Article on private schools and diversity

I know its hard especially if one has a high standard for education. I am so not a fan of No child left behind, and the testing mess. It's really a toss up as it depends on the child's personality, and as the article says..we really have to set that foundation at home, find other avenues in the community etc. Have to balance what they do not get in school. What type of private school are you leaning towards?Some private schools are diverse. So far in my search, there are different types of private schools, as in prep types, curriculum based, church based etc; To me the prep schools has the lower % of Black kids. Even with tuition help the fee is high. Catholic schools tend to have Black kids, guess it depends on the demographics of the area. You should find a lot of West Indians in your area? the Black West Indians (recent immigrants especially) are big on education so you may not have the issue with low diversity. Also ask the schools as to what their plans are n regards to diversifying the schools. Offer to assist with cultural programs either through their PTO or a culture awareness day. DD is in a private christian school, it is diverse with Black kids, Asian kids. Lots of little girls who are Black.A couple of the teachers are minorities. So far we plan on keeping her in private school. They have pictures of kids of different races up on the walls. The work books not so much. Younger son is in our public elementary school which is pretty good, he gets language, and music classes. He will go to a private middle school, maybe a magnet hs..or stay in private high school. The first choice private middle school that I am looking at is supposed to be reaching out to minorities not normally in their population, and a prep school. Second choice low diversity, but good program, robotics, as well as less expensive, and closer to my house. hmmmOldest son started off private, went to public. He is in a magnet high school program, high % of Blacks, and other minorities represented as students, administration, and teaching staff. I think this will be good for him. Other than the core subjects. The curriculum for me has to be inclusive of *all* history, and other cultures of Brown and Black people. Also *all* major religions. Strong on geography (I do find the need to supplement this with the kiddo in public school) I read into the classical christian curriculum, at first I was this is cool since I was taught mythology, poetry, and such, but their platform made me say, oh no not for us.

I've been toying with the idea of private schools again. My kids are attending a public elementary school. Something interesting that I've noticed that even if the school has diversity your child could still end up the only child of his race in the classroom. Since I've been going to the school so much lately... I've peeked in classrooms and got to look at the class pictures for the previous years. The school has made a concerted effort to spread out the children of color so there is isn't more than one or two per class of their racial/ethnic group. DD is the only AA child in her class and there are two Hispanic kids which I'm kind of surprised about since her teacher speaks spanish and sends everything for the parents in spanish and english. DD might be pulling a twofer to cover Asians in her class. DS's class has two AA kids, 2 Hispanic, 1 Asian and one middle eastern. DS's class had the most diversity I've seen out of the 10 Kindergarten classes. So what is the goal of spreading the kids out like that? I'm kind of scratching my head on this... They don't want a class of all minorities and apparently don't want an all CC class. Is it fair for the minorities to be outnumbered all day every day? Not sure... I've pretty much surmised that the assessments they had back in the summer where to decide where to place them based on race. You don't have to answer the race question on the forms but there is no way of getting around them looking at you and deciding where to place you. So If I decide to send the kids to a private school... what is the difference going to be? The will end up being in the same type of environment they are in now. The real bonus will be much smaller classrooms.

I agree on the smaller classrooms. IDK, not all private schools are much better than a good public schools. One of my neighbors mentioned there is a good accelerated track, and motivaitonal projects in your state.

I had my kid in private school. Decent diversity for "the" private school in town. Although I too noticed that there was one class (his) with all the diversity and one class for the blond haired blued eyed folks. It was so academically serious that race didn't seem to matter. It was all about being smart enough to get invited back to school the next year. The next year I moved him to private Chirstian School. The diversity was VERY good. Maybe a little heavy on blacks and light on hispanics for our population. But I gotta tell you, there is nothing worse than a bunch of self rightous christian white ladies when it comes to not understanding racism. I felt like we fought a lot of race battles at this school based on ignorance. Now he is in public school. I would go so far as to say the education is HORRIBLE. But its diverse in student body and in teachers and has a black male principal. I have to provide all the education outside of school but I think this is the best place for him. He is an average student so its not like its the end of the world for him not to be in "the" school. And the christian school just wasn't going to work for us because of the religion thing. So in the end, it was a fairly easy choice for us to send him to public school. My sibs are Vietnamese and are the "token" minorities in most situations. One thrives on it. One can't stand it. And one is too flighty to notice. I don't want my kid to be the token black. I still remember the token blacks in high school. I can't imagine how exhausted they were by the end of every day.

