Private elementary school directors can be powerful gatekeepers or distracted notetakers. You’ll encounter them when you tour schools and/or have a parent interview at a private elementary school. Here’s a piece I wrote for Elizabeth Street about 3 types of admissions directors you’ll meet. –Christina
Here’s a previous post: Admissions Directors, The Keys To The Empire
It’s here! The Second Edition of Beyond The Brochure: An Insider’s Guide To Private Elementary Schools In Los Angeles is now available.
Here’s what’s in the Second Edition:
Anne, Porcha and I are extremely excited to release the Second Edition of Beyond The Brochure. Since the summer, we have been working on what can truly be called a labor of love: the second edition. When we began the book and the blog in Sept. 2009, we had no idea where it would take us. It has been one of the most wonderful and rewarding parts of our professional lives. We’ve read every email you’ve sent us, we read all your blog comments and we answer your questions whenever possible. As always, our goal is to help parents better understand the competitive private elementary school admissions process in Los Angeles.
THANK YOU, thank you, thank you, to each and every one of you for your support for our book, for reading our blog and for continuing to encourage our work with your kind words. We’ve enjoyed meeting many of you at preschool speaking events, as we talk about kindergarten admissions. To those of you who have become personal friends as a result of this book and blog, we are lucky to have met you.
The Second Edition of Beyond The Brochure is available now on Amazon and is also at It’s A Children’s World and Chevalier’s on Larchmont. Look for it in Barnes & Noble in about 6-8 weeks.
All our best,
Christina, Anne and Porcha
As the mother of a preschooler, I’ve been a faithful reader of this blog and the Beyond The Brochure book for a while now, so when it finally came time to start finding a Kindergarten for our son for next fall I felt pretty prepared. A month into the process, though, it was obvious I still had some lessons to learn!
1. Time flies
Wow, I feel like we just got into preschool and *bam* it’s already time to look for a Kindergarten. And I quickly discovered that the time between the fall Kindergarten fair and “tour season” is pretty short. I had to quickly finish my research in order to come up with our list of prospectives in time to rsvp for tours. Tours fill up fast so RSVP early!
2. Your preschool administrator really is your greatest resource
I think our son is perfect, of course, and would do well at any school but I was very overwhelmed trying to decide what school style would be the best fit for us. Traditional? Progressive? Big? Small? Our preschool director was a tremendous help here, and we really worked closely with her to come up with a list of prospective schools where our son could really thrive.
3. Tour early, tour often
This is one of the biggies that I wish I’d taken more to heart. If I’d toured even a few schools last year (ie: two years before our Kindergarten entry) like Beyond the Brochure recommends, that’s a few more schools I could’ve either seen again or crossed off the list and saved some hurried pavement pounding.
4. Take notes
This seems like a no-brainer, but I was surprised at how few parents at fairs or on tours actually take notes. Through fairs, tours, events, etc. we probably met easily 4-6 people associated with each school on our list. That’s a lot of names to mix up. When it’s application time I definitely want to be able to reference some of the administrators and teachers we met along the way.
5. Drive the route. During rush-hour.
There were some schools on our list that we really loved but after doing some test runs during the morning and afternoon commutes it became painfully obvious that it just wasn’t feasible to make it to school in one direction and then head all the way across town to work in the opposite direction. What seems like a blow-off at 10am for a tour is a completely different story at 8am, so unfortunately we had to cross an entire area of goods schools off our list. Because remember, however far away the school is, you’re in the car for four times that duration, going there and back and there and back!
6. Do your research and keep an open mind
The first school we toured I didn’t know much about and had considered it more as a backup but ended up loving it. Conversely, a couple of schools we really had high hopes for seemed great on the surface, but going, well, beyond the brochure and asking friends and fellow parents about the schools turned up some unpleasant surprises about their academics. And one popular school everyone raves about seemed perfect for us from the website but 30 seconds into the tour we could tell it wasn’t right for our family at all. School websites and brochures can tell you a lot about the place but don’t be afraid to dig a little deeper. And please, don’t be that parent on the tour who asks questions that are obviously answered on the school’s website!
The fall tour season seems a little frantic, but thanks to great tips from the Beyond The Brochure blog and book I actually feel somewhat prepared. Now that we’ve narrowed our list down to schools we like, I can’t wait for the next phase of the process: applications!
Sharie Piper (not her real name) is on pins and needles to see where her son ends up going to school next year and can’t wait to do it all again in a few years for her daughter.
