Reply to School Board is Failing – Central High with 80% Poverty is Blowing McLean and Langley Out of the Water

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Reply to "School Board is Failing – Central High with 80% Poverty is Blowing McLean and Langley Out of the Water"

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Criticism about FCPS? But look how good the rich kids do! lol

Looks like Wise county has the equity that FCPS is dreaming of at lower costs.[/quote]

Equity? It's 93% white and 99.7% english speakers.

It's a tiny school system with an extremely different population than FCPS. Apples & oranges. 
[/quote]

Yes, the demographics are different, but the SOLs and educational standards are the same across Virginia, regardless of the school. It’s not just about comparing populations—it’s about comparing how well students perform on these standardized tests.

Central High faces challenges like 80% poverty and fewer resources, yet they’re still outperforming expectations. FCPS, despite spending more per student (even adjusted for COL), isn’t getting the same results. So, it's not about "apples and oranges"—it's about how the resources are managed. Central is doing more with less, and that points to a resource management problem in FCPS, not just a demographic difference.[/quote]

If you cannot understand the difference in outcomes based on English language proficiency and base level of education then none of this matters.

Central High has a vast majority of kids who are native English speakers who are passing SOLs at the base rate. Great, they are able to teach white kids who have parents who graduated from high school and are fluent in English the base Virginia curriculum. Their SOL scores show that very few of those kids pass advanced, meaning that the kids are solidly middle of the road in their academic achievment.

McLean and Langley, two two FCPS schoosl you decided to compare against, have a slightly lower pass rate. Both of those schools have a large percentage of their population who don't take a math SOL in HS because they passed it in MS. The 7th graders who passed the Algebra 1 SOL probably passed advanced, because they are the kids on the accelerated track. They probably passed the Geometry SOL advanced as well. But they are not included in the numbers you are running. Those numbers include the few kids who are taking Algebra 1, not honors, in 9th grade. We would expect those kids to struggle with the SOL because they are kids who have historically struggled with math.

Comparing FCPS high FARMs schools to Central means comparing kids with very different backgrounds. Asking a non-English speaker to take and pass the SOL while they are learning English is more then ridiculous, but that is what we do. So comparing the white English speaking kids in small HSs who are taking basic classes at Central to impoverished, non-English speakers in FCPS is comparing apple to oranges.

The other metric that people are exploring looks at what type of overall classes are available for all students. In FCPS that means Honors, AP/IB, and DE classes. We cannot compare the success rate to Central because Central doesn't offer those classes. Do you know what programs are expensive to offer? AP/IB programs, SPED programs, Autism programs, ELL programs. Guess what FCPS has in spades that Central does not? AP/IB, DE, SPED, Autism, and ELL programs.

Central provides a basic education at a basic level to a small heterogeneous population. That is not hard to do. FCPS provides a wide range of educational opportunities to a diverse population with a wide variety of needs. Simply put, FCPS meets the needs of far more students then Central does and offers a wide variety of programs. FCPS has challenges that Central does not and has to provide programs that fit the needs of accelerated learners, SPED learners, and ELL learners which is far more expensive then teaching basic Algebra, Biology, History, and English to a small group of native English speakers.

If you cannot understand that then you are a troll. Or maybe you are a Central grad who meets the basic state requirements but cannot dig deeper then the surface of an issue.

[/quote]

+100
YES. Thank you.[/quote]

Let’s break this down with actual numbers from the middle schools that feed into Central, Langley, and McLean:

L.F. Addington Middle (Central’s feeder):
Rank: 6th in Virginia
Average Standard Score: 91.74
Free/Reduced Lunch: 100.7%

Longfellow Middle (McLean’s feeder):
Rank: 45th in Virginia
Average Standard Score: 81.52
Free/Reduced Lunch: 14%

Cooper Middle (Langley’s feeder):
Rank: 19th in Virginia
Average Standard Score: 85.63
Free/Reduced Lunch: 4.3%

So, despite the significant differences in poverty levels, Addington is outperforming both Longfellow and Cooper in SOL scores. The argument that high SOL scores in middle school explain lower scores in high school for McLean and Langley doesn’t hold up. If this were the case, we’d expect higher middle school scores in those areas, but Addington’s students, with fewer resources, are doing better.

This data shows that economic challenges aren’t an excuse for lower scores—Central’s feeder schools are managing with far fewer resources yet still perform better. The real question is why FCPS isn’t seeing similar results given its much higher funding.[/quote]

100.7%? Seems like they're double counting something in there...

Apples v. Oranges.

You continue to choose willful ignorance. Troll. 
[/quote]

Few things are worse than a Trumpy troll on the spectrum, but that's what we've got with the OP.   "If only every place in Virginia was full of LMC whites whose families have been in the US since the 1700s everything would be so fantastic!"  [/quote]

First off, I’m not a "Trumpy troll," and I haven’t made any arguments against public schools. My point is focused on data and performance outcomes, not politics. I'm actually supportive of public schools and looking for ways to improve them by analyzing how resources are allocated and how different counties handle the same challenges.

I haven’t suggested that every place should be homogeneous or exclusive to any particular group. Instead, I’ve been comparing SOL performance across districts to highlight the gaps in education between schools that have similar funding, especially when adjusted for cost of living. This is about public school performance, and how we can learn from different systems and apply those lessons to improve outcomes for all students.

If we’re talking facts, let’s stick to that. There’s no need to bring political labels or accusations into what should be a data driven discussion.[/quote]

Dude, you seem glued to the forum, and repeat platitudes while obsessing about SOLs and ignoring other facts more relevant to NoVa parents. [/quote]

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