[momofvegasgirls]

Originally Posted by Sloppy_seconds

Site down. Is there an alternative?

Here are the schools with their new star rating designation. Just click the stars on the left side of the page and they will name the schools from 5 star rated all the way down to 1 star schools. First section is for High Schools. Palo Verde is ranked as a 3 star. Hope that helps until the DOE website is up (you"ll get the score broken down on each school on that site). It's been down all day.

See how Las Vegas schools compare - Las Vegas Sun News

[lvoc]

Originally Posted by momofvegasgirls

Here are the schools with their new star rating designation. Just click the stars on the left side of the page and they will name the schools from 5 star rated all the way down to 1 star schools. First section is for High Schools. Palo Verde is ranked as a 3 star. Hope that helps until the DOE website is up (you"ll get the score broken down on each school on that site). It's been down all day.

See how Las Vegas schools compare - Las Vegas Sun News

The star system appears unsuitable for use by a parent. It may be very good for rating schools from the point of view of performance by the staff but it does not give a good view of the performance for the student.

The problem is that there is a very wide student performance range for each star rating...from poor to excellent in most star categories.

[momofvegasgirls]

Originally Posted by lvoc

The star system appears unsuitable for use by a parent. It may be very good for rating schools from the point of view of performance by the staff but it does not give a good view of the performance for the student.

The problem is that there is a very wide student performance range for each star rating...from poor to excellent in most star categories.

It's true that there can be a range of performance within the star rating, but they will give you the exact percentage points and you can see the spread for yourself. You can dig down into the numbers here:

School Performance Framework | Clark County School District

Click Search and Compare, then find the school or multiple schools you want to compare, then click Compare on the right side of the screen. You can then dig down and explore.

These numbers were just updated yesterday for the 2011-2012 year.

Number of top-performing schools in Clark County up sharply - Las Vegas Sun News

[lvoc]

The problem with the stars is pretty simple...

*************************
For elementary and middle schools, the majority of points are devoted to a school's academic performance: 44 points for test score improvements, 22 points for the percentage of proficient students and 22 points for closing the achievement gap between students of different backgrounds.
*************************

That says 22% of the score is based on actual performance and the rest on other things.

Yet the parent really cares about the performance and only secondarily about the others.

Note that it may be a fine standard for staff and Principals though it would appear it is biased against a high performing school. How do you get big improvements in test scores if you are already very high...or how do you close the background gap if you don't have one?

I am somewhat suspicious as to how it all works based on Garhine...which has always performed much better than its demographics but was declared a three star school. I have not yet looked at this years but there is already a foot note that no one was scored worse this year than last.

[momofvegasgirls]

In fact Lamping Elementary fell from a 5 star last year to a 4 star this year. Lamping is a very sought after school in Henderson (Anthem, although NOT Anthem Country Club).

There is a different website to see exactly what you are talking about in terms of how already high ranking schools often have nowhere near the growth as schools that have no where to go but up. Check out this site. Very interesting.

Nevada Growth Model:
The Nevada Growth Model

I must say though, a school that can manage to show good CRT scores and show double digit growth has my attention. Why? In a place like Vanderburg ES in Green Valley Ranch or Wallin ES in Madeira Canyon (Henderson) those families have all the resources they need at home, don't have many kids on free lunch, have access to tutoring, and are likely not going to Safe Key after school, etc. If kids in the opposite set of circumstances can catch up and keep up, I give a lot of credit not only to the students but to the teachers and the school administration.

[momofvegasgirls]

In fact Lamping Elementary fell from a 5 star last year to a 4 star this year. Lamping is a very sought after school in Henderson (Anthem, although NOT Anthem Country Club).

There is a different website to see exactly what you are talking about in terms of how already high ranking schools often have nowhere near the growth as schools that have no where to go but up. Check out this site. Very interesting.

Nevada Growth Model:
The Nevada Growth Model

I must say though, a school that can manage to show good CRT scores and show double digit growth has my attention. Why? In a place like Vanderburg ES in Green Valley Ranch or Wallin ES in Madeira Canyon (Henderson) those families have all the resources they need at home, don't have many kids on free lunch, have access to tutoring, and are likely not going to Safe Key after school, etc. If kids in the opposite set of circumstances can catch up and keep up, I give a lot of credit not only to the students but to the teachers and the school administration.