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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Let me respectfully disagree with the pp in that this is NOT how you evaluate a school. You should not be interested as much in the average performance of a school (SAT scores, National Merit, etc.) as you should be in how YOUR student will do there. The truth is that a relatively larger number of first-generation Americans are in the school and are taking the SAT and are the 1st generation to go to college, sometimes at less prestigious places. This brings down the average. But there are also students from educated families with a lot of resources who know about and can afford to go to fancy schools. Averages don't mean much, though I will admit it is much easier to look at a page of statistics than ask people, visit, go to Einstein events, etc.[/quote]

Yes, this.  SAT scores, in particular, are [b]heavily correlated with family income. [/b] These four charts from the Washington Post lay it out: http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2014/03/05/these-four-charts-show-how-the-sat-favors-the-rich-educated-families/

Similarly, [b]many colleges have stopped participating in the National Merit Scholarship program[/b] because of the degree to which family income and test scores are linked.

So,[b] the PP would have us look at SAT scores, PSAT scores, and elite college admissions to determine whether Einstein meets the educational needs of our children[/b].  But all those things tell us is that Einstein families tend to, on average, be less rich than the families at other schools in the area.  She is literally listing things are are purely a proxy for wealth.

[b]If your main proxy for whether a high school is a good fit for your family is "presence of rich kids," then Einstein will fail.[/b]  But that's a very shallow rationale for choosing a high school.  [/quote]

This is mix of facts/fictions... First (high SES yielding high test scores) is true. It's well documented fact. The second re. National merit is false. The third ("the PP would... needs of our children), sadly that's how colleges will evaluate your kids and the last one re proxy is just silly. I don't think anyone is saying "presence of rich kids" determines whether a school is good fit or not. The stats (avg SAT, national merit...etc.) show rigor and performance of kids as well as how well kids are prepared for colleges. [/quote]

Here is an article from a few years ago about schools withdrawing from the National Merit Scholarship Process.  The numbers are higher now: http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2011-10-21/nyu-exiting-national-merit-scholarship-citing-test-process

SAT and National Merit Scholarships are both based on standardized test scores, which we know are tightly correlated to both race and family income.  No, poor people are not less intelligent - but test prep and ability to retake the exam are both tied to success and to family income.  There are also ongoing concerns about cultural issues with the tests.

Finally, there's actually not much of a link between performance on the SAT and college success, so using the average SAT score at a school as a way to determine whether it's a "good" high school is problematic both because the test is so heavily correlated with wealth AND because the test doesn't tell you much about how well a student will do in college.  [/quote]

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