Pittsburgh Business Times 2010 Guide to Western PA Schools (Lebanon, Upper St. Clair: chapel, how much)

[lifepgh2op]

Bizjournals came up with a ranking, or guide, to public school districts in Western PA.

Looks like they listed Upper St. Clair as #1, North Allegheny as #2, and Mt. Lebanon as #3. I didn't really look through all of it, I'm just posting it in case anyone is interested since school questions seem to come up a lot.

Story:
http://pittsburgh.bizjournals.com/pittsburgh/stories/2010/05/10/story2.html?b=1273464000^3317281

2010 Guide:
Pittsburgh Business Times: School Guide

[BrianTH]

I don't mind them providing the information, but I wish they wouldn't rank districts by standardized test scores. We know that various non-school factors play a role in determining test scores, so they aren't a good measure of the average value added by a district unless you first control for those other factors.

Edit: That said, they also provide an "Overachiever Ranking", which at least takes some steps in that direction by combining their test score rankings with the percentage of students in the district eligible for free and reduced lunch into the formula. There are more comprehensive and scientific ways to do that, but I'd at least suggest people take a close look at their Overachiever Rankings, since I think those get closer to determining the relative average value added by the districts.

[Copanut]

That list looks like Major League Baseball, the richest areas seem to have the best schools, at least the first 9. I'm surprised Norwin is ranked that high since it draws from a predominantly middle income class. Maybe Westmoreland County funds differently.

[robrobrob]

Somewhat surprised that Fox Chapel has 16% of the kids getting a subsidized lunch and still scores pretty high overall. At some point, I would think that Sharpsburg would drag the district down.

I think there are a lot of big homes being built in the Norwin School District. My guess is that they all have kids in the district. I have relatives that have all moved out that way (either Norwin of Penn-Traffor) from older eastern suburbs. Basically, for good schools and cheap big houses.

[Copanut]

Originally Posted by robrobrob

Somewhat surprised that Fox Chapel has 16% of the kids getting a subsidized lunch and still scores pretty high overall. At some point, I would think that Sharpsburg would drag the district down.

I think there are a lot of big homes being built in the Norwin School District. My guess is that they all have kids in the district. I have relatives that have all moved out that way (either Norwin of Penn-Traffor) from older eastern suburbs. Basically, for good schools and cheap big houses.

I grew up in the East and know the Norwin area pretty well. It's comprised on North Huntingdon and Irwin. Not sure how much building is going on. I can say that one of my brightest college buddies came from Norwin High School and is now a retired millionaire at the age of 55. SOB.

The house he grew up in was a 2 br ranch, still only worth about 100K.

[jimmyev]

It's annoying that they don't include Lawrence County in the rankings. It's a very viable option for people working in Cranberry.

[Katarina Witt]

Originally Posted by BrianTH

I don't mind them providing the information, but I wish they wouldn't rank districts by standardized test scores. We know that various non-school factors play a role in determining test scores, so they aren't a good measure of the average value added by a district unless you first control for those other factors.

Edit: That said, they also provide an "Overachiever Ranking", which at least takes some steps in that direction by combining their test score rankings with the percentage of students in the district eligible for free and reduced lunch into the formula. There are more comprehensive and scientific ways to do that, but I'd at least suggest people take a close look at their Overachiever Rankings, since I think those get closer to determining the relative average value added by the districts.

It is well known in education circles that school test scores have pretty much a straight line relationship with parental SES. That said, the distarict where I went to high school, Beaver Falls, is in the "overachiever" list. That's pretty cool. Note that the house where I grew up is now in the Blackhawk SD.