For the last month or so, the subject of school rankings has been a hot topic in Oak Ridge.

Last month, we learned that we didn’t make the Newsweek ranking, where we’ve enjoyed a spot for the last several years.  A bit later, we learned that we do actually qualify for the ranking, but didn’t get the paperwork in on time.  Somewhere between the two, there’s been a lot of talk (and ink) about whether the Newsweek ranking is a valid measure of quality, and whether it matters.

Like most things, the truth is in the middle.

Yes, the rankings do matter to a lot of us.  Businesses use them to recruit top staff, realtors use them to sell homes in Oak Ridge, and those of us with children at the high school take some measure of comfort in knowing that the high standard of academic performance remains so.   From this mom’s perspective, if a significant percentage of the kids at the high school are taking college-level courses, it surrounds our own kids with a kind of positive peer pressure to do well.  To study.  To put academics ahead of some of the other high school social distractions.

On the other hand, is the Newsweek ranking a realistic measure of quality?  Well, yes and no.  It measures the ratio of AP tests taken to the number of graduates in a given year.  It doesn’t measure the number of tests passed, nor the number of classes taken, so it’s subject to some skew: some kids take the AP courses, but don’t take the test.  The $83 fee to take the test may be something of a barrier, particularly if a student knows that that particular course won’t count toward their intended major.

If you want to measure the quality of the AP program, you’d count the scores acheived on these AP tests.  If you just want to measure how many students are exposed to the rigor of a college-level course, you only have to count the courses taken, not the tests taken.

Even so, counting anything to do with AP tests is only one measure.  It’s important to a lot of us, but it’s still only a snapshot of one component of a good high school education.

There are other rankings, certainly.  US News does one that Oak Ridge has never been on (that I know of), but that one predominantly measures how well minority subgroups perform.  To me, that is even less accurate as a reflection of overall quality than the Newsweek ranking based on AP tests taken.

Over the last few weeks, I’ve given considerable thought to the idea of rating high schools, and how one might devise a ranking sytem that really means something across the board.  To do so, I think you’d have to be able to measure one thing:  how well does this school prepare students for the next step in their lives — whatever that step may be?  At ORHS, most students go on to college.  Some enter the military.  Some enter vocational training, and others enter the workforce.

So, how would one accurately measure successful preparation for that variety of paths?

There was an excellent op-ed piece in the New York Times yesterday: “The  case for working with your hands.”  It begins with the demise of things like shop programs in public schools, shifting students to preparation for working in a knowledge economy.

It’s a long, thoughtful piece that makes for excellent reading on a day when many have a day off.

There has been some discussion of this phenomenon even in Oak Ridge, where an overwhelming majority of our graduates do go on to college.  Although we have five career academies at the high school (preparing students either to continue studies in college, or to begin working in the field right out of high school), there is a sense in the community that we don’t do enough for the non-college bound.

Reading “The case for working with your hands,” a couple of things struck me: one, he’s right.  There is a level of satisfaction,  challenge, and use of intellect in working with one’s hands, whether creating something, or fixing something.  It’s why I like to sew, or to take things apart and repair them.  But the second point that stuck with me was, the author’s attainment of a PhD and subsequent studies enabled him to sample a variety of professions, including high school teacher, executive director of a policy organization in DC, and a writer of abstracts of academic journal articles before settling on his life’s calling in motorcycle repair.

Don’t get me wrong — I’m not suggesting that one must get a PhD to be successful in motorcycle repair (or any other such field that is typically thought not to require any college degree).  But to be good at it requires critical thinking skills that are honed through education.  And quite possibly, he derives greater satisfaction from his work because he has other things to compare it to.

The plumber I most often use once told me that he enrolled in medical school, but dropped out after realizing that’s not what he wanted to spend his life doing.   He likes being a plumber; he solves problems, and gets a feeling of having accomplished something tangible each day.

This meandering train of thought continued as I spent the afternoon playing mechanic’s assistant (we’re still working on it).  What I want for the kids graduating from our high school is to be sufficiently prepared to have options after graduation:  the option to work doing something meaningful and fulfilling, the option to pursue higher education, the option to succeed in a technical school, which might lead to either work or more  education.  Or both.

A satisfying life is one where learning never stops, even after the end of formal schooling.

The Tennessee School Boards Association Leadership Conference concluded this morning, followed by the opening of the TSBA Convention.

The Leadership Conference was excellent: I attended one session on utilizing the data gathered from value-added testing, and another on effective leadership techniques.

A perennial feature of the TSBA Convention has always been the exhibit hall, but it does seem that the number of exhibitors has dwindled in recent years.  In fact, as I left the hall this afternoon, it occurred to me that this year’s exhibitors seem to fall into three categories: those providing design/construction services (or products supporting such), companies providing outsource services like transportation, food service, and janitorial, and insurance companies.

We used to see things like curriculum content providers, educational hardware and software, and more actual education-related goods and services.  This year, I don’t think I saw a single one of those.

As much fun as it was to see our new high school to completion, I don’t think we’re going to be ready for another aggressive building project anytime soon.   It’s not that it’s not needed — our preschool facility is in dire condition — but the money just isn’t there to do it.

I am looking forward to tomorrow’s meetings, particularly a presentation from Stephen Smith on the new Legislature and what to expect.  Unfortunately, there is a feeling of resignation that elected superintendents will again be proposed, and that it is more likely to pass.

I think that’s a horrible idea.   But, it’s better to know what’s likely to be at the forefront this year than to forge ahead blindly, hoping for the best.  Actually, given the recent revenue reports in the state, I’m just hoping to avoid the worst.

My dream is for one year — just one — where we could fund everything that’s needed and just a few wants… but that seems unlikely to occur anytime soon.

Today, I received via snail-mail our account information for Skyward — the new student information system for Oak Ridge Schools.  Skyward replaces K-12 Planet, which parents have used for a couple of years to access students’ current grades and attendance online.

K-12 Planet  was okay — better than nothing — but teachers didn’t universally participate (at least at my kids’ schools), and it didn’t have as much information.  Skyward is an integrated system that doesn’t require teachers to input grades separately for the web.  Therefore, since it’s the same system as is used for state attendance reporting, midterms, report cards, and everything else, they should all use it.

At this point, almost all of them are.  If you click the "attendance" tab, a calendar shows any day where your student was absent or tardy for even part of the day.  If you click that date, it shows an explanation, e.g., "doctor’s excuse."  If you click a letter grade on the grade report, it shows a detail of all assignments, tests, etc.  One notable improvement for me is that one login — mine — shows information for both of my children, even though they are at different schools.  With K-12 Planet, I had a different login for each school.

Each child has their own login as well, so they can see their own grades, but not their siblings’. 

It’s important for parents not to go overboard on this kind of thing; don’t freak out if you see one quiz with a low grade.  But it’s really helpful to log in regularly, so that if you see a pattern, you can address it before it becomes an irreversible problem.  Most teachers are anxious to help if only the student asks.

There’s also a "notifications" tab where you can request reports to be e-mailed to you periodically, or if a student’s grade or assignments fall below a specified percentage.

For the parents who choose to utilize it, this will be an excellent tool for improving communication between school and home.