Anonymous wrote:I was a great student at a crappy Fairfax County HS. I got accepted to all of the best state universities. My friends from my traveling soccer team with similar stats from the top schools were wait listed or rejected. Badgering admissions--revealed the schools had an unspoken quota they'd accept from each HS. Moral--be a big fish in a little pond. You can get a great education at most do area schools.

+1

Btw, I frickin' love that Oprah clip. Cracks the sh*t out of me everytime.

No errors anywhere else

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/05/08/principal-errors-rank-nev_n_1500572.html

No one would be so skeptical if Langley or McLean shot up in the rankings.

The only acknowledged error thus far concerns a high school in Nevada.

The errors with the data sets are now being acknowledged. Look for revised rankings or a US News withdrawal of the prior rankings soon. For now, the fact that FCPS hasn't put out a press release touting the results tells you they know they are based on incorrect (federal) data.

I was a great student at a crappy Fairfax County HS. I got accepted to all of the best state universities. My friends from my traveling soccer team with similar stats from the top schools were wait listed or rejected. Badgering admissions--revealed the schools had an unspoken quota they'd accept from each HS. Moral--be a big fish in a little pond. You can get a great education at most do area schools.

Huzzah! I've become increasingly tired of having people ask me when we are going to move so our kids can go to the "good" school (Mclean). We knew Marshall was a good thing when we bought here 10 years ago.

Anonymous wrote:Go ROBINSON!

It's about time it got the recognition it deserves.

Yep! Better than Langley and we paid a lot (lot) less for our house here.

Anonymous wrote:
I teach at Marshall and I was confused by this, too. Most if not all of my students never take an IB class so the 99% is suspect to me. That said, Marshall is still a great school with a lot to offer its students and IB is not everything IMO.

I agree with you. I think the 99% number is wrong but that, based on the other metrics, Marshall still would have received a high US News rating this year had the AP and IB participation percentages been calculated on a similar basis.

If nothing else, I think the high rating and the ongoing renovations will reduce the number of pupil placements from Marshall to Madison and accelerate the pupil placements to Marshall from other schools.

I can see it now on real estate listings "#3 school in the state, #53 in the country"

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I still think the 99% IB participation rates listed for Mason and Marshall are bogus. Will be interesting to see if FCPS puts out a press release that touts these ratings, or instead waits until they've been scrubbed more closely.

I teach at Marshall and I was confused by this, too. Most if not all of my students never take an IB class so the 99% is suspect to me. That said, Marshall is still a great school with a lot to offer its students and IB is not everything IMO.

PP here. I checked the US News website and that 99% is based on 12th grade students who took at least 1 IB exam during their time at Marshall. That may be true for the students who actually graduate, but there are still many students who will never graduate from high school (ESOL, etc) even at Marshall, and this statistic doesn't take that into account.

Yes, I guess you are right. I thought they used to though. Now I see those are online courses available.

Anonymous wrote:Marshall High School has both AP and IB classes and I believe you can take both. It also has Marshall Academy where business, computer, cooking, criminal justice, classes and so forth are offered for more hands skill learning. For one of the smaller high schools, it has a wide variety of programs offered to students.

Marshall does not have AP - just IB.

Anonymous wrote:I still think the 99% IB participation rates listed for Mason and Marshall are bogus. Will be interesting to see if FCPS puts out a press release that touts these ratings, or instead waits until they've been scrubbed more closely.

I teach at Marshall and I was confused by this, too. Most if not all of my students never take an IB class so the 99% is suspect to me. That said, Marshall is still a great school with a lot to offer its students and IB is not everything IMO.

Marshall High School has both AP and IB classes and I believe you can take both. It also has Marshall Academy where business, computer, cooking, criminal justice, classes and so forth are offered for more hands skill learning. For one of the smaller high schools, it has a wide variety of programs offered to students.