3 ms·

you are saying school (1,2,3) get same funding per pupil. but test score for 1 is worse than 3. So why send you kid to school 4 instead of school 3 ? Is the t

by skyde 4y ago

you are saying school (1,2,3) get same funding per pupil. but test score for 1 is worse than 3. So why send you kid to school 4 instead of school 3 ? Is the test score at school 4 significantly better? I am a parent of a 4 years old, and we recently moved from Canada to USA. Option (4) in Canada is almost non-existent so this is new to me! I have been trying to compare test-score between private schools and public school to decide if private school is worth it. But found that most private school do not publish their test score and it's extremely hard to compare them side-by-side. Any idea how they could be compared in a data-drive way?

brianwawok 4y ago
> you are saying school (1,2,3) get same funding per pupil. but test score for 1 is worse than 3. Yes, and in fact its petty big jumps. 3 >> 2 >> 1. We are talking like 95th, 50th, and 10th percentiles statewide (percentiles picked for effect, did not pull up the data) > Any idea how they could be compared in a data-drive way? Right, and that is the hard part. If they don't do the same tests, you cannot have this data. However, the more you look at layers of this data, you will find that the most important thing you care. Parents looking at school rankings have kids that perform much better than kids that have parent's who do not look at this data. For me, I knew that 3 or 4 would give my kids a fine education. So I toured both (and actually had an older kid already in #3). The reason I sprang for #4 was 1) Smaller class size. Something like 15 kids per class, vs 30. All else being equal, you get way more chances for success the closer you are to the teacher. 2) Likeminded parents. People send kids there because they want the best. They are the high achievers. The college profressors and doctors of the area. #3 wasn't too far off, but you still got to see stuff like parents smoking in the carline with their windows up and the kids locked inside (grrrr). 3) More opportunities. #3 school starts music class at like 6th grade. #4 starts like 2nd or 3rd grade. It is something not reflected in test scores, so not important to public schools. But something shown to be good, so it's available for parents.
annoyingnoob 4y ago
There are lots of reasons to choose a private school beyond test scores. Things like smaller class sizes, expectations about how students treat each other and staff. My kids started at private school. A new public school with a STEM/STEAM concept opened near our house. At the public school, the goal of the administration is to fill seats (they get paid based on attendance) and to provide a safe environment - education was at least 3rd on their list if not lower. When covid hit the public school pretty much failed my kids. So we went back to the private school where the kids could actually get an education. My kids were ahead when they transitioned from private to public, they were behind when they transitioned back from public to private. The kids are much happier and tell me that 'everyone at public school is a bully'. The private school uses different tests than the public school, so its hard to compare. A school where education is important and students are expected to be respectful seems like a great place to start from.

by skyde 4y ago

brianwawok 4y ago

> you are saying school (1,2,3) get same funding per pupil. but test score for 1 is worse than 3. Yes, and in fact its petty big jumps. 3 >> 2 >> 1. We are talking like 95th, 50th, and 10th percentiles statewide (percentiles picked for effect, did not pull up the data) > Any idea how they could be compared in a data-drive way? Right, and that is the hard part. If they don't do the same tests, you cannot have this data. However, the more you look at layers of this data, you will find that the most important thing you care. Parents looking at school rankings have kids that perform much better than kids that have parent's who do not look at this data. For me, I knew that 3 or 4 would give my kids a fine education. So I toured both (and actually had an older kid already in #3). The reason I sprang for #4 was 1) Smaller class size. Something like 15 kids per class, vs 30. All else being equal, you get way more chances for success the closer you are to the teacher. 2) Likeminded parents. People send kids there because they want the best. They are the high achievers. The college profressors and doctors of the area. #3 wasn't too far off, but you still got to see stuff like parents smoking in the carline with their windows up and the kids locked inside (grrrr). 3) More opportunities. #3 school starts music class at like 6th grade. #4 starts like 2nd or 3rd grade. It is something not reflected in test scores, so not important to public schools. But something shown to be good, so it's available for parents.

annoyingnoob 4y ago

There are lots of reasons to choose a private school beyond test scores. Things like smaller class sizes, expectations about how students treat each other and staff. My kids started at private school. A new public school with a STEM/STEAM concept opened near our house. At the public school, the goal of the administration is to fill seats (they get paid based on attendance) and to provide a safe environment - education was at least 3rd on their list if not lower. When covid hit the public school pretty much failed my kids. So we went back to the private school where the kids could actually get an education. My kids were ahead when they transitioned from private to public, they were behind when they transitioned back from public to private. The kids are much happier and tell me that 'everyone at public school is a bully'. The private school uses different tests than the public school, so its hard to compare. A school where education is important and students are expected to be respectful seems like a great place to start from.