How to Find the Best School for Your Child in Arizona: Step Two
My first blog on choosing a school described step one; know yourself, your child and your options.
In step one you should have narrowed your search slightly and this next step will help you hone in on a small group of schools.
Step two involves a little more time as you will need to do some searching online to obtain academic results for each of the schools that you have selected. If the phrase “academic results” begins to confuse you, don’t worry, you are not alone. I’ll try to break it down in non-academic terms to make it easier.
Research Academic Accomplishments
First, it’s important to understand what is meant by academic results. When people talk about comparing academic results for each school, they are talking about the data that is gathered from the standardized test that each state administers on a yearly basis. Each state is required to have a uniform assessment in order to comply with the accountability aspect of the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA). – ESSA is a federal law that was passed in 2015 requiring states to adhere to certain education policy requirements. ESSA replaced the No Child Left Behind legislation. But enough about education policy laws, you want to know how to choose a school for your child.
Assess School Results
Review of the Now that you know where academic results come from (state standardized tests), what do they mean? Results are broken down into two areas; proficiency and growth. Proficiency is just the average passing rate of students in a school. One would think that a school that has a passing rate of 30% is a low performing school and a school that has a passing rate of 90% is a high performing school.
However, this can be misleading. Since standardized tests are only given once per year (at the end of the school year), a school only has a limited amount of time to help improve a student’s performance before the test is taken. For example, if “School A” enrolls a student in 6th grade but that student actually has a 3rd grade reading level, it may take longer than one year for that student to read at the level he/she should.
Therefore, “School A” will most likely receive a lower proficiency score for that student. The converse is also true; if “School A” enrolls a 6th grader that has an 8th grade reading ability then the student’s proficiency score will most likely be higher. In both these examples, the impact “School A” has had on the student within a year is relatively low. Therefore, this indicator by itself doesn’t tell the whole story about the quality of a school.
Look at “Growth Score”
A better indicator of school quality is a growth score. This is a measure of how a student has improved over the year compared to his/her peers.
For example, if a 5th grade student scores in the 20th percentile, then he/she is placed in a cohort with other students that scored in the same percentile. Then, once this same student takes the 6th grade exam his/her scores are compared to all the other students that were in the same cohort. If he/she performed better than his/her peers, then this student’s school would receive higher growth points and if he/she performed worse than his/her peers the school would receive less points. This is a better indication of the actual work that a school performed with its students over the course of the year.
Compare Research
It is important to compare both proficiency and growth scores for each school on your short list. Many states also calculate a letter grade or other ranking measure using the state assessment results. For example, in Arizona each school receives a letter grade (A,B,C,D or F). This letter grade is calculated using a formula that incorporates proficiency and growth, and also a portion of data from the performance of English Language Learners, graduation rates and other acceleration measures (decrease in chronic absenteeism, inclusion of students with disabilities, etc.). The formula is a bit different for elementary schools than it is for high schools; however, to make the best decision for your child on which school to attend it is sufficient to have a general understanding of academic results.
Gather Data in Chart
Now that you know proficiency and growth are indicators, you need to find an online resource to display this data for the school list that you created in Step One. Feel free to create a chart of the schools on your list similar to the example below.
| School Name | Proficiency Score | Growth Score | Letter Grade | Attributes |
| School 1 | 95 | 70 | A | Sports |
| School 2 | 90 | 68 | A | Arts |
| School 2 | 82 | 62 | B | Robotics |
| School 3 | 75 | 50 | B | Advanced Math |
| School 4 | 74 | 42 | C | Field Trips |
The higher both the proficiency score and growth score, the higher quality the school will be. Therefore, compile a list of at least four or five schools before you move to Step Three which is to visit the school. In my next blog for Step Three, I will provide you with a list of questions you should be asking when you visit a school. You’re almost there! You now have a better understanding of yourself and your child and you know enough about academic data to narrow your search down to approximately four or five schools.
Once you visit a school you can narrow your list down even further and make the best choice for the future of your child.
Thanks for this additional info–it’s never any easy process.
This was helpful, thanks for adding this when looking for a school in AZ
Yeah, so starting with questions sounds simple, but it’s really basic and important. So yes, start with those questions.