Elementary schools - objective academic standard

[fedus]

Originally Posted by dma1250

Well, first of all, let's be clear that "best" is subjective.

Thanks for your answer. You seem very knowledgeable. I would like to form a standard as i have no idea what good stats are. Can you provide an example of a school district where those stats are reasonable for the New York Area, if not good, so that we may have a reference? Similarly for after hours/extracurricular activities?

By best i mean academically best, and in this sense, it is not entirely subjective. I would like to find the schools that will prepare my children for college and i heard that, for example, math scores are a good such predictor. I would dare say that test taking skills are important although of course not the only thing that matters.

As for the standards, if for example, only 50% of Scarsdale students can master those standards then this is pretty valuable information that can help me rank those schools. In other words standards might be high or low but still be useful for ranking. Have the CCSS assessment results gone public?

[dma1250]

RE Stats: I would simply compare those of some of the districts you're looking at. That info is I think on any of the school rating sites. I don't know that there is a gold standard, but if you see that one school has significantly larger class sizes than another, for example, that would raise a red flag for me.

The first CCSS-based assessments will be the tests given this spring. Those will be the modified state tests that have been revised to reflect the CCSS. The official CCSS assessments won't be given until 2015. So the only data available now is on the old tests testing the old standards.

If you want to read the standards:

Common Core State Standards Initiative | Home

[fedus]

Originally Posted by dma1250

If you want to read the standards:

Common Core State Standards Initiative | Home

Thanks again. Do you (or anyone else) happen to know if there is a database of the NY math and language or Regents district or school assessment results that breaks them down to ethnicities (such as hispanics or asians)? New Jersey report cards do that for their state assessment results (ASK and HSPA).