GreatSchools? (Chandler, Tempe: low income, home, buyers)

[skydude24]

I have been following a few local schools in Ahwatukee on greatschools.org.

Recently a few of the "great schools ratings" changed. As an example, Mountain Pointe went from an 8 ranking to a 2 ranking within one week. This seems extremely odd. Several other schools changed rankings too. Does anyone know how these scores are calculated and how accurate they are?

[ShampooBanana]

Originally Posted by skydude24

I have been following a few local schools in Ahwatukee on greatschools.org.

Recently a few of the "great schools ratings" changed. As an example, Mountain Pointe went from an 8 ranking to a 2 ranking within one week. This seems extremely odd. Several other schools changed rankings too. Does anyone know how these scores are calculated and how accurate they are?

That seems like it could be an error on the website. There is no way it should change that much that fast unless there is some sort of technical glitch. I live within that district and can tell you it's a fine school.

[Ponderosa]

Great Schools is almost entirely on state administered tests and the published results/ratings. The state heavily weights its ratings on whether the test scores are going up. So, schools that have initially good scores that drop for whatever reason (open enrollment often) get whacked while bad schools that go from say a D to a C come out as good schools. The best way to judge a school is to look at the home prices in the attendance area. Arizona is no different than anywhere else. Wealthy areas have good schools. Median areas have median schools and below median - well you get the picture. Another reliable indicator is how many are on free lunch. Lower is better. While wealthy areas always have good schools, poorer areas sometimes do as well. It is case by case, but as a rule of thumb, if you want a good school you have to buy in a better area. All is not lost though for those of lesser means. Almost every high school is stratified by ability and offers advanced classes and a better learning environment for the "smart" kids than the overall school might project.

In the case of Ahwatukee, you don't have much to be concerned about. Mountain Pointe is going to get some open enrollment kids from the low income areas on the other side of the mountain and Tempe, and that will drag down the test scores because of poorer preparation. But, if parents are determined enough to drive their kids all the way over to Mountain Pointe, then they are probably going to be good students.

[ShampooBanana]

Another thing I thought of that might be affecting the Great Schools scores is the fact that Arizona just changed their standardized testing system from AIMS to AzMerit. The old version was less challenging and had a different scoring protocol than the current one. It's possible that schools that have submitted scores under the new AzMerit tests would show up as lower relative to others until the other schools have all submitted their student's scores (or Great School acquires them). So there could be a temporary throwing off of "the curve", if you will. There is no way to know without calling Great Schools, of course, but it would help explain the sudden drop for certain schools.

[ScottsdaleMark]

Originally Posted by ShampooBanana

Another thing I thought of that might be affecting the Great Schools scores is the fact that Arizona just changed their standardized testing system from AIMS to AzMerit. The old version was less challenging and had a different scoring protocol than the current one. It's possible that schools that have submitted scores under the new AzMerit tests would show up as lower relative to others until the other schools have all submitted their student's scores (or Great School acquires them). So there could be a temporary throwing off of "the curve", if you will. There is no way to know without calling Great Schools, of course, but it would help explain the sudden drop for certain schools.

I think this could be it. I kind of like the new scores because since everyone is doing worse, it's a wider range of scores to compare between, as opposed to before when a lot of schools had very high scores. But, it's just one more system to try to learn and understand how to make sense of the scores. And they'll probably replace this one in five more years anyway. Which is frustrating because it (intentionally?) it makes long-term accountability harder to impose because you can't compare now to 10, 20, etc. years ago.

That said, yeah, Mountain Pointe is definitely a good school with a lot of very bright students. Pretty campus, nice area, scenic, too.

[JTW2013]

I just looked at the details behind the rating. What appears to be driving the low rating is very low scores on the AZ Merit tests. For example, according to GreatSchools, only 12% of the students are proficient in Algebra.

That's pretty pathetic and I have to wonder if it's even accurate. I checked the scores at Hamilton (CUSD) for the AzMerit tests and they are better. The AZ Merit tests are the same so why would Mountain Pointe kids do so much worse than Hamilton HS kids?

Isn't Mountain Pointe a middle class school? If so, how can only 12% of the students be proficient in Algebra? If that's accurate then parents must be freaking out.

[JTW2013]

I googled and was reminded of all of the drama from last year about the AZMerit test. Scores were terrible statewide. The majority of kids in the state failed and the older kids did much worse than the younger kids.

I just checked the GreatSchools scores for several East Valley high schools and they all declined over last year. I'm sure the pitiful AZMerit test scores are to blame for the decreases.

If the scores are in GreatSchools they are now in Zillow where they will influence buyers' decisions about where to buy. The common question, Kyrene vs. Chandler, looks a bit more clear cut when you're comparing Hamilton with a 7 to Mountain Pointe with a 2.