What To Know About School Choice And The 5 Different Types Of Schools
Reading Time: 7 minutes What To Know About School Choice And The 5 Different Types Of Schools
If you are not homeschooling, what school choices do you have? What are the differences between Public, Private, Charter/Magnet, Montessori and Waldorf schools?
There are many schooling options for parents to send their children. Each type of school has different requirements for both faculty and staff, philosophies, benefits and disadvantages. This article is not meant to persuade you to find one over another better. It is to inform you of what each does so that you can narrow the choices available to you to match the needs of your child.
This article is intended to briefly explain the options available to you and the philosophy, advantages, disadvantages of each.
What is school choice?
School choice can be as basic as “open borders” so you can send your child to any public school in your district to receiving vouchers to send your child to private schools. Arizona legislature just passed a law for private school vouchers. In this article, I am referring to school choice as you, the parent, get to send your child to a school. What are the types of school that are available for you to choose between?
Public Schools: These are government created and tax and public supported. The intention is to provide every child within the United States a quality education. Teachers must have appropriate certifications. Schools must meet and teach specific standards. Students are not required to pay tuition. Schools must meet every physical and mental challenge within the student population and support that costs associated with these.
Private Schools: These included many different types of private schools. There are non profit and profit private schools. Some schools may have a secular curriculum, while others are non secular. Boarding schools are a type of private school. Private schools receive no government funding. In most cases, students must pay a tuition to attend. Private schools are not obligated to certification, programming or service requirements of public schools. This means that it is up to the private school if their teachers are certified and what type of curriculum and how it will be followed. It also means that if your child needs any special services, like Speech Therapy, the privates schools to not have to offer it. None of this means they don’t have special services or certified teachers, it simply means if this is important to you, you need to ask.
Charter Schools: These operate like quasi-public schools. A charter school, however, does not have to provide services for every population or need like a public school does. The also do not have to hire certified teachers or meet specific standards the way a public school does. A charter school can be started by anyone. The school is based on meeting an educational interest or need. Or the charter can be a way it teaches. The review board will then only grant funds as long as the charter is meeting the goals that were approved in the original granting of the charter. An example of a charter school could be Experiential Learning or Music Based Learning. These schools would develop an entire plan describing how their students would learn according to their method, experiential or music based. If the review board finds the schools are having success and doing what they stated in the original application for charter, they will continue to get tax or public funds for the school. Because charter schools receive public funds and are considered a type of public school, students do not pay to attend a charter school. *In my opinion, this was the first step parents took to ensuring an education more tailored for their children, while maintaining a certain set of standards and keeping education free.
Grab this freebie and create unique traditions today!
Creating Deeper Family Connections
Amidst the “Crazy”
10 Unique ideas to start and build lasting traditions
- I have done all of them
- I asked my boys what we did that meant a lot to them: this is what they said
- #10 is a tear jerker, get out the tissue, but every mom says she is so glad she knows about it, as it was the most important to begin.
Magnet Schools: I feel the line between charter and magnet schools is very thin. When I looked up the difference between the two, the only factors I saw were that a magnet school seemed to cater to talented and gifted children and that the magnet schools had waitlists because they are in high demand. I have to argue that a well run and needed charter school will meet a niche in the student population and will also have a waitlist. The charter can also challenge students, so it is not a situation where the charter is “dummied” down and the magnet is superior. When I lived in Eugene, OR, there were three charter schools that taught either Spanish, French or (I believe) Mandarin half of the day and English the other half. Students who began the school in kindergarten were hoped to be fluent by 8th grade. All of the schools had waitlists, challenged the children, were the schools everyone wanted to get into and were still a type of public school.
Montessori School: Montessori is more of a philosophy than an actual school type. I would classify it under Magnet, Charter or Private depending on how it is run. Montessori classrooms are based on three year segments. The students stay with the same teacher for those three years. The entire philosophy of Montessori is that children are curious and are natural learners, we just need to encourage this innate desire for knowledge. Classrooms are set up to be hands on. The child’s individual interests are encouraged. This way a child can grow and educate themself in areas that they want to learn. Teacher certification is a specific Montessori Instructor training as long as you have a Bachelor’s degree. Some sites specified the Bachelor’s degree had to be in Early Childhood Education.
Waldorf School: Like Montessori, Waldorf is a philosophy. All Waldorf schools are set up as non profits. I believe that makes them all private schools. While Montessori takes the child in three year segments, Waldorf looks at the child’s education in seven year segments. The first seven years is about physicality. All lessons must be done through activity to engage these learners. The following seven years are dedicated to emotional development and engaging the imagination. It is not until after age 14 that pure intellectual material enters the curriculum. Waldorf teachers tend to stay with the students 5-8 years to develop long lasting relationships, accurately assess development and help children feel safe about their learning environment. Certification for Waldorf teachers is also specialized. It first requires Anthroposophy and the Arts then Waldorf teacher training targeted to the age group you will have.
*The main difference between Waldorf and Montessori is Waldorf teaches through a child’s imagination and fantasy and places a heavy emphasis on artistic teaching. Montessori teaches more through real life experiences.
Home School: There are as many ways to homeschool as there are different types of schools to send your child. Homeschooling falls into a different category than parents looking for somewhere to send their children. If you want to read about the different homeschooling options available to you: “The 5 Best Homeschool Choices for Your Family.”
On a personal note, Waldorf and Montessori have a “long game” philosophy. If you sign your child up for either of these, please have a discussion with the administrator about what to expect each year. In the public school, the children will be doing a different schedule with a different skill set. Your children may compare themselves or you may compare your child to others, it is good to know what is expected and by when and what will be learned at the end. I had two moms, in the public school, who took their children out at the beginning of the year only to bring them back in the Spring. Their reasons were both the same, “their children had not learned anything.” And, to be honest, according to where we were in our standards in sixth grade, the two girls had not grown in skill level at all. However, I do not know what standards were being taught at the schools they were enrolled in. I do not know what the ramifications of being enrolled in October in sixth grade vs. August in Kindergarten are in programs like Montessori and Waldorf. And I do not know what they were being taught. If they had both been enrolled in a Waldorf school, then the focus would have been emotional and imagination. Those two girls may have learned a lot about Social Emotional Learning, something that, at that time, was not even a blip on the radar in the public schools. I am just saying, know what to expect.
My intention with this article is NOT to say one type of school is better than another. There are differences between Public, Private, Charter, Montessori and Waldorf schools. I truly believe that the type of school that is best is entirely dependent upon your child and your home life. I simply want you to be aware of the many choices available to you.
Good luck finding the “right” school choice for you and your family!
“No one has my colossal intellect!”
~Orson from The Ice Age: Adventures of Buck Wild