Spinoff to last week's upk topic

DH has been taking DD to an activity since DD3 was born a couple months ago. He says the parents there talk about their kid's private preschools and all the different things they learn - multiple foreign languages, etc - sounds lIke a lot more than upk. I think they are at schools that go through kindergarten.

So, DH and I are thinking about where to send our DD to Kindergarten next year and also are looking at houses in better school districts (not in a great district now) and I am looking for opinions.

- do parents in good school districts that send children to private pre-k / K usually switch to public elementary school? And then there will be a disparity between children that went to public pre k & K vs private? Does it all sort of even out once they finish that first year?

- if you have experience with public school vs private schools (for K through HS ), do you think private school is worth the cost?

- what about catholic schools? Are they similar to public schools in terms of what is taught? Better? Worse?

- is there a difference in what is being taught in the "good" vs average public schools? Aren't they all doing common core now? Eta - I don't really know what the common core is, if it affects all subjects.

Message edited 1/18/2017 4:38:19 AM.

Re: Spinoff to last week's upk topic

Very complicated topic.

Yes, in a good school district, parents send from private school to public school in K. Differences even out by mid 1st grade.

Private vs public is a cost/culture question and depends on what your public & private options are. If you have 3 kids, it makes sense to have a very good public school that you pay high taxes for. If you have 1, makes sense to send to an excellent private school. Some people like the connections they make in private school.

Catholic schools: very high disparities between them.

Should everything be equally taught across schools? Of course! But there are different resources across different districts (sad to say some are financial). There also is peer effect (if you value education, you flock to a "good district" and are more likely to get tutoring and put extra time in to your child's education and vote for more funding of the schools & higher taxes).

Spinoff to last week's upk topic

We are in a good school district.

Only 29 kids qualify for UPK and it's offered through private preschools. Everyone in our town who goes to preschool goes to a private preschool. None of these preschools offer multiple languages...

Most people then start in public kindergarten in our district, some do go to Catholic school. The class sizes are better though in the public school - the Catholic school enrollment has shot up over the years when the district didn't have full day kindergarten and the class sizes are about 50% larger than the public schools (my DS has 20 kids in his public school class this year).

Re: Spinoff to last week's upk topic

Spinoff to last week's upk topic

The preschool I wanted to send dd to offered language and many other wonderful programs, but it unfortunately doesn't work with the location I need. Honestly, I think the vast majority of preschools on Long Island are awful. The ones that aren't are few and far between, and many often cost a very large amount of money.

There is absolutely a difference between private and public education, but I think it depends on many factors-finances, location, type of school, etc.

Spinoff to last week's upk topic

most districts dont have UPK so yes most people send their kids to private prek

Re: Spinoff to last week's upk topic

I don't think that having a second language program does anything except make the parent feel good about the tuition they are paying. Unless you plan to continue that language throughout elementary school they will not retain any of it. I had german au pairs who spoke in german to my children. The last has been gone a year, my kids can only say one or two things now.

I think that some of the districts on LI are better than private schools and some are not so you would have to go district by district to figure out what is right for you.

I went to Catholic school almost my whole life. I prefer to send my kids to public school in the town that we live because although I had a wonderful experience and would not trade it for the world, I love the small town public school experience.

Education is such a personal decision and you have to weigh the pros and cons of everything but I think all these gimmicks of expenisve private preschools are a waste of money.

Re: Spinoff to last week's upk topic

We live in a good district that does not have upk. Our dd is going to catholic nursery and pk in lieu of daycare. Our original plan was to have her go to kindergarten - 12 in our district, but we are loving the catholic school, and my husband who went through catholic schools all the way feels more comfortable keeping her in catholic. I'm a huge proponent of public schools, and work in a public school as well. So basically we are not sure what we are going to do! I've asked a lot of educational questions, and given that this is my background, I don't see any educational disparities between this particular catholic school and our public schools. The public schools may have more options (programming, etc), but my extremely reserved daughter may do better in catholic school anyways. I don't think there's a blanket answer to your question. Each school and district and child and family values is different.

I also want to say, as a child development person, to please please not compare what your child is getting educationally to others. I feel strongly that kids don't get a chance to play and be kids today - it's all about academics and as a result they don't know how to compromise, overcome challenges, deal with emotions. Most aren't ready for this rigor at age 3, and by age 13 it catches up with them.

Re: Spinoff to last week's upk topic

Also to answer your last question, yes I do believe there's disparity between public school districts. To an extent, a bright child with ambitions with thrive anywhere, and a student with learning challenges or poor motivation will struggle anywhere. But higher performing districts typically can secure more desirable and better teachers (with a higher salary, stronger union benefits), and have more program offerings And resources for the stronger and struggling learners. Communities that place a stronger emphasis on education tend to pressure their school districts to do what they need to do to turn out higher performing learners.

Re: Spinoff to last week's upk topic