Reply to Marshall High School - Lowest Graduation Rate vs. TJ, Langley, McLean, Woodson, Madison, Oakton

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Reply to "Marshall High School - Lowest Graduation Rate vs. TJ, Langley, McLean, Woodson, Madison, Oakton"

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]I think of Marshall as a good school now, comparable to other schools like Herndon, Fairfax, and South Lakes.  I don't think of it as in the same sought-after category as Yorktown, Langley, McLean, Madison, Woodson, Oakton, Chantilly, West Springfield, Robinson or Lake Braddock.   You can tell from looking at the real estate listings which schools are the most sought after in the area, and Marshall is just not one of them. Just my two cents.[/quote]

Woodson, Robinson, LB and Chantilly have lower price ranges not because of school quality but because of location.

All scoring and rankings do put Marshall above or equal to LB and Robinson. [/quote]

As an aside, if Marshall forced every student to sit for an IB test and every student who wouldn't have otherwise taken the test still failed, Marshall would jump to #8 in the U.S. News rankings--ahead of Yorktown and just behind Madison.  That's because the percentage of students who sit for an IB/AP exam--sit, not pass--comprises 25% of the college readiness index, which is the metric US News uses to rate schools.  It would also skyrocket Marshall in the Washington Post Challenge Index, which looks at one thing only:  the average number of IB/AP exams taken per student, without regard to the percentage that pass. A school could have not a student student pass a single exam, and be #1 in the nation according to the WP.  It's the "we're proud of you for trying" philosophy applied to high schools.

Of course, the reason for doing this is to prevent gaming the system by excluding weaker kids from IB/AP.  Marshall's exam pass rate is 86% (meaning that a passing score is earned on 86% of exams administered to Marshall students).  If this were the primary metric, then schools with weaker pass rates like McClean (80%), Madison (79%), Woodson (69%), Oakton (72%), Mason (84%), and Yorktown (62%) would start to discourage weaker students from sitting for exams.  It's a tough balance, but U.S. News is correct to incorporate number of participating students as a factor in order to discourage schools with lower pass rates from challenging their students.

WP Index isn't really a good metric in and of itself, though.  You need to consider how many kids are passing, not just how many are talking.

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