US News & World Report

[Anonymous]

US News & World Report came out with their annual rankings of top high schools. In Northern Virginia, there were a number of Fairfax high schools on the list (Jefferson, Langley, Madison, Marshall, George Mason, Lake Braddock, McLean and Woodson). None of the schools from Alexandria, Arlington or Loudoun made the list.

I heard from a friend that the principal at McLean HS send a message to families apologizing that the school only received an "Honorable Mention" this year and wasn't a "Gold Medal" school like last year. I haven't decided yet whether that reflects positively on the administration for having high expectations or negatively on the principal for being unnecessarily defensive.

[Anonymous]

I'd be pissed that he was defensive. As noted in the Washington Post article on it, USNWR based their ratings on test scores only which really is more indicative of the parents socioeconomic and education levels. There's so much more to education that test scores.

http://voices.washingtonpost.com/answer-sheet/high-school/oh-joy-thomas-jefferson-bests.html

[Anonymous]

I would say that the principal, who is a woman, was just being realistic. Parents at McLean HS expect a lot and nearby Langley stayed on the list of "Gold Medal" schools while McLean did not. It was going to be an issue for some parents either way, so the principal went ahead and explained why McLean was not a "Gold Medal" school this year (the gap between minority and non-minority performance on standardized tests at McLean was deemed too high by US News).

[Anonymous]

agree pp