Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
As I mentioned, I don’t think it matters so much for Elementary and Middle school, but high schoolers are so volatile that you need to make sure it is a 9-10. IMO 7 indicates that the staff are not motivated to keep on top of their students, and are okay with "good enough".
With high-schoolers, teachers/admin giving an inch is a death knell. Our local HS went from a 7 to a 4 in the span of as many years (3). It developed major bullying/gang/drug problems along with a severe slide in academics.
Meanwhile, the local magnet school (10) stayed a 10. Seeing the other schools decline kept parents, teachers, and admins motivated to keep the rot from spreading to the good school.
The best, most legitimate, ratings come from the state's Department of Education, which most school systems then make available.
What has to be remembered with any rating system one or two kids can totally crash your ranking. Get a SPED, ESL, FARM kid who doesn't meet standard can completely knock a school into oversight. That kid has now crashed you three ways.
GreatSchools is known to be an arbitrary, inflated, and unreliable website. All of these “rating sites” for anything in life have known rating inflation issues, but GreatSchools is particularly well documented for inflating rankings (at the behest of school management or otherwise).
The best, most legitimate, ratings come from the state's Department of Education, which most school systems then make available.
What has to be remembered with any rating system one or two kids can totally crash your ranking. Get a SPED, ESL, FARM kid who doesn't meet standard can completely knock a school into oversight. That kid has now crashed you three ways.
Ever wonder what would happen if the top 10% of seniors, those already accepted to college, including some Ivy or Ivyish schools, were to decide to intentionally blow the state standardized test as a means of protest against the tests because they knew the state test scores could not be associated with their grades?
It sets school officials into a panic and the test developers into a tizzy trying to figure out what's wrong with the test. Very entertaining, esp when the school officials in their panic started revealing student PII to the media. Which then created another cycle of panic among said officials.
Ever wonder what would happen if the top 10% of seniors, those already accepted to college, including some Ivy or Ivyish schools, were to decide to intentionally blow the state standardized test as a means of protest against the tests because they knew the state test scores could not be associated with their grades?
It sets school officials into a panic and the test developers into a tizzy trying to figure out what's wrong with the test. Very entertaining, esp when the school officials in their panic started revealing student PII to the media. Which then created another cycle of panic among said officials.
That was fixed by making passing the various exams required for graduation.
Ever wonder what would happen if the top 10% of seniors, those already accepted to college, including some Ivy or Ivyish schools, were to decide to intentionally blow the state standardized test as a means of protest against the tests because they knew the state test scores could not be associated with their grades?
It sets school officials into a panic and the test developers into a tizzy trying to figure out what's wrong with the test. Very entertaining, esp when the school officials in their panic started revealing student PII to the media. Which then created another cycle of panic among said officials.
We had that happen at a Kentucky middle school in the mid-2000’s. They drew smiley faces as their answers on all their extended response questions, IIRC it was almost half the 8th graders. The teachers saw it as it occurred and freaked out but knew there was nothing they could do. When they tried to punish the kids afterwards for it the school got in huge trouble because they weren’t supposed to be looking at student answers. They went from being one of top scoring schools to “failing”. The entire administration, including counselors, either quit, retired, or got demoted over it. Quite a few teachers got burned by it too. It didn’t get hardly any press but it sure was talked about a lot by our local principals.
High stakes testing where only one party is held accountable, whether it’s the students or the schools, should not be allowed. Both need skin in the game.
__________________
When I post in bold red that is moderator action and, per the TOS, can only be discussed through Direct Message.
That was fixed by making passing the various exams required for graduation.
They have now included them in the final grades, if the state can process the tests and get the grades out 5 days before graduation.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Oldhag1
High stakes testing where only one party is held accountable, whether it’s the students or the schools, should not be allowed. Both need skin in the game.
The problem I have with that is the skin is in someone else's game. The whole standardized test game is about avoidance of punishment, there is no upside/reward for students or teachers. The best thing a student can do is not make their grade worse or not get held back. Same for the teachers. Seems like the only ones who "win" is administrators and political appointees who can use the results to boost their own careers. And Pearson who gets mega bucks to do the testing.
I didn't just go by those scores, I also looked at the schools and their websites and what sorts of activities they promoted. I looked at area demographics, income, the walkability to schools and crime. I didn't want to be in the wealthiest district. Kids don't have to be in the very top rated school to get a great education. Look at the whole picture.
We had that happen at a Kentucky middle school in the mid-2000’s. They drew smiley faces as their answers on all their extended response questions, IIRC it was almost half the 8th graders. The teachers saw it as it occurred and freaked out but knew there was nothing they could do. When they tried to punish the kids afterwards for it the school got in huge trouble because they weren’t supposed to be looking at student answers. They went from being one of top scoring schools to “failing”. The entire administration, including counselors, either quit, retired, or got demoted over it. Quite a few teachers got burned by it too. It didn’t get hardly any press but it sure was talked about a lot by our local principals.
High stakes testing where only one party is held accountable, whether it’s the students or the schools, should not be allowed. Both need skin in the game.
That's a brutal set of outcomes. As you likely know I'm not a huge fan of the state of US K-12. However, kids with intent or not torpedoing the careers of educators and administrators as you noted is way wrong. Someone up the food chain, maybe at the state level should have stepped in.
GreatSchools is known to be an arbitrary, inflated, and unreliable website. All of these “rating sites” for anything in life have known rating inflation issues, but GreatSchools is particularly well documented for inflating rankings (at the behest of school management or otherwise).
Exactly. Never use one of those for-profit websites to determine which schools or school districts appear to rank highly.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
