Some Stats for You

Okay, we have the verdict. The rankings of public schools in my state.

Here is the introductory article that gives the criteria for these rankings. Click here.

I encourage you to search for a couple of schools. Look up Oregon Connections Academy and Corbet School District. They are two of the top ranked schools in the state with "Outstanding" rankings. Corbett School District is an itsy bitsy school district that went charter. As a result, parents in neighboring districts are giving up on their public schools and sending their kids to Corbett. Of course, they are crying "foul" with the unions leading the way. Sigh....sounds like the battle ORCA has been through doesn't it?

One thing you can't dispute....numbers don't lie. Kids in charter schools both in classrooms and online in Oregon are doing phenomenally better than regular public schools. The numbers speak.

So let me give you some schools to look up. Scott Elementary School (all in the Portland Public School District), Roseway Heights School would be our middle school. Madison High School.

I'll give you the results. Scott scores 75 on a scale of 133. In my math, that is just a smidge over a fifty percent. Scott is ranked as "satisfactory". I find that label troubling.

Roseway ranks 74 out of 133. I have the same response. I don't think that is satisfactory. I think it's below average in the bell curve in my mind.

Are you sitting? Do a search of Madison High School. I will tell you but please go look it up. Look at the breakdown of this horrifying score. 41 out of 133. The bad ranking basically comes from students not reaching math and reading scores at grade level and their achievement falling off. So whatever "satisfactory" grade work your kid (or mine) might have at Scott and at Roseway, it is almost a guarantee by the time they attend the only public bricks and mortar high school for this neighborhood, they will no longer be at grade level by the time they graduate.

Want to hear something really appalling? The typical school in Portland that the media and everyone points their finger to as "the worst school"......look up Jefferson High School in the Portland Public School District. This is the school that is always pointed at as the poster child of bad schools in our state. Their score is 47.

They scored better than Madison. They have more low income kids, fewer teachers with a master's education, fewer students with English as a second language, etc. They have all those things that public school advocates say make it hard to do education well. They have it worse than Madison, yet can brag they aren't as bad as Madison. I should call their public relations department and see if I can help them shift the "bad rap" scrutiny from Jefferson to Madison.

The only high school available to my family ranks worse than the notoriously known bad school! I have been vindicated.

This is what I have blowing steam about for so long, and it's nice to see it in black and white.


UPDATE: Here is another article released today. Click here. Basically Oregon has been rated by the US Chamber of Commerce Institute for a Better Workforce as having a "D" rating for their schools. This is a key rating since Obama's Race to the Top education stimulus monies will be granted partially based upon this rating. Obama doesn't plan to give failing or mediocre schools money, only succeeding states get stimulus money.

What's interesting is this, Oregon got a B rating in the category of technology--because of ORCA. I think that B mixed with the other categories is the only reason Oregon did not get an F, if I do some quick figuring in my head.

Check out the comments, of course, union backers and other naysayers keep saying that this is a farce. Well, numbers and ratings don't lie. Until a regular public school (referred to as alternative schools in this article!) can crank out some good numbers, naysayers and unionites are just blowing smoke and creating white noise.