Give me a real perspective on life in Goochland! (Richmond: condo, best school)

[GCPS]

Well, not so much a "rep" - I'm someone who chose to move to Goochland and has kids in the schools. It takes a long time to break perceptions that have solidified over decades.

I frankly don't want all of you to come to Goochland - no offense. Goochland is largely what it is because it's not densely populated. Part of what gives its school division the ability to be so excellent is that it operates like a jet ski among a bunch of ocean-liners. What takes others 5 years to implement takes our schools 6 months.

You should absolutely take my comments with a grain of salt - the same with which you take them all. Don't follow a group of lemmings over a cliff that says "I never heard of anyone moving to Goochland for the schools - so neither will I..."

Do the work yourself. Go check the stats - every division in VA has that data available on the online school report cards through the VDOE website. If you want to know who scored highest in a subject - go look.

Finding the substantive information will take more. Test scores mean nothing. They tell you how well a division complies with a minimalist, one-time achievement goal that aggregates kids into one number. I don't know any parents who want their kids to be part of that.

So I recommend you pay no attention to that test data - even though Goochland's is among the highest (& it's a delicious irony to find that so many tout schools that don't score as well as being obviously better than Goochland because of their test scores). Find out how they evaluate their programs - and their teachers. If you send your kids to a school that employs teachers who - at the end of day - know their professional life lives/dies from an aggregate standardized test score, then you should expect your kid's test scores to drive everything, regardless of the flashy literature - and regardless of what "everyone else says."

You may find yourself among the few privileged souls who ignored the majority opinion about Goochland and now have their kids in an experience that feels very much like the private school experienced many of my neighbors shell out 20K a year to get. I want my kids' teachers to care more about my individual child's growth and potential. And I want my school division to care more about the degree to which its teachers care about that, too.

It's all in how you define "top notch." You may find that the white-noise messaging of "Goochland's pretty but the schools aren't good" might take you away from the very thing you're hoping for in an exemplary education.

Did anyone catch the newest Richmond Magazine - with the article about the best schools? Interestingly, Goochland isn't included among the divisions that are rated to create the baseline data for the article. But take a look at who leads off the whole article. When the author wants to describe the gold standard, it's Goochland's leaders that are showcased.

Fascinating, huh?

[deyerles]

Hey GCPS - thanks for the honest and "digging deeper" take on things. Just curious. How old are your kids? I'm mainly concerned that moving to Goochland with kids going into high school and middle school without a "neighborhood" would be a challenge. What we've seen there is that yards are bigger, and more privacy is around each house. That leads me to believe that making friends with neighbors is more challenging ... am I over thinking??
Thanks!

[snatale1]

Trailer........ Trash Heap......... Junkyard........ MANSION....... trailer....... Condemned House...... BIGGER MANSION..... Goochland can be a weird one!

[sls76]

Originally Posted by snatale1

Trailer........ Trash Heap......... Junkyard........ MANSION....... trailer....... Condemned House...... BIGGER MANSION..... Goochland can be a weird one!

and this is why it's quite a stretch to argue the public school experience in Goochland is comparable to the experience at the area's elite private schools.

[ny_guy]

Originally Posted by sls76

and this is why it's quite a stretch to argue the public school experience in Goochland is comparable to the experience at the area's elite private schools.

Yeah, and I don't mean to pile on the responses to GCPS's posts, but I feel like I have to point out something to people coming from outside the area who might not be familiar with the stats.


I checked the Goochland numbers (as reported in the Goochland annual report that GCPS referenced in an earlier post), and the comparisons I found were county-wide averages. Those comparisons do make Goochland look really good, but they definitely don't tell the whole story. If your interest is test numbers, you absolutely can't compare Goochland with the average of the whole county of Henrico or the average of the whole county of Chesterfield as is done in the annual report, because both of those counties have a huge spread in school quality (e.g., East Henrico vs West Henrico and Midlothian vs non-Midlothian areas of Chesterfield) while Goochland has just one high school and one middle school.


