Hi, I'm looking at the stats for Zurich schools. There is a lot of information
and my german is bad. Google translate is not helping.

http://www.bista.zh.ch/ms/MSQuote_Tab.aspx

If I understand correctly, that site lists on a per-school district basis the

1) Number of students in grades 4 through 6

2) The number of students in middle school grades 10 through 12

3) The ratio of (2) to (1).

The 'mittel schule' in this case is the equivalent of 'high school' in the US if it's
grades 10 through 12. Is this correct? Other parts of that web site tries to
explain MSQ but I'm not understanding it.

Is it trying to show the percentage of students in grades 4-6 who gets into
an academic high school (gymnasium)?

The number doesn't make sense to me because the schools could have
a lot of foreigners (like us) whose children attend grades 4-6 and then
leave the country before attending high school. So it doesn't really
represent whether the school district is a good and the kids are academically
focused and testing well and getting into gymnasiums.

Is there another set of stats that one can use to compare schools or
school districts?

Thanks,

DavidSJC

You need to understand the Zurich school system for this one. In a nutshell, after 6th grade, kids are sent to different types of schools. Sekundarschule, known as the Oberstufe lasts 3 years and feeds into the apprenticeship system. Mittelschule generally refers to Gymnasium and to Berufsmittelschule. Kids can enter Gymnasium right after 6th grade, after 2. Sek A and 3. Sek A. (Berufsmittelschule becomes available to those who finish 3. Sek A only and adds another 3-4 years of schooling in a dedicated field)
So in your table, the MSQ refers to the percentage of kids who pass their Matura in their 10th or 11th year of schooling in relation to the number of kids who left 6th grade 6 years earlier. It is then assumed that the remaining percentage went from Oberstufe on to either an apprenticeship.
Hope that makes sense