DC Report Card - Overall Scores.. How much weight?

[Anonymous]

How much emphasis should be put on schools that are rated highly in the "overall" rating? https://www.empowerk12.org/dc-accountability-scores-dashboard? Also, what does the Accountability overall score and the subscore use as metrics to determine their rating score for schools?

[Anonymous]

There's another thread with more details, but I would take it with a huge grain of salt. Test scores of Black, at-risk kids end up counting essentially 3x more than white UMC kids through the algorithm, which may or may not be relevant to your kid. A poster went through the Capitol Hill schools and discovered enormous discrepancies with schools doing better both overall and in growth doing worse and another poster pointed them to the fine print where it became clear that ~80% of the score was based on the performance of particular demographic groups in totally arbitrary ways (e.g., some percentage was calculated with every racial group's performance having the same weight regardless of the number of students, unless you were just under a cutoff; so nearly identical schools could have totally different numbers and more diverse schools with more different racial groups would almost by definition do worse).

[Anonymous]

I would completely ignore. The only thing that matters is the percentage of kids on grade level or above.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I would completely ignore. The only thing that matters is the percentage of kids on grade level or above.

Is this metric reported anywhere?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:There's another thread with more details, but I would take it with a huge grain of salt. Test scores of Black, at-risk kids end up counting essentially 3x more than white UMC kids through the algorithm, which may or may not be relevant to your kid. A poster went through the Capitol Hill schools and discovered enormous discrepancies with schools doing better both overall and in growth doing worse and another poster pointed them to the fine print where it became clear that ~80% of the score was based on the performance of particular demographic groups in totally arbitrary ways (e.g., some percentage was calculated with every racial group's performance having the same weight regardless of the number of students, unless you were just under a cutoff; so nearly identical schools could have totally different numbers and more diverse schools with more different racial groups would almost by definition do worse).

Thank you for this insight!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I would completely ignore. The only thing that matters is the percentage of kids on grade level or above.

Is this metric reported anywhere?

Yes. First, here's the original thread: https://www.dcurbanmom.com/jforum/posts/list/1304428.page

second, go here, select school, scroll down to academic achievement, look at percentage of met & exceeded: https://schoolreportcard.dc.gov/home

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I would completely ignore. The only thing that matters is the percentage of kids on grade level or above.

This is the answer if you are on this thread.

[Anonymous]

The website itself is useful for collecting and cleanly presenting metrics for each school.

But it makes more sense for you to decide how much weight to give to each metric based on your family's particular needs/wants than it does to rely on a murkily defined overall score.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:There's another thread with more details, but I would take it with a huge grain of salt. Test scores of Black, at-risk kids end up counting essentially 3x more than white UMC kids through the algorithm, which may or may not be relevant to your kid. A poster went through the Capitol Hill schools and discovered enormous discrepancies with schools doing better both overall and in growth doing worse and another poster pointed them to the fine print where it became clear that ~80% of the score was based on the performance of particular demographic groups in totally arbitrary ways (e.g., some percentage was calculated with every racial group's performance having the same weight regardless of the number of students, unless you were just under a cutoff; so nearly identical schools could have totally different numbers and more diverse schools with more different racial groups would almost by definition do worse).

+1. It’s BS how much weight they give to certain metrics. I mean, I guess if your kid is black, at risk, and doing poorly, it might be of interest. But high performing schools get dinged big time.

Also growth in general is relative. Lots points if you are at the bottom of the barrel, so easy to improve a bit and lots point. Now if you are at or near the top and continue to be consistently, that is success but you don’t get points. You need growth and we all know that there is not a lot room for this if you are at the top.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:There's another thread with more details, but I would take it with a huge grain of salt. Test scores of Black, at-risk kids end up counting essentially 3x more than white UMC kids through the algorithm, which may or may not be relevant to your kid. A poster went through the Capitol Hill schools and discovered enormous discrepancies with schools doing better both overall and in growth doing worse and another poster pointed them to the fine print where it became clear that ~80% of the score was based on the performance of particular demographic groups in totally arbitrary ways (e.g., some percentage was calculated with every racial group's performance having the same weight regardless of the number of students, unless you were just under a cutoff; so nearly identical schools could have totally different numbers and more diverse schools with more different racial groups would almost by definition do worse).

Here's the other thread with detailed information starting on p. 4: https://www.dcurbanmom.com/jforum/posts/list/45/1304428.page

[Anonymous]

https://osse.dc.gov/publication/dc-school-report-card-technical-guide

You can review the technical guide here.

I would suggest making your own table with only the metrics you care about, and looking at the OSSE CAPE spreadsheets for more detailed information. In particular, understanding what the middle school and high school math scores mean-- it's complicated and there's a whole separate spreadsheet for middle school math.

Also be mindful of factors not in the scorecard like facility amenities, renovations, aftercare and beforecare concerns, and planned moves. Also feeder patterns and, if a charter, the financial condition of the school.