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Ranking is nearly meaningless. eg compare these: School A - full of underachieving kids that are pushed to get avg grades School B - full of avg kids getting
by rb808 8y ago
Ranking is nearly meaningless. eg compare these:
School A - full of underachieving kids that are pushed to get avg grades
School B - full of avg kids getting above avg grades
School C - full of smart kids getting top grades
School D - full of smart kids getting nearly top grades, but soft skills, nice personalities and VIP friends
School E - Mix of kids getting relevant grades
Which is the best school for each kid type? They're impossible to rank. Many schools with top grades are only there because they kick out failing kids, not because they're better at teaching. Many schools are rated good because they can improve grades, but you wouldn't want to send a smart kid there. Many private schools sell themselves on creating well rounded kids, not necessarily good grades.
- ben_jones 8y agoI went to school F - full of average kids who knew how to play the system to get top grades, as well as to get into high/elite level colleges.
- darawk 8y agoYes, but all the different 'types of kids' should normalize across a state-level population.
- educationdata 8y agoThe article is about ranking states, not ranking schools. For the point of ranking schools, there are statistical methods to measure student growth, instead of achievement, such as SGP (student growth percentile) and VAM (value-added modeling), which kind of address part of your question.