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To: Lizzie Tudor who wrote (11173)	10/25/1998 8:03:00 PM
From: one_less	Respond to of 67261

<<My take on the difference between private and public schools educationally, is that the private schools spend a huge amount of time preparing the kids for the standardized tests.>> Standardized tests are supposed to represent a sample of the essential skills all kids will need to continue on successfully in school and beyond. Not all, but many of the private schools recognize that public schools are failing to prepare kids with a basic foundation of essential skills. Why would anybody pay to have their kids go to private schools, when the one across the street is free, generally has all the community agency and service support available, and the best facility. So, you're right they focus on achievement and the kids must achieve higher on nationally standardized tests or Mom and Pop aren't going to shovel out the bucks. The public schools have not been able to deal with that. They are loosing ground and the only way they can keep funding at this point is to block attempts at, school chartering movements and vouchering.

To: Lizzie Tudor who wrote (11173)	10/25/1998 8:55:00 PM
From: Les H	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 67261

They had SAT preparation workshops provided by the high school as well as the PSAT (Prelim SAT) test when I registered for the SAT. Some parents enroll their kids in SAT preparation courses such as those given by Kramer's (an SAT prep cram course outfit). One of the advantages that the private schools enjoy versus the public schools is that not all students are accepted by the schools. There are enrollment requirements. Many require letters of references, an application including an essay by the applicant, and so on. In Japan, public schools have entrance examinations. In the U.S., schools have honors programs but that's about it. They have a very small program for the upper echelon. Nothing for next level, the average student, and on down. I guess one could also do comparisons on the level of outside preparation required by private schools versus public schools, the discipline situation, the public education experiments such as the open classroom, etc., and so on.

To: Lizzie Tudor who wrote (11173)	10/25/1998 10:30:00 PM
From: Charles Hughes	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 67261

>>> So, consequently, all the kids at the private school have their choice of universities because their test scores are really high Also, their parents are mostly alumni, and can help their kids to get into the same schools much of the time. FWIW, I don't know what the average private school is like (though I visited the Citadel with an alum friend once), but at my two public high schools we had 5 and 8 merit scholars in one year, respectively. One of them was a science high school, but the point I am making is that the public schools used to be great - private school was where you sent misbehaving rich brats, unless you were part of the old money crowd. That was changing by the seventies. In California, the Reagan right and then the anti-tax prop 13 killed the public schools. Along with the free university education formerly offered by the state. Ciao, Chaz