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Kinds of Schools

There are several types of boarding schools, each offering a unique set of experiences. The articles in this section will provide more information on college preparatory, junior and therapeutic boarding schools. Here you will explore the pros and cons of single sex education, learn the truth about military schools and identify schools with programs for learning disabled students.

View the most popular articles in Kinds of Schools:

What's Wrong With The Boys?

Updated May 07, 2021 | by William Ellis

Some cynics think single-sex education is old-fashioned. The Kiski School shows how educating boys in a single-sex school is successful.

Going to class at The Kiski School

I asked William Ellis, Associate Headmaster for Enrollment Management, Director of Admission, and Director of Financial Aid at The Kiski School in Saltsburg, Pennsylvania, to discuss educating boys. Bill very kindly offered the following essay in response to my request. ~Rob Kennedy.

Boys’ residential college preparatory schools are more important now than ever before. Statistics, surveys, and polls all show that boys’ achievement is not as strong in high school as their female counterparts. Women outnumber men in four-year colleges by a nearly three-to-two ratio that has been growing since the late 1970s. Some would say a boy crisis in education is brewing or already here. I was at my niece’s graduation from a large, highly competitive university where anecdotally the Chancellor was a woman, the keynote speaker was a woman, the president of the senior class was a woman, three of the four honorees were women and an amazing 65% of the graduates were women. Having been raised in a house of four strong sisters and a superb Mom (Dad and I were outvoted often), believe me, I am proud of all of the strides made by women since I was a boy, and I do not think their journey is complete by any means.

Having spent the first 25 years of my career at independent coed boarding schools, I have had a front-row seat to this phenomenon, of consistently outperforming the boys. My colleagues used to ask me “What’s wrong with the boys?”

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Boarding Schools with IB Programs

Updated November 03, 2019 | by Robert Kennedy

The International Baccalaureate programmes cover the entire K-12 spectrum with three distinct educational curricula. In this article, we focus on American private high schools which offer the Diploma Programme.

The International Baccalaureate covers the entire K-12 spectrum with three distinct educational curricula. In this article, we focus on American private schools which offer the Diploma Programme. This rigorous course of studies targets high school students ages 16-19. Colleges and universities the world over recognize the IB Diploma. The International Baccalaureate organization must authorize schools before they can be designated an IB school. The adherence to a strict set of standards and protocols is essentially what makes the IB Diploma so valuable. Let's take a look at boarding schools which offer the IB Diploma Programme.

Annie Wright School, Tacoma, WA

Founded in 1884
Number of students: 192
Grades 9-12. Girls
Religious Affiliation: Non-denominational

Annie Wright School has a PK-8 division which is coeducational. The high school is for girls only. The campus is located on 10 acres in the north end of Tacoma. The school has been an IB school since 2009. For complete details regarding curriculum, sports, extracurricular activities, costs, and other information, see the Annie Wright Schools profile.

Cheshire Academy, Cheshire, CT

Founded in 1794
Number of students: 400
Grades 8-12. Coeducational
Religious Affiliation: Non-denominational

Cheshire Academy is situated on 102 acres in the historic Connecticut town of Cheshire. The school has been an IB school since 2011. For complete details regarding curriculum, sports, extracurricular activities, costs, and other information, see the Cheshire Academy profile.

EF Academy New York, Thornwood, NY

Founded in 2005
Number of students:

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What? Boarding School in Canada?

Updated May 22, 2019 | by Clayton Johnston

Learn about the many benefits of boarding schools in Canada.

It may seem odd that with so many quality boarding schools in the USA that any American high school student would look north of the border to enhance their education. What could possibly motivate young Americans to venture to Canada for high school? Well, the many brave souls who have begun this voyage of discovery have quickly realized the merits of such an option. Consider some of these points that our current American families know, and prospective families might want to consider, about a Canadian boarding education:

You are not alone. There are many Americans in Canadian boarding schools (for instance, nearly 10% of the entire boarding population at my school, Brentwood College School, are from the USA!).

Rolling Admissions

For the most part, there are no specific application deadlines in Canada. You can pretty much visit any school at any time of the year and, if you are a good candidate and there are still spaces available, you could be offered a place without waiting until March or April. Most schools will even allow you to wait until you find out if you are accepted to some American schools in the spring to make a decision. It does take the pressure off families that simply want to know if they are accepted.

This video gives us an overview of Bishops College School in Lennoxville, Quebec.

No SAT?

Americans may also be interested in knowing that increasingly US colleges and universities waive the SAT exam for international students (this applies to

Updated July 23, 2020 | by Robert Kennedy

Schools for Students with Learning Disabilities

How to deal with a child who has a learning disability.

Every parent deals with learning issues as their children progress through school. Not understanding math concepts is one thing, but what if you suddenly realize that your child can't read. He just cannot process the characters on the page in order to make sense of them. That's a whole different thing. You need to deal with this issue as it will not disappear. Read the information on All Kinds of Minds. Understand that there is much research on learning differences and disabilities. Realize that processing information, developing good study habits, and much more, are important aspects of what you are dealing with. The National Center for Learning Disabilities lays out a road map for you.

If you let this go on without remediating it, he's going to have bigger issues as he heads into adolescence. You cannot allow him to become discouraged. It makes so much more sense to begin helping him right now. To delay merely postpones the inevitable.

Assessment

The first thing you need to do is have him assessed professionally. You will receive many opinions from family and friends. These people mean well, but their observations and opinions cannot be considered authoritative. Your child's future is at stake. Spend the money to have a thorough evaluation performed by an experienced professional.You must find out the parameters of his learning disability. An in depth assessment will look at every aspect of how he processes information. Once that's done then you can begin to plot a course

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Girls' School Graduates Have an Edge

Updated July 04, 2018 | by Robert Kennedy

Exciting new research shows that a girls' boarding school can offer your daughter many advantages.

Research shows: girls' school graduates have an edge trumpets the headline on The National Coalition of Girls' Schools site. The research comes from UCLA. This is peer-reviewed research as opposed to anecdotal evidence or hearsay. But first, let's examine the background of single sex education in order to understand the significance of these important findings.

Single sex schools were the only kind of school which existed for many years starting as far back as colonial times. But they were usually boys' schools as girls were still considered inferior and generally not worth educating. As the country grew and education matured with it, coeducational schools became the norm. The idea was to promote the equality of the sexes. Girls would be given the same opportunities as boys to learn and advance.

In theory coeducation is a good idea. But there were many subtle prejudices against girls which had to be overcome. Gender stereotypes, for example, held many girls back. Women could be telephone operators, nurses and teachers but not doctors, lawyers or business executives. And so on. These barriers for women were real in most of the 19th and 20th centuries.

Fortunately things began to change dramatically towards the end of the 20th century. As a result women can now be found in all kinds of jobs and situations which their mothers and grandmothers could only have dreamed of. With these changes came a realization that girls do indeed learn differently. Girls' schools

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