Private Schools 2023 (Paris, Shepherd, Anderson: kindergarten, land, campus)

[Dfwmom8620]

I know it may be a little too early for this but I just wanted to start a thread for private school decisions for the 2023-2024 year. We are still in the process of applying and I can tell you this process is so exhausting! This is our first time applying and hoping it is the last time.

[wynnedutch]

What grade level(s) are you applying for? What schools/areas?

[Dfwmom8620]

PK4. Applying to Lamplighter, Greenhill, and Parish. What about you, Wynnedutch?

[seatex222]

We are applying to K at Parish, Good Shepherd, Greenhill and Hockaday. I am nervous, it is definitely tough out there!

[LokuBaba]

4th grade at St. Mark's, Greenhill, ESD

[abeamishday]

We are applying for PK & K at Lamplighter, Greenhill, Parish, ESD, GSES (as well as Hockaday for our girl). It is exhausting! We definitely have our favorites, but having to maintain enthusiasm for all the schools through the whole process: applications, questionnaires, tours, testing, interviews, observations - it really is a lot of work! I hope we land somewhere we are happy with this year because the thought of going back for round 2 next year is frightening.

[hanlyplano]

We just got very confusing CATS scores for one of our two children. Our younger child had a High Average composite, and the older (applying for K) scored shockingly low with an average that was labelled "Borderline" - this goes against everything we know about our child, especially when comparing the two siblings with each other. (I try to avoid making such comparisons, they are both very bright kids, but if you pressed me, our oldest has always had the edge "intellectually" over the younger even after obviously adjusting for age difference)

Obviously, we are feeling very discouraged about the chances for our oldest now. While we fully expect a completely different picture to be painted by the teacher recommendations, campus observations, school records, etc., we are worried that most if not all admissions teams will just completely write off scores like those.

Does anyone have any advice about how to approach admissions after this? Is there an option for supplemental or retesting? Should we address this in the remaining interviews? Or just go through the motions for this year, and try again next year with the expectation that whatever went wrong with testing this year is corrected next year?

[Peachy6264]

Originally Posted by hanlyplano

We just got very confusing CATS scores for one of our two children. Our younger child had a High Average composite, and the older (applying for K) scored shockingly low with an average that was labelled "Borderline" - this goes against everything we know about our child, especially when comparing the two siblings with each other. (I try to avoid making such comparisons, they are both very bright kids, but if you pressed me, our oldest has always had the edge "intellectually" over the younger even after obviously adjusting for age difference)

Obviously, we are feeling very discouraged about the chances for our oldest now. While we fully expect a completely different picture to be painted by the teacher recommendations, campus observations, school records, etc., we are worried that most if not all admissions teams will just completely write off scores like those.

Does anyone have any advice about how to approach admissions after this? Is there an option for supplemental or retesting? Should we address this in the remaining interviews? Or just go through the motions for this year, and try again next year with the expectation that whatever went wrong with testing this year is corrected next year?

So the test they use for kindergarten I believe you can only take once per calendar year. That’s a tough call on how to handle with admissions, I do know that you can contact the CATS testing service and there is an option for them to go over the report and your child’s testing with you, so maybe this will be helpful so you can have more information. I do know someone whose child had tested great and then tested much worse a few years later and they were going to dispute the results but then ended up deciding against it. This process can be so tough, I wish I had more in depth advice to give you!

[TurtleCreek80]

Originally Posted by hanlyplano

We just got very confusing CATS scores for one of our two children. Our younger child had a High Average composite, and the older (applying for K) scored shockingly low with an average that was labelled "Borderline" - this goes against everything we know about our child, especially when comparing the two siblings with each other. (I try to avoid making such comparisons, they are both very bright kids, but if you pressed me, our oldest has always had the edge "intellectually" over the younger even after obviously adjusting for age difference)

Obviously, we are feeling very discouraged about the chances for our oldest now. While we fully expect a completely different picture to be painted by the teacher recommendations, campus observations, school records, etc., we are worried that most if not all admissions teams will just completely write off scores like those.

Does anyone have any advice about how to approach admissions after this? Is there an option for supplemental or retesting? Should we address this in the remaining interviews? Or just go through the motions for this year, and try again next year with the expectation that whatever went wrong with testing this year is corrected next year?

Call Dr. Anderson - or the other psychologist who administered your child’s CATS exam - and request the follow-up phone call. We had a question about our child’s score on one section last year and the info she was able to provide as well as some context of what went into the written report that goes to the schools with the full CATS results.


It may not change anything re: admissions but could give you some peace of mind for context…ie, did your K child refuse to do some of the tasks and therefore couldn’t be scored, were they suddenly shy and overwhelmed, etc. 3–6 year olds are little people testing in an unfamiliar environment with a stranger. I think depending on the contextual info you get from Dr. Anderson, you can decide how to approach with the remaining parent interviews. Also if you have a good relationship with your child’s current teacher(s), you can share the CATS results with them and see if they agree/disagree - it also allows them to address in the teacher recs which I think are one of the most important pieces of the app for younger grades.

[hanlyplano]

Originally Posted by TurtleCreek80

Call Dr. Anderson - or the other psychologist who administered your child’s CATS exam - and request the follow-up phone call. We had a question about our child’s score on one section last year and the info she was able to provide as well as some context of what went into the written report that goes to the schools with the full CATS results.


It may not change anything re: admissions but could give you some peace of mind for context…ie, did your K child refuse to do some of the tasks and therefore couldn’t be scored, were they suddenly shy and overwhelmed, etc. 3–6 year olds are little people testing in an unfamiliar environment with a stranger. I think depending on the contextual info you get from Dr. Anderson, you can decide how to approach with the remaining parent interviews. Also if you have a good relationship with your child’s current teacher(s), you can share the CATS results with them and see if they agree/disagree - it also allows them to address in the teacher recs which I think are one of the most important pieces of the app for younger grades.

Thank you for your advice and sharing your related experience, we will request the call with CATS and see what sense can be made of the results and try to go from there.

We were so thrown (and honestly still feeling offended) by the results it was hard to recognize the the benefit of calling and discussing results that are unrecognizable. Like did I want to pay another $100 to hear from someone who had so clearly misjudged my child? But I hadn't calmed down enough to consider that there may be helpful and/or somewhat reassuring context they can provide about why the results were so off. We will also discuss with the teachers to see if there's any way they can address the disparity in their recs, if they're not already submitted.

But yeah, still feeling like this admissions cycle is unsalvageable for our oldest, which is incredibly disappointing, to say the least.