"Which is the best school in ______?"
Parents looking for private schools ask these questions all the time. Everybody thinks that there has to be a report somewhere ranking private schools. But there isn't. The data is available but not in any form which is easily accessible to you and me. It's rather like using the online home listings to find a home. The basic data is there. The pictures and the descriptions are appealing but how accurate are they? Only a visit and close inspection of each property will answer those questions and confirm or negate your initial assessment. It's the same sort of process with choosing a private school.
Here are three reasons why ranking schools doesn't matter when it comes to selecting the right private school for your child.
1. Each School Is Unique.
Ranking anything is about comparing characteristics and data. With private schools we can compare things like the grades offered, the number of students, tuition costs, the number of AP courses taught, educational philosophy, and so on. Statistical information and data about 29,000 private schools is available on the National Center for Education Statistics. The NCES database is not particularly user-friendly and the results can be misleading too depending on how individual schools have entered their data.
Private School Review and its sister site, Boarding School Review, have complete listings of the K-12 schools most of us are looking for. Petersons.com focuses on about 1,500 private schools. Both these sites are easy to search using several basic criteria like zip code, type of school, grades offered, etc.
Unfortunately the availability of all this data sidesteps the important fact that each private school is unique. For example, say you are looking for Montessori schools. Each Montessori school is individually owned and operated. While its approach may be Montessori in a general sense, the way the school is run and how the classes function is something the director of that particular school decides. It will not be the same as the Montessori school around the corner. Each school is unique.
If we agree that each private school is unique, then can we also agree that it is futile to try to rank them? After all, what would we be ranking anyway?
2. Fit Is the Most Important Choice Criterion.
Most educational consultants will tell you that the most important criterion in choosing a private school is how the school fits. What do we mean by fit? To understand that, you have to circle back to the beginning of the process when you decided what characteristics and features your ideal school should have. The schools which provide the closest match to all the things you were looking for are the schools which might be a good fit. You must visit and inspect each school to determine more accurately which school is the best fit.
What about test scores? Don't they give some indication as to which school is better than another? First of all, private schools don't divulge that test scores. Nor are they required to. They are private schools. Test scores like all the other student data are kept confidential and private. Secondly, what do the test scores really represent? That depends on what the test is and what it is being used for.
What about acceptance ratios? Now you are getting warm. A selective school by definition is a school which has more applicants than it has places to offer. A school which enjoys a good reputation will be high on every parent's list. But that doesn't necessarily mean that it is the best school for your child. Assuming that your child has what the school is looking for, if, after visiting the school, it doesn't feel like a good fit, it probably isn't.
So, if you agree that fit is the most important criterion for choosing a private school, ranks don't matter.
3. Comparing Schools Is More Important Than Ranking Schools.
If you have followed our reasoning so far, then the idea that comparing schools is more important than ranking schools should begin to make sense. Comparing the class size from one school to another, for example, is useful especially if plenty of individual attention is something you want in a school. Comparing tuition is important for most of us as it impacts how much financial aid we need to ask for. Indeed, comparing financial aid packages from one school to another could determine your final choice if everything else fits.
The uniqueness of each school, the way each school fits with your needs and requirements, and how each one compares with the others are three reasons why ranking schools doesn't matter when it comes to choosing the best private school for your child.