Wednesday, September 15, 2010

SAT Scores Indicate Arlington School Board is Failing to Educate

Hello Yupette:

Thanks for the information about the unacceptable disparity between Wakefield and Yorktown SAT scores.

But even more unacceptable is the disparity between Yorktown and McLean and Yorktown and Langley high schools.

Mclean H.S. - Reading, Math Writing: 590 608 581 = 1778

Langley H.S. - Reading, Math, Writing: 602 618 592 = 1812

Yorktown H.S. - Reading, Math, Writing: 581 595 565 = 1741

Given the money Arlington spends and the similar demographics the total SAT scores for Yorktown students should be well above 1800.

Carole 22207

35 comments:

22207 Parent said...

Well what do you expect? The present Arlington School Board prepares our children to be live theater actors and actresses.

Anonymous said...

Carole-

I'm sorry, but Yorktown is less demographically similar to either Mclean or Langley than you seem to think. In fact, it is far more diverse, both economically and racially, than either school. Langley in particular has no African American population to speak of.

The key difference is this: Fifteen percent of Yorktown students qualify for free or reduced price lunches, while the numbers for Langley and McLean are TWO percent and eight percent respectively. This disparity ALONE explains the difference in test scores.

As any educator will tell you, if you want to guess a school's SAT scores all you have to do is look at how much money their parents make. Langley and McLean both have many more students with parents earning at the very high end, and faw fewer earning at the low end, than does Yorktown.

The Fairfax County schools that are closest to Yorktown in terms of reduced price lunch percentage are Lake Braddock, Centreville, and Westfield. Yorktown's SAT scores are more than 100 points HIGHER than any of these schools. Yorktown's scores are also higher than Robinson's notwithstanding that it has fewer than half the number of reduced price lunch students.

Find me a single non-magnet public high school in the greater Washington area that truly matches Yorktown's deomographics and has superior SAT scores and I'll concede your point.

Carole 22207 said...

Dies not matter given the $$$$ Arlington spends on schools. A combined SAT score of 1800 is achievable at Yorktown.

Old Dominion said...

Agree. I'm tired of the excuses for student mediocrity.

Dump Baird and Zimmerman said...

Anonymous, if you are so concerned about the number of kids receiving free and reduced price lunches why don't you and your fellow Elitist Yuppies pay their parents a living wage?

Denise said...

I am tired of the excuses why positive things can't happen for our kids and whay they can't achieve more. I will never vote for Sally Baird nor any other school board incumbent.

Janet said...

Show me another school system in the region that will spend $550-$600 million this fiscal year to educate 21,000 students.

Anonymous said...

Arlington School Board and its supporters use ehe same tired old excuses to prevent children from achieving all they can achieve.

Anonymous said...

Demographics are similar. Stop playing the race card and start educating Arlington's kids to their full potential.

V. said...

Scoundrel Time - Patrick Murphy is using "Teacher of the Year" PR stunts to disguise the failure of the Arlington school system to educate Wakefield's students.

Anonymous said...

Anonymous here again. I submitted a detailed response last evening but it apparently didn't meet the moderator's standards for publishing because it expressed a contrary and informed opinion. So I'll try again and see how I do.

I'd be interested to learn how many of you have actually sent kids to Yorktown High School and have a real clue on what the true demographic make up of the school is? I'm not just talking about race or playing the "race card"; I'm talking about ECONOMIC backgrounds that without question impact SAT scores. Yorktown High School is not Langley High School or even McLean High School; it has far fewer rich kids at the top and many more disadvantaged kids at the bottom. The numbers -- 2 percent poor at Langley, 15 percent poor at Yorktown -- do not lie. You all may think the Yorktown High School district is on par with McLean and Great Falls, but guess what -- it ain't. Spend a day roaming the halls at Yorktown and you'll see what I mean.

I'm not saying that that it's an unachievable goal for Yorktown to hit an 1800 on the SAT, but it's certainly a formidible one given Yorktown's demographics -- regardless of how much money the school system spends. There is only ONE public high school in all of Northern Virginia that has hit that mark -- again, Langley. Yorktown's SAT scores are higher than 24 of the 26 high schools in Fairfax County, which many consider to be the top public school system in the country.

