Reply to Rank the Top 10 NoVa High Schools

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]
Realistically, you have:

TJ (not a separate toer since its a regional governors school.

Tier 1: Langley and McLean

Tier 2:  Oakton, Woodson, Madison, Chantilly, West Springfield, Marshall, Robinson, LBSS— and one will top the other depending on how you prioritize the numbers and which factors you give more weight. But a smart kid from a UMC home will get a great education at any of them.

Tier 3: Fairfax, Westfield, Centreville, Herndon, South County, SLHS, W. Potomac, Hayfield

Tier 4:  Mt Vernon, Lee, Justice (Stuart), Annandale, Edison, Falls Church— which makes it very hard to justify continuing IB at all of these schools except FC. Keep it at SLHS, Marshall, Robinson (where it is working) and one of these. But, that’s a different thread.

It is hard to see Fairfax in Tier 2. They are GS 7, like Westfield and Centreville,  and average SAT scores for 2017 came in below SLHS, Herndon and Centreville. 
[/quote]

Probably the most accurate FCPS high school ranking. I'd add a Tier 5 for Mt. Vernon, Lee, and Justice (Stuart)[/quote]

Doesn't Lee have better IB results than all but one other school?[/quote]

You’d have to tilt the data in a bunch of different directions to find support for that statement.  [/quote]

While the last available year's data show Lee has fairly good IB exam results (better than the surrounding Annandale, Mount Vernon, etc.), I hesitate to call that program strong because 1) it has one of the lowest IB participation rates (ahead only of Mount Vernon), 2) there are no students taking any sciences at HL, and the overall course offerings are very slim in comparison with others, and 3) the IB diploma yield is very low (50-60% of candidates who declare ultimately achieve the diploma). Looking at the surrounding schools, on all these criteria, Edison is probably the place to keep the program.

Separately, if we have to have a ranking, this seems as fair as it can get on outcomes only, but if you notice it also is basically grouping schools by SES band.

All in, rankings like these are silly. They only matter for those who care about some elusive "prestige" (aka "belonging with the right people"). While I somewhat understand the concept of prestige when it comes to colleges, I struggle to find value for it in high school - once you are out, who cares?

If you are instead looking for the best high school for your child, that is a very different problem to solve. Choose the areas 1) you can afford, 2) give you acceptable commute/lifestyle, and then go visit the schools - they each have a bit different vibe that you won't get from any ranking, and their offerings can differ as well (depending on size, IB/AP, etc.) Also, choose the one where you will feel comfortable based on your SES - you can be excluded at either end of the distribution.

If you are asking the question of which school does the best job educating their constituency, then none of these rankings answer that. To answer that question, you'd need a study setup similar to the hospital efficiency setup. This involves building a statistical model that accounts for as large as possible a set of performance drivers (income, parental education, family status, race, etc.) for each school, and then analyzes which schools perform better/worse than expected. I have only seen one ranking a while back that attempted to do something of the sort, but this design is inherently difficult - 1) some of the data isn't that readily available, and 2) you need to account for demographic distributional differences in very complex ways (e.g. a school with half very low income, and half very high income will do worse than one with all middle income, even if the average income at both is the same.)[/quote]

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