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By Paul Takahashi (contact) 
Saturday, May 28, 2011 | 1:55 a.m.
Nine Clark County School District high schools have made the Washington Post’s list of top-performing high schools in the nation. The Post’s High School Challenge list was founded in 1998 to rank Washington, D.C.-area public high schools using the Challenge Index, the ratio of Advanced Placement, International Baccalaureate and Advanced International Certificate of Education tests a school gives and the number of graduating seniors. The Post’s Challenge list ranks normal-enrollment schools, which means it does not include any magnet or charter high schools with above-average SAT and ACT scores. To be included in the list, schools must have an average ...
Now don't tell us that classroom size was the primary factor causing these high schools to perform at a high level.
Just as a point of information, there are approximately 40 High Schools in CCSD, so that means 17.5% of the High Schools in CCSD are high performing. The article says that only 7% of the high schools nationwide were picked. So that must mean that CCSD is doing a pretty good job, since more than twice the national average of our high schools were picked.
The newspapers have said over and over that this school district is at the bottom of the nation. Does anyone really know what that is based on? I know that there is definitely room for improvement and criticism, but is the "bottom in the nation" label based on verifiable valid data?
When the district used to do norm-based itbs testing, the scores were generally in the high 40's / low 50's. Nothing to brag about. If you understand norm based statistics, though, you know that these results would indicate that the district is about average, with half of the nation's districts scoring better on the itbs and half the nation scoring worse. I'm guessing it mostly has to do with the size of the district. As the sample size increases, statistical results tend to trend towards the mean. SAT and ACT scores support a similar conclusion - they are not statistically different from the national average.
Our NEAP scores are low. So are the scores of every other state in our geographic area. THere is no statistical difference between us and California, Arizona, New Mexico, Texas, a number of states in the south-east.
THe graduation rate is low, but they count students who move out of state as drop-outs and this is a transient state. ccsd doesn't have the resources to follow-up on students who disappear to find out if they dropped out or moved.
I suppose you could fault us for not managing to pull of a statistical anomaly of scoring naep results above the other states with similar geographic / demographic factors.
Is average / below average something we should be proud of? no. Is there need for improvement? yes.
Im not sure what the "worst in the nation" tag comes from, though, other than being fabricated by newspaper publishers / editors who have an agenda to force or who need sensational storylines. No one clicks over to read about the slightly below average school district. They click over for the visceral reaction they will get from reading about our "worst in the nation" school system. No one asks about the valid genesis of the label. It has been repeated enough times that it is just accepted at face value as a fact.
Gee, I guess the CCSD is not as horrible as the R-J says.
Congratulations to Clark High School! I don't know much about the school except it looks old and probably not in the more privileged areas of town. I wonder what their secret is for being the #1 school?
You guys are right...the CCSD is doing a bang-up job.
Let's not forget that this is one newspaper's analysis. We have the lowest graduation rates in the country, our 4th and 8th grade math scores are in the bottom 10 in the country, as are the 4th and 8th grade reading scores. Outside of those basic statistics, those of us that have dealt with the district see how inefficient and ineffective it is. Please don't try to claim that the district is anything but a failure, and it needs some major restructuring.
Do you guys really think the district gets TOO MUCH criticism? I would argue that it doesn't get NEARLY ENOUGH.
My previous negative comment was in response to other comments, but I did want to make sure I congratulated the schools identified in the article. I've worked with GVHS on a project in the past, and everyone from the teachers to the administrators at the school were great to deal with. I know they each area has their own unique challenges, but I have to think there are things that can be learned from that school, and the others mentioned in the article.
Some good news about our school system is refreshing... IF you are looking to buy a home in a neighborhood that has great schools, look no further than Coventry Homes...
www.coventryneighborhoodwatch.com
Congrats to the teachers and students at these high schools.
Truth Alert: Simply looking at the number of AP tests a school *gives* has got to be one of the stupidest criteria for school ranking there is. It is one of the easiest criterion to game, and can even harm a student when, as often happens, students are steered into AP classes and tests they are not meant for. Test RESULTS (like some of those low SAT scores cited) are more telling (why do I even need to point this out?). And excluding the magnet schools has got to be even stupider. (Though several magnet schools snuck in to this bogus ranking, anyway: ATEC is famously a magnet school, as is Northwest Tech; and Valley and Clark also have magnet programs representing 50% of their respective student bodies. This WaPo ranking is a farce -- do not take it seriously. Sorry to rain on the parade, but unearned praise helps no one in the long run.
Supposedly you can not be a magnet school to be on this list but Clark, Advanced Technology Academies, and Northwest Career and Technical Academy are magnet schools.
Judith, you didn't read my post. And we both left out Canyon Springs, which is a magnet school as well (Leadership and Law Prep). Anyway, this WaPo list is a joke.
Aces and spaces is the hand we hold here. We get a few top-notch performers and then we have the less fortunate, those with awful homes with zero emphasis on reading early, gratitude for what they have, thinking things through or developing into life-long learners.
They are cheated, so they cheat. They are left unchallenged, so they intimidate. They are never praised for their accomplishments so they refuse to accomplish. All we need is good parents; the schools can handle the rest!
I give you rosie; nuff said.
@Ryan: Well Clark is a magnet school. However, it's student body also consists of non-magnet students. Clark offers a wide array of honors and advanced placement classes.
I'm sure the magnet population doesn't hurt Clark's numbers. I'm a proud Clark ('05) graduate!