11:39, you do know that the SOLs were taken last year BEFORE the new superintendent?

But why would TJ go down so low?

Those kids sent a friggin satelite into space this school year for goodness sakes!

If it is all based on SOL's then of course everyone went down. Last year was the first year they implemented using computers for all of the SOL's. I was under the impression there were several glitches with the computerized testing system that led to a lot of grief for administrators and students hence there was a drop in most schools SOL's scores.

OMG. Why do people care so much about some random websites scores?

If actual test scores matter to you why not go straight to the state of VA's website and look at the test scores.

I really don't get why this is so freaken worrisome for people. It doesn't mean that your kid is now stupider. Do you think Harvard is going to look at your kids application and say "Well, this applicant seems amazing but but damn great schools only gave their school a 7, OBVIOUSLY they are not harvard material"


And honestly saying that ESOL and FARM students screwed this area is disgusting. If you want to be so elitist that your kids don't dare mix with people of a different class or race than be rich enough to send your kids to some yuppie private school or move to an even whiter neighborhood.

This is outrageous, this stupid superintendent did this. Everything was fine until she came aboard. I also think the massive influx of ESOL FARM students has royally screwed our areas in Fairfax and Arlington.

McLean parents are preparing a response

Great Schools ratings are based strictly on the SOLs. That's it. Nothing more or less. They do make a "composite" pass rate of all the grades and subjects, so I guess you could say that is the basis for their "rating" but it is strictly on the test scores, NOT on what parents "rate" the school.

If the rating decreased, it's b/c the test scores decreased relative to other schools in the state. There is one caveat that I know about... some FCPS schools do not have their "advanced math" kids take the 5th grade Math SOL. They never take it (those kids take the 3rd grade SOL in 3rd grade, they take the 4th grade SOL in 4th grade, they take the 6th grade SOL in 5th grade, they take the 7th grade SOL in 6th grade).

For schools that do this, their 5th grade Math SOL scores never include the top 1/3 of the 5th graders. So, their overall math passing rates look bad, especially in 5th grade. Their best math students aren't counted. That can drag down a school's overall Great Schools rating (unfairly). There is also some inaccuracy for schools that are "secondary schools" b/c Great Schools doesn't count the "Jr. High" part of the school separate from the "HS" part of the school. There are 4 or 5 of those secondary schools in FCPS, so they are not a true representation.

But, on the whole, if your FCPS ES was an 8 last year and now is a 7 on Great Schools, it's solely b/c the composite pass rate on all the SOL tests was lower compared to other schools in VA. (Sometimes this means that the pass rate was only a couple of percentage points lower -- like 92% rather than 94% passing on several subjects/grades. The differences in Fairfax county and the whole state are pretty marginal, but it looks better to have a GS rating of 8 rather than 6.). Look at the demographics and a lot of times the overall passing rate is just a reflection of how many poor or minority kids are part of that school population. It's not a reflection that the teaching is bad, it's a reflection of having a diverse school with diverse SES.

A lot of the ACPS ratings went up quite a bit.

Anonymous wrote:yeh there is something wrong. We are reporting the inaccuracies because all the 9s in a certain area are now 7s (without test score changes). Many of the 8s didn't change. In fact some of the schools that are rated lower have better scores than higher rated school as well as higher scores than last year.

Looks like a bug in their software based on location.

Except test scores did change. Did you look at the school report cards? Like Yorktown for the 2012-2013 year. Their one year scores were 99, 89, 93, 97 and 95 for english, math, history, science and completion respectively. In 2013-2014 the scores were 94, 87, 92, 93, and 97. So pretty much a lower score in everything except completion.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So let me get this straight. The ratings were sacrosanct when people could be snobby and declare that they were the best parents sending their kids to the best schools and that the rest of us were horrible and our kids were going to wind up in a gutter.

But now that the scores have evened out and probably refelect a more realistic picture of the differnces between schools people are in shock and even question if the site has been hacked? Hilarious.

I'm laughing with you. Insecure people will grasp at anything to shore up their image.

yeh there is something wrong. We are reporting the inaccuracies because all the 9s in a certain area are now 7s (without test score changes). Many of the 8s didn't change. In fact some of the schools that are rated lower have better scores than higher rated school as well as higher scores than last year.

Looks like a bug in their software based on location.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So let me get this straight. The ratings were sacrosanct when people could be snobby and declare that they were the best parents sending their kids to the best schools and that the rest of us were horrible and our kids were going to wind up in a gutter.

But now that the scores have evened out and probably refelect a more realistic picture of the differnces between schools people are in shock and even question if the site has been hacked? Hilarious.

Within the span of maybe 5 years, I've watched my neighborhood elementary school soar from a Great School rating of 5 to 9 and now back to 7. ??

So no, I'm not feeling offended. Just a bit mystified...as to how these ratings are calculated. That's all.

http://www.greatschools.org/find-a-school/defining-your-ideal/2423-ratings.gs#1

If the number isn't not based on raw test scores, or if there's not a "raw number" and "adjusted number" (*) on the site, I take back any endorsements I have made of that site.

I remember one time I used GS to quote the FARMS percentages for the Arlington elementaries and was shown to be wrong; others have said the site's out of date on that basic info.)

Given these two things -- I am doubting its effectiveness at being a source of even basic factual data like "racial makeup," "FARMS makeup," and "raw test scores."

They jumped Tuscarora (VA) HS from a '5' to an '8'. All the elementaries around Leesburg got a '7', my first thought was "something on the site got broken." FWIW, they haven't even put up the racial/FARMS data for Tuscarora, despite the school having been open for several years now.

(*) To be fair, some schools do better with worse raw materials, or worse with better raw materials. This needs to be known.

If Whitebread HS gets a raw '6' despite having only 8% FARMS, they're probably doing a worse job with their raw materials than Multi-colored HS that gets a raw '5' with 45% FARMS.

Spring hill and Chesterbrook are 7's? Weird.

Anonymous wrote:So let me get this straight. The ratings were sacrosanct when people could be snobby and declare that they were the best parents sending their kids to the best schools and that the rest of us were horrible and our kids were going to wind up in a gutter.

But now that the scores have evened out and probably refelect a more realistic picture of the differnces between schools people are in shock and even question if the site has been hacked? Hilarious.

Within the span of maybe 5 years, I've watched my neighborhood elementary school soar from a Great School rating of 5 to 9 and now back to 7. ??

So no, I'm not feeling offended. Just a bit mystified...as to how these ratings are calculated. That's all.