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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]I think people are stupid if they use greatschools to choose schools. Just as an example, the "worst" high school in Arlington, Wakefield, gets higher average SAT scores than the homogeneous schools in Anne Arundel and Calvert counties in MD (ranked 8 and above). All I care about is how my college bound kids will do in comparison to others like them; a GS rating is meaningless. The raw data is available to those who care to dig into the numbers. [/quote]

College-bound kids at Wakefield perform poorly compared to college-bound kids elsewhere in NoVa.

And why would you think schools in Calvert are homogeneous? [/quote]

Performly poorly at what?[/quote]

I think PP is referring to SAT scores. The ONLY reason kids at Wakefield have a lower average SAT score is because the top students haven't enrolled there. They've transfered out to other schools/programs like H-B or W-L, or their families have moved "up" to a better school zone prior to HS, or their parents sent them to private HS. And then, APS allows transfers into the school from students enrolled at the other APS schools. This is the school that many parents regard as "not a pressure cooker," so kids who maybe aren't as competitive as students transfer here for a better environment.  It's not anything that the school/staff is or isn't doing. It's simply that there aren't as many academic superstars whose parents even entertain it as an option.

Also, many Wakefield students, even the college-bound ones, aren't being extensively tutored and taking SAT prep classes. It's just not the way that most Wakefield parents roll. Meanwhile, there are kids at the other APS schools whose parents pay an insane amount of $$ to in order to prep them for the SAT (private consultants who work with a student for an entire year, not just a group class that meets for a few Saturdays before the test).

[/quote]

Wakefield sounds pretty great.[/quote]

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