Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:re PP, I think Peter Weigand is associated with St Anselms, not with WIS.

Oops, you are correct. I apologize. My mistake. Here is a Jay Mathews comment on WIS. http://voices.washingtonpost.com/class-struggle/2010/02/how_challenge_index_can_help.html

There are some privates here who have given me their very impressive numbers in the past, like the Washington International School that has had a rating of 6.000 and St. Anselm's Abbey, about the same.

Of course, it's also possible that although WIS voluntarily provided its Challenge Index data to Jay Mathews, PP might nevertheless be correct in saying WIS also asked Mathews not to include that WIS data in his article.

key words above, " gave me their stats IN THE PAST "

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It is the policy of schools that belong to Independent Education to not participate in such rankings that is why there are so few private schools on the list.

Yes, and WIS specifically asked the reporter not to include them in the article for this very reason, but the reporter was more interested in his story. Like many PP's here, WIS views this analysis dimly and feels it is a very superficial analysis, mostly using AP results. Hopefully there are many other things of value about a school than how many students pass an AP exam.

As to selling land to raise money. I don't know that that is the case. The Tregaron conservatory owns a good portion of that land, and can sell it. If , in fact, the school did sell it to raise money. it beats obnoxious Auction campaigns that have no end or harassing parents to donate.

I think you might be mistaken. Or else you should ask Jay Mathews for a retraction. Here is what he wrote in the Post ...

"The school’s former headmaster, now president, the Rev. Peter Weigand ... told me when I started the list that he would be happy to supply the AP data because it was one of his school’s great strengths. He said that he doesn’t think my list is a measure of overall school quality but that it helps students and parents understand what is going on."

One cannot ask for data that is public record and has been mined to be retracted. One can ask a journalist not to publish it, and even explaon why the stats are not a valid reflection of one's school. The problem in this case is that sssumes that the journalist and the publisher are interested in the integrity of education, and not just pandering to the status conscious parents. Itis evident that the pandering, and need to sell "newspapers" won out.

Anonymous wrote:re PP, I think Peter Weigand is associated with St Anselms, not with WIS.

Oops, you are correct. I apologize. My mistake. Here is a Jay Mathews comment on WIS. http://voices.washingtonpost.com/class-struggle/2010/02/how_challenge_index_can_help.html

There are some privates here who have given me their very impressive numbers in the past, like the Washington International School that has had a rating of 6.000 and St. Anselm's Abbey, about the same.

Of course, it's also possible that although WIS voluntarily provided its Challenge Index data to Jay Mathews, PP might nevertheless be correct in saying WIS also asked Mathews not to include that WIS data in his article.

Presumably, if a school requires all seniors to take the IB exam(s) and if your criterion is taking the exam rather than passing it, then you can award a 100% on the equity and excellence scale to a school without it submitting any data.

re PP, I think Peter Weigand is associated with St Anselms, not with WIS.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It is the policy of schools that belong to Independent Education to not participate in such rankings that is why there are so few private schools on the list.

Yes, and WIS specifically asked the reporter not to include them in the article for this very reason, but the reporter was more interested in his story. Like many PP's here, WIS views this analysis dimly and feels it is a very superficial analysis, mostly using AP results. Hopefully there are many other things of value about a school than how many students pass an AP exam.

As to selling land to raise money. I don't know that that is the case. The Tregaron conservatory owns a good portion of that land, and can sell it. If , in fact, the school did sell it to raise money. it beats obnoxious Auction campaigns that have no end or harassing parents to donate.

I think you might be mistaken. Or else you should ask Jay Mathews for a retraction. Here is what he wrote in the Post ...

"The school’s former headmaster, now president, the Rev. Peter Weigand ... told me when I started the list that he would be happy to supply the AP data because it was one of his school’s great strengths. He said that he doesn’t think my list is a measure of overall school quality but that it helps students and parents understand what is going on."

Accountability that doesn't make sense really isn't accountability. If they ranked schools by how many restrooms they had you wouldn't call it accountability. Especially if they decided to exclude some schools for no consistent reason. People like rankings and this takes it to an absurd conclusion.

Why dont educators like this article? That is exactly the problem with education today. No accountability.

Anonymous wrote:Congratulations! Of the schools that chose to share their data with the Post, WIS gave the third highest number of AP/IB tests per student.

WIS did not share its data, and asked not to be included in the article. Their data was mined form the public record because it could be. the other schools on the list had their data mined too. No educator likes this article. Sadly, this is what passes for journalism today.

Anonymous wrote:It is the policy of schools that belong to Independent Education to not participate in such rankings that is why there are so few private schools on the list.

Yes, and WIS specifically asked the reporter not to include them in the article for this very reason, but the reporter was more interested in his story. Like many PP's here, WIS views this analysis dimly and feels it is a very superficial analysis, mostly using AP results. Hopefully there are many other things of value about a school than how many students pass an AP exam.

As to selling land to raise money. I don't know that that is the case. The Tregaron conservatory owns a good portion of that land, and can sell it. If , in fact, the school did sell it to raise money. it beats obnoxious Auction campaigns that have no end or harassing parents to donate.

I share the past posters' opinions about problems with these rankings.

Jay Matthews says that he does not include TJHSST and similar schools because these are selective.

Why is he now putting private schools on his list? At schools like the ones he has added to the list, you need to apply, be tested and provide recommendations just like selective public schools. I think it is inconsistent with Jay's own methodology to include schools that are not forced to take a kid just because he/she lives in the school's neighborhood, as is the case with many of the publics. Private schools can also counsel out kids who they think might not be coping. Private schools don't have to take kids with disabilities or IEPs.

A terrible metric. It is meaningless to have a warm body take the test without reporting average scores. A much more telling model would include not only the % of students taking AP/IB tests, but also the percentage that pass with a 3, 4, and 5s.

I see that BASIS Scottsdale is in the top 5. DC is getting a BASIS school this fall. It'll be interesting to see if the school here is as successful

It would be helpful if more private schools provided data. It would also help if the data were more complete, with mean and median test scores. Some schools probably try to inflate their rankings by giving tests to unprepared kids. However, I would guess that WIS and St. Anselm's would still be near the top if you ranked by test scores instead of just the number of tests administered.

What's also strange about the Washington Post rankings is that the schools are primarily public. Not clear why WIS or St. Anselm's would be on this list.

This is Newsweek's rankings, using a more complex methodology, of public schools.

http://www.wtop.com/41/2872289/Local-schools-among-best-in-nation