Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I came up with a meta ranking, based on a composite of SAT scores, Great Schools, US News, School Digger, and the Washington Post Challenge Index. The top 10 are:

TJ
McLean
Langley
George Mason
Oakton
Yorktown
Woodson
West Springfield
Robinson
Madison

(followed by Marshall, Lake Braddock, Chantilly, and W-L).

And for those who want to see the correlation with FARMS:

TJ - 1.8%
McLean - 8.7%
Langley - 1.8%
George Mason - 8.5%
Oakton - 12.8%
Yorktown - 14.6%
Woodson - 11.7%
West Springfield - 12.9%
Robinson - 10.7%
Madison - 10.4%
Marshall - 17.7%
Lake Braddock - 16.3%
Chantilly - 16.9%
W-L - 34.2%

Right. I hope no one is delusional enough to think there’s anything inherently good about these schools. You take the kids from Langley and stick them in Mount Vernon and Mount Vernon goes from the worst school to the best school, and vice versa. It’s all about the student and the family they come from. The actual schools don’t make a difference.

Yes, the students, teachers, and surrounding communities make a bigger difference than buildings. Few would suggest otherwise, although better physical plants may contribute at the margins to selecting a neighborhood.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I came up with a meta ranking, based on a composite of SAT scores, Great Schools, US News, School Digger, and the Washington Post Challenge Index. The top 10 are:

TJ
McLean
Langley
George Mason
Oakton
Yorktown
Woodson
West Springfield
Robinson
Madison

(followed by Marshall, Lake Braddock, Chantilly, and W-L).

And for those who want to see the correlation with FARMS:

TJ - 1.8%
McLean - 8.7%
Langley - 1.8%
George Mason - 8.5%
Oakton - 12.8%
Yorktown - 14.6%
Woodson - 11.7%
West Springfield - 12.9%
Robinson - 10.7%
Madison - 10.4%
Marshall - 17.7%
Lake Braddock - 16.3%
Chantilly - 16.9%
W-L - 34.2%

Right. I hope no one is delusional enough to think there’s anything inherently good about these schools. You take the kids from Langley and stick them in Mount Vernon and Mount Vernon goes from the worst school to the best school, and vice versa. It’s all about the student and the family they come from. The actual schools don’t make a difference.

Anonymous wrote:^ And, of course, some people pay more attention to GS because GS scores show up on more real estate sites.

This.

Anonymous wrote:I came up with a meta ranking, based on a composite of SAT scores, Great Schools, US News, School Digger, and the Washington Post Challenge Index. The top 10 are:

TJ
McLean
Langley
George Mason
Oakton
Yorktown
Woodson
West Springfield
Robinson
Madison

(followed by Marshall, Lake Braddock, Chantilly, and W-L).

And for those who want to see the correlation with FARMS:

TJ - 1.8%
McLean - 8.7%
Langley - 1.8%
George Mason - 8.5%
Oakton - 12.8%
Yorktown - 14.6%
Woodson - 11.7%
West Springfield - 12.9%
Robinson - 10.7%
Madison - 10.4%
Marshall - 17.7%
Lake Braddock - 16.3%
Chantilly - 16.9%
W-L - 34.2%

^ And, of course, some people pay more attention to GS because GS scores show up on more real estate sites.

Anonymous wrote:Why does everybody get a woody over Great Schools?

It's just one among several ratings, with rankings based on a combination of SOL scores and participation in advanced courses.

Other ratings skew more towards SOL scores (School Digger) or participation in AP/IB courses (WaPo Challenge Index). Like US News, GS aims for a blended approach. Unlike US News, the latest GS ratings assign rankings to schools even if some cohorts of kids there aren't performing well.

Why does everybody get a woody over Great Schools?

I came up with a meta ranking, based on a composite of SAT scores, Great Schools, US News, School Digger, and the Washington Post Challenge Index. The top 10 are:

TJ
McLean
Langley
George Mason
Oakton
Yorktown
Woodson
West Springfield
Robinson
Madison

(followed by Marshall, Lake Braddock, Chantilly, and W-L).

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Exactly what happens with Fairfax High. The lower income cohort effects great school ratings but Madison and Fairfax are obviously still great schools.

In Madison's case, 10% are in the cohort, or 200 students. Of those, 70% benchmark (140 students), sixty students do not meet the benchmark. If 10 more students out of a school of 2000 met benchmarks, they would be the 4th ranked school in VA.

You are referring to US News ratings, right?

Madison is now a "7" on Great Schools, ranked no better than 9th in the county, behind TJ, Langley, McLean, West Springfield, Chantilly, Lake Braddock, Oakton, and Woodson? Marshall also would have been an 8 or 9 if Great Schools had taken IB courses into account, but Madison is AP, so that can't be the reason.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Top 10 for the state of VA are:

#1 TJ
#2 George Mason
#3 Langley
#4 Open (Richmond)
#5 McLean
#6 Oakton
#7 Woodson
#8 Marshall
#9 West Springfield
#10 Washington Lee

(US News)

Might as well stack them by F/R lunch rate. Seriously, this is stupid. Show me a poor school that is beating the odds and I will be impressed.

