2016 VCE School Rankings Are Out

[The Usual Student]

Can't they just use the median atar as a mean of ranking schools?

[HopefulLawStudent]

So this is probs a silly Q but like what do we even gain from comparing schools like this anyway?

I mean my school ranks appalling low but I personally don't believe this ranking accurately reflects the absolute dedication, effort and knowledge teachers at my school brought into the classroom. Having attended Y7 open nights and stuff for my school and spoken to prospective parents who used this stuff as a point of comparison between how "good" the teachers are as if having good teachers alone will produce results (not saying this isn't a factor but there's more to it than that, y'know?), I feel like we don't really gain all that much fr comparing schools like this cos like these rankings don't really seem to say all that much... to me anyway. :p

[vox nihili]

So this is probs a silly Q but like what do we even gain from comparing schools like this anyway?

I mean my school ranks appalling low but I personally don't believe this ranking accurately reflects the absolute dedication, effort and knowledge teachers at my school brought into the classroom. Having attended Y7 open nights and stuff for my school and spoken to prospective parents who used this stuff as a point of comparison between how "good" the teachers are as if having good teachers alone will produce results (not saying this isn't a factor but there's more to it than that, y'know?), I feel like we don't really gain all that much fr comparing schools like this cos like these rankings don't really seem to say all that much... to me anyway. :p

That's what we've been saying though. These rankings are flawed, as they don't really capture the quality of the school itself, but a combination of the quality of the school and the inherent abilities of the students that go there. They're effectively meaningless, unless you compare similar schools

[EEEEEEP]

Maybe its just because I don't talk to 'bogans'.

I'd say you got your  assumptions / judgments wrong there.

[EEEEEEP]

Can't they just use the median atar as a mean of ranking schools?

Statistically speaking, no.

Median atar is the middle atar achieved by the middle student of the Cohort  there.

There can be wild variations below that median atar, and it would not show by the median.
E.g.
Let says these were the hypothetical scores.
4,4,4,4,    5,     9,10,12, 12,
1, 1,1, 1,  5     , 6,7,7,7,

Same median, different performance (but the median does not show..)

[BNard]

My  school dropped from a median ss of 30 to 29 for the first time in 10 years.
I suppose it says a lot about the work ethic (or lack thereof) of students and the decidedly nonacademic culture... I don't know how being below the state average can be excused for a Catholic private school with the vast majority of students possessing a high socioeconomic status.

[heids]

Oh my.  My school has shot up to rank 71 o.O 

It's a very small school with year 12 cohorts between 10-30 students so it's pretty funny watching the ranks shoot up and down by hundreds each year.   (I think it scraped top 50 in my year with 13 kids!)  It's odd to think that that makes my school, which I don't think has ever managed a 99, actually a high-ranked private school

[saitama]

How come the Jewish schools do so well?...A couple of them make up the top 10. They must be doing something right?

[deStudent]

How come the Jewish schools do so well?...A couple of them make up the top 10. They must be doing something right?

Look at their cohort sizes.

[vox nihili]

How come the Jewish schools do so well?...A couple of them make up the top 10. They must be doing something right?

Look at their cohort sizes.

Wealth plays a part too. The jewish schools you see high up there take in students from pretty wealthy backgrounds. Bialik only has 5% of its students from the bottom 50% of earners (77% from the top quarter).
Mount Scopus only has 3% in the bottom half, with not a single student in the poorest quarter. Nearly 80% are in the top quarter.
Yeshivah has a more reasonable spread, but it fluctuates due to a small cohort. 30% in the bottom half, 40% in the top quarter
Leibler Yavneh has 8% in the bottom half, over 70% in the top half.

[Joseph41]

For more discussion on the relationship between money and academic results, see this thread, which I've just split from the present one.