Reply to Which are the top 2 school clusters in NoVA?

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]I agree with this statement.

If you really want to know whether a school is doing a good job, however, check and see how well they are educating the sub-groups: special ed, low income, and English learners. Even if you don't have a child in one of the sub-groups, this is a good gauge of whether the staff is competent, the administration is strong and the programs are solid.[/quote]

I disagree with this statement.  There are almost no "low income" kids at schools like Langley and McLean.  Same with ESOL.  Special ed is a special case... if a kid has ADHD or autism and comes from a high income family with adv. degree parents and plenty of money for outside therapy and assistance... well, gee, isn't it a wonder that kids in that category do reasonably well.  Special ed is such a broad catagory, it's impossible to know what that means and whether those kids have any chance of passing a test regardless of how well they are taught.  What is identified as "special ed" in a wealthy neighborhood might not even be identified as special needs in a middle of the road or lower income neighborhood.

In some ways, the same can be true for ESOL.  Kids who are counted as ESOL in a high income school might have parents who are immigrants, but probably wealthier immigrants (like doctors or scientists).  Those kids probably speak their parents' language, but speak English just as well or better.  Kids who are counted as ESOL in a middle or lower school are likely to be unaccompanied minors or the children of very poor parents.  The populations that count for these are not the same.  Even if they were the exact same level of neediness at both high, med. and low end schools, the resources of the school that are available to help them are very different.

If rich school (A) has 5% needy students (whatever category that is), and med. school (B) has 20% needy students, and not-so-wealthy school (C) has 35% needy students.... the needy students at school A are going to get a lot more personal attention to address their needs b/c there are so few of them and the administrators can focus their efforts.  School C's administrators have to triage who to help and spread their efforts among the larger group of needy kids.

This has NOTHING to do with how good the teaching is at school A, B, or C.

I look at the kids who are like mine -- speaking english as a first language, don't have special needs, not poor.  My kids aren't going to learn calculus or world history at home or at a summer camp.  They are learning it IN SCHOOL.  If these kids are doing well on tests, it's b/c they were taught the material in school.  I'm not going to look at the kids who can't speak English, have significant learning disabilities, or who have a lot going on at home b/c of poverty.  Those are issues that the teachers/administrators may or may not be able to overcome.... if they can't overcome them, it may not be a reflection on the quality of the education that my child will get.  It may be a reflection on the severity of the need (language, disability, poverty).  [/quote]

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