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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]I know dozens of parents who care about education who've had kids attend Oak View and I've never heard any complaints.  It's a solid elementary school.[/quote]

If it is that solid, why does it does it have a 6 on greatschools? [/quote]

Great schools compares schools to local other schools, focuses solely on SOL performance, and in recent terms measures the gap between highest performers and lowest sub-group performers as an "equity" component.  It's a very quirky, crappy, insensitive measure that most people who care about education would not use as a measure of worth. So schools that are primarily high SES but include a small group of low SES, or English Language Learners, or special needs populations are going to get a low score whereas schools that have a more uniform student body (even if it's just barely passing the low bar of an SOL) get a higher score.  If that's what matters to you in education, by all means make your decisions on that basis.  If you're looking for a more sensible measure, look at the actual data on FCPS website (Or state of virginia dept of ed), get a range of parents' perspectives, visit the school.  I personally look at a range of factors, but of test data I prefer to look at the Developmental Reading Assessment in Grades 1 and 2 as i know that's a well-designed, robust measure of a skill I care about.  If a school is getting all but say 2% or so of kids to read at end of grade level on a national standard assessment, they are doing solid work--especially if they have english language learners, special needs populations who also take the assessment.  SOLs in key areas can be interesting, but look at the real data not how one site decides to arbitrarily give a "score."

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