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If not scores then how would you evaluate a school ?
By its looks ?
The best way to evaluate a school is to visit it or to talk to parents who have children enrolled. I realize that is not always possible if you are moving from another state or another country though.
Test scores are only a small part of the picture, so you cannot judge solely on that criteria.
I would see if I could find information on several things:
1. Discipline policies - how many students are suspended? Is there a zero-tolerance policy for anything (hopefully not)? Is there a dress code or do the kids wear uniforms?
2. Tracking - do they track kids especially in math and science so that your child is on his or her actual level? Are there gifted options or options for special education?
3. Are many AP or IB classes offered? How many kids take these (percentage)? What kinds of scores to the kids get on the AP exams? What about SAT and ACT scores? Admittedly this is testing, but it gives a better picture than the state tests, imo.
4. Curriculum - what is required especially for high school graduation. How rigorous are the classes?
5. Bullying prevention - what program does the school use and how effective is it?
6. Extra-curriculars offered - How is the music program, the art program, are there a lot of clubs? What sports are offered and how competitive is the program in terms of ability for students who are not top tier to play those sports at some level?
7. What percentage of the kids go on to college? Are there trade school options available for kids who are not academically inclined?
8. Is there an active PTO or PTA and how to they function? What kinds of help does the school get from these organizations?
9. Does the school use community resources? Are there volunteer opportunities for teens and/or parents?
10. What is the percentage of kids who live in poverty? What percentage are wealthy? What is the minority population and which minorities are prevalent? How does the school handle their minority population in terms of including them in the school so they are not discriminated against?
The best way to evaluate a school is to visit it or to talk to parents who have children enrolled. I realize that is not always possible if you are moving from another state or another country though.
Test scores are only a small part of the picture, so you cannot judge solely on that criteria.
I would see if I could find information on several things:
1. Discipline policies - how many students are suspended? Is there a zero-tolerance policy for anything (hopefully not)? Is there a dress code or do the kids wear uniforms?
2. Tracking - do they track kids especially in math and science so that your child is on his or her actual level? Are there gifted options or options for special education?
3. Are many AP or IB classes offered? How many kids take these (percentage)? What kinds of scores to the kids get on the AP exams? What about SAT and ACT scores? Admittedly this is testing, but it gives a better picture than the state tests, imo.
4. Curriculum - what is required especially for high school graduation. How rigorous are the classes?
5. Bullying prevention - what program does the school use and how effective is it?
6. Extra-curriculars offered - How is the music program, the art program, are there a lot of clubs? What sports are offered and how competitive is the program in terms of ability for students who are not top tier to play those sports at some level?
7. What percentage of the kids go on to college? Are there trade school options available for kids who are not academically inclined?
8. Is there an active PTO or PTA and how to they function? What kinds of help does the school get from these organizations?
9. Does the school use community resources? Are there volunteer opportunities for teens and/or parents?
10. What is the percentage of kids who live in poverty? What percentage are wealthy? What is the minority population and which minorities are prevalent? How does the school handle their minority population in terms of including them in the school so they are not discriminated against?
Love your list.
Purely using test scores tells you next to nothing. The school 2 of my kids attended years ago gave out A's like candy, yet a staggering % of these kids that attended colleges had to take remedial classes due to scoring below the minimum on their ACT/SAT's in specific subjects.
As you can guess, the local parents thought this school was great cause their little "Johnny" always received great grades with minimal effort.
Lets be real...high test scores aren't truly an indicator of quality teaching. They are indicators of the socioeconomic health of the school population.
That's what people really care about. They want to go to the nice school, with the well behaving children, not the school in a crappy neighborhood with the fantastic teachers.
Smart people dig deeper and look at the methods a school uses to get the results it gets. Not a district, a school.
Of course test scores indicate the neighborhood demographics. And you could just as well go to the demographics directly and use household income or percentage bachelor degrees and you would swiftly find the same answer. Or you could use free lunches or language challenged students and get pretty much the same outcome.
And the demographic weak school with fantastic teachers is pretty much a myth. The vast majority of the strong teachers head to the good demographic schools. In the poor or minority schools you find new teachers, permanent substitutes, castoffs and a few heroes.
So any parent actually looking out for their children uses test scores. Generally easy to get at and will get you to the same place as any demographic based hunt.
If everyone knows that using standardized test scores to evaluate a school creates a perverse incentive to "teach to the test", then why on EARTH do parents looking at buying a house look at TEST SCORES?
When buying a house, they want to evaluate the neighborhood. School test scores might help them evaluate the neighborhood.
I wonder if there is a correlation between low test scores and crime? But even if there is, it might be more efficient to simply look at crime statistics. Unless there aren't any crime statistics available for that exact neighborhood. If the crime statistics cover a wider geographical area, and the school test scores cover a smaller neighborhood, it might be a way to help evaluate that specific neighborhood. Maybe on the theory that kids with higher test scores have parents who are more involved and more likely to keep their kids away from crime.
If a parent is really evaluating the school, it's not just the test scores. Especially at HS level, you look at what the school district has to offer for your child. If a parent has a child with special needs, looking at test scores is useless.
If a parent is really evaluating the school, it's not just the test scores. Especially at HS level, you look at what the school district has to offer for your child. If a parent has a child with special needs, looking at test scores is useless.
With special needs they look for school districts with lots of money going into that program.
test scores tell you very little besides the demographics of the school.
However demographics is important. One of the reasons SES matters as much as it does is that your kids will adopt the values of their peers. Higher SES allows you to choose higher quality peers for your kids.
While I don't think test scores tell the whole story, they do tell you something about the school in question. At the very least high test scores tell you the school is located in an area where it's normal to care about education. If that's a value you want your kids to have that's reason enough to move to that area.
As flawed as they are test scores are probably the best measure we have of comparing one school to another. I teach in a school with high test scores. The norm for our students is to go to college and to care about their GPA so they can get into the college they want to get into. I heard there was a teen pregnancy a few years before I came to the school. Place these same kids in a low scoring school where kids don't go to college and the teen pregnancy rate is higher and I'd bet dollars to donuts fewer of them would go to college and more of them would be teen moms. Demographics is important. It determines what norms our children will adopt.
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