Reply to Rank the Top 10 NoVa High Schools

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]The Challenge Index hasn't been updated this year.  This is a more recent assessment of the top high schools in the state.

https://www.usnews.com/education/best-high-schools/virginia[/quote]

It is not a better list, it is a different list.[/quote]

It’s open to debate whether it’s a better methodology.

It is a fact that it was published more recently.[/quote]

Yes.  It is a list that is published more recently.  But, it is a crap list:  it ranks on a college readiness index they define, only they throw out certain schools because a sub-group does badly.   I am sorry if one group does bad, but if the overall college readiness index says 75%, it should be listed in the place as 75%.  Skip the gold medal, maybe....
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It's not a crap list because it declines to rank schools that are doing a below-average job with their minority and low-income students (Yorktown and Madison being the prime examples).  People pay attention to the US News ratings and maybe this will give those schools an incentive to do better.

If you want a list that goes solely by college readiness (students both taking and passing AP/IB courses), you can look at the E&E rating on the Washington Post site.  The top 10 NoVa public schools by E&E rating (TJHSST is not ranked because it's a magnet) are:

1. George Mason
2. H-B Woodlawn
3. Langley
4. McLean
5. Madison
6. Yorktown
7. Marshall
8. Oakton
9. Robinson
10. Woodson

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Here is why it is a crap list.  I have dug into the numbers.  A school that was excluded because of FARMS performance (underprivileged) has a 90% pass rate on Non-ESL, but 60% on ESL kids.  All of the schools in the county have similar rates.  The only difference is some schools have a higher percentage of FARMs kids that are also ESL.  At Madison, 10% FARMS, but 55% of the FARMS kids are ESL.  That leads to a 73% pass rate.  By comparison, Oakton, which is ranked #6 in the state, and a gold Medal recipient is 40% of FARMS kids are ESL, which gives them a demographically, 76% pass rate for FARMS.  If Madison had more FARMS that were not ESL, they would be between Oakton and McLean.

The problem is non-english speakers or limited English speakers have problems in school.  This means that the fact that Madison's poor region is almost 60% immigrant is what hurts them.  
[/quote]

No one from Madison had an issue with US News rankings when Madison was in the top 10.

If you have a problem with this list, you should have a problem with any.  Holding other schools' demographics constant, while adjusting Madison's demographics to "cure" the issues that led Madison to be unranked or to be ranked lower, is an exercise that could be repeated by schools that face far more challenges than Madison. [/quote]

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