All Articles tagged high-school.

Families change schools for a variety of reasons at different ages and grade levels. The most common reasons include aging out, relocating, leapfrogging, or not recontracting with your current school. Indeed there’s some overlap between these four categories.

From an admissions perspective, the most common entry points for day schools are Preschool, Kindergarten, 6th grade and 9th grade. And sometimes 5th grade and 7th grade depending on the school and region. Boarding schools differ a bit with 9th and 10th grades as common entry points in the US, whereas the 8th-grade equivalent is the most typical entry point in the UK (their Year 9).

While the most typical admissions cycle starts in the fall and comes to closure in the winter and spring, admissions, in fact, happens all year long. Circumstances change for both families and schools at various points across the calendar year. Families move. Targeted needs come to light. Disenchantment sets in. Counseling out occurs. For all of these reasons, Faya and I remain engaged in strategic school planning throughout the calendar year, which includes near daily conversation and creative problem solving with our clients and various school professionals, including heads of school, division heads, admissions directors, school psychologists, school learning specialists, and trustee members.

Aging Out

From an aging out perspective, we’re typically targeting entry for Kindergarten, 6th grade or 9th grade. While most of our clients prioritize independent and boarding schools, we also help families with their public school exploration and competitive entry processes when applicable. In New York City, the most competitive public school processes are related to Hunter College Campus Schools, Specialized High Schools, and Screened Schools.

These admissions tests – ISEE, SSAT, and SHSAT – are serious business. They are intended to skew well above grade level, thus all students require a lot of new instruction and accelerated instruction to take them through their current grade level and well beyond. For K-12 day schools and junior boarding schools, a student applying to grade 6 ought to start formalized preparation by December or January of their 4th grade year. A student applying to grade 9 ought to start formalized preparation by December or January of their 7th grade year.

A 4th grader with an eye toward 6th grade will encounter content through grade 7. A 7th grader with an eye toward 9th grade will encounter content through grade 10. Before advancing to the above grade level content, we first need to be sure that foundational content and prerequisite skills are mastered, which requires a longer runway than many families imagine, especially in a climate of grade inflation where report cards may not tell the whole story. It may not seem fair, but it’s the reality, and every year plenty of students crush it creating an immensely competitive landscape.

While test scores may or may not be the first data point that schools look at, it’s certainly in the top 3 for any schools that require testing. Inevitably, for most of our students, at least one or more schools on the working list requires standardized testing, so we might as well aim to crush it and showcase those scores at any schools that remain test optional as an important differentiator to erase any doubt about academic achievement.

Our boys have particularly tough competition. Because we have several all boys day schools that end after 8th grade, as well as all boys junior boarding schools, we have an influx of male applicants for 9th grade, thus 7th grade matters a lot. And our 8th grade boys – from an attention and executive function perspective – are predictably the least likely to want to slow down and work systematically, especially on math items, which results in mistakes. The gift of time, patience, structure, and steady pacing benefits all of our students, and particularly our boys.

Relocating

Every year, we have the pleasure of working with families migrating to or from NYC. Various pulls and pushes are at play, including a parent’s professional opportunities, personal family matters, geopolitics, environmental factors, cost management, and lifestyle preferences. Most typically we encounter clients being relocated for work, which has recently included moves to/from New York City, Miami, Los Angeles, San Francisco, London, Singapore, Dubai, Abu Dhabi, and Paris. When our clients are pursuing a move across the country or the globe, we facilitate differently, which includes managing scheduling and logistics with local schools. Families often need to limit the number of trips they’re taking, so our partnerships with schools help to consolidate tour dates and maximize scheduling cohesion. Outside of NYC, as appropriate, we also leverage our professional relationships with local consultant partners.

While some families are intent on making a move, a number of families each year simply explore an alternate destination for comparative purposes or to proactively organize a Plan B as a hedge against any unwanted shifts geopolitically. Should a situation arise that requires a geographic pivot, we have families who simply want to be well informed and ready. To that end, many of our clients hold multiple passports, residency visas, and/or a Golden Visa, which helps to ease international migration.

Separate from any doomsday planning, we also have families each year who either question the value of tuition for US day schools or boarding schools and wonder if the quality of the instructional experience is really worth it, or they are seeking school environments that they perceive to be safer or in better alignment with their family’s values. Families in doubt often pivot to the UK, where we work closely with our local partners to pursue elite preparatory school and boarding school placements. This year, for example, we secured competitive acceptances at these schools: Harrow, Winchester College, Tonbridge School, Radley College, Cheltenham Ladies’ College, Charterhouse, and Brighton College among others. While certain elite schools traditionally follow a GCSE and A-Levels progression, we also have a category of competitive schools that offer an IB Diploma for families who strongly prefer that tracking. Either way, our students are extremely well positioned for competitive US, UK or European college admissions.

