Reply to How is it possible that Walt Whitman high school has a score of 4 on greatschools.org??

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Reply to "How is it possible that Walt Whitman high school has a score of 4 on greatschools.org??"

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Has anyone been able to provide an explanation as to what went wrong at Whitman? Assuming on average the test takers at Whitman didn’t change their habits from test takers in prior years, why was there such a huge change in score? Can it be that the last group of Whitman test takes were just significantly less prepared (or intellectually capable) than prior Whitman students? Why would that happen? Changes at Whitman perhaps? The effect seems to be a school-wide phenomenon?

I don’t think you can blame the lower scores on the test either. If the low score had something to do with the test, why don’t we see similar effects at other schools?

Also, look at the internals. The Black and Hispanic students at Whitman actually scored slightly higher on average than White and Asian students? In fact, the only reason Whitman scored a 4 instead of a 3 is because it appears the Black and Hispanic students are propping up the score ---- they average 4/10 whereas the White and Asian students average 3/10.

I’m not trying to make excuses for Whitman’s poor scores. Instead, I’m trying to understand what could have gone wrong.
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We know what went wrong. A substantial portion of Whitman students, with the backing of a handful of teachers, blew off the test because it didn't count toward college admissions. Filled in random bubbles, wrote C all the way down, etc.

We know this isn't about lack of ability or preparation, even though that's certainly the charge Whitman folks level at East County folks all the time. It's about culture and attitude. A culture of only doing your best when there is an external award (a trophy, a participation ribbon, a college admissions boost) rather than doing your best for the sake of doing your best. An attitude of dismissal, as if nothing that benefits the school but not the student personally could possibly be worth participating in. [/quote]

I believe this scenario with one exception. I cannot honestly believe a handful of teachers were behind this. Silly as it might be, standardized testing scores are important for the school. How can teachers get away with this?
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