Anonymous wrote:We found out a lot by actually visiting potential schools.

Overall, it is very hard to tell if the school is teaching effectively or if the school looks good primarily because so many parents are supplementing outside school (at home, with online things like Beast Academy, or at a tutoring center.).

Several pyramids in MCPS (“W”) and in NoVa look good mainly because of supplementing outside school.

College admissions to private colleges are distorted by things like Legacy status or various other kinds of “hooks”. Nearly impossible to figure out how an unhooked child would fare in college admissions.

How do you arrange for a tour of a public elementary school? It there a website or something?

Can you meet the teachers?

International community sent their kids to the two schools. Test score were great also.

Find families with kids slightly older than yours and ask about their experiences. Find the family and child that is closest to yours in terms of lifestyle and temperament. There are so many haters and boosters in public school - you must find where you fit and people like you because the range of families is so diverse. You will be surprised at how many different answers you get - but the point is find some kids that thrived in the environment and learn about that experience.. I found that many parents that had bad experiences at our public school had children very different than my own, and at the end of they day we loved our public school. My kids had excellent experiences and went on to have excellent college experiences as well.

Test results are strongly correlated with household income and other parental demographics.

I live in a non-DMV town where the school district somewhat outperforms its demographics. It's because it's a suburban town with a real identity as a place (the mayor's kids and the judges' kids are in school with yours), and the teachers arw reasonably happy with the district, the families are probably a little more likely to be stable than average - % married, financially able to afford the basics even if lower income, etc.

So there are some small advantages that accumulate into statistical outperforming.

Most places, real estate cost is the proxy for parent demographics. Then...the variables are...1) How good are the administrators and teachers in the school and 2) are there any student population controls that impact the schools (magnets, busing, schools of choice).

In my opinion, it's very difficult for parents to factually identify places where schools outperform based on statistics. Great Schools and Niche are worthless in my area. That is why in the end, you need to rely so much on vibes and personal discussions.

If you are insanely committed to evaluation, you can go to events or watch them online. Things like PTA events, kindergarten welcome nights, school board meetings. I went to two elementary school open houses before I had a kindergarten-ready student so that I could figure out if I wanted to move before kindergarten.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We found out a lot by actually visiting potential schools.

Overall, it is very hard to tell if the school is teaching effectively or if the school looks good primarily because so many parents are supplementing outside school (at home, with online things like Beast Academy, or at a tutoring center.).

Several pyramids in MCPS (“W”) and in NoVa look good mainly because of supplementing outside school.

College admissions to private colleges are distorted by things like Legacy status or various other kinds of “hooks”. Nearly impossible to figure out how an unhooked child would fare in college admissions.

I don't know of any public schools that allow you to visit in any meaningful way. You were able to look at potential schools and peek into classrooms, talk to teachers or the principal?

OP asked about "public, private, or charter" schools. Most private schools, most parochial or religious schools, and many charter schools DO let parents visit in a meaningful way.

With public it is less common, but (outside metro DC) there are a few smaller public school districts that allow visits and will talk with prospective parents.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We found out a lot by actually visiting potential schools.

Overall, it is very hard to tell if the school is teaching effectively or if the school looks good primarily because so many parents are supplementing outside school (at home, with online things like Beast Academy, or at a tutoring center.).

Several pyramids in MCPS (“W”) and in NoVa look good mainly because of supplementing outside school.

College admissions to private colleges are distorted by things like Legacy status or various other kinds of “hooks”. Nearly impossible to figure out how an unhooked child would fare in college admissions.

I don't know of any public schools that allow you to visit in any meaningful way. You were able to look at potential schools and peek into classrooms, talk to teachers or the principal?

They probably lurked outside the parking lot to judge the students by the way they look.

Word of mouth finding out where highly educated people send their children -- doctors, attorneys in private practice, professors, etc. If the public up the street is good enough for a divorce attorney's 4th grader and a chemistry professor's 2nd grader, for example, that is a positive signal.

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Anonymous wrote:We found out a lot by actually visiting potential schools.

Overall, it is very hard to tell if the school is teaching effectively or if the school looks good primarily because so many parents are supplementing outside school (at home, with online things like Beast Academy, or at a tutoring center.).

Several pyramids in MCPS (“W”) and in NoVa look good mainly because of supplementing outside school.

College admissions to private colleges are distorted by things like Legacy status or various other kinds of “hooks”. Nearly impossible to figure out how an unhooked child would fare in college admissions.

I don't know of any public schools that allow you to visit in any meaningful way. You were able to look at potential schools and peek into classrooms, talk to teachers or the principal?

We found out a lot by actually visiting potential schools.

Overall, it is very hard to tell if the school is teaching effectively or if the school looks good primarily because so many parents are supplementing outside school (at home, with online things like Beast Academy, or at a tutoring center.).

Several pyramids in MCPS (“W”) and in NoVa look good mainly because of supplementing outside school.

College admissions to private colleges are distorted by things like Legacy status or various other kinds of “hooks”. Nearly impossible to figure out how an unhooked child would fare in college admissions.

Student mobility rates can be telling. Schools with lower mobility rates are better.

Programming - magnet, gifted, lots of AP/IB classes, the arts, etc.
Standardized test scores - SAT/APs - GPAs are not an accurate representation of how well the students are doing given the subjectivity nature of grading
Graduation rates
College matriculation rates

We looked at qualitative measures. Climate survey results and talking to people who know the schoo

Graduation rates, % attending 4-year colleges

So we all know about the national rankings of school systems and so forth, but how do parents know what Schools are high achieving within a school district? What metrics are being used when comparing DC vs VA vs MD (DCPS/Charter v FCPS/Loudoun/Arlington etc. v Howard/MoCo etc.); Are the standardized test results able to be directly compared across school systems? How do the private schools factor in since they have their own set of metrics? Who decides which private school is better than the others?

I'm mainly curious how parents are figuring out when moving to this area(dmv) or moving around it, how is everyone sorting through and scrutizing the various options aside from neighborhood price points.