If I'm not supposed to judge based on FARMS and test scores, what CAN I judge on?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
Stuart has a score of 2 out of 10, big fail http://www.greatschools.org/virginia/falls-church/518-Stuart-High-School/

True. greatschools.org is a Big Fail.

I keep seeing this posted repeatedly, with nothing to back up the assertion. Why is this?

Generally because if you're going to disregard the numbers and test scores like OP wants to do, all you're left with is the subjective evaluations. Those tend to fall into two camps: Very disgruntled parents or teachers with an axe to grind who will trash the school and obnoxious boosters who are anxious to promote it. So you really don't get a real good snapshot of what's going on in the school. It's not even a good starting point. Unless you want to start with the test scores, demographics, and FARM count. But doing so, evidently, makes you a douche-bag.

[Anonymous]

We looked at homes in North and South Arlington, plus a few in falls church. I prioritized good schools, distance from her current preschool, ease of commute, how busy the surrounding streets were, whether we could walk to parks and shopping, etc. We ruled out a couple of South Arlington schools because I didn't want my daughter to be one of a very few caucasian or upper middle class kids; I wanted her to feel like she could fit in with her peers. But i didn't care much about small differences in FARMS or ESL or % diversity, and we were fine with most of the schools in Arlington. Maybe rule out a few areas due to location or whatever, and then find a house you like that's in one of the ones you didn't rule out? (we ruled out 22206 because it was farther south than I wanted to be, for example - that narrowed things down some. And parts of North Arlington were too far North or West for us as well.)

[Anonymous]

We chose a short commute because spending time with our kids was our top priority.

We live in S. Arlington and our DD is in a school that is around 70% FARMS. She is doing very well academically and I would say that the school has tons of great resources, outstanding teachers, and a great principal. They are a foreign language school and she started Spanish classes in kindergarten. The downside is that many of the parents of her classmates don't speak English (or don't speak it very well) and are less engaged with the school. The burden falls on a smaller number of parents to volunteer for PTA activities, etc. She has a much smaller peer group in terms of caucasian and middle and upper-class kids. But I think the benefits of being immersed in a community of lower income and ethnically/racially diverse students is irreplaceable, even if it means it's a little harder for her socially and a little harder on us to connect with the school community (or to be part of a school that doesn't have much of as much of a community as some others may).

We are in Arlington and I understand that we likely will have some options about where we wind up for MS and HS, though it's dependent on a variety of factors.