So what kind of education is your child getting?

amother

Jade

Mon, May 22 2023, 3:23 am

amother OP wrote:

Thank you so much for your reply. It gives me a lot of validation.

I come from a very small community outside of the US and I know all the options in my own hometown in and out. I don’t want to say what it is because it will probably out me right away.

I am not exploring any particular area at the moment. The question is rather, do I even move just for school alone or am I going to face the same issues in other schools too?

Ideally I would send to separate gender yeshivish schools, but I have never lived in a place with a huge choice of schools for shomer shabbes families (yeshivish or MO).

The reason why I posted this thread was to find out if my expectations are realistic. So far I see that they are, even though some of these things may be missing in some particular schools.

Fluent Hebrew is not a dealbreaker, it’s just something I threw in there. Not a must.

I also live in a small community outside the US and I totally get your question. I ask myself similar questions so the time. My kids go to public schools and while I'm very happy with their secular education, their kodesh education is really lacking and it's difficult to fill in. It's a real pain, and we often wonder if we should move to an area with better Jewish schools. However many of them (around here) don't meet my standards for secular subjects.
My kids cannot daven freely 😥
Their Hebrew is alright though
They're lacking in in-depth Jewish knowledge
They have excellent academic skills in secular subject
We definitely do not have a school that ticks all the boxes.
I believe this is the curse of living in a tiny community.

amother

Yarrow

Mon, May 22 2023, 3:55 am

amother OP wrote:

I think it would really help for you to visit schools and see what people are talking about. One person's idea of great academic standards might be much higher or lower than yours.

As a general rule, in the US, the MO schools are more professionally run and have a significantly higher standard of limudei chol, and spend much less time in limudei kodesh. They are also much more expensive than schools further to the right. (These are generalizations , of course.)

You'll also have to think about whether your home life matches the religious standards of the school. First, because some schools will enforce it, and second, because in big communities, there's enough demand to create schools for very narrow demographic groups. Being even slightly "off" may be hard on your kids. (No, it shouldn't be that way. But often it is.)

I admire.you for putting your children's education at the top of your priority list.

amf

Mon, May 22 2023, 6:05 am

amother Cinnamon wrote:

Higher scores? Maybe in Yiddish! Definitely not higher scores in secular subjects..not even close.

They absolutely do. Take NYS regents as an example. Jewish kids average around a grade of 80. PS kids have a failing average. That means more PS kids fail than pass, and these are tests designed to make you pass! Most frum kids who take them score above 75, by contrast.
In most yeshivas/BY schools you'll be hard-pressed to find a failing majority.

banana123

Mon, May 22 2023, 6:56 am

I'm on team reporter searching for material for an article. Not afraid to say it under my screenname. And I'm not saying it because of the level of OP's English, or because she split her post into paragraphs.

I've read the whole thread and unless I am very wrong, it screams "article research."

But kudos, OP, you've done very well covering it up.

amother

Ecru

Mon, May 22 2023, 9:16 am

amf wrote:

Agree. If you take average public school education as a baseline my kids schools are doing amazing. Many here are trying to compare a typical frum school to high end private schools that generally have lots of $$ & only high performing students. Most frum schools are very tight on resources & have students of different abilities so they tend to fall somewhere in between.

keym

Mon, May 22 2023, 10:45 am

I just want to comment about one piece that you said- teachers coming late and being absent.
Across the US, and especially in the frum communities, since Corona, there's a massive daycare/childcare shortage.
Practically that means parents are taking off or can't go back to work after maternity leave because they can't find childcare or the babysitter calls in sick and there is no replacement.
My kids teachers are absent, more than they'd like to be because they can't go to work if they don't have a babysitter. They'll trade off with their spouse, bring a healthy preschooler to school, but sometimes they are absent or can't go back to work after their maternity leave because there are no babysitters.

amother

Mon, May 22 2023, 10:48 am

keym wrote:

I meant teachers being late/ not showing up unexpectedly.

amother

Molasses

Mon, May 22 2023, 10:51 am

banana123 wrote:

I disagree with you completely. She (he?) hasn’t done very well covering it up at all.

keym

Mon, May 22 2023, 10:59 am

amother OP wrote:

I meant teachers being late/ not showing up unexpectedly.

