I received an email from Anne Gassel, one of our partners here, after the post on the end of course kerfuffle being experienced by at least one private school in Florida. She made some interesting comments about the impact assessments could have with Florida’s private schools.
With her permission I’m sharing her thoughts here:
Thinking about the overall impact of this.
1. Could incentivize parents to put kids back in the public system for fear that their work in private schools will not be recognized. This would overload a public system that has, to date, counted on the private system taking some kids off their hands.
2. Some parents would be willing to “risk” staying in private schools so long as such a move does not prevent their kids from getting into college. The colleges’ response to this ruling would be crucial. Would they be willing to accept alternative tests/scores from students in private schools for admissions?
a) If yes, then there is little impact of this legislation, other than another parallel system will have to be developed to recognize and rank private school students.
b) If no, and they in essence support public school credits/assessment scores only for admission, what will happen to the caliber of student they admit? Most colleges readily accept private school students because they have a history of being superiorly prepared for the rigors of the college coursework. They also tend to do very well upon graduation making them exactly the kind of alumnae colleges want – someone whose success they can claim some credit for and someone whose pocket has money in it to donate. And think of the current alums who came from those private schools whose progeny cannot get into their alma mater. That will not help donations either. If they don’t think of some way to accommodate these students they will be shooting themselves in the fiscal foot. “Someone” should make them aware of this dynamic.