How do schools stack up

Everett Regional School has previously earned this distinction, and writes in a Facebook post, "Congratulations Ms. English, Mr. Clark, Ms. Petty and to all our of our talented student musicians. Mount Everett, like other Berkshire County high schools, is also keying in on celebrating another distinctive group among districts: its seniors. From virtual shoutouts to making an effort to still publish a yearbook, schools are currently soliciting videos, photos and other testimonials to make sure the Class of can cap off the year on a high note.

News methodology here. Learn more details about the Wall Street Journal methodology here. Thank you! Your guide is on its way.

In the meantime, please let us know how we can help you crack the the college admissions code. You can also learn more about our 1-on-1 college admissions support here. About the Author Dr. Want to learn what it takes to get into Ivy League schools? Niche As of September , Niche does not detail the percentage weight assigned to various factors it considers when ranking schools.

First Name. At the same time, that does also open up the potential for subjective rankings, or rankings that appear to be the same every year based on reputation. As for standardized test scores, U. It noted that one of its metrics looked more closely at how quickly students are paying off debt, while another looked at time-to-completion rates. But other than the University of California-Berkeley slotting in at No. News top And though there are differences in methodology, the two arrived at the same number of public institutions in its top Notably absent were their Top 20 lists.

We look forward to returning to our traditional and robust student survey process in the academic year ahead. Though U. News does have its benchmark overall national universities ranking, it also has a Best Value Colleges ranking. News noted a list of colleges from its rankings where students can get a great education. One is having a simplified and well explained course material and the other is ensuring its effective delivery.

A well-managed classroom will guarantee effective delivery. The classroom management construct contains questions about the skill with which instructors prevented disruptions during synchronous instruction, as there were many accounts of students or unwanted visitors disrupting learning, or even sharing lewd content during Zoom sessions Stevens The construct also asks about pace of learning.

Depending on design, distance learning can empower students to learn at their own pace, but to what degree this occurred in brick and mortar schools that closed down is unclear. Finally, the construct gauges whether attendance and participation were tracked, whether teachers had a clear learning plan for each week, and whether instructors demonstrated competency with virtual classroom software Figs.

Parents give strong marks to virtual school teachers for their managing of a virtual classroom. On average, parents agree to strongly agree that classrooms were skillfully managed, and three quarters either agree or strongly agree with that premise.

Parents are less bullish on how classroom management was handled in brick and mortar schools. On average, parents express neutrality to modest disagreement with the notion that online classrooms were well-managed. Unsurprisingly, while the superior assessments of classroom management in virtual schools is significant on all items within the construct, it is primarily driven by perceived competency with managing virtual classroom software, a phenomenon likely explained by pronounced asymmetries in software experience and expertise between virtual school teachers and brick and mortar teachers.

Ultimately, virtual schools are judged according to the same criterion upon which other schools are judged: Chiefly, to what extent did the school produce knowledge and skill acquisition? A more recent Department of Education-sponsored meta-analysis authored by Means et al. Both meta-analyses illustrate significant variation in effect sizes among different programs, so meta-analytic averages can obfuscate the fact that virtual school programs sometimes perform significantly better and sometimes significantly worse than in-person programs.

Miron and Urschel attempt to gauge where K12 Inc. However, Chingos criticizes their conclusions because they rely upon achievement data rather than growth data. Such data is more instructive about the characteristics and demographics of students enrolled in a school than it is about the quality of the school itself. Unfortunately, then, comparison between K12 Inc. Again, I emphasize that the purpose of this endeavor is to compare student experiences between the virtual schooling sector and the brick and mortar sector operating virtually.

To date, no assessment data has been collected subsequent to campus closures. Right now, then, the most instructive data comes from assessments and comparisons across sectors brick and mortar versus virtual of pedagogical efficacy. That is, to what extent did teachers succeed in promoting student cognitive development and knowledge acquisition? The learning efficacy construct assesses this question first and foremost by asking parents whether they feel their children learned a lot.

It also inquires whether teachers covered new material—state guidance varied widely on this matter Schwartz - whether teachers motivated students to care about their learning Theobald , and whether instructional materials were well-suited for virtual learning Figs.

Assessments of the pedagogical efficacy of virtual schools almost mirrors the results for communication. That is, three quarters of parents either agree or strongly agree that teachers employed instructional practices that were conducive to student learning.

Assessments from brick and mortar parents, however, appear unremarkable. On average, parents report somewhere between neutrality and modest disagreement with the premise that instructional practices were conducive to learning. One item within the construct deserves particular attention.

