Craightons corner elementary school (Madison: 2015, new house, zoned)

[great_elementary_schools]

I will be moving from FairFax County to Loudon County in 2 months. The allocated schoold to my new house in Ashburn will be Craightons Corner Elementary. I was wondering if someone knew why the rating was low (7 ). I thought the rating was 8 when I earlier checked, at the beginning of this year.

Any ideas?

[Hal Roach]

maybe they couldn't get the low achievers to refuse to take the tests. The ratings criteria are explained on the site. Not really much difference in 7 or 8. I used to work at a high school that was got a "1." The graduation rate for African Americans was 0.0%. The only student with any aptitude for Mathematics, was a convicted drug dealer with three illegitimate kids, and was in the US illegally. It was actually a good place to work, and a unformed police officer was never more than 80 feet away. Best tacos I've ever had were across the street.

[tgbwc]

I don't place much weight in ratings and I can only assume where you are seeing this one, but if I'm correct in my assumption I don't think people typically think of a 7 as being "low".

[Hal Roach]

Originally Posted by Hal Roach

maybe they couldn't get the low achievers to refuse to take the tests. The ratings criteria are explained on the site. Not really much difference in 7 or 8. I used to work at a high school that was rated a "1." The graduation rate for African Americans was 0.0%. The only student with any aptitude for Mathematics, was a convicted drug dealer with three illegitimate kids, and was in the US illegally. It was actually a good place to work, and a unformed police officer was never more than 80 feet away. Best tacos I've ever had were across the street.

fixed typo.

[jeff22152]

Originally Posted by great_elementary_schools

I will be moving from FairFax County to Loudon County in 2 months. The allocated schoold to my new house in Ashburn will be Craightons Corner Elementary. I was wondering if someone knew why the rating was low (7 ). I thought the rating was 8 when I earlier checked, at the beginning of this year.

Any ideas?

I'd be VERY careful about drawing any sort of conclusion about a school solely based on its current GreatSchools rating.

All GreatSchools does is issue a simplistic rating that is based on how well students perform on standardized tests compared to other students in Virginia. Its rating offers no insight into the learning environment of a school, the nature of a school's principal or faculty, or how well the school is viewed by the communities that fall within its jurisdiction. What's worse, the simplistic color scheme that accompanies the simplistic rating system is (in my view) disingenuous at best.

8-10 = green, which implies, "Good to Go!"
4-7 = yellow, which implies, "Caution! Hmm...something is wrong"
1-3 = red, which implies, "Warning! Stop! Turn around and look elsewhere"

So, first, I suggest that you check the school's educational profile on the state's Department of Education website. The state maintains copious amounts of information on each school's academic performance, class sizes, and demographic profiles. Then, second, I suggest that you talk to your new neighbors and ask if they've had any experiences with the school -- both good or bad. This will give you much deeper insight with which to draw conclusions about the school than a GreatSchools rating.

[LynchburgLover]

Originally Posted by great_elementary_schools

I will be moving from FairFax County to Loudon County in 2 months. The allocated schoold to my new house in Ashburn will be Craightons Corner Elementary. I was wondering if someone knew why the rating was low (7 ). I thought the rating was 8 when I earlier checked, at the beginning of this year.

Any ideas?

Just a friendly FYI -- Creighton, not Craighton; Loudoun, not Loudon

[cdmurphy]

The GreatSchools rating for Creighton's Corner is solely based on how its students did on standardized tests compared with other students across the state. If the rating went down, then either the school's average went down compared with the state average, or the state average went up and the school's average either stayed the same or went down.

Here is Creighton's Corner's state report card. For comparison, here are two nearby schools' report cards. Hillside ES is an "8" and Legacy ES is a "9" on Great Schools.

Summary:
2014-15 CCES: English 82, Math 82, History 93, Science 86
2015-16 CCES: English 87, Math 85, History 96, Science 85

2014-15 HES: English 86, Math 89, History 95, Science 94
2015-16 HES: English 83, Math 89, History 98, Science 89

2014-15 LES: English 90, Math 90, History 96, Science 85
2015-16 LES: English 91, Math 93, History 96, Science 93

So CCES scores actually went up except for a one-point drop in Science. There is obviously very little point spread between a GreatSchools 9 and a GreatSchools 7. All of these schools are great schools.

[Hal Roach]

that's pretty impressive, but I would look at the High School to get the bigger picture.

[cdmurphy]

Originally Posted by Hal Roach

that's pretty impressive, but I would look at the High School to get the bigger picture.

Well, that is tricky. The area that includes Creighton's Corner was just rezoned because Madison's Trust ES is opening Fall 2016, Brambleton MS is opening Fall 2017, and a new high school will open several years later. As the boundaries were drawn this spring, some of CCES will continue to feed to the existing Stone Hill MS / Rock Ridge HS (both an "8" on Great Schools), and some will feed to the new schools. But there may be revisions to the boundaries again as the openings get closer, based on actual attendance vs. projections.

Actually, something I had overlooked in my earlier post is that these test scores are for the kids currently attending CCES (and in the few years past). But when Madison's Trust ES opens this fall, all of the kids who will go there were taken out of CCES, while many kids from Rosa Lee Carter ES will be at CCES instead. So it may be helpful to also look at Rosa Lee Carter's report card:

2014-15 RLC: English 90, Math 90, History 96, Science 93
2015-16 RLC: English 92, Math 95, History 94, Science 93

Rosa Lee Carter ES is a "9" on Great Schools. So just from shifting a lot of kids out of CCES and a lot in from RLC, there could be a small bump in test scores next year. But again, in my opinion, the difference between a 7 and a 9, particularly in the Dulles North planning zone where there are so many new schools and frequent redistricting, is splitting hairs.