Los Angeles Guide to Private Schools

To be fair, accurately covering every private school in Los Angeles is a tall order, since they change drastically year by year, and sometimes month to month, depending on the students, shifting faculty, and erratic funds. But, that said, Ms. Goldman's guide was disappointing in its clear bias toward the well-known, prestigious L.A. school like Harvard/Westlake, Curtis, Marlboro, Loyola, etc. I must say that the smaller, alternative schools don't get much of a fair shake in this edition. I'm a grandparent, raising a teenage granddaughter with many problems (which we needn't go into here), and, smart and lovely and talented as she is, she just isn't going to get into Harvard-Westlake at the moment. Nor do I make enough money to send her to Campbell Hall. This is a good book if you happen to be a Spielberg, and your kid is a straight A student; but it's limited on information for those of us looking for feasible alternatives. Plus, I need to know REAL issues: what's the social situation at some of these places? What kind of substances are floating around? How much smoke is in the bathroom? I may be asking a lot, but the truth of the matter is, academics, faculty-to-student ratio, and course offerings are just a small part of school. We need somebody to give us the real scoop.

The greater metropolitan Los Angeles area is absolutely immense, and parents are faced by a daunting and dizzying array of choices when it comes to public and private grade-school and high-school education. Believe it or not, the Los Angeles Unified School District is the second largest in the nation, but when it comes to PRIVATE schools, Los Angeles has more than any other city in America!This volume is very helpful when it comes to evaluating the local private school scene, and has a 3-5 page report on every school that responded to the author's request for imformation. As the reviewer below notes, it does NOT cover pre-schools. It does, however, amply cover all of the better-known institutions in the city, including information about history, admissions, scholarship, academics, social life, traditions -- the works! This book is an excellent place to begin your search for a Los Angeles private school, but also provides information about choosing one of the better public schools. The author is informative and articulate without sounding preachy or elitist, which in itself is a great accomplishment. Recommended!

The decision to send your child to private school is only the beginning as we learn in this fairly comprehensive guide to private schools in--very spread out--Los Angeles and environs. While, granted, not every private school currently existing in the LA area is included, the book does cover a wide geographic area, from Santa Monica up to the Valley, over to Claremont and back down to Long Beach. Different types, religious and otherwise, are included. I enjoyed reading about the history of the schools and their essential philosophies that guide their curriculums. LA is too big and there are too many schools of varying types to not begin your search with the aid of this book. I recommend it.