Debbie and Ernest Castillo both attended public schools growing up. However, they chose to send son, Erik, to a private school because they believed the public schools in our neighborhoods are too large.
So, their search began.
“I saved an old newspaper article, and that gave us a starting point,” Ernest Castillo says. “We went through all of them and looked at the pluses and minuses and came to a short list.”
The Castillos quickly agreed that values and moral examples were foremost in their selection process, which ended with their son enrolling in kindergarten at St. Thomas Aquinas last fall.
“We work at it hard to give Erik the basics that he needs to be a good person,” Debbie says. “Education is important for him to be able to develop morals and think for himself.”
“It is absolutely imperative to set good examples for him,” Ernest says.
“It’s critical that he have places to go to provide an extension of that home environment. We talked to the principal to make sure that would be in place in his school.”
Before selecting St. Thomas for 5-year-old Erik, Ernest and Debbie checked several schools. Their concerns were safety, examples of character and conduct, and the schools’ curriculums. Roger Perry, headmaster of Lakehill School in the Lakewood neighborhood, answers questions from comparison-shopping parents almost every day. The questions the Castillos had are common.
Perry says parents who look into his school ask most often if the school:
- Is Safe
- Has the time and manpower to make their child feel special.
- Gives the child a good self-concept to take to the next level.
“Generally, parents are looking for a safe place, a place that will nurture their kid, be helpful with his or her academic work, and do the well-rounding of the child,” Perry says.
“The first question they usually ask is what kind of kids do well at your school. After that comes, what is the success rate of your graduates. If they are college-bound, or if they come to a school that handles kids with learning disabilities, do they learn compensation skills so that they can do other things after they graduate.
“They always ask about class size. Often they ask whether our students come from the immediate area or from a broader area of the City. The last question is, how much does it cost?”
Once the Castillos focused their energies on evaluating one school, they visited during class time.
“We went two times on our own to look around,” Ernest says. “It’s one thing for people to tell you something, but we saw it in place in the kids who were there. We saw a girl struggling with her books, and her shoe came untied. Another girl, who didn’t seem to know her, stopped to help her. We kept seeing things like that, things that couldn’t have been staged.”
Accreditation & Class Size
Accreditation is another area that parents consider when shopping for schools.
“Some are concerned about that,” Perry says. “Really, it’s more important to know how kids do when they leave a school. Certainly there are levels of accreditation. We are accredited by two organizations. The ISAS, Independent Schools Association of the Southwest, is the premier body. It accredits only 60 schools in a five-state area. There is also SACS, the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools.
“These groups are important because they require schools to look at themselves periodically.”
Matching the Child to the Right School
As parents investigate private schools, Perry says, they should start by focusing on their child’s primary need. There are more than 100 private schools in the Dallas area. Some are parochial, many aren’t. Some are for very young children, some are high school only, and some, such as St. Thomas and Lakehill, take children from kindergarten through high school. Some are for girls or boys only. Tuition varies, from little more than $1,000 a year to the neighborhood of $10,000 annually.
“Virtually every private school specializes,” Perry says. “We are a college preparatory school, so we look for kids who are on track for college. Some are for the learning disabled, some have other focuses, but each addresses one specific area. Public schools can’t do that.
“That gives us an advantage. We can do more things with field trips, for example, such as taking a class of 15 to visit the district attorney.”
The Castillos inquired extensively into curriculum.
“The curriculum in kindergarten (at St. Thomas) is impressive,” Debbie says. “They started with Spanish and did good units on each holiday, with the history and culture that is behind each one. They’ve already exposed them to computers. Erik is learning things that amaze us.”
Perry says a child such as Erik might have found the same high-quality learning experience at a public school, but he also might not have.
“There are very good public schools and some that aren’t so good,” Perry says. “Unfortunately, they all get bundled into one category. Kids match certain schools better than others.”
Matching a child to a school is foremost in Perry’s mind when parents come to him inquiring about private school.
The Castillos said they quickly realized that an informal interview with a school headmaster or principal is a two-way process. With the high standards and limited number of places that private schools have, each party is evaluating the other.
“They made no bones about that,” Ernest says. “They wanted to meet us, and we could tell through the questions they asked that there was a more correct response that you could provide.”
“We had to wait before they let us know if we had a chance to be admitted. We will probably face that again (at the end of the school year). There is no such thing as a guarantee of admission just because you were there before. They re-evaluate you each year.”
Perry says a private school administrator projects each child’s success not so much by the parents, but by the child. Success in a private school, he says, “is more predictable by what kind of child the family has rather than by the family environment.”
“We had one boy who came from a family unit that was trouble, certainly far from ideal. He ended up making 1570 on the SAT and going to MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology). We have a lot of single parents.
“We look for the kid who is willing to work and who has a positive attitude about life in general. Those are the kind who do well. If a kid is upset about school and about the family situation, he or she probably will struggle wherever he or she goes to school.”
Getting In
After parents put the school to the test, the schools do the same to their applicants.
“They are tested using Texas standardized testing,” Perry says. “Then there’s an interview. Then we get their records, and then we have them write an essay. Most private schools do the same.”
The purpose of all this, Perry says, is to refine that matching process, and to keep the school’s educational standards high.
“We have about 250 pupils,” he says. “We could go to 300, and we would like to, but we do have selective admissions. Most private schools take about 60 percent of those who test. Some of the more elite schools, it’s my opinion, take a much smaller percentage.”
Because of the selective nature of admissions, parents have to start early to enroll their children in private school. The Castillos, for example, applied in February for the fall semester and were notified of the school’s decision in April.
“Parents have to start looking in January,” Perry says. “In the past, they could wait until April or May, but no longer.”
Where To Go For Help
To help parents with the array of options, help is available, such as the book, “A Guide to Dallas Private Schools” by Lynn Magid. It is available in local bookstores ($19.95) and at the Dallas Public Library.
The author lists and explains the various accrediting bodies and what their seal of approval means. She lists dozens of questions that parents should consider, from faculty credentials to transportation, on-site nursing, dress and conduct codes, special courses, waiting lists, discipline procedures, counseling, after- or before-school programs, expectation of parent participation, demographic profile of the student body, extracurricular activities such as sports and clubs (and how much extra those cost), emphasis on religious study, grading systems and educational philosophies.
Parents may consider hiring a consultant to guide them. For a free directory of educational consultants, contact the Independent Educational Consultant Association, P.O. Box 125, Forestdale, MA 02644, telephone (508) 477-2127.
As is the case with school shopping, parents should evaluate consultants before making a choice, asking for references, credentials, the names of schools and parents with whom they have consulted, and of course their fees.
