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Post by 3woodgal on May 21, 2008 20:07:47 GMT -5
I go str8 to the source for accurate information instead of relying on articles and comments on this board or any other. As I told you before I have a contact that can provide that info quite easily so I chose to get it and pass it on. Have a problem with that or is your problem that you don't like the answer? I agree. I don't take anything on hearsay, even from such a reliable source as yourself. Glad we agree on something which is if you READ my post numerous times I offered that people call and find out for themselves.
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Post by rural on May 21, 2008 22:23:16 GMT -5
I agree. I don't take anything on hearsay, even from such a reliable source as yourself. Glad we agree on something which is if you READ my post numerous times I offered that people call and find out for themselves. Great idea. Would you pass on that name and number for the rest of us? It's not that we don't trust you . . .
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Post by 3woodgal on May 21, 2008 22:33:26 GMT -5
Glad we agree on something which is if you READ my post numerous times I offered that people call and find out for themselves. Great idea. Would you pass on that name and number for the rest of us? It's not that we don't trust you . . . I don't get why we are circling around this issue. Pick up the phone and call any university, ask for Admissions and then find out what the ratings for any high school you would like to know about and make the comparison. Not difficult at all and I bet they will be very receptive to you.
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Post by title1parent on May 21, 2008 22:48:23 GMT -5
3wood, I hope you can explain something to me, and I am sure some others on here. If one was to buy a home looking at where their children would be going to school, you were aware recently, that your children in the long run, would have been going to WV if there wasnt the change in the site. However you said you arent a WV fan. So why did you buy in Stonebridge? Are the links that great ? If AME wasnt chosen, and we were still at BB, your children would be going to WV. Now that the location has changed to the Eola site, you arent thrilled with that either. I just find it strange that you chose to move to a location that you really werent happy with regarding the HS situation to begin with. Secondly, as I have read your concerns about the minority students at WV, the school you are not a fan of, have you ever considered volunteering there? You have mentioned volunteering at the ES school level, but reading your posts about minority students, I was just wondering if you have ever considered working with the kids at WV since they are right down the road ?
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Post by rural on May 21, 2008 22:50:11 GMT -5
Great idea. Would you pass on that name and number for the rest of us? It's not that we don't trust you . . . I don't get why we are circling around this issue. Pick up the phone and call any university, ask for Admissions and then find out what the ratings for any high school you would like to know about and make the comparison. Not difficult at all and I bet they will be very receptive to you. I have that type of personality. ;D
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Post by 3woodgal on May 22, 2008 8:37:20 GMT -5
3wood, I hope you can explain something to me, and I am sure some others on here. If one was to buy a home looking at where their children would be going to school, you were aware recently, that your children in the long run, would have been going to WV if there wasnt the change in the site. However you said you arent a WV fan. So why did you buy in Stonebridge? Are the links that great ? If AME wasnt chosen, and we were still at BB, your children would be going to WV. Now that the location has changed to the Eola site, you arent thrilled with that either. I just find it strange that you chose to move to a location that you really werent happy with regarding the HS situation to begin with. Secondly, as I have read your concerns about the minority students at WV, the school you are not a fan of, have you ever considered volunteering there? You have mentioned volunteering at the ES school level, but reading your posts about minority students, I was just wondering if you have ever considered working with the kids at WV since they are right down the road ? I find it interesting how people have "selective reading". I have stated numerous times in both posts and PMs that we are only here for ES and at most 1 year of middle school. As for volunteering, my time spent volunteering is quite high for you information. I guess that parents that I have spoken to that have negative views regarding WV (both past and present) are wrong and all those that disagree are right? No need to answer.....this conversation is obviously going nowhere! They are all liars and just want to plant a bad seed in my mind and others as well.
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Post by 3woodgal on May 22, 2008 8:38:12 GMT -5
I don't get why we are circling around this issue. Pick up the phone and call any university, ask for Admissions and then find out what the ratings for any high school you would like to know about and make the comparison. Not difficult at all and I bet they will be very receptive to you. I have that type of personality. ;D ;D
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Post by sardines on May 22, 2008 10:14:51 GMT -5
I took your advice and called Notre Dame and Northwestern. They said the high school is really irrelevant. In fact, if a student has awesome ACT test scores, converted GPA,EC's,took as many challenging AP courses as able and were offerred (and did well in them)coming from a so-called "lower performing" school could actually work to one's advantage. A success story in comparison if you will.They stressed, however, that in most cases one's high school really won't have much impact. WV has kids attending Harvard, U of Michigan, Northwestern, Notre Dame, and of course U of I to name but a few next fall. Bottom line is each individual's performance will speak for itself.
