Moscow school ratings are published

The 2016/2017 Moscow school ratings have been posted on the Department of Education’s website. The Higher School of Economics’ lyceum has come first; Lyceum No. 1535 is in second place, and the Moscow Open Education Institute’s School No. 179 sits in third. The ratings have 292 positions. This year, there were eight parameters. Attention was paid to the results of the Basic State Exam (BSE) and the Unified State Exam (USE), participation in Moscow and national school academic competitions, work with children with disabilities and use of the city’s socio-cultural resources. This last parameter was calculated based on students’ involvement in the Moscow Olympiads: Museums, Parks and Estates, and The Bond between Generations Can’t Be Broken.

Results of JuniorSkills Russia, WorldSkills Russia and professional skills competitions, the nationwide professional skills Olympiad and the Abilympics championship for people with disabilities were also taken into account. In addition, the schools and lyceums in the rating pay special attention to promoting sport (students win prizes in sport competitions), the work of preschools and preventing juvenile delinquency. If a child registered with a police station has not committed any infractions over a period of 12 months, his or her school will score more points than for other students.

Thus, the main principle of the rating calculations is not to reflect school conditions but results. For example, having a swimming pool is less important than the exam and competition results.

School-rating methodology is developed by Moscow’s Educational Skills Centre. According to its director, Ivan Yashchenko, the Department of Education and Moscow City Hall formulate basic guidelines for the education system’s development, and the centre provides for quantitative characteristics and an algorithm for calculating final indicators.

The first ratings were done for the 2010/2011 academic year and used only two criteria: USE and BSE results and participation in Moscow and national school academic competitions. During the following years, new parameters were added. Since the 2015/2016 academic year, the ratings have been updated several times per year to take into account all the results of school competitions and professional competitions.