In the UK, our clients typically focus on about four schools because: 1) the processes are complex, and 2) stage 2 interview and assessment processes are entirely unique to each school, thus requiring a tremendous amount of backmapping for preparation and meeting deadlines. Starting by 4th grade in the United States (Year 5 in the UK) is the most traditional approach. We can certainly start later, and the UK schooling world understands that Americans typically come forward as late as 6th or 7th grade, but it makes for an intensive and compressed process for students and parents. Starting earlier is better when possible, and while they don’t lean into any streamlining, our strong partnership with local and connected experts makes the process entirely manageable; we have, to date, been 100% successful when it comes to offers at UK elite schools via the late application route.

Leapfrogging

Some admissions directors refer to leapfrogging as “jumping” from one school to another. That naturally raises this question for us: Are you jumping or being pushed? How you answer this question creates a possible overlap with our fourth category, not recontracting.

While Preschool, Kindergarten, 6th grade, and 9th grade are the most typical entry points for most NYC day schools and boarding schools, school shifts can happen at any point along the way. Applications for atypical entry points are based on attrition, which means that another student needs to be exiting the grade in order for the school to consider a new applicant. In these instances, a school may require a full application or just an inquiry form in order to be in queue for consideration. But these processes often fall out of sync with the typical fall admissions season because schools may not learn of an opening until after their annual recontracting has been finalized. In coed schools, there’s an attempt to keep a gender balance, too, so whether or not there’s an available spot that corresponds with the student’s gender becomes another possible obstacle.

There are many reasons for leapfrogging, which include: 1) disenchantment, 2) academic doubt (no longer appropriately challenging), and 3) irreconcilable differences. The unavoidable truth is that every school has families dying to get in as well as a percentage of families who become disenchanted for one reason or another and want out. Similarly, every school has families who desperately want to stay in but the school is ready to move them along. Like any relationship, schools and families can move from lovefest to falling out of love, and there’s a continuum of friction and urgency in which this falling out occurs. “We’ve outgrown you and we’re moving on with gratitude for the experience we’ve had” is one stance. To the opposite end, “You’ve wronged us and breached our trust” is yet another unfortunate stance, and it can occur in either direction initiated by the family or by the school. Increasingly, social fallout is the driving force as a student no longer feels a sense of belonging or camaraderie. And it’s always been possible that a student’s targeted needs no longer fall within the school’s mission, faculty expertise, or internal resources, which can happen as early as age 3 or 4.

When leapfrogging, it’s best to explore a new school during the fall admissions season in order to shore up having the maximum number of options available to you. But often leapfrogging is initiated just before or after spring break at the point of recontracting and paying a deposit for the upcoming school year. In January, February, or March, schools either communicate concern about recontracting and start a probationary period or put families on notice that they do not intend to recontract. During this same timeframe, families may second guess their commitment to the current school community or otherwise feel compelled to initiate a late admissions process. The later into the winter, spring, or summer terms this planning commences, the more challenging it can be to secure multiple options, and later processes require more flexibility and open-mindedness; however, this necessary flexibility and open-mindedness is in direct conflict with a fight or flight response.

Ideally, a family with any doubt about the sustainability of their school placement would come forward early. Participating in the regular fall admissions season maximizes your opportunity to tee up a possible pivot in a proactive and organized way while simultaneously addressing the immediate concerns with hopes of turning the beat around. This approach offers the luxury of time to monitor progress in the current school setting while exploring whether or not the “grass is greener” elsewhere. If compelled to proceed with a school change at the point of recontracting, then we have the process appropriately underway. And if the situation has resolved itself and a school change no longer seems prudent, then we can easily withdraw applications and know that a decision has been made from an informed and intentional place.

Not Recontracting

There is considerable overlap between Leapfrogging and Not Recontracting. Is the leapfrogging a voluntary or involuntary withdrawal from your current school? If it’s voluntary, is it truly voluntary? A lot happens behind closed doors at independent schools. As strongly and proudly as schools message that they’re an inclusive community, there are breaking points and clear lines. The obvious breaking points surround disciplinary action and academic integrity matters. The less obvious breaking points surround limitations with internal resources, institutional flexibility, or faculty enthusiasm for meeting neurodivergent learners where they are. Independent schools intentionally and specifically curate their communities in line with their mission and institutional goals, and some families just aren’t sustainable community members. It’s an uncomfortable topic for schools, but it’s a regular part of our consulting work that requires special handling and compassion.

Scheduling A Planning Meeting

Whatever your educational consulting need or wonder may be, please don’t hesitate to contact us. We always have the option of scheduling a brief, complimentary call to discuss your needs and our services at a higher level.

Often a more substantive, initial school planning meeting is the best way to get started. These meetings can be 30, 45, or 60 minutes by Zoom, by phone, or in person per a family’s preference. A single planning meeting allows us to talk more substantively about your family’s specific needs, priorities, and goals so that we can determine possible next steps.

We’re committed to creating a meaningful experience for each family, and we’d love to hear from you regarding your school and college planning needs. Please reach out so that we can schedule a planning meeting to maximize the remainder of this school year and get ahead of the school year to come!

Warm regards,
Brad Hoffman and Faya Hoffman
Co-Founders and School Concierges, My Learning Springboard