Picking a Private School

LET’S SAY YOU’VE DECIDED THAT, FOR ONE REASON OR ANOTHER, YOU WANT TO SEND YOUR CHILD TO A PRIVATE SCHOOL. NEXT DECISION: WHICH ONE?

By Barry Levine

For Union County parents, there are more than five dozen private schools of various kinds, each with different approaches, resources, costs, student composition and other factors. Deciding which one to choose can itself be like preparing for a final exam - and your child’s school experience is your final grade.

“I always tell parents - who, of course, want the ‘best school’ for their child - that the ‘best school’ is one that best fits their child,” says Linda Moore, executive director of the New Jersey Association of Independent Schools (NJAIS), which represents and accredits about 70 not-for-profit schools in the state. (The other major
accrediting association for private schools is the Middle States Association of Colleges and Schools.)

The first step to finding the “best fit” is, of course, understanding the kind of young person your child is, and what he or she needs. This is possibly the hardest task, and likely the most essential. Unlike public schools, which are structured to accommodate the diversity of the general population, private schools are each geared toward a given approach, a specific identity that may or may not fit your child.

“Some independent schools emphasize high academics, some a more nurturing atmosphere,” Moore says. “Some are progressive, and others are more traditional.”

And the first place to find out what the school intends to emphasize, she points out, is in the school’s mission statement, which is often found on the school’s Web site.

For example, the mission statement for the Solomon Schechter Day School, which has campuses in Cranford as well as in Essex County’s West Orange, states that the school teaches “our students to live joyously as knowledgeable Jews, committed to a personal relationship with God within rigorous study of texts, Hebrew literacy, observing mitzvoth [good deeds] and a love of Israel.”

“A well-rounded environment and academic excellence,” it continues, “encourage our students to be intellectually curious, analytical and independent thinkers; to contribute to the advancement of the arts and sciences; and to serve proudly as citizens and leaders of their communities.”

A private school offers a high-quality curriculum, asserts Ellen Greenspan, assistant director of admissions at SSDS, reflecting the academic emphasis of most private schools. “In 2004, our seniors had the highest combined SAT scores in New Jersey and 100% of the class goes to college.” This kind of testing and college placement success is, of course, a key reason that many parents look for a private school, especially for middle and high schools, and a school’s testing and placement success can be a factor in any parent’s decision.

SSDS’s mission reflects another key factor for many parents, that of a religious-based education. For SSDS, says Greenspan, that religious basis is the core of “values-based education.”

“In the case of religious schools, of course, the values are consistent with that religious branch,” Greenspan says, “but the values are based on being a part of a close-knit community. Public schools don’t have the same kind of community.”

Mother Seton Regional High School in Clark, a Catholic secondary school for girls, similarly seeks a religious values-based environment for its student body, “to prepare the student to fully embrace contemporary Christian lifestyles...and to challenge her to strive for personal excellence and responsible citizenship.”

The school specifically sets the female student’s self-worth as a key goal, according to their published information. “We prepare young women to succeed,” the school notes, “but the Catholic educator’s definition of ‘success’ is special. The successful woman knows and cherishes herself, and carries with her a solid set of Christian values with which to assess the many choices that confront her. Above all, she faces the world with the firm conviction that, no matter what level of worldly ‘success’ she achieves, she is a unique creation of God with a special contribution to make.”

Founded in 1963, Mother Seton is a high school of the Archdiocese of Newark and is staffed by the Sisters of Charity of Convent Station, New Jersey and lay faculty members. As the physical resources of a given school are, of course, another key consideration for parents, Mother Seton emphasizes that the two-story building, located on 27 acres, is a fully equipped modern facility.

Other factors besides academic and religious-based education, or physical resources, can be important. Donna Venezia Toryak, director of admissions at Mount Saint Mary Academy in Watchung, says that, in addition to looking over a school’s mission statement, parents might ask such specific questions as:

Will your child feel more at home in a large school, a small school, on a co-ed campus, or one that is single-sex?
Will he or she want to board or attend school closer to home?
Will it be a home away from home from pre-K to grade 12, or will there be a switch as the time comes for high school?

And, or course, tuition...athletics, activities and college placement.

Rarely, she notes, is religion “an issue in terms of admissions, as private schools do not discriminate on the basis of race, color, creed, national or ethnic origin,” although, of course, a child of a different religion might feel uncomfortable in a school centered around that religion.

“While some parents may seek a faith-based environment to enrich their son or daughter’s spiritual life,” she continues, “others find the non-religious atmosphere more comfortable.”

Her school, Mount Saint Mary Academy, is a Catholic secondary school located on 84 acres in Watchung. Founded by the Sisters of Mary of New Jersey, it is “committed to academic excellence with special concern for women...in a Christian atmosphere of love and caring.”

The issue of co-education or single-gender school is a critical one for girls and boys. At Oak Knoll School of the Holy Child, located on 9 acres in Summit, the solution is part co-educational, part single-gender. The Lower School (K-6) is coed, while the Upper School (grades 7-12) is for young women only.

“Educational research confirms,” notes the school, “that this organization-coeducational classrooms in elementary grades and single-sex in secondary grades — offers many benefits, especially to young women.”

Kent Place School in Summit offers a similar, single-gender environment for girls, but in a nonsectarian setting. Its nursery and Pre-K classes are co-ed, but all other grades-primary through upper school-are single-gender. Its literature emphasizes another key factor that parents often take into consideration in their search-the quality
of the faculty and the student-teacher ratio, which, at Kent Place, is 7:1.

Oratory Prep School in Summit also emphasizes a single-gender, Catholic-based education for grades 7 to 12— but for boys. Founded in 1907 as the Carlton Academy, the school’s founding philosophy of academic excellence in a religious atmosphere is enhanced by its ideal of a “family atmosphere... of an expanded home whose discipline shall be parental,” with an “accent on the individual.”

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