Boston Magazine 2020 High School rankings (Newton, Harvard: low income, mortgage, daycare)

[Bridge781]

Originally Posted by porterhouse

I feel like I’ve read this exact thread. Many times.

Lol yep. Same thread different year.

[BostonBornMassMade]

Originally Posted by massnative71

And I've likely seen plenty of average kids from "good" families completely fall through the cracks in lousy school districts like BPS. In fact, kids I had known from childhood who opted for a regular Boston high school outside the exam schools or private/Catholic high schools...it was pretty much a given you would never see or hear from them again. From what I hear many are dead, in jail, drug addicts/burnouts or otherwise down and out.

Now this is true. Going to Boston public schools is basically to never be seen form or herd from again to 95% of their middle class peers. Kid I know from Boston Public schools mostly end up living at home at age 29, have a gun charge, have several kids before 26, are in jail, selling hard drugs, on drugs, or work an hourly service job. That’s the vast majority. Most of the kids I was friends with in Boston from Boston did not go to BPS. Although we all knew kids who did-they’re outlook on life was very different. They experience school differently and had more negative feelings towards school in general. School was also less a a part of their focus and lives.

My parents never I side red sending me to BPS but I was entering in 1998. Th igns are different now. Back then they knew too many of their friends kids who had been in serious/dangerous fights.

We had a student at my private school come in the 2nd grade from the now closed Margaret Fuller a school in Jamaica Plain (near Egleston Square) he told me how smallest kids used to stand against a wall and get pelted with bags full of pennies and nickel by various bullies. No grass, no real playground and constant bullying. He came into our private school terribly socially adjusted and full of what 7 year old me found very terrifying, horrific stories of severe bullying.

[jks1985]

Watertown higher than Milton?
Foxborough higher than Belmont?


Cmon now

[thenewtexan]

Originally Posted by MassTech

Some surprises...

https://www.bostonmagazine.com/educa...on-2020-chart/

Littleton #2, Bromfield #6, representing Central Mass.

[OutdoorLover]

There is a lot of complicated rationale for why these are bad rankings, but looking at the factors they include, it actually sounds pretty thorough and quite rational, and at least it's based on objective data and averaged over many students. These arguments that the schools are irrelevant and you're really just measuring the income of the parents sound offbase to me. Personally, I'd put more stock in this than in just talking to a few parents/students and getting anecdotal reviews from them. I don't think you want to cut things too fine - a small difference in ranking is probably meaningless, but bigger differences, yes, I think they're telling you something about the odds of your child's "success" in terms of going on the college and getting into a decent school.

[semiurbanite]

Originally Posted by OutdoorLover

There is a lot of complicated rationale for why these are bad rankings, but looking at the factors they include, it actually sounds pretty thorough and quite rational, and at least it's based on objective data and averaged over many students. These arguments that the schools are irrelevant and you're really just measuring the income of the parents sound offbase to me. Personally, I'd put more stock in this than in just talking to a few parents/students and getting anecdotal reviews from them. I don't think you want to cut things too fine - a small difference in ranking is probably meaningless, but bigger differences, yes, I think they're telling you something about the odds of your child's "success" in terms of going on the college and getting into a decent school.

There is plenty of data on the doe website, we have schools in Cambridge and Somerville that have higher scores by subgroup than most schools in Belmont and Arlington yet on great school they are ranked much lower due to diversity and the use of average scores across the school.

[massnative71]

Originally Posted by semiurbanite

There is plenty of data on the doe website, we have schools in Cambridge and Somerville that have higher scores by subgroup than most schools in Belmont and Arlington.

HIGH SCHOOL.

[OutdoorLover]

Originally Posted by semiurbanite

There is plenty of data on the doe website, we have schools in Cambridge and Somerville that have higher scores by subgroup than most schools in Belmont and Arlington yet on great school they are ranked much lower due to diversity and the use of average scores across the school.

I was looking at the Boston Magazine high school ratings linked by the O.P. They rank by:
- Avg class size
- Student:teacher ratio
- 10th grade MCAS scores
- SAT scores
- Advanced placement proficient
- Graduation rate
- % attending college
- Educator evaluations

[semiurbanite]

Originally Posted by OutdoorLover

I was looking at the Boston Magazine high school ratings linked by the O.P. They rank by:
- Avg class size
- Student:teacher ratio
- 10th grade MCAS scores
- SAT scores
- Advanced placement proficient
- Graduation rate
- % attending college
- Educator evaluations

I said by subgroup - when you compare score across the same student groups. Compare non-disadvantaged to non-disadvantaged scores for example.

[Boston Shudra]

Originally Posted by OutdoorLover

I was looking at the Boston Magazine high school ratings linked by the O.P. They rank by:
- Avg class size
- Student:teacher ratio
- 10th grade MCAS scores
- SAT scores
- Advanced placement proficient
- Graduation rate
- % attending college
- Educator evaluations

“Avg class size” and “student:teacher ratio” seem redundant, no?