Academic difference between top public and private elementary schools (universities, versus)

[bu2]

Originally Posted by ClaraSalgado

Does anyone know how much approx a family contributes to a PTA/PTO in a public school say Roberts or River Oaks?

Everywhere from zero to thousands. I don't think anybody tracks if you donate or not. West University has an auction. Some of the items like concert tickets or principal for a day went for thousands. But that is all optional.

[hbcu]

what's the end game? a certain type of college? a specialization?

If your goal is public college take the easiest path possible with less debt cause it'll come soon. If your goal is some Ivy and a major that's super specialized which would require alot of prep work then maybe private would work.

crazy part about it alot of these "prestigious" schools are targeting middle class minorities now anyway and where will you find them? Suburbs. If your dream is UT or A&M, top 10% rank fast tracks the process why go in debt?

[fbf2006]

For me, the main advantage of a good private elementary school is small class sizes. My son is in public K and so far so good, but yea I think the class size is a little more than I'd have liked. We do some work at home with him. I know it'll be fine.

[Houstonianmom]

St.John’s has a higher academic level than the good public schools, but admissions are really tough. Smaller class sizes are also their advantage. If my daughter could get accepted, I would understand 30K, but it is hard to get into.

[Chrisrock]

Originally Posted by chris_ut

According to this study released in August, family income is the most important factor in children's future success and private vs public made little difference: Family Income Affects Kids' Success More Than Public Vs. Private School, Study Finds | Here & Now

Private school kids had much better test scores but children of wealthy families who went public had just as good scores and children of poor families who went private did not have improved scores. In general children's future academic achievement is pretty much determined by age 5 based on family involvement.

Study does not take immigrants into account. I'm thinking poor Asian families with a tiger moms would blow this data up.

[Saritz]

You mention you are from a different country. My husband is too, and mostly because of the way things are in his native country, was extremely skeptical of public schools. I had to talk him into trying them for a long time, over a span of years.

We went public magnet for elementary and it was a wonderful experience for our kids. We switched to private for my older son at middle school, a personal choice, and because we felt it was the best fit for him. Mostly, we wanted smaller class sizes. He was not behind when they started middle school. We have some good friends who have chosen private schools from K on and there are no major differences with what their kids have learned. One might have had a slightly richer curriculum and the other I would say is lagging the public schools, but neither is significantly different.

If you decide to go public, do some research on which school/program would be the best fit. Some schools focus more on the arts, or STEM or (sadly) test scores. Do the tours, and keep an open mind. There are a lot of great choices.

[EDS_]

Originally Posted by hbcu

what's the end game? a certain type of college? a specialization?

If your goal is public college take the easiest path possible with less debt cause it'll come soon. If your goal is some Ivy and a major that's super specialized which would require alot of prep work then maybe private would work.

crazy part about it alot of these "prestigious" schools are targeting middle class minorities now anyway and where will you find them? Suburbs. If your dream is UT or A&M, top 10% rank fast tracks the process why go in debt?

Just remember class rank percentage automatic admission thresholds at A&M and UT get a kid into the school...........the most sought after majors are filled via competitive process or entrance is only allowed after making certain grades after a certain number of on campus hours are earned. For example a 95th percentile kid via class rank does not earn an auto-admit into either A&M or UT Engineering nor many other majors for that matter.

[Coffeequeen]

automatic admission thresholds at A&M and UT get a kid into the school<<<<<<<<

The kids is 5, safe to say that this picture will be a totally different one by the time he hits college. I would say that if AA survives the next 5 years, I will be surprised.

[EDS_]

Originally Posted by Coffeequeen

automatic admission thresholds at A&M and UT get a kid into the school<<<<<<<<

The kids is 5, safe to say that this picture will be a totally different one by the time he hits college. I would say that if AA survives the next 5 years, I will be surprised.

Good luck to your kiddo.

_____________________


I'd like to see the automatic admissions rules ditched right now. There are three glaring tightly related negatives.

1). UT and A&M are forced to admit kids who will need extraordinary help if they are to survive freshman year.
2). Auto-admits damage the reputations and rankings of both schools. Overall brandwide rankings shouldn't matter but they do. These rankings are heavily weighted against inbound student quality metrics and the bottom say 1/3 of autoadmit kids are more or less non-competitive vis a vis test scores.
3). This cadre of kids is forced/directed into several particular majors at each school. These majors are devalued thusly.

*Keep in mind many of the autoadmit kids are rock star students. Others not. An anecdote.....a niece was auto-admitted into UT from a tiny rural TX school. She was mentally finished after the first week and home soon after. The negatives are staggering.

*When you have free time look at the ACT and SAT based out of state scholarship offers from Alabama, OU, OSU, KU, KSU, AR etc.........all were obviously developed or at least directed towards poaching Texas kids squeezed between the competaive and automatic admissions rules here in TX.
*1. Texas is the only state in this part of the country with a significant overage of young people. So there is pressure on our university systems anyway.
*2. UTD issued a report a few years ago that dealt with some of this it concluded that ~13,000 TX high school grads leave TX for college annually and the overwhelming majority of that group are exceptionally qualified kids.

Another anecdote. My daughter graduated an excellent private girls school here in Dallas. One of her friends finished at about the 65th percentile in class rank but had really good test scores. The yield is she couldn't get into UT but she won a nice scholarship to Alabama.

[Texas Ag 93]

I totally get where you're coming from with your comments above EDS ^^. I think maybe you and I have discussed before, and as much as you raise valid points, I think there has to be a balancing act because, IMO, the State has a responsibility to keep opportunities open to its citizens in rural and smaller communities as well. Unfortunately, as you point out, sometimes rural and inner-city urban students can't compete at UT and A&M right out of the gate. They either catch up or wash out.

I also agree some brain drain exists from having public universities from nearby states swoop in and take very bright students out of Texas with the potential for them never to return.

Not sure I have a good answer for these unintended consequences of the auto admissions rule, but just wanted to mention it.