The Short Pump area has schools with test numbers that nearly match (or are better than) some of the best NoVa schools, and those are some of the best schools in the country based on test numbers. My understanding is that the good Chesterfield schools are similar (I am just more familiar with those numbers). I have a really hard time believing that Goochland's middle or high school has anything approaching that level of performance. I'm sure they're fine, and I'm sure there are other non-testing aspects that make them appealing, but they don't appear to be absolute top-notch destination schools, at least from a testing perspective.


For what it's worth, I don't really have a dog in this fight - I'm a city guy and won't be using any of these schools - but if people visit this thread in the future I just want the information to be complete since I think the Richmond-area school considerations are really confusing.

[Deluusions]

Originally Posted by GCPS

Goochland's schools have consistently performed in the top 1 or 2 when compared to regional neighbors (yes, that's Henrico, Chesterfield and Hanover). Many people advise that you should choose the schools in Henrico, based on an antiquated view that dates back to the 1980's. In fact, Goochland outperformed Henrico in Science, History, Math, Writing & Reading last year. That's every subject tested.

Henrico schools are awesome, don't get me wrong. Just make sure the data supports the opinions you're hearing.

When compared to the top 10 wealthiest localities in the state AND the 10 localities that spend the most on public education - Goochland remains in the top 3, more typically 1 or 2.

And that's just standardized test scores - which is what truly separates the Goochland schools from the rest. Goochland is the pioneer in taking its eyes off of SOL tests and putting its energy and money into creating engaging experiences for students. Goochland is a state leader in integrating performance based assessments (assessing kids using real-world, viable experiences rather than multiple-choice tests) and growth assessment (measuring progress individually rather than singular achievement in the aggregate).

Goochland was just recognized as the national leader in using student data to improve educational experiences for children most effectively and innovatively: (Goochland County Public Schools Win National Award for Data Use to Improve Student Achievement - Data Quality Campaign).

Take a look: http://www.glnd.k12.va.us/resources/...eport_2015.pdf

Better still - come on out and visit the schools!

This is insanely inaccurate.

[sls76]

Originally Posted by Deluusions

This is insanely inaccurate.

Or insanely delusional

[Deluusions]

Originally Posted by sls76

Or insanely delusional

that's why I have this username...... for rubbish like that.

[RVAbornandbred]

Goochland is an odd one...for good and bad. While a lot of counties have some version of suburban/rural split....Goochland's is pretty dramatic. There are some extremely wealthy people and a very well-developed part of the county (West Creek Business Park) that make you feel like you're in Henrico. But there is a very poor, rural, isolated portion of the county near Cumberland that feels a lot more like rural Southside Virginia than being part of the Richmond area.

[GCPS]

This is starting to feel like an argument, which I don't want...

The test data - which again I'm telling you isn't very valuable to me - is aggregated for both county-wide numbers AND school-specific performance. You can find it for any school in Virginia right here: https://p1pe.doe.virginia.gov/reportcard/

Since NY brought up the middle school, let's take a look. If you'll use the above referenced tool, you'll find the following most recent test data:

Short Pump Middle:
Eng: 81
Math: 81
History: 97
Science: 93

Goochland Middle:
Eng: 84
Math: 87
History: 95
Science: 90

Goochland outperformed Short Pump's elite on two of the four tests - as performed at those two specific schools. All that does for me is confirm that the well-established belief that Goochland's schools are substandard to other Richmond schools is simply not true. For others it might mean more, if you value the SOL's.

What you'll find if you take the time to look is that Goochland's schools are mastering the art of personalized learning. Teachers in Goochland can earn merit pay for personalizing learning. They are evaluated on how well they personalize learning.

You've heard that you can tell what's important to someone by looking at their checkbook. Similarly, you can tell what's actually happening in classrooms by looking at how teachers are evaluated.

I'll say again, be very careful about listening to all the voices that will repeat what they've been hearing for decades, that Goochland is pretty but the schools aren't good.

It's just not true.

Many people can't seem to stomach that it's changed, but they also haven't done any homework. If you'll do yours, you'll find Goochland's schools are unquestionably the very best in the region.

Did anyone see who the Region I (yes, Henrico, Chesterfield, and Hanover are in that one) Superintendent of the Year is? The news just came out: Lane is Region 1 Superintendent of the Year - Richmond Times-Dispatch: Goochland Gazette