It's one thing to argue that the school system spends too much on a per student basis. You may have a point there. But to suggest that the results are mediocre? The numbers speak for themselves. There's not another suburban school district in the greater DC area where I'd rather send my kids.

fed up said...

How about Taj Mahal H.S. aka Washington-Lee? Given the money that was poured into that school there should have been a huge increase in student performance.

Yorktown Parent said...

I'm tired of "demographics" being used by Elitists as their excuse for student non-performance. Immigrants from Central America have been arriving in large numbers since about 1980. Why can't the Arlington school system educate these children? Because it doesn't want to.

Anonymous said...

The old Washington-Lee was 80 years old and literally falling apart. What exactly did you expect the school system to do?

Wendy said...

Anon. you are either a brainwashed Sally Baird Yuppiecrat or a complete Elitist or both.

22101 said...

McLean H.S. is a party school for Yuppie brats. That's why SAT scores aren't comparable to Langley H.S.

Anonymous said...

I couldn't pick Sally Baird in a line up and have no interest in the school board. I'm just offering some facts here. I don't see any being offered from anyone else -- just rants and insults directed at those (including me) with whom you disagree. Obviously I've stumbled upon a blog designed for complainers rather than thinkers.

Anonymous said...

Why? The Yuppie Elitists need large numbers of drop outs from Wakefield to clean their homes, provide child care services, do landscaping, fight their wars, and so on. That's why.

Kimberly said...

You deserve to be insulted for going along with the County Board - School Board ongoing rip off of taxpayers, students, parents.

outraged taxpayer said...

We poured in well over $100 million into building a new W-L and that wasn't enough and several million more dollars were poured in. See any significant increase in student performance for all that $$$$? I don't.

Anonymous said...

I'd call a 62 point increase on the SAT in the last two years for Washington-Lee -- and a 47 point increase from last year to this year -- pretty good progress.

taxpayer said...

W-L should also have a minimum 1800 reading + writing + math SAT score.

22205 parent said...

Something has to be said about the role of Leadership Arlington. I won't let my kid anywhere near this organization which is a de facto subsidiary of the entertainment and recreation industry and the government and NGOs that support it.

Anonymous said...

Are you people for real? More than 1/3 of Washington-Lee students are from poor and disadvantaged backgrounds. Should me one school anywhere in America where a school like that has an 1800 on the SAT!

Wow. Talk about being clueless.

Dump Baird said...

No Brainer - Chapel Hill, NC

Janice said...

Check out 2010 SAT scores for Iowa, Minnesota, Wisconsin. Oh, say the Elitists, poor Whites who receive reduced-price and free lunches don't count.

Anonymous said...

Des Moines, Iowa

mad as hell wakefield parent. said...

Throw the current Arlington School Board into prison for defrauding taxpayers, students, and parents.

W-L Parent said...

If poor kids can excel in a dump of a school like Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology they can achieve an 1800 SAT score in a brand new Taj Mahal High School like W-L.

Mark said...

There is entirely too much bull$hit that has nothing to do with education going on in Arlington's public schools.

Martha said...

Yupette, please no more racist and elitist code words and phrases like "students receiving free and reduced-price lunches".

I was a poor kid from the other side of the tracks and had two blouses, two skirts, and one change of underwear and subsisted on peanut butter sandwiches for lunch at school. Had a few pennies to buy milk.

So, I scored 675 on the Verbal and 710 on the Math SAT. No coaching materials either, my parents couldn't afford it.

Janice said...

BTW, lots of middle class whites and minority kids do well on the ACT tests too.

Brad said...

I am sick and tired of the entire G-D American "education" system. If Science and Technology are so great why are we stuck with a 1975-vintage transportation system? Where are the solar panels on buildings? Where are the fuel cell vehicles? Where's the cure for breast cancer? Alzheimers? Arthritis? All we are doing is producing hackers - electronics hackers, internet hackers, biomedical hackers, and so on.

Anonymous said...

Yes, all kinds of software hacks for the iphone but the iphone is a pain to use.

This sort of "technology and science" is what our children are being taught when they aren't being distracted by everything from the Disney Channel to high school sports that have been professionalized.

Quincy Street said...

Hi, I work for the school system and the reason for the increase in SAT scores this year was because kids who are not planning to go on to college were advised not to take the test. Thanks for this blog.