Great Schools new “grades”
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Anonymous
It sounds good in theory but as applied the schools with high ratings either have very few low-income Black and Hispanic kids or are relatively homogeneous in terms of family economics. So if it’s intended to reward schools for meeting the needs of poorer students or communities, it’s turned into a crude and rather ineffective means of doing so. |
Anonymous
The score cares about every group doing well and there not being disparities in growth among any sub-group. Same principle that guided Bush's initial "No Child Left Behind" ed policy that started all this standardized testing focus. An issue that's a little tricky, is that they are shifting focus to "growth" which sounds good--but schools with lower scoring kids have more opportunities for growth. If a large percentage of kids at a school are already at Pass Advanced on tests, there's not going to be much growth even if they are sustaining that level for kids (which is what most people would think of as a "good school"). |
Anonymous
I think you might be looking at Academic Progress. https://www.greatschools.org/virginia/falls-church/567-Shrevewood-Elementary-School/#Race_ethnicity*Test_scores*Overview Shrevewood Test Scores Overview White: 9/10 Asian: 9/10 Hispanic: 1/10 |
Anonymous
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https://www.greatschools.org/virginia/falls-church/594-Woodburn-Elementary-School/#Low-income_students*Test_scores*Overview
Woodburn ES White: 10/10 Hispanic: 1/10 GS Rating 2 |
Anonymous
| No one with half a brain actually thinks Great Schools is rewarding schools with the special sauce for turning disadvantaged kids into cutting-edge young scholars. It’s just an algorithm, and not a particularly good one. |
Anonymous
I mean, your great schools website tells a different story, LOL |
Anonymous
I am looking at the parent reviews for this school and I think I found OP: "This school is completely unequipped to teach and challenge more advanced students. For three years in a row, my child has not been challenged and his math skills have not improved at all. Now, I learned that they restructured the ADP L IV program to make it a lot less selective. They qualified over 30% of students for Level IV, and less than 50% of students in the Level IV program will actually be Level IV students as they intermix a lot of other students. So in short, it's completely not selective. I strongly regret buying my house in the neighborhood I did." |
Anonymous
My child started his schooling at a low SES school, granted at the end of Covid, but he did not have a good experience. Kids yelling (even cursing) at teachers, he had to evacuate the classroom for disruptive students, and his snack was stolen daily for months. Now at a high SES school, he’s happy and content. Thank goodness. |
Anonymous
| Just buy in the Langley pyramid and you’ll be fine regardless |
Anonymous
The joke is on people who believe it. FCPS schools are pretty much the same. The difference is with the staff.....not the zip code. |
Anonymous
The student population in each school is not the same. That makes a difference. The leadership is not the same --- and that makes a difference in the types of teachers that stay or how the deal (or don't deal) with the students in their classes. You can't say that a school that has a majority of needy kids who may not speak English as a first language is the same environment as a school where most of the kids speak English and are coming from families where they are expected to take AP classes and it's assumed they are going to a 4 yr college. Of course, we don't need EVERYONE to go to a 4 yr college. It's good to have economic and academic diversity. But, it's just not true that every school environment is "the same." The resources that the kids have (be that financial, family-stability/support, academic, or even just their exprience of the world), makes a difference in the environment in the school. Likewise, administrations can be functional and supportive or disfuntional, punitive and confrontational. It can make a difference in who teaches and how much they are willing to do. On the whole, a student population that brings less problems into the school, makes it easier on the administration, teachers and other students. |
Anonymous
In a nutshell, this is an example of how the tenor of the school changes with the student population. If the administration is worn out from dealing with really big issues that students have, they don't have the bandwidth to deal with "smaller" issues that impact their peers, but maybe not the whole school. When admins have fewer dumpster fires to put out, they can turn their attention to the "nice to have" things. |
Anonymous
On the opposite end of the spectrum, they have to deal with incessant whining for unimportant issues like those brought forth by the Woodson baseball moms. |
Anonymous
I agree. If PP had said "wealthy white and asian kids who don't have any learning challenges", then perhaps they would be more accurate. My child was in what is now a GS4 school (it was a 7 when we moved there!) and was largely ignored, despite failing SOLs and doing terrible on iReady and other tests. If she had been an ESOL child, she probably would have received more support, but nope, she speaks English and has parents who can afford tutors so they ignored her. We pulled her out and put her in a private with small classes and she is thriving. |
Anonymous
Why is it a joke? Are these scores based on personal experiences? |