I can see where the personalities can add or not to being the token. Good insight, some parents say Bob did okay and use that as a barometer for all. I am in a time crunch to decide for my younger son and DD, diversity, education, right leaning style for the kid. :arrow:

I really have found this issue to be my toughest parenting decision and race just complicates it further. Its a perfect example of white priviledge. White families living essentially the same life as black families (or in my case transracial) don't even have to think about this stuff.

It will work out Jen, and you have the foresight to prepare.I am still stressing about which private schools. lolmainly about DD.. but this morning I told myself, we have our church, and moms clubs. I made sure to invite girls from all groups to her birthday party. She has one little girl who is her best friend. so cute. :-) Time to get the little social like foundation going. I think little ds will be fine where ever.. especially with the above.

It is very hard making decisions. I stress over every step with the kids and DH does whatever is easiest. He's the first one to complain when things go wrong. I'm going to revisit the whole private school thing once we get DD's test results back next month. We finally got DS's dx and IQ test results. Interesting to say the least. The psychologist will be helping me plan this one out.

Sleeplvr: did you do straight adoption or foster/adopt?

It was foster to adopt for DS. It was straight adoption from a private agency for DD.

Okay dh and I are going for it.. applying to one particular private school for the kids. I visited the middle school Of course I was drawn by the academic rigor, leadership, and nurturing the individual child type environment. My main reason in applying for this school is: I love the focus on inclusion of and respect for other cultures. Also has an IB program.Fingers crossed.

Good luck, nickchris! I am struggling so much with dd being in public school (she's in k)...and I feel the need to look for a private school such as you described! It's so hard for me to figure out (let alone just not having the means to do it just yet!).

Thanks.. hope it clicks for you guys. I know!! such uncertain ground, and for once I find with a DD I am not 100% certain about this move. Then again I never thought my oldest would benefit from his present school. This is me once all 3 graduates. :arrow:

It sounds like a great program. I hope it works out for you. We got DD's test results back and she's in the same range as DS. It's a fantastic thing to know so they can never pull a I can't do this or learn that excuse on us. I found an international school with a IB program near our house and the tuition is very reasonable. Got a question for you... Is language offered daily in the school you are looking at? I'm trying to gauge what is about average. A friend sent his kids to a school where half the school day was in a second language..you have a choice of french, german or spanish starting at kindergarten. I don't think that's the case at the school I'm looking at but spanish is a daily class. The kids current school doesn't offer language as part of their curriculum and spanish is only offered as an after school program which I have to pay for and then it's only once a week. That is not enough for them to become fluent IMO. The kids did know some spanish prior to starting class but I don't think the program was right for kindergarteners. There was way too much writing for kids who are just learning write. If they can't write potato or apple in english how are they going to write it in spanish? DH and I had to help them a lot with their spanish homework. They knew the words but had a hard time with all the writing because it was so advanced. We made it work though...

Cool! I can see your two little ones really flourishing in an enriched school program. :-) Yea they should have adjusted that Spanish class. I mean for pre writers, the Spanish word for apple can be taught via a picture, songs etc; My understanding is the approach should be similar to learning their native language; it's better to master via auditory, visual, and then writing, so its good you were able to work around that obstacle. DD is doing better with Spanish, ( 1x week) now that she has progressed to beginning level reading and writing. This particular private school offers Spanish. The kids in the elementary school have Spanish class The k to 3 have class once a week, but the emphasis is on their own native language English..so its not expected for the little ones to master fluency in another language as yet. Then in 4th grade thru. middle school the approach changes and gradually build from exposure to deeper study/fluency. By 8th grade the students have Spanish almost everyday. The middle school teaches via the IB program guidelines, (for middle school they have to expand writing and oral studies in their native language, and proficient in one other language) the lower school has a global approach but is non IB. For the foreign language program, the school go by:National Standards for Foreign Language Education, established by the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages (ACTFL). The National Standards emphasize students’ abilities to communicate in three ‘modes’: interpretive (reading and listening comprehension), interpersonal (conversational) and presentational (public speaking).Whats wild is my youngest has Mandarin once a week in his public school, and I am so surprised that this program was not cut. The teachers are Chinese. My oldest is in his 2nd year of HS French and he had a break-through this marking period in understanding his teacher who will converse in French at times, so he is on his way to conversational French. He should gain decent amount of fluency by 10 th grade (3rd year French), and he seems to have a good ear for French) Being that he is in an IB program, he can take an additional language in his junior year.