Rating Schools: Deception

By: | Times-Dispatch
Published: January 08, 2010

The Maggie Walker Governor's School for Government and International Studies enjoys a reputation for academic excellence. No school, public or private, outperforms it in Central Virginia. Maggie Walker's absence from a U.S. News & World Report list of the nation's top public high schools came as a surprise.

The magazine did not consider the school because the academic records of its students are not reported as Maggie Walker grades and scores. Virginia's governor's schools draw students from throughout their regions. As

The Times-Dispatch's Holly Prestidge explained in a news story: "[T]he test scores and grades of the Richmond-based school's students roll back to their home schools." And: "Unlike other governor's or magnet schools in Virginia, however, Maggie L. Walker doesn't retain the standardized test scores and grades of its students. They go back to schools within the 12 local divisions that feed Maggie Walker."

If Maggie Walker reported its students' scores and grades as the school's own, the school almost certainly would have received the national recognition that went to other local schools.

The practice is deceptive. We understand why the so-called home schools of Maggie Walker's scholars want to retain the scores of students who likely would have aced their tests at, say, Acme High. Yet because the Maggie Walker students did not earn their top marks at Acme, Acme should not benefit from the youngsters' accomplishments. Moreover, there is no guarantee that a Maggie Walker student would have stayed at Acme. Families lacking the Maggie Walker alternative might have opted for private schools or home-schooling -- or moved into a different school's attendance zone or into a different jurisdiction.

This makes as much sense as crediting the college records of Virginians who attend out-of-state universities to Virginia's system of higher education. If Acme can claim the scores of an honor-roll student at Maggie Walker, then surely a Virginia university should be entitled to claim the scores of a Virginian who makes the dean's list at the University of Michigan.

Maggie Walker's approach to scores seems unique. It needs to be stopped.