MoCo High Schools Rank Lower

[Anonymous]

USA News HS ranking
Whitman #63
Churchill #94
Poolsville #107
Wootton #115
Walter Johnson #147

I remember that a few years ago, Whiteman and Churchill were in the 50+, Wooton in 80+, and WJ around 100. Has this downing trend been consistent in the last few years? What is going on?

[Anonymous]

I didn't read this thoroughly but this might explain some of it:

http://www.usnews.com/education/best-high-schools/articles/how-us-news-calculated-the-rankings

Just skimming through the beginning, it looks like the US News methodology is changing to match the state's.

With the state's new model, one of the factors is the gap reduction. Where they look at how the lowest performing groups did and the difference from the top. The smaller the gap, the better the score and ranking.

Skimming through the link above it mentions looking at disadvantaged groups and seeing how they performed against their peers across the state as well.

So what it kind of means is that schools won't just be carried by their top performing students anymore.

[Anonymous]

Also difficult for school with few disadvantaged students..

[Anonymous]

I don't believe in rankings but the trend is consistent with MCPS's decline. It will continue to go down in coming years.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I didn't read this thoroughly but this might explain some of it:

http://www.usnews.com/education/best-high-schools/articles/how-us-news-calculated-the-rankings

Just skimming through the beginning, it looks like the US News methodology is changing to match the state's.

With the state's new model, one of the factors is the gap reduction. Where they look at how the lowest performing groups did and the difference from the top. The smaller the gap, the better the score and ranking.

Skimming through the link above it mentions looking at disadvantaged groups and seeing how they performed against their peers across the state as well.

So what it kind of means is that schools won't just be carried by their top performing students anymore.

I think this is really important. There will always be a few students who will be academic superstars no matter which MCPS they attend. Another good sized chunk will do outstandingly well at the best MCPS. But most students are actually average and their performance as well as that of the most vulnerable students (whether FARMS, ESOL, or SPED) tells us a lot about the overall quality of the education offered there.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:USA News HS ranking
Whitman #63
Churchill #94
Poolsville #107
Wootton #115
Walter Johnson #147

I remember that a few years ago, Whiteman and Churchill were in the 50+, Wooton in 80+, and WJ around 100. Has this downing trend been consistent in the last few years? What is going on?

I love your honesty.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I didn't read this thoroughly but this might explain some of it:

http://www.usnews.com/education/best-high-schools/articles/how-us-news-calculated-the-rankings

Just skimming through the beginning, it looks like the US News methodology is changing to match the state's.

With the state's new model, one of the factors is the gap reduction. Where they look at how the lowest performing groups did and the difference from the top. The smaller the gap, the better the score and ranking.

Skimming through the link above it mentions looking at disadvantaged groups and seeing how they performed against their peers across the state as well.

So what it kind of means is that schools won't just be carried by their top performing students anymore.

I think this is really important. There will always be a few students who will be academic superstars no matter which MCPS they attend. Another good sized chunk will do outstandingly well at the best MCPS. But most students are actually average and their performance as well as that of the most vulnerable students (whether FARMS, ESOL, or SPED) tells us a lot about the overall quality of the education offered there.

+1 I know folks love to complain about MCPS's efforts to close the racial and economic achievement gap, but it's actually incredibly worthwhile as a goal. It's one thing to get kids who have received every advantage in life, up to and including extracurricular tutoring, across the finish line. The test of how a school is performing, though, shouldn't be how well they are serving kids who are getting massive amounts of support starting in preschool and all the way through. It is how they are serving kids for whom the school is the only contact with the material.

[Anonymous]

And how do they compare to high schools in DC? Virginia? Because that's what is relevant to those of us not doing a national search for high school admissions.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:And how do they compare to high schools in DC? Virginia? Because that's what is relevant to those of us not doing a national search for high school admissions.

VA schools mentioned on DCUM:

#5 Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology
#108 McLean High School
#151 Madison High
#160 George Mason High School
#162 Oakton High
#190 Langley High
#200 Woodson High
#363 Yorktown

DC schools:

#815 Wilson
#88 School Without Walls High School

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:And how do they compare to high schools in DC? Virginia? Because that's what is relevant to those of us not doing a national search for high school admissions.

VA schools mentioned on DCUM:

#5 Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology
#108 McLean High School
#151 Madison High
#160 George Mason High School
#162 Oakton High
#190 Langley High
#200 Woodson High
#363 Yorktown

DC schools:

#815 Wilson
#88 School Without Walls High School

Right, so those MCPS schools are still doing well, relative to the local competition.

[Anonymous]

Looking a median test performance doesn't really tell anyone much about the quality of education. It mostly tells us the schools in question are homogenous. I'd be more interested in outcomes for top and bottom 100 students.

[Anonymous]

Concerned that both RM and BCC are ranked very low on the "college readiness index" compared to other MoCo schools.

Both BCC and RM have significant IB and AP programs, and the way the college readiness index is calculated by weighting the numerator of the index 25% for the "simple IB or AP participation" rate means that this part of the calculation skews artificially low compared to other schools that only have AP or only have IB.

Einstein may also be affected by this, although I don't have a sense how large the participation rate of the AP program is.

Seems like the authors of the index didn't really understand the effect of defining this part of the index this way.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:And how do they compare to high schools in DC? Virginia? Because that's what is relevant to those of us not doing a national search for high school admissions.

VA schools mentioned on DCUM:

#5 Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology
#108 McLean High School
#151 Madison High
#160 George Mason High School
#162 Oakton High
#190 Langley High
#200 Woodson High
#363 Yorktown

DC schools:

#815 Wilson
#88 School Without Walls High School

I'd say since mcps has five HSs in top 150, it's doing much better than the surrounding areas.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:And how do they compare to high schools in DC? Virginia? Because that's what is relevant to those of us not doing a national search for high school admissions.

VA schools mentioned on DCUM:

#5 Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology
#108 McLean High School
#151 Madison High
#160 George Mason High School
#162 Oakton High
#190 Langley High
#200 Woodson High
#363 Yorktown

DC schools:

#815 Wilson
#88 School Without Walls High School

I'd say since mcps has five HSs in top 150, it's doing much better than the surrounding areas.

VA has talent drain by TJ going on.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:And how do they compare to high schools in DC? Virginia? Because that's what is relevant to those of us not doing a national search for high school admissions.

VA schools mentioned on DCUM:

#5 Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology
#108 McLean High School
#151 Madison High
#160 George Mason High School
#162 Oakton High
#190 Langley High
#200 Woodson High
#363 Yorktown

DC schools:

#815 Wilson
#88 School Without Walls High School

I'd say since mcps has five HSs in top 150, it's doing much better than the surrounding areas.

VA has talent drain by TJ going on.

Well it's hard to tell how that would play out in the ranking. It's possible that the home HSs still wouldn't break top 150, and you wouldn't have TJ at #5.