I don't have a stake in the LS argument because my kid chose to go to private school but I wanted to weigh in on some of the college readiness issues I've observed.
SAT - yes, some top colleges are swinging back to testing. Mostly that's because when they went test optional they got WAY WAY too many applications and did not have a system to assess those applications. Contrast that to top schools that have been test optional for a while (Williams, UChocago) and have systems in place, as well as staff, to assess those applications. AP - lots of schools, including the best and top ranked private schools, have been down playing APs for a while. Not sure it's a good idea - from what I have seen it plays out as "we don't teach to the test" (which is great) but then kids are still taking the test and not prepared (not great). I think the break needs to be either more significant - "AP classes and tests are not offered at this school" in which case not taking APs is not counted against kids at all. OR go back to actually preparing kids for the test. The halfway thing just doesn't work. Weighting grades - total waste of time. Every college I know of re-weights grades with their own system so any highschool's system of weighting grades, and getting to brag about a kid having a 5.5, is totally ang wholly immaterial to anything having to do with college. College counseling in public schools is behind. This is across the board, not just at LS. Juniors should have had a list of schools they are interested in before spring break. It is a disservice to families to pretend that this process starts at the end of the spring and over the summer. Private school kids are already well down this path by this point and have visited multiple schools. Spreading this out and giving kids a chance to see schools in action is really important. (My guess is that improving college counseling at LS would improve SAT scores because kids would take the test sooner or prep better.) On Wed, Apr 27, 2022 at 10:46 AM Bryce Wells via Lincoln < [email protected]> wrote: > Well said and agreed. > > I'm waiting - as I think we all are - for Dennis to dive through the > ranking criteria and provide some insight as to why some schools are > ranking better than others. As I've said on this forum before, both of my > boys are having very good experiences at LS, but that's just our > experience. > > I did go and look at SAT performance for Mass schools and our students > average a combined score of 1274. I think it's fair to use SAT scores as a > proxy for college readiness, but feel free to disagree. I know that many > schools are switching back from "test optional" because the SATs (or ACTs) > are still the best indicator of academic success freshman year. That 1274 > ranks around 16th out of the districts listed (around 300) and tied or > better than Needham, Dover-Sherborn, Winchester, Maynard. But trailing > schools like Lexington (1356!), AB (1333), Wayland (1302) or > Concord-Carlisle (1286). > > I've found that LS does things differently *from what I anticipated*... > there's no class rank, there's not a HUGE emphasis on AP classes, they > don't weight grades based on tougher course segments, etc... but the course > offerings are plentiful and the teachers are incredible. > > >
-- The LincolnTalk mailing list. To post, send mail to [email protected]. Search the archives at http://lincoln.2330058.n4.nabble.com/. Browse the archives at https://pairlist9.pair.net/mailman/private/lincoln/. Change your subscription settings at https://pairlist9.pair.net/mailman/listinfo/lincoln.