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Post by gatordog on May 22, 2008 11:26:41 GMT -5
I took your advice and called Notre Dame and Northwestern. They said the high school is really irrelevant. .... These schools seek a national student body. All things equal in terms of a student ability/achievement.... I am sure you would get a MUCH MUCH bigger admissions boost by being from say Wyoming or Mississippi as opposed to a different Chicagoland west suburban HS!
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Post by gatormom on May 22, 2008 13:15:21 GMT -5
I took your advice and called Notre Dame and Northwestern. They said the high school is really irrelevant. In fact, if a student has awesome ACT test scores, converted GPA,EC's,took as many challenging AP courses as able and were offerred (and did well in them)coming from a so-called "lower performing" school could actually work to one's advantage. A success story in comparison if you will.They stressed, however, that in most cases one's high school really won't have much impact. WV has kids attending Harvard, U of Michigan, Northwestern, Notre Dame, and of course U of I to name but a few next fall. Bottom line is each individual's performance will speak for itself. Welcome sardines. Thank you for making those calls and reporting back to us. I was preparing to do the same but you saved me some time. While I often like to check these things on my own, I did read Northwestern's admission policy on their web site with regards to high school transcripts and your report certainly stands up to what is written there.
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Post by sardines on May 22, 2008 13:20:49 GMT -5
:)Gatordog, thanks for the welcome. There are so many pieces to the admissions puzzle that whether one attended NV versus WV in District 204 or NN versus NC in district 203 is inconsequential. Furthermore, the high school itself having a 22 , 23, or 24 ACT average is no deal breaker or even relevant for all of the schools that I've checked into. What matters is if they need someone from Illinois or a Cello player or a math major to round out next year's class make-up among the pool of "over- qualified" candidates everywhere.
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Post by title1parent on May 23, 2008 5:51:23 GMT -5
10 DuPage Co. schools take spots on Newsweek list
By Justin Kmitch | Daily Herald Staff Published: 5/22/2008 5:24 PM | Updated: 5/22/2008 8:12 PM
Ten DuPage County high schools are listed among the nation's most prolific Advanced Placement test-taking schools in Newsweek magazine's recent ranking of public high schools.
Schools among the top 1,305 on Newsweek's annual list, released this week, include Hinsdale Central (339), Hinsdale South in Darien (540), Glenbard West in Glen Ellyn (932), Waubonsie Valley in Aurora (1,079), Glenbard East in Lombard (1,127), Wheaton North (1,238), Downers Grove North (1,247), Glenbard South near Glen Ellyn (1,266), Willowbrook in Villa Park (1,302) and York in Elmhurst (1,305).
Each score is based on a ratio devised by Newsweek contributing editor and Washington Post education columnist Jay Mathews.
It takes the number of Advanced Placement, International Baccalaureate and/or Cambridge tests taken by all students at a school and divides it by the number of graduating seniors.
"The list measures not test scores -- which is actually a measure of parental income, and not to my mind a good way to measure schools even though that remains the most popular measure," Mathews wrote in an e-mail interview Thursday. "It measures AP test participation, which is a measure of which schools have teachers and administrators who are trying hard to get more kids into challenging courses and raising their level."
Advanced Placement tests can be taken in May by students in several subjects. That translates to the level of college work they can do in high school.
"Most U.S. high schoolers spend one hour a day on homework and two hours a day watching TV. A well taught AP course forces students to develop the academic muscles they need in college, rather than their grasp of the latest reality show," Mathews wrote Thursday. "Even struggling and failing in an AP course is better than not taking one at all."
Waubonsie ranks fourth among the DuPage schools at No. 1,079, up from 1,252 last year.
"That jump was nice but it's just a result of a lot of hard work and a result of people working together," Waubonsie Principal Jim Schmid said. "It's an accolade that really talks to our teacher-student interaction and talks to the community support and the good things we've been trying to do from an AP standpoint."
Schmid said he wouldn't be surprised to see Waubonsie climb even higher in next year's rankings, as students have registered for 1,600 AP courses, up 300 from this year.
