lemonade1

Exie, this isn't to disagree with you at all, but I do want to mention, just once, that your daughter attends a very prestigious school! I know that wasn't the motivation in her choosing it, and I appreciate your point in getting people to broaden their search, but just sayin'.

ExieMITAlum

Hey @Lemonade! Remember a few years ago when people suggested that her school was "not" prestigious and insisted we'd settled for "lower tier? :-) It's amazing how times have changed perception. I kept telling parents to look for schools that are nurturing (and still have bandages from the reactions to that - lol!)

LakeClouds

Agree with this completely. There seems to be limited quality control or training provided to teachers. Some are good, some are terrible, some are fair and too many play favorites.

I find many of the teacher's are young and less experienced. As a group they are less experienced than at the public HS. Some of the best teachers have left. I also find that there's limited coordination of what one teaches versus another or how they grade. For the amount being spent, I expect more consistent quality. It seems to me that the administration is more focused on fund-raising than quality-raising.

2prepMom

From our perspective, it is not the administration, or the teachers or advising, that make the school, but the students. My daughter's experience with the other bright, creative, interesting, passionate, diverse students all around her has been a huge positive discovery. I think of her school as groups of amazing kids who teach each other. The teachers guide from the background, and the administration tries to provide the space. Their main function (yes, it is Harkness method) is not to screw it up and just to let it happen.

That is what we are paying for, for her NOT to feel like the weird nerdy kid who studies too hard and gets made fun of when she tries to start an intellectual conversation with anyone in school. (And, she was in a pretty good public school and is a fairly normal person who also likes sports.) She helps other students in her best subjects, they help her in their strong areas, and they are a very tight knit and supportive group.

She initially went to summer CTY (Johns Hopkins) and found and loved the same comraderie; we hoped BS would provide the same environment, and it has.

It's all about finding others you can share your self with, and grow together. Cool that it can happen in a high school.

mountainhiker

In one of his essays, DS wrote something like “I want to go to a school where my friends don’t say, “Dude, school’s over - why are you still talking about math?’”

For our son, the decision of where to apply, and ultimately, where to attend, came down to the peer culture at the school. We got the best “feel” for that at different schools by parsing through stats (average SSAT and SAT scores, % day vs boarders), the visit and interview (really critical for us), and closely following the websites and social media for different schools for many months.

LakeClouds

I think the OPs question was what schools should do to improve. My experience is that their is a wide swath of folks who like to sing the praises of independent schools and tend towards the pollyanna.

The point of this thread is what they should be doing to improve - which is plenty.

I'll add one specific - all teachers should be rated by students and these ratings should be posted so they can be reviewed by parents and students. That might help with the quality gap.

PelicanDad

@LC: the problem with that is that kids are notoriously BAD at accurately assessing the teacher's competency, because it is filtered through so many of their own perceptions. Just have a gander at "ratemyprofessor.com" to get a sense of what a waste this is. That said, I'm with you that there ARE ways of assuring that faculty, both young and old, are actively engaged with the trends in their disciplines, and I'd be interested in schools having more forthcoming "Faculty Notes" about training certification programs, advanced studies, or other programs that specific faculty are undergoing. There certainly IS a variegated talent pool among the teachers at these schools and to the extent we can, it's a great thing for families to advocate for the strongest possible faculty in general, and to try to make sure one's own children are getting the best possible education out of the institution.

(That said, I'd also add that there is some life-skill lesson to having to learn how to navigate with some less-than-perfect teacher fits during one's education, because they'll face it again in higher ed, as well as the workforce. Also, pretty sure there has been some strategic conversation about dealing with difficult teachers elsewhere on this board. Think grinzing was involved...a search for that person's posts might turn up some valuable advice on this topic)

Momof7thgrader

@PelicanDad there's a Gates Foundation study that found that kids are actually very good at assessing teacher competency although I will agree that ratemyteacher is NOT the method.

http://www.gatesfoundation.org/colle...arch-paper.pdf

"Student perceptions of a given teacher’s strengths and weaknesses are consistent across the different groups of students they teach. Moreover, students seem to know effective teaching when they experience it: student perceptions in one class are related to the achievement gains in other classes taught by the same teacher. Most important are students’ perception of a teacher’s ability to control a classroom and to challenge
students with rigorous work."

GMTplus7

A very disturbing article today in the NY Times about the decades-long sexual predation of students at a prestigious prep school:
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/06/10/ma...ewanted=1&_r=1

Periwinkle

GMTplus7, I saw that article. Perhaps it deserves its own thread? The school involved is a day school, not a boarding school.

wcmom1958

Interesting that the NYT has posted two articles that expose BS/PS concerns in as many days. If we weren't already worried about inappropriate relationships from the link above, there's this: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/06/10/ed...893CB7045802A1.

HarvestMoon1

Thanks for sharing that link wcmom. A very sad testament of what high school has become for many. What are we doing to our children?

GMTplus7

Periwinkle, I started a separate thread, as per your suggestion:
Potential for student abuse at prep school?

Alexz825Mom

We have had a great experience with my d's bs.

We were lucky and had few schools to choose from. My d, in her more than mature nature, chose the school where she felt she would fit in best.

My d didnt select that school that gave her the best FA package. I have many times struggled to make ends meet, but would not change a thing. I made myself known from day 1. I didnt over do it , but made sure that all her teachers, coaches, deans, even support staff know that my d came from a caring/loving family and I would be involved. It is surely not easy, even as we go into the last year.

Our school has set up a parents network to get the parents more involved. The idea is working out extremely well. I believe that this closer connect of parents gives us support and power. They have even paired "old" parents with "new" parents right after the kids make their acceptance.