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A Parent’s Guide to ²ÝÁñÉçÇø School Entrance Exams

There are many reasons why a private, independent, or boarding school could be an excellent option for your child.

• ²ÝÁñÉçÇø schools typically offer thrilling academic challenges, extensive STEM or arts programs, or other remarkable resources.
• Their student-teacher ratios are low.
• Their faculty usually have advanced academic degrees and strong professional reputations.

About 10 percent of students attend private schools nationwide.

• ²ÝÁñÉçÇø school admissions tend to be selective and in many cases competitive.
• To help distinguish applicants who meet admission standards, private schools use standardized testing.
• The Independent School Entrance Exam (ISEE) and Secondary School Admissions Exam (SSAT) are the most commonly used admissions tests for private, independent, and boarding schools.
• The High School Placement Test (HSPT) is often used by Catholic schools for entrance into grade 9.

The ISEE and SSAT are long multiple-choice tests lasting 2-3 hours and potentially covering above-grade-level content.

• For the 4^th grader applying to a private middle school, this might be the first time they have undergone two hours of solid testing with only one or two short breaks.
• The best starting point is always to have your student take a full-length diagnostic test.
• It’s important to know where your child is starting from so that you can help them get to where they need to be.

This video offers an overview of the ISEE private school standardized admissions test.

Scholarship Tax Credit ProgramsSchool choice has been a fact in American K-12 education since 1989. That year the State of Wisconsin passed a voucher program which aimed to help students from low-income families in Milwaukee. Since then 39 states have established school choice programs. Depending on the state, school choice programs have expanded to include educational savings accounts, tax credit scholarships, and individual tax credit/deduction which parents can use to send their children to a private school.

Most states also allow parents to transfer their children from underperforming public schools to higher-performing public schools. In addition, many states have permitted the establishment of charter schools as one more alternative to an underperforming public school. Because allocating taxpayer funding to educational resources other than public schools is controversial, numerous legal challenges have been filed. Depending on the state, you will see a variety of workarounds including the afore-mentioned educational savings accounts, tax credit scholarships, and individual tax credits/deductions.

According to the American Federation for Children, the following states now have some form of funding for school choice program. In fact, several states offer several educational choice options. For the latest information https://www.federationforchildren.org/

Other resources include Noodle which has assembled a useful to the various educational choice

When you think of single-sex education as a choice or an option when you are thinking about sending your child to private school, the subject becomes a little easier to understand in the 21st century. Historically private schools have offered single-sex education for decades. Indeed many of our older K-12 schools were founded with the purpose of educating boys or girls separately. That's the way things were done back in the 18th and 19th centuries. Colleges and universities were also set up as single-sex institutions. For example, was an all-male university until 1977 when its sister college, Radcliffe, merged with it.

Characteristics of single-sex schools

How do we define a single-sex school? By definition, a single-sex school is a school which educates boys or girls exclusively. As a general rule classes will not be co-educational. On occasion, neighboring boys and girls schools which have an established relationship will host co-educational classes.

What grades do single-sex schools offer? Typically single-sex schools are high schools offering grades 9 through 12 and a Post Graduate year where available. A handful of single-sex schools offer the middle school grades 6 through 9. Even fewer schools offer PK-12. You will also notice that middle school grades go up to grade 9 and high school begins with grade 9 as well. Actually, grade 10 is probably the most common entry point for private high schools. That’s one reason for the overlap of the grades.

There are several different kinds of

When planning your children's summer, you give yourself two gifts. The first is engaged, active, happy children. The second gift is the comfort of knowing that you are expanding their knowledge in an informal, supervised learning situation.

When I was growing up, my parents decamped every summer from Montreal to Woodlands, on the shores of Lac Saint Louis about 30 miles west of the city. They rented a cottage across the road from the lake. We took swimming and sailing lessons at the Woodlands Yacht Club and helped with the large garden, which provided vegetables and flowers during the short Canadian summer. It was idyllic and safe. The routine was pleasant and predictable. My parents were not wealthy. In the 1950s, a lower-middle-class family of seven could make summers like the ones I described above happen for a meager cost. Fast forward to the 21st century, that's essentially what the summer camps and summer schools that have sprung up over the past forty years do, namely, to provide an activity-filled day in a safe, well-supervised environment.

The most important caveat when selecting a summer program is to make certain that you understand all the aspects involved. Know everything about the quality of the activities, the supervision, snacks and meals, and all the other details. Assume nothing. Most schools and churches that run summer camps will be happy to answer your questions.

Now, let's look at options available at various age levels.

Elementary grades

Let's assume that your children's