What does unexpected mean?
My childs teacher was absent one day last week. Her child was sick (or possibly the babysitter was sick and couldn't find a sub). Her husband took off from work on Tuesday and she stated home on Wednesday.
We weren't informed in advance.
The floating sub took over the class for half the day and the principal took over the other half.

Am I thrilled? Of course not. In my dream world, every teacher always comes.
But this is realistic life.
It was when I was a kid, it's happening to my kids. And it happens everywhere.

amother

Steelblue

Mon, May 22 2023, 11:02 am

Some of you are sooo paranoid its comical.

I teach in a chassidish school. No english is taught. Im a speech therapist and am constantly harassed by principal not to let my students read english. She told me her goal is to one day not have any chol being spoken in her school. They dont have any english teachers and the kodesh teachers leave at 12.

Im only here because the agency pays somewhat better than other typical schools.

amother

Mon, May 22 2023, 11:03 am

keym wrote:

I mean, when people just don’t come without advance notice.

amother

Lightgray

Mon, May 22 2023, 11:06 am

I did not read the whole thread, and whether op is a team reporter or not, I wish to somehow answer her original question.
I live in one of the main tristate area community (and not originally from here) and have boys and girls in elementary and highschool as well as a dd and ds who already graduated.
I am extremely satisfied witb the level of education my dcs are receiving. Yes, they are able to understand davening and chumash very well once they reach high school and probably even before. They received a very high level education in all limudei kodesh subjects. My two dcs who have already graduated were fluent in hebrew after their year in israel (the fact that we afe sefardi was also helpful since they were familiar with the proper israeli pronunciation, but they had a solid hebrew level from school).
In limudei chol, the girls received a higher level of education, are taking regents and expected to do well. Dd who graduated is working towards a degree and doing very well.
Ds in beis medrash is taking online courses and also doing well.
Both dh and I value education, we chose our childrens school accordingly and are on top of homework. If a child is having difficulties, we take care of it right away. I think our attitude has a lot to do with our childrens success too.

keym

Mon, May 22 2023, 11:08 am

amother OP wrote:

I mean, when people just don’t come without advance notice.

Again, whats advance notice? An hour? A day? A week?
And notice to who? Their principal or supervisor? Or to the parent body?
And how frequently are these absences? Once a week or each teacher twice a semester?

Look, could be your school is incredibly disorganized.
Or could be your expectations are unreasonable.

I can't tell in the short comments.

mha3484

Mon, May 22 2023, 11:14 am

I am not paranoid and I am happy to talk about my kids school. I have boys in pre1a, lower elementary and Middle school so a whole spectrum of elementary education. I just don't know if its even relevant so why write a long post.

If your interested in living the Midwest, my boys can learn independently from 3rd grade on. They take all state standardized tests they get a pretty decent secular education although the middle school years could use improvement. But the yeshiva is trying its just hard finding good teachers for 6-8th boys.

I find the school to be very professional but its largely run by men they communicate differently. It not bad its just different then what I am used to so I am proactive. The hanhala is very responsive when you have a concern.

I feel like the school has to accommodate a wide range of families you likely wont love 100% of what goes on. But if you can be 85% happy that's great. Its what I aim for when I am evaluating my kids experience.

amother

Ecru

Mon, May 22 2023, 12:01 pm

amother Steelblue wrote:

I'm very chasidish. Satmar, very familiar with the insular communities & I've never heard of a school not teaching chol.

amother

Mon, May 22 2023, 12:13 pm

keym wrote:

I have no idea what’s happening.
But sometimes the teacher just doesn’t show up and not like he or she told anymore in advance, so there is no sub. Or maybe they emailed someone and the email went unnoticed. The result is noone is there and there is no sub.

keym

Mon, May 22 2023, 12:14 pm

amother OP wrote:

And what?
There is just no adult in the classroom the whole day?
How old?