Hellobee Boards

I haven't looked at private schools but one thing I would want to know about is standardized assessment. Do they follow the same assessments as the state? Do they opt out entirely? Do they have their own forms of evaluation? And how are all of those things used in making decisions both for the students and the teachers?

I asked about the ability of kids to work ahead into higher grade levels (like i was ahead in math and science as a child) also recess time, homework policy. You might also want to ask if a second younger child gets priority enrollment

@agold: yes this is a good point! Our school recently got state grants to beef up security including security cameras, staff training, door key fobs etc and we always have a police officer present during pick up/drop off and any school activities. I know those aren’t perfect solutions but at least they’re trying

This is coming from a different angle, but I'd ask about the involvement of parents and try to uncover some of the culture of the parents. In our area, there are two top private schools. One is full of "old money" families where I just don't jive with the cultural expectations and generally wouldn't feel as comfortable; the other is a better fit for us in terms of dual-parent working families, many of whom are non-native to the area like us.

I concluded that both schools were nearly equivalent in terms of education, but culture and family values really became apparent to us after we attended both open houses/tours and we met the other prospective families. We also did a lot of reference calls but those were harder to draw conclusions from because the schools sent us their best personalities/biggest fans.

1) Additional financial expectations besides tuition. Expected/mandatory fundraising amounts, frequency of fundraisers, extra fees for field trips, etc.

2) Ask if there are current parents you can talk to. Our school offers this and it can help give you insight into the school culture.

3) Class sizes, student-teacher ratio. Customization options available for kids who are ahead/behind.

4) Recess, lunch, PE. How much time and how unstructured is recess. Is there a large enough playground for the kids to really get up to speed running.

5) Discipline and homework.

I've been to a few events as we try to decide between public & private for our daughter. Some questions that have been informative for me:

-What is your financial aid endowment? (I am wary of leaving the economic diversity of public school, and this helps me to identify private schools that will offer a greater range of socioeconomic backgrounds.)

-How does your school accommodate students with exceptional learning needs? (I want to know both how accelerated learning is handled, and to what degree the school can meet the needs of students with disabilities.)

-What opportunities do you have for community engagement/internships when students get older? (A lot of the non-religious private schools here go through 12th grade, so I like to keep one eye toward the long term.)

I would ask if there is mandatory parent volunteer obligations. My son's school doesn't have this as there is a very active parent association but I have several friends who have to log in a certain number of hours per year at school related activities.

For us (two working parents), I was very interested in learning about before and after school care options. Additionally, if there is after school care, are there opportunities to participate in extra classes/clubs during that time (cooking class, drama, robots, soccer, etc.)?

Lastly, I'd be interested in knowing what their class size cap is. Many parents at my sons school were upset to hear that due to a relatively small overall class size in 2nd grade last year, the principal elected to combined two classes of 15 into a single class of 30, which is on par with the public school class sizes in our area. Many people opt for our local Catholic school due to the smaller classes sizes generally so many people were very uphappy.

@HappyBaker: We started in the fall. The transition was so, so easy. Within days we knew it was the right decision and we had found the right fit.