If your child hasn’t found a good fit educationally, a conference this weekend in Marlborough aims to help.
Charter? Private? Home-school? Unschool? These are just a few of the options to be discussed during the free conference, which starts at 5 p.m. Saturday in the Hillside School’s auditorium, 404 Robin Hill Road.
“Most parents don’t have any high-level topography for what schooling options are available,’’ said Dennis Pratt, founder of Parents Decide, which is organizing the event.
He said parents can go to a fair for private schools if they are thinking about that alternative, for example, but it’s difficult to find one venue offering an introduction to the wide variety of educational options available.
Pratt, a Westwood resident who is retired from a career in high-tech start-ups, said this project has become a passion for him, born of his own bad experiences in trying to find the right school.
“I was a very hard child to match,’’ said Pratt. “I was in one school and they basically thought I was some sort of idiot, and I was in another school and I did really well.’’
The solution for him was Phillips Academy in Andover, but he’s quick to say it was a bad match for other students, and he doesn’t think a private school is the solution for everyone.
“There are a lot of parents who think, ‘Oh, geez, I don’t know what to do, I can’t pay $40,000 per year.’ There are other options,’’ said Pratt.
He has been through a few with his own daughter, who has been a much easier match than he ever was, said Pratt. She’s been to a Montessori school, and home-schooled by Pratt and his wife, but she is now in a public middle school, which she seems to love, he said.
One of the conference’s speakers is Jamie Gass, director of the Center for School Reform at the Pioneer Institute, a Boston-based education think tank.
“School choice has always been something near and dear to our hearts,’’ said Gass.
“My main message is that Massachusetts still needs a wide variety of high-quality education options for schoolchildren of all backgrounds,’’ he said.
Gass said he will touch on charter schools, the Metco program, and vocational-technical schools, as well as school choice and education tax credits.
The state has eased up on its cap on charter schools, but only for areas in the lowest 10 percent in terms of performance.
“We were very pleased with the increase,’’ said Kara Brown, director of operations for the Massachusetts Charter Public School Association, who will also speak Saturday. “Part of what the association does is we do advocate for the schools, and eventually we’d like to see that cap lifted.’’