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School ranking ?
Let me preface this by saying I'm bringing this up to hopefully learn something because I do not know much about the subject other than what I'm typing below.
My good friend has 2 school age kids. Her son is in 4th grade and they moved to Milford district last year and part of that was because their school is ranked so high. They moved from western brown. So how do they rank the schools? Base it on state test scores? I'm asking because her poor son is learning NOTHING. He comes home bored and frustrated because he has spelling words like FROM or BEAR. words that he learned in 1st or 2nd grade at western brown. My friend approached the teacher just to ask why they were learning such easy words and this also applies in other subjects, spelling is just one I heard her talking about, and the teacher basically told her they make it simple so the kids can test well and it beefs up their ranking as a district. Really?? That seems so stupid to me and I hope the teacher was kidding. She basically told my friend she should be happy about it because her son has straight A's. So, now I'm just curious A's to how the state ranks the schools. Sorry for the giant paragraph I'm on my phone.
6/28/10: Lost our sweet baby Addyston at 18wk 1day to pPROM
7/24/11: Michael William born at 24wk 2d due to IC after an emergent cerclage at 18wks, 4wk home BR and 2 weeks hospital BR. Grow strong our little Miracle!
9/17/11: Michael joined his sister in heaven after 8 amazing weeks with us on earth. He fought a very hard fight but NEC was too much for him in the end.
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Re: School ranking ?
School rankings are primarily based on state tests. Other factors are the attendance rate and high school graduation rate (previous year). You can view the state report cards here: https://ilrc.ode.state.oh.us/
Other things that factor into it are AYP (adequate yearly progress) and value added. In other words, how much progress each kid/class makes in a given year.
I teach at the high school level, but I will tell you that there is a serious emphasis on the OGT for sophomores. I don't know enough about elementary level curriculums to comment on what is appropriate vs not, but today's students in general are very test focused and memorization focused. No Child Left Behind (law passed by Pres Bush in 2004- I may be off by a year or 2) requires schools to make progress on standardized tests from one year to the next or their rankings can drop and there's the potential for state sanctions if AYP is not met after 2 years. The goal is that all students are 100% "proficient" (by the state legisltator's definition, not ours) by 2014 and that each year the numer of students who are "proficient" increases over the year previously (even though it's a different class of students taking that grade level's test).
Kel knows way more about the ranking stuff than I do so I'll defer to her. I will say that what I've seen as a teacher has really led me to realize that those state rankings are a lot of BS, but that's another topic altogether.
I taught 4th grade in Milford School District last year. I'm not going to lie, their curriculum was based on the OATs way more than any other school I've been in, but not to the extent of being a detriment to the students. It just makes the teacher work that much harder to make "teaching to the test" interesting. It's difficult, but not impossible.
As far as the spelling words go, I'm finding that really hard to believe. In my class, the spelling words came directly from their reading books and were way harder than that.
In fact, I was surprised that Milford even had spelling tests since most of the elementary schools I've been in have done away with them because reading instruction has become more phonics based. Studies show that spelling tests are pretty ineffective and only promote memorization. I digress though. Has your friend asked the teacher to find more challenging work for her child? That's how situations where the child is "bored" are usually handled.
Yeah, this doesn't sound like correct information. Like Kel said, the academic part of rankings are based on test scores. An easier curriculum would not yield higher test scores and a higher ranking.
Maybe your friend could ask for examples of the curriculum? Just to see what he is doing during the day. She could also emphasize that while she is happy he is getting good grades, she would also like for him to feel challenged and wants to know what the teacher can do for him to feel that way.
IMO, I taught in a school district with a low ranking, but I LOVED our curriculum. It was really structured for each child to work at their own pace and all of the students experienced challeges within their potential. Of course, the quality of education varied from classroom to classroom, but unfortunately that is something you'll see in every school.
The school district we live in now has an excellent rating... and guess why? Because they spend a huge amount of time preping the kids for tests. (Well, there are other factors like parent involvement, funding, etc. - but this is huge.) I cannot believe the amount of paperwork test-prep type of stuff they do with these little kids. Like 3+ hours per day. One school I know of pulls out students who didn't pass the practice test to do even more practice tests in a small group. Personally, I think it horrible and a huge injustice to the kids. I'm really afraid for when C goes to school. BTW, all of my experience is at the elementary level, I don't have a whole lot of background knowledge about jr. high or high school.
I'm going to step off my soapbox... but tell your friend to get involved. Keep talking to that teacher and insist that other things are done. If nothing changes, she needs to get the principal involved too. I'm not one for tattling on teachers, but if she is making reasonable requests and giving her opportunities to change what she is doing then, yes, I would involve a higher power.
Short answer - how the school "ranks" means little to nothing. I'm too exhausted to step up onto my soapbox on this issue, right now. I will say that it, all too often, raises my blood pressure when I hear folks loudly declare that they'd NEVER live in XYZ district because of a ranking. Oftentimes, I want to yell - pull back the curtain! Kel did a nice job answering your specific questions, so I'll leave it at that, for now.
Oh, I will also say that NCLB makes me want to vomit. That is all.
Ask for curriculum samples. My DH teaches fourth in Milford and his curriculum is not teaching to the test. Also, keep in mind that Western Brown and Milford serve very different populations of students. What's good for one district isn't for another. And spelling... it does not reflect intellegence (for what it's worth).
And SB5 will make it all worse. My DH and I both teach at local schools. Let me be honest... if my pay is based on how students test on the Ohio Achievement Assessment, you can bet I will be pushing even harder for more test practice. So, when it comes to be voted on (as it probably will) make sure you vote NO. Your child's education (and my job) will be ruined with it passing. You'll have teachers who won't do all the extras they do now from their heart.