Case Study # 6 – A Principal’s Dilemma on Test Scores

Philip Maroney, the principal of Sutton Middle School, loved to review all types of test score
data. He was quite talented in terms of understanding how testing works and how faculty
members could use test score results to improve their teaching strategies. Sutton Middle
School is an affluent school setting near an urban locale. In terms of racial demographics,
students were about 40% White, 35 % Black, 5 % Asian and 20% Hispanic. Families were mostly
in the middle of the middle economic class.

He had two teams from the social studies department dissect the grade eight test results from
last year’s state mandated social studies examination. What the teachers found out was very
interesting. First, the educators were unhappy that as an aggregate, students scored at slightly
below the mean of the state in that content area. In other academic subjects, the school did
much better.

Specifically, it was also noted that among the student groups, the Asian as well as the White
students fared exceptionally well. These two subsets of students tested in the top quadrant of
the state.

However, in this particular test, ESL students as well students with students classified with
learning disabilities scored very poorly. In fact, their scores were so weak that the overall test
score results became skewed. Because the state utilizes “weighted” averages with various
student classifications, these two student groups were counted on an almost double basis. If
even two students from these two subgroups had selected two more correct responses in the
test, the aggregate score results would have been propelled the school from their current level
to ten points higher than the state mean.

This data was shared with the academic department so that remedial academic considerations
could be offered to these student groups. The teachers strategized some potential instructional
techniques that might help these students in future examinations. Since the district office
insisted that each principal write an article on state testing results, Principal Mahoney wrote a
first draft explaining the test results and sequential steps for remediation. He shared it for
accuracy with the faculty. He deliberately chose not to single out any student demographics or
embarrass any subgroups in any way.

The social studies department members did not concur with this idea. They felt that if the
process for testing of these subgroups were made clear, it would shed a better light on what
the students achieved. The principal understood and respected why the teachers wanted to
include these statistics. but felt that entertaining this fact into an analysis of the test scores
would both single out a small section of the student population and seemed much too
defensive as a posture.

The principal now needed to finalize his test report.

Writing Prompt

1) What are the educational policies in discussing test results that might lead to possible
student identification?

2) Does this small bit of data really lead to any meaningful difference in the context of
overall student achievement?

3) Is there a possible way to word the report that might assuage the social studies
department, or should the principal just write it as he sees fit?

4) What does this discussion say about the sensitivity of staff as it comes to publicly
revealing student test results?

Please respond to these prompts in one flowing narrative essay.