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Philadelphia is home to some of the oldest K-12 schools in the nation. Located strategically on the east coast on the main transportation routes between New York City and Washington, DC, Philadelphia itself offers a wealth of commercial and cultural activities for families. And if the city doesn't have what you are looking for, Delaware, New Jersey, and Maryland are just minutes away. The following school profiles spotlight private K-12 schools within 10 miles of Philadelphia. Of the 73 schools shown in the search results, I included schools which offer instruction up to Grade 12 and have a student population of over 200 in most cases.

Miles from Philadelphia: 6
Founded in 1968
Number of students: 123
Grades 9-12, day. Coeducational
Religious Affiliation: Christian
Student-teacher ratio: 11:1

The course catalog lists 5 AP courses. For complete details regarding curriculum, sports, extracurricular activities, costs, and other information, see the International Christian High School profile.

Miles from Philadelphia: 8.6
Founded in 1884
Number of students: 981
Grades PK-12, day. Boys
Religious Affiliation: Non-sectarian
Student-teacher ratio: 9:1

For complete details regarding curriculum, sports, extracurricular activities, costs, and other information, see The Haverford School profile.

Miles from Philadelphia: 0.3
Founded in 1689
Number of students: 971
Grades PK-12, day. Coeducational
Religious Affiliation: Quaker
Student-teacher ratio: 10:1

Despite your best efforts, in-depth interviews, and hours of due diligence, you begin to realize that the school that you thought was so perfect for your preschooler is, in fact, the wrong one. So, what do you do when things don't work out?

I have just been through this stressful situation with one of my grandchildren. (I won't mention which school or name names out of professional courtesy.) It was a gut-wrenching experience for my daughter and son-in-law, just as it would be for any set of concerned parents.

The warning signs

The warning signs of a bad fit are simple to detect: your child is unhappy. She comes home from school in tears, frustrated, or both. She doesn't look forward to going to school in the morning. The last thing any parent wants is a four-year-old who doesn't want to attend school. You won't necessarily notice that something is wrong. There probably won't be a big blow-up at school. What's more likely to happen is a series of little events over a period of several weeks, perhaps even months. An isolated incident of unhappiness is nothing to be worried about. A trend of daily episodes in which your child expresses frustration and unhappiness is definitely something you want to keep your eyes on.

This video illustrates some of the things that indicate your child is unhappy with his school.

What do you do?

Once

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 how things were done in the 18th and 19th centuries. Colleges and universities were also set up as single-sex institutions. For example, Harvard University 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 that educates boys or girls exclusively. As a general rule, classes will not be co-educational. On occasion, neighboring boys and girls schools with an established relationship will host co-educational classes.

What grades do single-sex schools offer? Typically, single-sex schools offer 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.

Are there different kinds of single-sex schools? Single-sex schools come in residential or boarding

Are you thinking about sending your child off to private school? Then, you must decide which educational philosophy and approach works best for you. What it comes down to is whether you want to send your child to a school that uses a traditional approach to teaching or one that uses a non-traditional approach.

In the public school world, a traditional school is a regular public school, and a non-traditional school is a charter school. That's not what I am discussing here concerning private schools. The concept of a private school as a mainly independent self-financing corporate entity does not change. You and I will focus on what is taught in the classroom and how it is prepared.

The early years

Your child's age is a significant factor in choosing an educational approach. For example, if you send him to a Montessori school as a toddler, you expose him to a non-traditional approach to education. It is an excellent approach and is highly regarded. But non-traditional nonetheless. Start your child off in a Montessori, Waldorf, or Reggio Emilia school, and you will lay a solid foundation for learning in later life. But visit a traditional private primary school, and you will see a quite different approach to early education.

The apparent difference will be the dress code. Uniforms are required at many traditional religious schools. The curricula follow traditional blocks of science, math, language arts, and social studies. Add religion if the school is a faith-based private school.

In 2000 choosing a private school was at a crossroads. Back then you had the traditional ways of finding schools and finding out more about them. You asked around. Personal recommendations from family and friends were an important starting point. Indeed they still are. Then you contacted schools you knew about and requested a catalog or brochures. You could also buy a print directory of private schools, if indeed one was available. (I still have a vintage copy of The New York Times Guide to New York City Schools written by Grace and Fred Hechinger published in 1968.) And you could always hire an educational consultant. Researching schools was fairly labor intensive. It also took time.

It is remarkable how all that has changed in just a few short years. First schools adopted web sites as their primary means of reaching families world-wide. The transition from the printed materials to the digital media took time as there was a certain amount of worry about whether or not the web would reach families. As we adopted the web for just about all our day-to-day activities such as banking and shopping, looking for private schools on the web just made great sense. It is so easy and convenient.

Knowing what to look for and where to look

I think that the toughest part about finding anything on the web is filtering out all