If Greatschools isnt so great, what do you use?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Whoever bought in 8 or helped get to 8, will work really hard to get there or paid a lot. They have an incentive to keep it 8 and up.

We bought in Woodson. I think it was a 9 last year. Now it's a 6, under the new calculations that include their "equity" measure. If you look at Schooldigger, scores are still top 10% in the state. The school didn't change, the measuring stick did.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Whoever bought in 8 or helped get to 8, will work really hard to get there or paid a lot. They have an incentive to keep it 8 and up.

Digging in on the Greatschools thing, huh? People use other measures to judge the schools. I have absolutely no idea what the rating is for our neighborhood schools, nor did I when I bought my house this summer. But I still know that the schools are excellent. I don’t care what Greatschools has to say about them.

Looked at a Redfin map or listing lately? You can search by school attendance zone, and those 9s and 10s get a lot more searches than 3s or even 7s. When you do pull up a house, you scroll down, and it lists the by-right attendance schools, along with their rankings. How many people see a low number and reject the house without taking the time to dig into the ranking? Particularly if people are not priced out of higher ranked schools, they will focus their searches based on those ratings. Even if they’re flawed. Even if they’re not very applicable to the searcher’s particular child.

[Anonymous]

To double check, I've been known to stop by the school where we intend to move and ask questions. You can get a feel pretty quickly. A number have offered us tours. Military family, so we move a lot.

[Anonymous]

To double check, I've been known to stop by the school where we intend to move and ask questions. You can get a feel pretty quickly. A number have offered us tours. Military family, so we move a lot.

[Anonymous]

I still look at GreatSchools, but I recognize that it is just one measure and it has its flaws. If I had it narrowed down to a couple of schools, I'd probably post on this site and see what people had to say.

Our school is a 10 - we're lucky. But when I was looking, I considered schools as low as a 4 because I know there are reasons why the scores are artificially low.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I still look at GreatSchools, but I recognize that it is just one measure and it has its flaws. If I had it narrowed down to a couple of schools, I'd probably post on this site and see what people had to say.

Our school is a 10 - we're lucky. But when I was looking, I considered schools as low as a 4 because I know there are reasons why the scores are artificially low.

Is it still a 10? They changed their formula this fall.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:
I still look at GreatSchools, but I recognize that it is just one measure and it has its flaws. If I had it narrowed down to a couple of schools, I'd probably post on this site and see what people had to say.

Our school is a 10 - we're lucky. But when I was looking, I considered schools as low as a 4 because I know there are reasons why the scores are artificially low.


Is it still a 10? They changed their formula this fall.

Not pp but probably if pp is in this area. 10s are pretty hard to come by and generally mean you have a very tiny FARMs rate. That is how you try to a 10. The new methodology gives those schools with 5% of a needy population or less a pass and does not sing them for the in-school achievement gap the way it does schools with say 10 or 15% FARMS.

[Anonymous]

^ “get to a 10” not “try to”.

[Anonymous]

Argh! Darn autocorrect!
Sing = ding ^

[Anonymous]

What areas are you looking? Happy to share what I've found if you're looking in my area...

[Anonymous]

school digger

[Anonymous]

Wait -- what did greatschools change? I haven't looked at it lately.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Wait -- what did greatschools change? I haven't looked at it lately.

Yes.

They created a new system where low income and ESOL kids are double counted. It dropped the scores of many high performing areas significantly, especially the affluent ones with small ESOL populations (between 5 and 12%)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Wait -- what did greatschools change? I haven't looked at it lately.

Yes.

They created a new system where low income and ESOL kids are double counted. It dropped the scores of many high performing areas significantly, especially the affluent ones with small ESOL populations (between 5 and 12%)

How do they double count kids? I will take a look at their website which can hopefully explain this....

[Anonymous]

All of them- schooldigger, greatschools, niche, usatoday, open houses, talking to parents.
I'm remember the old scores before they changed the way the calculate it.
What I'm trying to avoid, is the overbearing parents, but I need high-achieving kids. Mine can keep up and I want him to think it's the norm.
I went to school with high-achievers and not so high-achievers and see what happened?!