My opinion: The SAT was designed to measure how well a student was prepared for college. I’m not sure how well it does that, but most colleges (Agnes Scott no longer being one) feel they need some indication of whether a student will succeed at their institution. It was not designed to measure how well they are prepared to succeed in life in a global economy, which seems to be the focus of the IB program.

Right now, I’d say the US still leads the world in science and engineering, and the best brains from around the world tend to come here to work in those areas. To prepare our kids to contribute in these areas, we need to teach them what is required to do well on the SAT, and we need those who are strong in math and science to be in the AP program.

I’d like to think CSD has different tracks which will contribute to our students’ success whether they go on to college (to prepare for whatever discipline), go to trade school, or go straight to work. It’s sad that 12% don’t even graduate. I can only recall a few of my classmates from decades ago who did not graduate.

I don’t think there’s a bad penny in the bunch of school board incumbents and candidates. They all want to work hard to help Decatur’s kids prepare for life. They differ only in how they’d do it.

Just my 2 cents, probably not worth a plug nickel in the minds of many DM readers.

We’re just about to head out the door for another day of mending hearts and homes. -So I don’t have time to respond to all the personal attacks and the last minute arguments which seek to splice hairs or interpret issues in the extreme instead of seeking balance and moving forward.

I do want people to know that we have great schools. We moved here for the small neighborhood schools, the strong academics, and the diversity. I am running because I want to help make our schools better.

I told Marc when I put my name on the ballot, that I wasn’t running against him. I’m running for the schools and the issues. It is unfortunate that a political campaign forces the contender to focus on how they are different. Marc’s story and mine are similar. We both love our schools and want them to improve. I hope that I have drawn attention to issues that need to be addressed. I have tried not just to identify problems, but also the solutions which will allow us to respond effectively and move on to the next thing, and the next.

Which ever way things go today… Tomorrow we need sit back down and focus on the things we have in common: our great schools, community, and civic pride. We need to find ways to keep moving forward together.

I had time this morning to follow up on that SAT post on InDecatur. I’m going to go ahead and post it below:

We have good schools. I want to see them get better. It isn’t disparaging our schools to recognize and point out a recent downward trend in SAT scores for girls and African Americans. That is how we recognize where we need to focus our attention and resources.

Yes, the sample sizes are small. This is a problem we face as a small school system. But not one that stops us from drawing attention to recognizing our successes. This is the argument we only seem to bring it out when scores go down.

There is a joke about statisticians. Two statisticians are at an archery range. One shoots an arrow 10 feet above the target, the other 10 feet beneath. -They look to one another and say… “we hit!”

Numbers can be spun. It is interesting that you go back 13 years to find your upward trend. We are not the same schools system that we were 13 years ago. The 10 year trend (since 2000) is downward. I’m sure you’ve done the numbers. It is interesting that your numbers do not dis-aggregate the data based on the race, sex, or economic factors which you refer to as being robust.

It may be important to consider the number of students taking the test and applying to college. But you do not provide numbers, so I can not gauge how important those factors are.

Neither of those factors take away from the fact that recent trend in average SAT scores for girls and African Americans is dropping. Which means that those students who are applying for college are less likely to be accepted on the basis of their scores.

I too would like to see percentile rankings. When I have examined our past CRCT scores, I have recalculated them based on percentile rankings. And I have looked at them using co-hort groupings. That is, I have looked not just at the year-on performance of a particular grade, but also at that group of students as they progress through the grades.

I would also like to see us use scores which are broken out not just on race, but also on whether a student is economically disadvantaged or advantaged. We don’t do all that we should to break out and use the robust demographics to which you refer.

Numbers may or may not be statistically significant. Every child is. Let us not shy away from our problems, but look at them head on. That is how we will make our schools better.

DHS SAT scores put in perspective

Hope asked that this be posted for her. This is apparently in response to considerable discussion during the forum about the five-year downward trend in DHS SAT scores through the ’07-’08 school year (see spreadsheet prepared by Garrett G in this earlier inDECATUR post.)

Let’s step back and take a look at the big picture where DHS SAT scores are concerned.

First, we need to look at the long-term trend and not just the last five years.

Second, we should include the most recent or 2009 scores which have been available since at least August 27. See the “Bloggin’ Bulldog” site (http://decaturhighprincipal.blogspot.com/) provided by Laurie McKain-Fernandez, DHS Principal. In her blog Ms. McKain-Fernandez gives an excellent summary of SAT scores since 1996 and where DHS ranks relative to other schools in Georgia. Note that the average score for the class of 2009 was 1064. As she points out, our school is so small that all it takes is a few high scores or a few low scores in any given year to skew the average. Even large schools will show more fluctuation in average scores than is evident in the national average.

There is another KEY point that one does not realize when just observing the raw data from the past year. The percentage of students to take the SAT at DHS has increased significantly over the years meaning more students are applying to colleges (a very good thing.) As students who would not previously have applied to college begin to take the SAT, the average score for the school is expected to decrease. BUT, the 13-year trend for DHS shows that while increasing the percentage of students taking the test, average scores have been edging up, not down.

A concern expressed is that the average score for black students has dropped. Given that the large majority of the increase in the percentage of students taking the test comes from the black student population, this would not be surprising BUT the decrease over the last 5 years has been minimal. It is far more important to consider the increase in the number of individual students who are applying to college than minimal fluctuations in an average test score.

In addition to improving SAT scores at DHS, there are numerous other measures of success that need to be highlighted. In Newsweek rankings, DHS has been in the top 500 – 600 high schools across the nation. These ratings take into consideration academic and socio-economic factors including the breadth of the curriculum, number of students taking AP and IB courses, number of students passing AP and IB courses, # of students receiving low and reduced lunch rates, etc. Also, check out the February 2009 “Bloggin’ Bulldog” post about DHS being named an AP Honor School. These are examples of more robust measures of success that use a variety of metrics and account for relevant demographic factors.

So, the next time you see Ms. McKain-Fernandez or a DHS teacher, ask them about the extraordinary number of National Merit Semi-Finalists in the class of 2009 and where all of those graduates are today.