W-L is 29% economically disadvantaged, 58% minority

Love the smack down.

APS lets W-L but not Yorktown offer both AP and IB.

So W-L gets transfers from Yorktown and makes it to #10, while richer Yorktown doesn’t get transfers and isn’t ranked. Slow clap.

According to this past year’s transfer report, only 217 of W-L’s 2,161 students were IB transfers. Assuming all 217 came from Yorktown, which we know is not true, hardly accounts for W-L’s success. W-L is a fabulous school and doesn’t need Yorktown transfers to make it so.

You don't think having 10% of your students transfer in for a special academic program effects performance? Every school would like to have this. Almost by definition these students will be high achievers and certainly above average. It also means that Yorktown and Wakefield are losing these students.

+1. Given the narrow margins by which some schools have higher SAT or "college readiness" scores than others, the transfers to W-L make a big difference. Without them- W-L looks like any number of other schools in NoVa that are good, but not part of a "Top 10" discussion. And, with them, people think of Yorktown as a school that punches below its weight, without knowing that APS has tipped the scale in W-L's favor.

Anonymous wrote:Exactly what happens with Fairfax High. The lower income cohort effects great school ratings but Madison and Fairfax are obviously still great schools.

In Madison's case, 10% are in the cohort, or 200 students. Of those, 70% benchmark (140 students), sixty students do not meet the benchmark. If 10 more students out of a school of 2000 met benchmarks, they would be the 4th ranked school in VA.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Top 10 for the state of VA are:

#1 TJ
#2 George Mason
#3 Langley
#4 Open (Richmond)
#5 McLean
#6 Oakton
#7 Woodson
#8 Marshall
#9 West Springfield
#10 Washington Lee

(US News)

Might as well stack them by F/R lunch rate. Seriously, this is stupid. Show me a poor school that is beating the odds and I will be impressed.

W-L is 29% economically disadvantaged, 58% minority

Love the smack down.

APS lets W-L but not Yorktown offer both AP and IB.

So W-L gets transfers from Yorktown and makes it to #10, while richer Yorktown doesn’t get transfers and isn’t ranked. Slow clap.

womp womp


p.s. US News & other HS rankings really aren't that important.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Top 10 for the state of VA are:

#1 TJ
#2 George Mason
#3 Langley
#4 Open (Richmond)
#5 McLean
#6 Oakton
#7 Woodson
#8 Marshall
#9 West Springfield
#10 Washington Lee

(US News)

Might as well stack them by F/R lunch rate. Seriously, this is stupid. Show me a poor school that is beating the odds and I will be impressed.

W-L is 29% economically disadvantaged, 58% minority

Love the smack down.

APS lets W-L but not Yorktown offer both AP and IB.

So W-L gets transfers from Yorktown and makes it to #10, while richer Yorktown doesn’t get transfers and isn’t ranked. Slow clap.

According to this past year’s transfer report, only 217 of W-L’s 2,161 students were IB transfers. Assuming all 217 came from Yorktown, which we know is not true, hardly accounts for W-L’s success. W-L is a fabulous school and doesn’t need Yorktown transfers to make it so.

You don't think having 10% of your students transfer in for a special academic program effects performance? Every school would like to have this. Almost by definition these students will be high achievers and certainly above average. It also means that Yorktown and Wakefield are losing these students.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Top 10 for the state of VA are:

#1 TJ
#2 George Mason
#3 Langley
#4 Open (Richmond)
#5 McLean
#6 Oakton
#7 Woodson
#8 Marshall
#9 West Springfield
#10 Washington Lee

(US News)

Might as well stack them by F/R lunch rate. Seriously, this is stupid. Show me a poor school that is beating the odds and I will be impressed.

W-L is 29% economically disadvantaged, 58% minority

Love the smack down.

APS lets W-L but not Yorktown offer both AP and IB.

So W-L gets transfers from Yorktown and makes it to #10, while richer Yorktown doesn’t get transfers and isn’t ranked. Slow clap.

According to this past year’s transfer report, only 217 of W-L’s 2,161 students were IB transfers. Assuming all 217 came from Yorktown, which we know is not true, hardly accounts for W-L’s success. W-L is a fabulous school and doesn’t need Yorktown transfers to make it so.

TJ

Langley/McLean/George Mason

Woodson/Oakton/Madison

These are definitely the top 7. After that, there's a group of about seven more that have equal claim to round out the top 10:

Marshall/Chantilly/Yorktown/West Springfield/Robinson/W-L/Lake Braddock