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Old 01-19-2018, 12:10 AM
 
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Hi Parents,
When it comes to quality of education (value added to the kid by the school) is there any difference in between private ( at PK4- Grade 3 level) schools such as Greenhill (ranked in top 20 nationally in pvt Pk-12 private school) and public schools like Carroll ISD (Southlake) and Highland Park ISD? Looking for any advice especially from parents /students who have experience with /or attended both..
Thanks,
Susie
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Old 01-19-2018, 08:27 AM
 
1,173 posts, read 1,072,717 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by sundallas1 View Post
Hi Parents,
When it comes to quality of education (value added to the kid by the school) is there any difference in between private ( at PK4- Grade 3 level) schools such as Greenhill (ranked in top 20 nationally in pvt Pk-12 private school) and public schools like Carroll ISD (Southlake) and Highland Park ISD? Looking for any advice especially from parents /students who have experience with /or attended both..
Thanks,
Susie
Diversity would be greater at Greenhill vs HP.
Class sizes will be smaller at Greenhill vs the two publics.
School culture is different at Greenhill vs the two publics
Greenhill can cherry pick students - The other two cannot.
Sports- The public schools are much better options in this regard.

Beyond what’s mentioned above, I struggle to see any major differences between those options when considering matriculation results, test scores and the general education received. This will come down to a ‘feel’ of the schools and the differences in school culture.

What you may have to ask yourself is whether sports, school culture and diversity ‘adds value to the kid’

(Note: Diversity meaning kids of different cultures, races, and income levels represented- Not diversity of learning abilities/disabilities. Public schools would win in that regard)
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Old 01-19-2018, 09:33 AM
 
19,489 posts, read 17,717,036 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by BLDSoon View Post
Diversity would be greater at Greenhill vs HP.
Class sizes will be smaller at Greenhill vs the two publics.
School culture is different at Greenhill vs the two publics
Greenhill can cherry pick students - The other two cannot.
Sports- The public schools are much better options in this regard.

Beyond what’s mentioned above, I struggle to see any major differences between those options when considering matriculation results, test scores and the general education received. This will come down to a ‘feel’ of the schools and the differences in school culture.

What you may have to ask yourself is whether sports, school culture and diversity ‘adds value to the kid’

(Note: Diversity meaning kids of different cultures, races, and income levels represented- Not diversity of learning abilities/disabilities. Public schools would win in that regard)
Errrr what? You may want to review the test scores between these three again. There is a fairly large gap between SLC and HP in HP's favor and a major gap between HP and Greenhill in Greenhill's favor.

A quick glance at ACT scores shows GH's last class average was a 31. That's at the 96th percentile of all takers. HP and SLC shows well too. HP's 27.6 is at the 88th percentile of all takers and SLC's 26.8 is at the 85th. Again all those scores are really good but the considering how rarity works along a curve there is a big difference between HP and Greenhill. SAT scores are similar.
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Old 01-19-2018, 10:26 AM
 
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I think you have the opportunity for a great education at any of the 3 schools. However, Greenhill has the advantage of not being limited by state funding and is not as tightly controlled by state regulation. As a result, there is more freedom in curriculum planning and how and what teachers decide to teach. They also have a specific focus on the individual strengths, interests, and goals of each student - something that is much more challenging in larger environments like HP or SLC. In essence, Greenhill is a more tailored educational experience than the public schools you mentioned (even though these 2 public schools are better than most.) They have the ability to adapt the learning experience to the specific child and desire to provide that experience. Plus, their emphasis on diversity means that kids grow up around kids that are different than them in many ways - essentially mirroring the real world a bit better, at least on the culture, race, SES front (there are kids with learning differences at Greenhill, but in general, they are generally quite intelligent/above the mean in IQ.)

A bright kid could succeed at any of the 3 schools. But as BLDSoon mentioned, they are going to have a different "feel." I have said this in other threads, but I am personally of the mind that instilling educational values like critical thinking, perseverance, curiosity, love of learning, and grit early on, while the brain is going through tremendous growth and development, can set up a kid with a good foundation for learning no matter where they end up. As a result, we decided to put our kids in private for pre-K so that they could get the individualized attention they needed while their brains were still rather elastic. Obviously, you can provide those values at home yourself no matter where your child goes to school, but we wanted it embedded in the culture of our children's educational environment as well.
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Old 01-19-2018, 11:58 AM
 
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Thanks all for the replies.


