Northern Virginia Magazine: August issue lists best elementary schools in NOVA

[Anonymous]

You can't read the article online (at least not without a subscription). Anyone read the magazine? Thoughts?

[Anonymous]

I read it and thought the methodology was a bit flawed. Those rankings tend to be really flawed anyway as they are heavily influenced by advertising.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I read it and thought the methodology was a bit flawed. Those rankings tend to be really flawed anyway as they are heavily influenced by advertising.

How so? Did the Mantua PTA take out an ad in the magazine?

[Anonymous]

Can someone share what they were? Anything in Alexandria? I know I'm probably dreaming but thought I'd ask.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Can someone share what they were? Anything in Alexandria? I know I'm probably dreaming but thought I'd ask.

I don't remember, honestly. It wasn't particularly memorable or credible as a spread. In one ear, out the other.

[Anonymous]

They had all kinds of different schools, public and private broken down by special programs like immersion, IB, STEM, Young Scholars.

City of Alexandria public schools mentioned were Lyles Crouch, MacArthur, Mason and Barrett.

[Anonymous]

Can someone please list the schools? Would really appreciate it.

[Anonymous]

PP again,

15:42 is mistaken. There's only one school that advertised that is written about in the article. There are a few other school adverts but they're not on the "Best" list anywhere.

Interesting.

[Anonymous]

That magazine is a joke. I'd view any of their "rankings" with skepticism.

[Anonymous]

Geez pp. Calm down.

They don't "rank" the schools at all. They just give parents information on 20-30 different types of schools.

Ranking elementary schools is a waste of time anyway. How would you even do that?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Geez pp. Calm down.

They don't "rank" the schools at all. They just give parents information on 20-30 different types of schools.

Ranking elementary schools is a waste of time anyway. How would you even do that?

pp here: that's my point. they tried with a methodology. a highly dubious methodology.

[Anonymous]

So I'm looking at the article right now and I do not see any ranking whatsoever. No 1st place or last place or 98%.

[Anonymous]

I have seen rankings, but they are usually based on SOLs. That beans the top schools in FCPS are the AAP centers. However, that tells me nothing about the quality of the school, rather the brainpower of the student.

The quality of a school is very difficult to measure, as it is difficult to normalize for socioeconomics, language skills, etc. According to the SOL's, the worst schools in FCPS are those with large immigrant population.

[Anonymous]

What do they have on n. arlington schools?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I have seen rankings, but they are usually based on SOLs. That beans the top schools in FCPS are the AAP centers. However, that tells me nothing about the quality of the school, rather the brainpower of the student.

The quality of a school is very difficult to measure, as it is difficult to normalize for socioeconomics, language skills, etc. According to the SOL's, the worst schools in FCPS are those with large immigrant population.

I agree 100%. +1

But many parents like to know where their school, and sometimes even their child "ranks". I don't know how many times I've been asked "How does this school rank compared to...?" by parents, or "Where does my child rank compared to other students in the class?".