acpme said:
hs, you sure know very little about statistics. i'll give you a simple lesson ok?
the median API in the county (2006 data was the quickest i could pull up) is 775. the average is 750. more relevant is the st dev which is 96. so basically all those schools you listed are above avg high schools in this county, separated by less than 1/3 of one st dev. also, i noticed VP was 813 in 2006 and 792 in whatever yr's data you posted.
what does that all mean? it means those schools are all very similar. i won't brag that VPHS is a world-class high school. certainly many schools in this county are better, but taking bragging rights for your local school's +30 API is just silly. it has no statistical significance, especially given schools can be +/- 30 in any given year. that arbitrary list of SAT scores that has a range of 40 pts is even more irrelevant. it's evident in every argument you've made that you need to learn something about sampling before you draw conclusions.
in any case, you're completely going in circles which totally kills the credibility of any of your points. you said the wealthy new home buyers of northwood pointe made northwood high school what it is. there are some great schools in OC in bad neighborhoods and some mediocre schools in great neighborhoods. its probably 50% demographics and 50% (if not more) everything else. the teachers and administrators, special programs that draw in talent outside the immediate area, open enrollment that draws in kids from lower income areas, etc.
Wow. Acpme needs a lesson too. The standard deviation is used to measure variance. When you're comparing all the schools in the county, including the continuation schools, you should expect a high standard deviation. Such as comparing Century High in Santa Ana to University High in Irvine. But when you rank the schools in order, Villa Park is approximately 35th out of 66 schools. That means that it's right around the median. By the way, the data below is the most current from the CDE. By telling me that VPHS was 813 in 2006 just confirms my belief that the school is trending downwards. And in education, the standard good score is 800. That's the score that all schools must try to at least obtain. Villa Park High, situtated in one of the most expensive zip codes, is below that standard score.
Just look at the list below... all the top schools are either in rich neighborhoods or have strong demographics. All the bottom schools are in poor neighborhood or have weak demographics. Of course there are always a few exceptions, but the correlation of class and race to performance is usually very strong and accurate.
And another point, Uni has been around for many years so it may attract talented students. Northwood is less than ten years old. It was built when the houses across the street from it was built. So the community built the school's reputation, not the other way around. It also has the lowest percentage of free lunch students in the county - 1.9% - an indication that there are hardly any poor students at Northwood.
Rankings are rankings. If you're within 5 schools apart, then I would say you're pretty comparable. Such as Northwood to Uni or Irvine to Fountain Valley. When you're 16 schools apart (VPHS & FVHS) - not too comparable.
Another point, although Northwood and Beckman are rather close, their student population demographics are very different. Which explains the disparity between the two schools's scores. Same goes for Westminster High and La Quinta High - although both are located in Westminster, the student population is very different.
Parents, just remember that 800 is the score to look for if you're looking for a high performance school. Don't simply buy in a nice zip code and assume your nearby public school will be stellar.
School Name SAT Score API
Oxford Academy 1903 981
Troy High 1911 914
University High 1861 881
Corona del Mar High 1698 863
Northwood High 1762 858
Orange County High School of the Arts 1661 856
Cypress High 1507 844
Sunny Hills High 1668 843
La Quinta High 1504 840
Woodbridge High 1721 839
Middle College High 1508 839
Laguna Hills High 1626 838
Esperanza High 1632 837
Los Alamitos High 1597 837
Orange Coast Middle College High 1481 832
Foothill High 1631 829
Irvine High 1714 827
Dana Hills High 1627 825
Mission Viejo High 1640 821
Fountain Valley High 1656 821
Aliso Niguel High 1652 820
Tesoro High 1643 815
Canyon High 1575 815
Trabuco Hills High 1643 815
El Toro High 1637 815
Laguna Beach High 1668 811
OCCS:CHEP/PCHS 1531 806
Marina High 1645 805
Arnold O. Beckman High 1582 805
Pacifica High 1547 803
El Dorado High 1583 802
Brea-Olinda High 1616 801
Edison High 1628 797
Capistrano Valley High 1632 795
Villa Park High 1619 792
John F. Kennedy High 1535 787
San Clemente High 1581 784
Newport Harbor High 1596 782
El Modena High 1626 770
Garden Grove High 1498 770
Huntington Beach High 1627 766
Bolsa Grande High 1473 763
Valencia High 1614 758
Sonora High 1524 756
La Habra High 1444 745
Fullerton Union High 1482 732
Western High 1398 731
Costa Mesa High 1460 731
Loara High 1439 721
Rancho Alamitos High 1488 718
Buena Park High 1376 717
Estancia High 1407 714
Ocean View High 1552 712
Santiago High 1377 711
Tustin High 1529 709
Westminster High 1489 707
Savanna High 1380 700
Orange High 1381 695
Los Amigos High 1434 694
Katella High 1407 688
Magnolia High 1387 687
Anaheim High 1339 684
Santa Ana High 1304 622
Saddleback High 1309 604
Valley High 1265 585
Century High 1183 584
rofiles.nationalrelocation.com/California/Fountain%20Valley/+Fountain+valley+age+demographic&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=1&gl=us
