Friday, March 20, 2015

The "Top" Rated Elementary Schools in Oregon?

Best Public Elementary Schools in Oregon

Niche.com/ March 2015 Url: https://k12.niche.com/rankings/public-elementary-schools/best-overall/s/oregon/

Relevance: school ratings Audience: public, parents

       I am often intrigued when I see the "rating" lists that come out in news and blogs. Generally, I like to look at them so I can see where the schools in the neighborhood fit and I feel fortunate that the schools where my son will go not only get rated well, but I know as an educator they are good schools. Quickly after looking at the neighborhood school I look with great skepticism at the ratings. This rating came out recently via a feed on my Facebook page by a website group called Niche (https://k12.niche.com).
       I found there information to be heavily biased to high socioeconomic status areas and schools in metro/suburban areas. When looking at the data they provide one might only think you have a great school if you are in Lake Oswego, West Linn, or more affluent areas of Beaverton. There are so
many biases in this report. I would say that the people that are filling out the information to be compiled have the capabilities and resources that enable involvement and the very ability to fill out the information. My wife teaches at a title 1 school in Beaverton- one of the lowest in SES, but I also know that they have some of the best teachers teaching at the school. The ratings they provide have more to do with what the school population may look like than the actual staff and systems in the schools.

1 comment:

  1. I probably shouldn't read these things. Farmington View Elementary, where my kids went to/ are going to school, was given a B-. Farmington View won the Intel school of distrinction in science in 2011. Intel chose it as the best in the country of public and private schools! Since I value science very heavily, this scores way above a B- for me.

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