Oakwood School Holiday Boutique is open to the community. A chance to see the school and shop! November 13, 2013, 8:30 AM to 5:00 PM in the Music, Dance and Athletic Center. Valet parking available on Lemp Ave. Kick-start your holiday shopping at the Oakwood School Holiday Boutique! Get a jump on some chic and festive shopping while supporting a great cause. The impressive and thoughtfully curated vendor list includes Joe’s Jeans, Jacqueline B., Shelley’s Fashion, Soto Boutique, SY Devore, Curio and Kind, Clare Vivier, Classy Bag Lady, and Tough Cookies. Browse jewelry from Eden Rox, Stella & Dot and Maya Brenner, to name a few. For additional updates follow us at Oakwood School or https://www.facebook.com/OakwoodSchoolHolidayBoutique.
Links:
Here’s a piece about one of Viewpoint School’s assemblies written by my friend Matt Steiner of Launch Education Group. It gives insight into the amazing culture of my kids’ school! (Launch Education Group)
Are standards too high at Harvard-Westlake School? An interesting article about the stress and demands on students at this top-ranked school. (LA Times)
At Scottsdale Country Day School in Arizona, a 3rd grader was threatened with expulsion for these graphic drawings and journal entries that depict and describe violence. The kid’s parents are furious and pulled him out of the school. (CNN and CBS5az.com)
The headmaster of the elite Tower Hill School in Wilmington, Delaware has been arrested on charges of dealing in child porn. The school’s alumni include Dr. Oz and congressman and senators. (abclocal.com)
I’ll be chatting with moms at BabyTalk LA later this week. Have a great weekend! Christina
Click on This Girl Walks Into A Bar to check out Bungalow Clothing shopping experience
One of our blog readers asked us how private elementary schools handled gifted/highly gifted kids. We’ve been asked this question several times so Anne and I thought we’d answer with a blog post.
Unlike public schools, which have gifted magnet programs, most private schools handle gifted students on an as-needed basis. The Mirman School is the only private school in Los Angeles specifically for highly gifted kids and there is an IQ test required for admission.
Many private elementary schools (progressive and traditional) have the ability to meet the needs of gifted children. Typically, it is the teachers who determine which kids need more advanced work in one or more subjects. Sometimes a family will have their child tested by a psychologist to determine whether or not they are gifted and parental requests will be considered, but the teachers need to observe a child’s work within the classroom setting before requesting a child be given advanced work. Creating an individualized program or curriculum for one or a small group of kids requires additional work and resources from the school.
Here are the most common ways private schools meet the needs of gifted students:
1. Private schools will often put kids into ability groups for subjects like reading and math, beginning as early as first grade. The groups happen in the classroom and can be flexible, adding additional kids as the year progresses and as teachers observe certain kids who more advanced work.
2. Creating an advanced curriculum. If a school has one or two gifted kids who are working well beyond the curriculum that is being taught in the class, a school can create an advanced, individualized program for that child. In the lower elementary grades, this is typically what happens. Rather than have a 2nd grader attend a 4th grade math class, the school may pull the child out to work with a specialist teacher or faculty member several times a week. Homework would be included along with the advanced curriculum.
Really good, experienced teachers recognize the student who grasps the curriculum quickly and moves through the material ahead of schedule. They will find creative ways to extend the learning for these students. It is not just moving them ahead in the subject matter, but can include giving those students extra challenges in how they apply their advanced learning. This may take the form of an independent project that is designed by the student and teacher and woven into the fabric of class presentations. This deepens and broadens the learning rather than pushes the student into territory that they might not be developmentally prepared to take on.
It is more common to see this kind of accommodation in the language arts area than in math, though there are many ways to extend understandings of math concepts as well. For example, a language arts extension might include a student taking on an author study of a particular writer they have covered or creating their own story in the style of that writer. In math, a student who is extremely spatially proficient and jams through the geometry unit at an upper elementary level can come up with and construct a creative project that demonstrates to classmates some cool applications of the concepts they are learning. Both of these allow gifted students to immerse themselves in the subject matter while relating it back to their classroom curriculum and to their peers.
3. In the upper elementary and middle school grades, it is not unusual to see gifted students attend an above grade level class. For example, several 6th graders might be placed in a 7th grade math class. This can happen at the request of the teacher or based on a placement test.
It is not common for a child to skip a grade in private elementary schools. For social and emotional reasons, this is rarely done, although it does happen. And, if the child is highly gifted advancing one grade level will probably not challenge the child enough. The most common difficulty for gifted students who move ahead and attend classes with older kids is a feeling of separation from peers and potential intimidation by older students. Often, the problem for gifted students who do not move ahead is a feeling of intellectual loneliness. It is important to strike a critical balance that avoids both of these pitfalls. Sensitive parents and schools can work together to do this well in most circumstances.
This post was written by Anne Simon and Christina Simon
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