Viewpoint: School rankings obscure Annandale HS’s success
By Shawn DeRose, principal of Annandale High School
A member of the Annandale community recently asked me a tough question: Why do certain ranking websites rate Annandale High School low despite all of our recent success?
That question made me think of the movie “Moneyball.” In it, Billy Beane (Brad Pitt) realizes baseball had been evaluating players using outdated metrics for generations, ignoring the data that revealed true impact.
We face the exact same challenge in education. The traditional way we evaluate schools is outdated.
Related story: Local schools’ performance varies on new state rating system
Standard rankings look at overall test scores, rank schools highest to lowest, and assume the top schools are the most effective. But overall scores don’t tell the whole story. In fact, one of the strongest predictors of a school’s overall test performance, even in FCPS, is its percentage of students receiving free or reduced-price meals (FRM).
As a school’s FRM rate increases, its overall pass rate tends to decrease. This doesn’t mean poverty determines student potential. It means students enter school with unequal access to resources and opportunities. When we rank schools solely by raw test scores, we aren’t ranking the quality of teaching or leadership. We are simply ranking student demographics.
Measuring what truly matters
Instead of just measuring where students finished, modern data allows us to measure how far a school helped them go.
By looking at the relationship between demographics and achievement, researchers can predict how a school is likely to perform and then compare that prediction with actual results.
Consider two schools:
- School A has a 92 percent pass rate, but was predicted to reach 94 percent.
- School B has a 71 percent pass rate, but was predicted to reach only 61 percent.
School A has the higher overall score, but School B exceeded expectations by 10 percentage points. Which school is making the bigger impact?
The true story of AHS
This is what makes Annandale’s results so extraordinary. Out of all 24 traditional high schools in Fairfax County, Annandale achieved the largest positive gap between actual and predicted performance across every single core subject: English, math, and science.
Our students aren’t just meeting expectations; they are outperforming traditional data at higher rates than any other school in our district. Moreover, this commitment to growth elevates every student. Since 2020, we have doubled the number of students earning the prestigious IB Diploma.
Annandale is taking students from every starting point and helping them reach unprecedented levels of success. That doesn’t happen by accident. It is the collective result of high-quality instruction, high expectations, targeted support, and a staff that refuses to place limits on any student’s potential.
Help us change the narrative
We will always care about proficiency. Every student deserves to meet and exceed state standards. But if we want to measure true school effectiveness, we must look at progress, growth, and opportunity.
The most effective schools aren’t always the ones with the highest test scores. They are the schools that consistently lift students above expectations.
Annandale is one of those schools.
The next time you hear someone mention online school rankings, challenge them to think differently by sharing our story with them.
With all respect, who cares? Is the young adult meeting or exceeding expectations?
What are they doing a year or two after graduation? Living in Mommies’ basement? Or out earning their own living, paying taxes, saving to buy a condo?
Studying hard in college?
Jumping out of perfectly good airplanes with the 82nd Airborne?
My kids graduated from AHS. I have no clue what its ratings were. Didn’t care. Neither lived in our basement.
Many of these school ratings count the number of AP courses offered and percentage of students taking AP courses. Schools that offer IB (and very few AP courses) will never be ranked high under these systems.
Thank you Principal DeRose for this information. Your analysis is very helpful. My kids graduated from AHS years ago; we loved the school!
Annandale HS did not have a single National Merit Semifinalist in the Class of 2026. Maybe they need to go back to the Advanced Placement courses that AHS used to have, rather than retain an IB program that seems to encourage more people to avoid the school than send their kids there.
Congratulations on the success of AHS, Shawn. This Annandale neighbor is happy to have you, the wonderful teachers and staff at AHS, and the hardworking students in our community. As a neighbor, I enjoy utilizing your track occasionally and seeing all of the activities that happen on the sports fields after school, from soccer to tennis to baseball to lacrosse and everything in between. It’s great to see the students out and about, enjoying healthy activities and having a great time. I wish you continued success as the new school year begins.
Both my kids graduated from AHS. I was impressed with the school. My son got a chemical engineering degree with a specialty in alternative fuels. My daughter double majored in college with economics and communications, then got a masters in special education. They also enjoyed several sports and extracurriculars. Both are happily married, gainfully employed and own homes. I was impressed with AHS 2003-2010.
As a former principal at AHS (2005-11) I couldn’t agree more with Principal DeRose. Test scores alone do not tell the true story. AHS has always been one of the best kept secrets in FCPS despite the many challenges presented to faculty, students & staff. The success or failure of any organization begins at the top and Principal DeRose leads the way in maintaining Annandale’s “Tradition of Excellence” despite what the test score pundits may lead you to believe.
Go Atoms!
With two children at Annandale High School – I both attest to and praise the dedicated teachers, staff and leaders at the school. Annandale High School faculty are engaged with a student body comprised of many different socioeconomic and cultural backgrounds with different levels of value/ priority for educational achievement (or even attendance), which is compounded by a large diversity of the preparatory level for each student attending. Which is the point that the Principal is making and is proverbially saying “look at how much further we have come.”
That said, when we rank schools solely by raw test scores, we are measuring to a standard of accuracy that reflects real life performance, mastery, and results of the students. Not having measurable mastery via independent tests is how society ends up with inadequate or incompetent individuals in the job market. Nobody wants a plumber that doesn’t understand math, or a doctor that hasn’t mastered biology, chemistry or math. Also, historically our most rigorous educational programs (colleges) also require a proficiency that is verified by testing. I agree that rankings on test scores are not a ranking on the quality of teaching or leadership at any school, and conflating the two is a distinct matter to consider when evaluating a school’s performance.
However, it is incredibly inaccurate and a mistake to say ranking schools on quantitative testing is, “simply ranking student demographics.” The priority, effort and focus of parents and students to achieve and master the topics is a major factor. The cultural priority of education as a value matters. I agree that different individuals and families have different resources and that does have an impact on student success. But it matters if mastery of topics/ information is a priority acted upon at home or is not being demonstrably obtained via testing. If anything, that is an argument for more public resources for those schools serving students and families with less resources, as well as testing earlier in the student’s educational journey (to include the high school level) to enable intervention to improve the student’s learning and achievement. Building a culture of belonging to and in school is nice, building a culture for academic achievement and excellence is more important, but that is a FCPS district problem as the no longer allow valedictorians or class rank. Testing matters, it is what we do with the results also matters more.
If you want your children to operate successfully in a diverse globalized economy and succeed in life, then send them to AHS. If you want them to be cut off from the world, be confused as to who they are, and live in your basement after they graduate from college, then spend all that money on tuition and send them to a private high school full of spoiled entitled brats. My children all graduated from AHS. They were among kids who spoke 80+ different languages. Today, they all have great jobs, own their own homes, and collectively have 8 children. I attribute a great deal of their success to incredible education they received at AHS, among the best high schools in the country and perhaps the world. Everyone knows the Atoms!
Comments remind me of redistricting debates.
Since 1966 when it was built, my neighborhood just outside beltway went to Woodson then shifted to AHS in the 80s I think it was and then back to Woodson sometime in the early 2000s where it is today. Each time, western civilization was going to end for some and el dorado was found for the others.
The only performance that matters is that of the graduates. Measure that. Parents have as much to do with that as does a school. Probably more. And if all you can do is whine about private schools and insult kids that go to them, where did you learn that Einstein? Now, cue the wailing a gnashing of teeth.