Finding Schools

This article has been updated to reflect 2026 data and recent developments.

Editor's note: In the following conversation, the parent is fictitious but her questions and my answers are real.

Parent: I am thinking about sending my teenage daughter to a private school for grades 9-12. How do I find the best school for her?

Rob K: Let me answer your question with another question. I know that I sound like an attorney by doing this, but I need to understand why you are thinking about sending your daughter to private school. Once you have told me your reasons, I will explain how to accomplish your goal.

Parent: My daughter's current school is OK. It's a public school which sends a large percentage of its graduates on to further education. So, that's OK. She's been with some of her classmates since kindergarten. Now I feel that she should be with other students who really want to learn. I also want her to be in smaller classes. She's one of 25 students right now. The other thing that concerns me is that the high school curriculum seems a bit thin and is mostly focused on SATs and AP examination preparation.

Rob K: Now, you are giving me something to work with. Small class sizes are one of the main reasons most parents decide to send their children to private school. Most schools have 12-15 students per class. Your child will not just be a number in a small class.

When planning your children's summer, you give yourself two gifts. The first is engaged, active, happy children. The second gift is the comfort of knowing that you are expanding their knowledge in an informal, supervised learning situation.

When I was growing up, my parents decamped every summer from Montreal to Woodlands, on the shores of Lac Saint Louis about 30 miles west of the city. They rented a cottage across the road from the lake. We took swimming and sailing lessons at the Woodlands Yacht Club and helped with the large garden, which provided vegetables and flowers during the short Canadian summer. It was idyllic and safe.

The routine was pleasant and predictable. My parents were not wealthy. In the 1950s, a lower-middle-class family of seven could make summers like the ones I described above happen for a modest cost. Fast forward to 2026, and summer camps, enrichment programs, academic institutes, and specialty experiences continue to serve a similar purpose: providing children with activity-filled days in safe, well-supervised environments while helping them build new skills and interests.

The most important caveat when selecting a summer program is to make certain that you understand all the aspects involved. Know everything about the quality of the activities, the supervision, snacks and meals, transportation policies, safety procedures, and all the other details. Assume nothing. Most schools, camps, and community organizations that run summer programs will be happy to answer your questions.

Parents exploring educational opportunities beyond the summer months may also

When it comes to choosing the right educational environment for your child, private schools offer a unique set of benefits that can foster academic excellence, personal growth, and future success.

From smaller class sizes to rigorous academic programs, private schools provide a tailored education that can help your child thrive.

As you zero in on the best private school for your child, keep this list of reasons for doing so handy.

• The question you need to keep asking yourself is whether the fit is right for each of these attributes.
• You may not score 10 out of 10, but try to get as close as you can.
• Scoring these items is obviously a subjective matter that depends on your needs and requirements.
• Remember that the schools that come closest to matching your requirements are the ones to which you should probably apply.

Finding the right school

Finding the right school is a complex process with numerous moving parts.

• If you get one of these factors wrong, it won't kill the deal.
• It could, however, make your child's experience less than optimal.

Here, then, are fifteen reasons why we think you should consider our school.

1. School size

Most preschools and nursery schools typically have a student population of 75-100 students. Schools offering kindergarten through grade eight usually have a population of 200-500 students. As you search for schools on Private School Review, you will notice that some day schools show a student population of

This article has been updated to reflect 2026 data and recent developments.

Editor's note: I asked Melissa P. Earls, Head of School of Academy Hill School in Springfield, Massachusetts, several questions about teaching gifted children. She very kindly offered the following answers. (I will disclaim that my youngest grandson attends Academy Hill School.)

1. Why should parents consider sending their child to a school for gifted children?

Not every school is right for every child. And, even if a child is academically advanced, or gifted in any number of ways, a school that offers an enhanced, enriched curriculum with high expectations and increased rigor might not be the right fit. I would never push any school on any student. But for our learners, and other students like them, Academy Hill is a terrific fit. We offer several programs that set us apart.

When looking for a school for a gifted child, it is critical that parents seek out an environment that will continuously engage the child in creative, student-driven tasks. It is important that the school allow core curriculum time and opportunities for students to pursue areas of interest in depth. It is imperative that the pace of instruction matches the student's ability to comprehend content, apply knowledge, and acquire skills at faster speeds and with high proficiency. Because these children are usually eager learners, formative assessments, while necessary in any educational setting, may not be as frequent and certainly do not look the

As I prepared to write this article about searching for private K-12 schools, I had a flashback to the fall of 1986 when we started looking at schools for our eldest daughter. There was no email or internet back then, at least that the general public had access to. We knew friends who had gone to private school. At one point I had interviewed to be the Music teacher at a New England boarding school. But that was it. That was all we knew about private high schools. Reaching further back into my memory bank, I remember enrolling our eldest daughter in the now-defunct St. Peter's by-the-sea Day School when it first opened in 1971. When we moved to Garden City, we enrolled her in the Waldorf School of Garden City. These two decisions were fairly easy because we knew the schools which came highly recommended by family and friends. No email or web searches were possible, nor were they needed.

Back to our 21st-century private school search. We have some very powerful tools available to us. Unfortunately, these tools can produce results that can be misleading, confusing, or, at worst, useless. Search engines require us to filter the data carefully to eliminate information that we don't need. Useful results depend on the manner in which you word the search terms. Happily, this is not the case with the Private School Review search engine. Our programmers have set up the fields you need to search our