As for 'adding value' I meant promoting academic scores, kids IQ/creativity and overall quality of day to day school experience.


I know my kid will struggle in an unexciting/mundane school and will not strive in an environment where students activities are not competitive/ limited to academics / not individualized..


Exactly for the reasons waterdragon states above (elastic mind) we are tilting towards private schools for the early years...but don't want to turn down the public ISD options just because they were not evaluated (I did no ISD tours etc.)


BTW, who from the school typically conducts the parent interviews at Greenhill / Hockaday/ ESD? i.e. Admissions office Director/Assistant Director or Grade Teachers?


Thanks!
Susie
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Old 01-19-2018, 12:07 PM
 
Location: Texas
634 posts, read 703,987 times
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This is a perspective from a teacher who taught in all three environments (elite independent private -100 per graduating class, elite parochial school - 250 per class, and a top rated suburban school - 400+ per class.

The biggest difference is the environment. In the privates, you get a more community feel. Everybody knows everybody. I can walk down the hall and have meaningful conversations with students. Students and teachers have better (closer) relationships. Teachers are more invested. This really matters depending on your kid. I still keep up with a lot of students that I taught in the privates.

As far as teachers go, I know the alphabet following a teacher’s name seems impressive at privates, but in my experience, there are excellent, good, average and poor teachers at the same rate in all 3 environments. I just think teachers at private schools can better b.s. a parent to get them off their backs. Classroom size really varies among schools and subjects. I taught math and in the independent school I taught, I never had more than 16 students. But at the catholic school , I had as many as 35.

As far as Carroll, I have 3 kids in elementary school, and they have never had more than 20 Kids in their classes. I know this is will change in HS.

If we could have easily afforded it, I would pick private schools in a heartbeat, but our family is in that weird range where we wouldn’t qualify for aid, but also can’t outright comfortably afford it for each of our 3 kids.
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Old 01-22-2018, 11:30 AM
 
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Just a quick note on athletics...for the age you are thinking about, none of the schools really do athletics at school. By middle school, all pretty much are. The privates tend to have more opportunities for the kids than the publics...a greater percentage of the kids participate in school sports.
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Old 01-22-2018, 04:35 PM
 
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Looking at Niche.com, GH avg SAT score is 1400, same as Hockaday, and one of the highest avg's in the country. As expected, much higher than SLC/HP as are their ACT scores. Is this due to self selection or adding "value" as you ask. Probably a lot of both?
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Old 01-22-2018, 04:48 PM
 
1,428 posts, read 1,742,480 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by sundallas1 View Post
Hi Parents,
When it comes to quality of education (value added to the kid by the school) is there any difference in between private ( at PK4- Grade 3 level) schools such as Greenhill (ranked in top 20 nationally in pvt Pk-12 private school) and public schools like Carroll ISD (Southlake) and Highland Park ISD? Looking for any advice especially from parents /students who have experience with /or attended both..
Thanks,
Susie
Is public kinder in HP that popular? Honest question. Every one of my colleagues living in HP or UP (which is basically all of them) has used private school until 1st grade. Usually just one of the local church schools, but they said what they're doing is fairly common and it's not driven by religious considerations. Just curious as OP seems very interested in the early childhood side of the equation.
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Old 01-22-2018, 07:35 PM
 
762 posts, read 1,182,731 times
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Originally Posted by numbersguy100 View Post
Is public kinder in HP that popular? Honest question. Every one of my colleagues living in HP or UP (which is basically all of them) has used private school until 1st grade. Usually just one of the local church schools, but they said what they're doing is fairly common and it's not driven by religious considerations. Just curious as OP seems very interested in the early childhood side of the equation.
Yes public kinder is very popular in HPISD. Many children do kinder at their preschools and then repeat kinder at HPISD,especially if they have a summer or late spring birthday. There are always some kids that start in first grade, but I haven’t noticed it to be that many.
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