Choosing a School

Since the educational reform movements of the 1970s, significant efforts have been made to promote girls’ improvement within the education system. More recent educational research through 2026 has focused on ensuring that teaching strategies support the success of all students while recognizing that boys and girls may learn differently. Extensive research continues to identify characteristics of positive learning environments for boys and methods for introducing those findings into schools across America.

Active Classroom Environment

The environment a teacher establishes in the classroom is a significant contributor to how effectively students learn. Traditional classroom environments, in which all children are expected to sit quietly while following along with the teacher, presume that all children learn similarly. Those with trouble with the format may fall behind despite their learning capacity. Additionally, this isn’t necessarily a structured environment nor an engaging one that will foster a passion for learning.

This video offers some reasons why your son should attend an all-boys school.

To engage all students, teachers should instead employ an active learning environment. This type of setting stimulates self-motivated learning within a flexible yet disciplined atmosphere. By teaching students learning strategies (a written record of assignments, note-taking strategies, time management techniques, and study methods), educators teach students how to learn, or "the process of learning," and students become empowered to pursue knowledge more eagerly and successfully. An active classroom also demands that the students are presented with

As your child enters middle school, you will probably begin to think more seriously about her high school and college plans. With that in mind, let's look at some of the challenges parents face. The whole subject is daunting, confusing, and even intimidating. However, if you approach the project just like you do any other major project/decision, you will be able to stay out front. Playing catch-up is never fun, so let's start planning early to understand what is involved.

Getting your child to buy into the idea

The first challenge is a basic one: you must get your child to buy into the idea of going away to school. Yes, you are her parent, and you can decide yourself. Unfortunately, this decision will do more harm than good unilaterally. The trick is to get her to think that going away to school is her idea.

How do you accomplish that? By starting early. Begin shaping her decision at least 3 to 4 years beforehand. If a family member currently attends boarding school, schedule a visit to see that relative while he is in school. The more comfortable your child feels with the idea of going off to boarding school, the happier she will be.

As she progresses through grades 7 and 8, she begins to discuss the academic game plan for high school and beyond. Sometimes, special considerations will make your decision process more manageable. For example, if your child displays a natural talent for a sport

Finding an affordable boarding school may sound too good to be true. Yet it really is possible. I found twelve boarding schools when I searched Boarding School Review using the simple search string "least expensive schools." Our powerful search engine sorted the boarding schools listed on our site by tuition. I then filtered out three schools: two were located in Canada, and the other was a summer boarding school.

Today, tuition and fees have changed since this article was first published, so families should always verify current costs directly with each school before applying. However, the principle remains the same. There are boarding schools that provide an excellent education at a significantly lower cost than many families expect. If you are beginning your search, Choosing a School: DO's and DON'TS offers practical advice on evaluating schools beyond tuition alone.

Then, a dozen boarding schools charge approximately $20,000 per year or less for tuition, room, and board. I discovered that one school on the list offered 30 Advanced Placement courses, and another offered the prestigious International Baccalaureate program. While tuition figures and academic offerings should always be confirmed with each school, these examples demonstrate that affordability does not necessarily mean sacrificing academic quality. Explore these schools and determine whether perhaps one or more suits your requirements.

When comparing affordable boarding schools, it is also worth looking beyond the published tuition. Financial aid, scholarships, payment plans, travel costs, and additional fees can all influence the total cost of

Recently I landed in Jakarta on a recruiting trip. Immediately upon exiting the terminal, as happens in many countries, a small crowd of entrepreneurial "taxi drivers" surrounded me, all trying to grab my suitcase and waving their "Official Airport Taxi ID" badges in my face. Had I not been a seasoned traveler, it would have been very difficult for me to determine which of them, if any, to believe. They all looked authentic and sounded sincere.

Like inexperienced travelers, most prospective families know very little about boarding schools when they first start looking. They need support in determining which school is right for them. They must rely on word of mouth, the research they can do themselves, online reviews, school profiles, and their own intuition. But this is easier said than done. If you visit enough schools, which you should, they can begin to appear quite similar. Determining which school is truly the right fit for your family can feel overwhelming.

The good news is that families today have more information available than ever before. School websites, virtual events, student testimonials, strategic plans, social media channels, and resources such as Boarding School Review allow families to research schools in greater depth before ever stepping onto a campus. Yet even with all of this information, finding meaningful differences between schools remains one of the biggest challenges in the admissions process.

Why So Many Boarding Schools Sound Similar

If you read the mission statements, vision statements, school philosophies, taglines, and

How Do Girls Benefit From Single-Sex Education?

As I read research and data in preparation for writing this article, I was struck by how much real progress has been made in girls' education versus boys' education over the last decade. I hope that you will read the resources listed at the end. They are just the tip of the iceberg, but they will get you started on your exploration and evaluation of girls' schools. Since the subject of single-sex education seems to be gaining traction in the public school arena, I suspect that we shall continue to see some serious academic papers being written on the subject in the coming years.

Personally, having raised two daughters, I can speak with some experience on the subject of single-sex education. Both girls went to coeducational boarding schools. However, the benefit of hindsight tells me that going to an all-girls school would have been a better solution for both of them. Here then, are the reasons why I am such a massive fan of girls' schools.

This short clip offers a glimpse inside an AP Biology class.

Girls' schools provide relevant 21st-century role models.

It is a fact that there are more visible, relevant role models for girls these days. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, PepsiCo CEO Indra Nooyi, and Harvard President Dr. Drew Gilpin Faust, to name just three highly successful prominent executives, provide our daughters