"We've worked hard at trying to build our AP numbers," he said. "That's an area where the research supports, and we believe, that if you do a solid job AP-wise it has a trickle effect in terms of what happens in the other classrooms."
Mathews agreed with Schmid on the premise that AP teachers rarely teach only AP classes.
"The AP techniques honed in years of teaching or gleaned from seminars are used in the regular classrooms (at a slower pace, but no less effectively)," Mathews wrote. "In summary, AP teaching can be school-wide, and raises all the ships in the harbor."
The other two tests examined by Newsweek are not generally offered in this part of the country.
This is the first time since Newsweek has published the ranking of top schools that Glenbard East appears on the list, joining Glenbard South and Glenbard West.
"This public recognition of Glenbard schools is a testament to the hard work and commitment of Glenbard students, faculty and staff members," Glenbard District 87 spokeswoman Peg Mannion said.
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Post by gatormom on May 23, 2008 8:16:00 GMT -5
Great followup article. I think it clearly explains why this method of ranking schools was used. Because no method of ranking our schools is going to give the big picture, it is nice to see other ways of looking at schools.
Reading how and why this method was used, I am pleased to see Waubonsie looking to stretch students in an effort to prepare them for college.
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Post by asmodeus on May 23, 2008 9:12:01 GMT -5
On a positive note, I was thinking about the formula Mathews uses, specifically the part of about only including seniors in the denominator. I couldn't find anything regarding his thinking on this, but I think it may have to do with the fact that seniors have already been accepted into college by the time their AP results are processed, and thus are not penalized even if they do poorly. Therefore, I'm guessing Mathews weighted the formula to reward schools that had more non-seniors taking the test. For example, let's take two scenarios:
School 1 100 Freshmen tests 100 Soph tests 100 Junior tests 100 Senior tests
The score would be 400/100 = 4.00
If, on the other hand, School 2 had the following:
0 Freshman tests 0 Soph tests 0 Junior tests 400 Senior tests
The score would only be 400/400 = 1.00
School 2's score would be lower because the tests were taken predominantly by students who theoretically didn't care as much since they knew the test results didn't matter.
Anyway, I guess the question remains unanswered as to why some prestigious schools (New Trier, Hinsdale, etc.) do not rank as highly. Do their teachers/admins dismiss the AP tests as unnecessary? Do they not subsidize the cost? Does 204 pay the $84 fee for each of the tests? If so, it would be interesting to see how much of a factor that is in student participation.
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Post by momto4 on May 23, 2008 9:20:16 GMT -5
On a positive note, I was thinking about the formula Mathews uses, specifically the part of about only including seniors in the denominator. I couldn't find anything regarding his thinking on this, but I think it may have to do with the fact that seniors have already been accepted into college by the time their AP results are processed, and thus are not penalized even if they do poorly. Therefore, I'm guessing Mathews weighted the formula to reward schools that had more non-seniors taking the test. For example, let's take two scenarios: School 1 100 Freshmen tests 100 Soph tests 100 Junior tests 100 Senior tests The score would be 400/100 = 4.00 If, on the other hand, School 2 had the following: 0 Freshman tests 0 Soph tests 0 Junior tests 400 Senior tests The score would only be 400/400 = 1.00 School 2's score would be lower because the tests were taken predominantly by students who theoretically didn't care as much since they knew the test results didn't matter. Anyway, I guess the question remains unanswered as to why some prestigious schools (New Trier, Hinsdale, etc.) do not rank as highly. Do their teachers/admins dismiss the AP tests as unnecessary? Do they not subsidize the cost? Does 204 pay the $84 fee for each of the tests? If so, it would be interesting to see how much of a factor that is in student participation. Interesting. Through this school year there were pretty much 0 AP courses available for freshman and the only sophomore AP class I've heard of kids taking is AP European History. Juniors and seniors at WV take lots of AP classes, many kids I know have taken 3 or more in junior year and 3-6 in senior year. This coming school year due to changes instigated by Dr. D there will be many more AP opportunities for freshman and sophomores. I can tell you for sure that we (the parents!) pay the $84 per test and that different school districts charge different amounts for the AP exams. Why do you say the test results wouldn't matter for seniors? I thought the predominant reason to take the AP course and test would be to get credit in college for either the class itself or for meeting a requirement or getting into a higher level course. This matters just as much to seniors as anyone else. I don't believe AP scores tend to matter for getting admitted into college so much as having taken the classes and not gotten bad grades in them.
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