The public schools in Henrico are barely average. The ones in Richmond are worse. Chesterfield and Hanover aren't a whole lot better.
Those are the findings from a new website, globalreportcard.org, that allows you to compare your school district with the rest of the state, or with the nation, or with schools in other countries. It's a project of the Department of Education Reform at the University of Arkansas that tabulates test scores and compares them to a broader pool.
It's a useful exercise. Many Americans are vaguely aware that the U.S. does not rank at the top of the heap in world academic prowess. But it's easy to blame America's unimpressive standing on other parts of the country: The schools around here are great — it's those hillbillies and hoodlums elsewhere who drag down the average.
It's not so easy to wave away findings such as these: While Henrico schools rank in the 59th percentile on math tests when compared against the rest of the U.S., they rank down at the 47th percentile on international comparisons. (That's below average, for those of you who studied math in Henrico.)
Educators probably will protest that the global report card's methodology is flawed. This is not a complaint anyone ever makes when the region wins applause for being the most livable or most business-friendly state — judgments that, unlike test scores, are far harder to quantify.
Email
Facebook
Google
Twitter
Favorites
More
Advertisement