Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Capital City used to be at the top of people's lists...what's going on there?

I'm also curious how they separate out "improvement" from "changing student body" and whether % FARMS is factored into this. For instance, the school my son attends has slowly reduced its FARMS rate, and simultaneously has gone from Tier 2 to Tier 1, but how do we know if they are riding on that, or actually educating kids better?

MGP is based on student growth, not school growth. So if a student scored 2 last year and a 3 the next year, then they would attribute that growth to their school. I think the numbers get broken down more detailed than just 1-2-3-4-5 so they can see more granular growth.

You are right - it is more detailed. It also adjusts for students at the upper end, so that a student that goes from 93% to 94% from year to year isn't underweighted and a student that goes from 20%-40% isn't overweighted.

Anonymous wrote:Capital City used to be at the top of people's lists...what's going on there?

I'm also curious how they separate out "improvement" from "changing student body" and whether % FARMS is factored into this. For instance, the school my son attends has slowly reduced its FARMS rate, and simultaneously has gone from Tier 2 to Tier 1, but how do we know if they are riding on that, or actually educating kids better?

MGP is based on student growth, not school growth. So if a student scored 2 last year and a 3 the next year, then they would attribute that growth to their school. I think the numbers get broken down more detailed than just 1-2-3-4-5 so they can see more granular growth.

Capital City used to be at the top of people's lists...what's going on there?

I'm also curious how they separate out "improvement" from "changing student body" and whether % FARMS is factored into this. For instance, the school my son attends has slowly reduced its FARMS rate, and simultaneously has gone from Tier 2 to Tier 1, but how do we know if they are riding on that, or actually educating kids better?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:There's a lot of mediocrity here. I am sure the Tier 3 schools are being put on warning.

What happens to the low to mid-Tier 2s?

Sad thing is charters are better than dcps

These statements add nothing to the conversation. There are charters that are doing very well and charters that are doing poorly. There are DCPS schools that are doing very well and some that are doing poorly. People, if you are truly interested in what is best for your child, do a little legwork, go to schools that you are interested in, ask questions, do your research and make your decisions. Don't rely solely on Tier rankings or PARCC scores or whatever. My DC has been in two DCPS schools. One was a nightmare. The one we're at now has more than exceeded our expectations. Every school should be evaluated on its own merits - that includes charters and DCPS.

Anonymous wrote:I just looked at the great schools data ... so out of date and very oddly skewed. The school sizes are wrong, the test data is wrong, the way some extracurriculars are characterized is strange, with some schools including every little thing and and other only including DCPS paid-for activities and none of the PTA supplemented ones, etc.

I really hope people aren't actually relying on that!

Yes, Greatschools is an awful source of data and highly unreliable beyond a first glance.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:There's a lot of mediocrity here. I am sure the Tier 3 schools are being put on warning.

What happens to the low to mid-Tier 2s?

Sad thing is charters are better than dcps

Not true.
After having an in depth knowledge of how charters are maneuvered, I am very skeptical of the validity of these scores. Results can easily be modified before submitting them, especially when the number of students is low.

I just looked at the great schools data ... so out of date and very oddly skewed. The school sizes are wrong, the test data is wrong, the way some extracurriculars are characterized is strange, with some schools including every little thing and and other only including DCPS paid-for activities and none of the PTA supplemented ones, etc.

I really hope people aren't actually relying on that!

Anonymous wrote:Actually for grades 3-10 DCPS and DCPCSB do both use almost the same framework -- track the median growth percentile (MGP) and % proficient in PARCC.

But DCPS doesn't assign 'Tiers" to its school once the data is crunched in the same way as charters. I've never been able to find a public listing of the MGP.

I know that it is released somehow to Great Schools (look under methodology and it says that DC is one of the states where they use more than just state assessments to determine rankings).

DCPS used to have MGP listed on the school profile website, but I don't see that now. Anyone else have a link?

Actually for grades 3-10 DCPS and DCPCSB do both use almost the same framework -- track the median growth percentile (MGP) and % proficient in PARCC.

But DCPS doesn't assign 'Tiers" to its school once the data is crunched in the same way as charters. I've never been able to find a public listing of the MGP.

I know that it is released somehow to Great Schools (look under methodology and it says that DC is one of the states where they use more than just state assessments to determine rankings).

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:There's a lot of mediocrity here. I am sure the Tier 3 schools are being put on warning.

What happens to the low to mid-Tier 2s?

Sad thing is charters are better than dcps

Let me guess, facts aren't your strong suit? If you actually look at the reports for some of the "tier 1" charter schools, the data looks more in line with up and coming DCPS. You just hide in other data about how many PK kids can count all their fingers, and call it "tier 1".

Smoke and mirrors.

Facts aren't a your strong suit. If you look at the data at some of the "tier 1" you will see that they are tier 1 despite most having majority low income students and high at risk population. Fact is, DC charters perform better than DCPS overall. The DCPS schools that perform well are out of reach for the majority of city kids. Also, if they were ranked on growth, it would be telling.

Nice come back. I hope you didn't hurt yourself trying to think of that.

Repeating your mantra again doesn't make it true. The thing is, you have no way of comparing growth. What is the metric used for growth in the charter schools? What is the metric used for growth in DCPS? Hint: the data hasn't even been released.
And yet you're soo sure that you're right. That kind of outs you as a shill or a sheep.

Anonymous wrote:There's a lot of mediocrity here. I am sure the Tier 3 schools are being put on warning.

What happens to the low to mid-Tier 2s?

They end up being better than the vast majority of DCPS. Of course, there are no consequences for failure in DCPS.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:There's a lot of mediocrity here. I am sure the Tier 3 schools are being put on warning.

What happens to the low to mid-Tier 2s?

Sad thing is charters are better than dcps

Let me guess, facts aren't your strong suit? If you actually look at the reports for some of the "tier 1" charter schools, the data looks more in line with up and coming DCPS. You just hide in other data about how many PK kids can count all their fingers, and call it "tier 1".

Smoke and mirrors.

Facts aren't a your strong suit. If you look at the data at some of the "tier 1" you will see that they are tier 1 despite most having majority low income students and high at risk population. Fact is, DC charters perform better than DCPS overall. The DCPS schools that perform well are out of reach for the majority of city kids. Also, if they were ranked on growth, it would be telling.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Sela and EL Haynes Tier 1

How?

Gentrification.

Not true. We were there and the vast, vast, vast majority of the students were drawn from the local neighborhood. The successful AA director of the school is a great leader for the AA community there.

E.L. Haynes elementary did a ton of work to improve and get back to Tier 1. The principal is strong and supportive of teachers, and the new executive director has been focused. I'm glad to see the hard work paying off. The middle school will be back to Tier 1 next year!

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:There's a lot of mediocrity here. I am sure the Tier 3 schools are being put on warning.

What happens to the low to mid-Tier 2s?

Sad thing is charters are better than dcps

Let me guess, facts aren't your strong suit? If you actually look at the reports for some of the "tier 1" charter schools, the data looks more in line with up and coming DCPS. You just hide in other data about how many PK kids can count all their fingers, and call it "tier 1".

Smoke and mirrors.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:There's a lot of mediocrity here. I am sure the Tier 3 schools are being put on warning.

What happens to the low to mid-Tier 2s?

Sad thing is charters are better than dcps

I'm the PP and I agree. But that shouldn't be 'enough.'