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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.
This has been the case in CO for ages. A huge number of parents excuse their kids from state testing. Especially at the high school level. I think we had only 1/6 of juniors take the state test this year.
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.
Right?
It seems to me like the SAT and ACT are probably the most reliable tests for comparing schools, do we really need to test kids every couple of grades? How valuable is that data really?
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.
The kids intentionally crashing the tests happened mostly at the middle school level. When the tests were at the high school level and passing a requirement for graduation the mindset changed. Some kids did screw around on the practice and benchmark tests, which just created more work for the teachers having to remediate material that really didn't need remediating.
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).
So, which source we should be using to rate schools we’re interested in?
LOL I went on Great Schools Dot Com and found that where I live the schools are 5's. I know there's a lot of poor people around, but dang, 5's?
Then I looked up the rich town in NJ when I grew up and my high school is a 4. I guess rich folks send their kids to private school these days and don't bother looking at random websites? But one town over, a slightly richer town, their high school is a 9. Go figure.
You don’t have to look at the schools. You need to look at the parents. The higher the percentage of college educated parents in the town, the more likely the schools will perform well. A town with 90% college educated adults can hold classes under an oak tree using new grads and have good outcomes.
You don’t have to look at the schools. You need to look at the parents. The higher the percentage of college educated parents in the town, the more likely the schools will perform well. A town with 90% college educated adults can hold classes under an oak tree using new grads and have good outcomes.
This and the income.
Between the two houses buy the one in the higher income neighborhood.
My Mom’s friend who’s also been a top realtor in Los Angeles for 30 yrs, gave us an advice:
Between the two houses buy the one in the higher income neighborhood.
My Mom’s friend who’s also been a top realtor in Los Angeles for 30 yrs, gave us an advice:
“ follow the wealth.”
With a grain (or maybe a 5-pound block) of salt, I tend to agree.
I've known schools in very average neighborhoods (and even in poor neighborhoods) that were outstanding due to the staff, and schools in rich neighborhoods that I wouldn't want to send a kit to for various reasons.
With a grain (or maybe a 5-pound block) of salt, I tend to agree.
I've known schools in very average neighborhoods (and even in poor neighborhoods) that were outstanding due to the staff, and schools in rich neighborhoods that I wouldn't want to send a kit to for various reasons.
But, in general, yes.
As someone who lived in “blue ribbon” 10 score school district (still live in another 10 district but we homeschool) I’m sharing with your grain of salt.
But, in general, yes.
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