New GS rankings

[Anonymous]

^^ And a school whose ESL population is lower than 5% should not get a ten on their equity scale for being all white/asian.

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:Essentially, the new great schools rankings are out and out tools that can be used to violate the fair housing act. It's essentially a way for realtors to identify schools with small black populations, it seems.

Crazy town.

This is EXACTLY what GreatSchools has been doing since it was invented. They are actually trying to do better by fiddling with the algorithm to make it clear which schools are actually serving the populations that they have. So, you don't automatically get a 10 for having a student body that is 90% white/Asian with highly educated, high earning, parents who are supplementing outside of school. Instead you ALSO get scored on how you are serving kids not being tutored extensively.

Isn't that what we want? To know which schools are actually effective? If a school is totally failing its poor kids and kids of color, then it is probably also not doing a great job with middle class kids.

Except their algorithm isn't working as intended. It's penalizing schools that have a diverse population and rewarding schools that are homogeneously wealthy (and white). Our ES GS score didn't go up, despite the fact that our SOL scores did across the board. Our white students are performing every bit as well as the ones at the "best" schools and our students of color are outperforming students of color at every other school. Our score is lower simply because we have students of color and students who are ESL and other schools don't. The schools that have NO students of color are rated higher, still. So this algorithm is not any better, and actually makes schools that have genuinely diverse populations look worse on paper. This is particularly true for school who have DACA kids. Like the school is at fault for not making them Harvard-ready within a year.

Ok, you have the blacks that are performing well versus the blacks at other schools but still not well versus the whites. That obviously means your school is not as good as the schools with only the high performing whites. Why is that so difficult for you to understand? Do you think a school should get high marks simply bc it has blacks, even if those blacks are inferior students to the whites?

You sound a bit clueless. Last month, the GS scores were based on test scores alone. That means, by lowering scores, GS is now penalizing high scoring schools. Test scores haven't changed, only GS scores.

They improved the methodology somthe scores more accurately reflect the academic quality of the student body.

So you admit that the new methodology scores the CHILDREN rather than the school or the instruction happening at said school.

[Anonymous]

Dh and I have always joked about holding signs on test day that say stuff like "try harder, my home values depend on it." I remember when I was in school I would finish the test quickly so I could just sleep at my desk for the rest of the time.

[Anonymous]

Niche does a better job. People sound just advocate for redfin and zillow to use that instead, rather than focusing on how to change the GS methodology. Just let GS die in the vine.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Niche does a better job. People sound just advocate for redfin and zillow to use that instead, rather than focusing on how to change the GS methodology. Just let GS die in the vine.

Niche is garbage, too. My zoned school is top rated on there, driven in large part by a neighborhood campaign to boost its score (even though the school's test scores have nose-dived, the school's staff has high very high turnover, and involved families have fled). School Digger is better.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:There are now only two elementary schools in Arlington that are rated a 10. Don’t know if this reflects problems with the school system or something else.

they started to count diversity and it is counting against our good schools. Good thing we are getting less diverse. How low can the numbers go?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Niche does a better job. People sound just advocate for redfin and zillow to use that instead, rather than focusing on how to change the GS methodology. Just let GS die in the vine.

Niche is too vague, and makes everything look good. And there aren't enough parent reviews there yet. I'd actually prefer a site that did parent and teacher reviews, yelp style, but with more accountability and transparency than yelp.