau has most of the data you need to answer that question. Using Google Maps, draw a ten-mile radius circle with your school at the center. Note which towns, cities, villages fall within that circle. Red flags would include communities with many retired people and homes with few or no children under 12. Investigate current property values with Zillow. The higher the property values and rents are, the more likely it will be that families can afford to send their kids to your school or any private school, for that matter. Understanding the demographics of your community is very important.