A question asks whether parents feel that their children learned a lot. Whereas That this question would feature the largest divergence is not surprising, as learning is, to some extent, a function of all the items on this survey. Plausibly, success in one component of schooling is linked to success in another, just as failure in one is linked to failure in another. One could imagine, for example, that ambivalence toward responding to questions in a timely fashion tamped down on student enthusiasm for learning.

Researchers and policymakers worry that school closures could exacerbate long-standing racial and socioeconomic achievement gaps.

I probe this concern by comparing assessments of brick and mortar online schooling performance from parents according to their racial self-identification, and whether they completed a survey for a child enrolled in a private school.

Private school enrollment is a rudimentary proxy for wealth, as enrollment costs can be prohibitive for many families. Overall, I observe mixed signals regarding equity concerns. Parents of African American and Hispanic students, whose achievement historically lags behind the achievement of White and Asian students in the United States Startz , give appreciably higher marks for the performance of brick and mortar schools than do white or Asian parents.

Footnote 2 Indeed, African American parents give higher marks for communication, pedagogical efficacy, and classroom management. They also report more frequent active learning activities. Most tellingly, while Differences in scores by school sector offer mixed evidence as to whether school closures will exacerbate achievement gaps.

Among students in the sample who attended a brick and mortar school, attended a traditional public school, a private school, and a charter school. Survey responses indicate that private school students received an appreciably better online education than did public school students, whether traditional public or charter school. Because private schools are unaffordable to many families, their relatively superior performance during school closures elevates concerns about the exacerbation of achievement gaps.

On the other hand, parents gave higher marks to charter schools than to traditional public schools. Charter schools—publicly funded, privately run tuition-free schools that operate independently of the traditional public school system- serve a disproportionately high number of students of color and students who qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, so the superior performance of charter schools over traditional public schools arguably dampens concerns regarding a widened achievement gap Rebarber and Zgainer Policy-relevant questions remain about these findings.

For one, to what extent do parental assessments of learning predict achievement outcomes? Going further, bias is a concern whenever questionnaires are used as party of a study. Bias could manifest in two forms. First, nonresponse bias—systematic differences in who elects to participate in a survey versus who elects not to participate- is a plausible threat. One can imagine, for example, that individuals with more extreme opinions of their virtual school positive or negative feel more strongly about their opinion being counted than do those with moderate positions.

Second, response bias could arise from the fact that, unlike in residentially assigned public schools, parents purposefully select and opt into virtual schools, so responses could be influenced by self-affirmation i. However, concern about self-affirmation bias is somewhat alleviated through comparisons of outcomes across school sectors. Virtual schools significantly outperform brick and mortar private schools and public schools of choice i.

In other words, it does not appear that a bias toward self-affirmation can explain away the superior performance of virtual schools. On one hand, that many and perhaps most districts did not announce their reopening plans until July or August restricted the amount of time for which teachers and administrators could prepare for a virtual reopening.

On the other hand, a few weeks of preparation for virtual learning is an improvement over the hasty closings that schools were forced to conduct in the Spring.

Finally, it is unclear to what extent the experience of students enrolled in schools affiliated with K12 Inc. That outcome does not qualify as a surprise: Virtual schools would be expected to outperform brick and mortar counterparts that were forced to adapt to virtual learning with limited warning.

The magnitude of difference, however, is jarring: Respondents were almost 6. Moreover, the advantage in the performance of virtual schools in delivering online education is not easily attributable to their performance in any one facet of schooling. Rather, survey results indicate that virtual schools dramatically outperformed brick and mortar schools when it comes to promoting active learning, communicating effectively, managing a classroom, and providing high-quality instruction.

The magnitude of difference was less among students of color, whose parents reported a substantially better experience with online instruction in brick and mortar schools than did white or Asian parents. The magnitude of difference was also less among charter school students compared to traditional public school students, and private school students compared to all public school students.

Study limitations notwithstanding, the radically divergent results revealed in this study suggest that, in prioritizing student learning, states would be imprudent to cap virtual school enrollment. On the contrary, in the interest of student learning, states should seek to expand access to established virtual schools through the course of pandemic-related school closures.

Only Among those enrolled for less than one year, it is unclear how many transferred in March or April in response to school shutdowns. African American and Hispanic parents also consistently provide stronger evaluations of virtual schools powered by K12 Inc.

Associated Press