Reply to What schools should you "look past the scores"

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[quote=Anonymous]Looking past the scores IMO means that you should:

1) Recognize that the scores are very out of date due to the pandemic, and that even in normal times, what's available to review at this time of year is almost two years old as well.

2) Recognize that testing of 3rd-5th graders doesn't tell you much about the preschool program.  Many people, myself included, have had a great preschool/K experience at a school with atrocious test scores.  There are many other things to consider, such as special programming, the quality of the facility and outdoor space, and student and teacher retention rates.  For charters, you can review the QSRs and review/renewal reports.  Test scores are just one piece of the puzzle.

3) Be mathematically savvy and use the OSSE PARCC data spreadsheets rather than just looking at the total test scores.  DCPS elementary schools, in particular, host self-contained classrooms of students whose special needs warrant a specially designed classroom and specially trained teacher.  Some schools have several.  If you're enrolling your child in the general education program (i.e. not a self-contained classroom), use the OSSE data to look at general education scores, so that you don't penalize a school for offering more self-contained classrooms.  Also, learn what Median Growth Percentile is and take it into account.  And remember that some schools don't have enough kids in the testing grades to create a meaningful data set at all. DCPS does parents a disservice when it presents information as statistically meaningful when the data sets are so tiny.

4) Some schools are gentrifying and their test scores are likely to improve (slowly) with time, if the school can retain its high performers into the testing grades.  Other schools are already high-SES and test scores are unlikely to show significant improvement over time.  It really, really puts me off when a school has mostly non-at-risk students yet the test scores are really bad.  As for Montessori schools, you can compare them to each other.

5) Whittier is a good school, and their scores for at-risk kids are impressively high.  I would be delighted to send my kid there if we lived that far north.  If you need something to do, go ahead and join the Whittier parent organization and you can write grants or something.[/quote]

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