1. Mercersburg Academy
Performance Assessment of 4 Year
Seniors in Mathematics
Class of 2012
Quentin McDowell
George Washington University
EDUC 6240 – Spring II, 2012
GWID: G35555244
2. Gender
Gender Breakdown: Gender Breakdown:
4 Year Seniors in Class Mercersburg Academy
of 2012
Female Female
44% 49%
(n=31) 51% (n=217)
56%
Male Male
(n=24) (n=212)
5. SSAT Percentiles
90
80
70
60
50
40
30
20
10
0
SSAT Quant. Percentile 4 Year SSAT Quant. Percentile Entire
Seniors School
Females (n=31, 192) 52 54
Males (n=24, 168) 59 58
African American (n=4, 22) 34.5 41.6
Asian (n=6, 58) 80.3 79.6
Asian American (n=3, 16) 61 60.3
Caucasian (n=38, 218) 52 50.4
Latin American (n=2, 11) 70 53.5
Other (n=2, 35) 58 57.3
6. SAT Scores
SAT Quant. National Avg. All Students
Females
SAT Total National Avg.
Males
NAIS SAT Quant. Avg.
NAIS SAT Total Avg.
MA 4 Year Senior SAT Total (n=55)
MA 4 Year Senior SAT Quant. (n=55)
0 400 800 1200
7. Student Averages – Math Class
4 Year Seniors
92
90
88
86 Males (n=24)
84 Females (n=31)
All Students (n=55)
82
80
78
Grade 9 Grade 10 Grade 11 Grade 12
8. So, what does this all mean?
• Are there any predictors of success in
mathematics? If so, what do they appear to be?
• Discuss the comparison of performance between
students that have been here for 4 years, or those of
different nationalities or genders.
• Are we as a school properly addressing the needs
of all of our students?
• What additional data would be helpful?
Editor's Notes
Mercersburg Academy has been trying to broaden both its collection and analyzing of data, particularly in areas of student outcomes and faculty performance. Unfortunately, given that Mercersburg is an independent school, there has not been a history of data use to drive decisions about programming, instruction or other important areas of the school. That trend seems to be coming to an end and, with the efforts of the Academic Dean’s Office, quantitative and qualitative data is now being accumulated at a break neck pace in order to give tangible support to ideas, discussions and, most importantly, change. Despite the absence of any substantive data directly relating to individual areas of instruction, I did my best to explore our students’ performance in the area of mathematics using SSAT scores, SAT scores, classroom grades, student background and time spent at Mercersburg. I focused primarily on the 4 year seniors, which make up only about 13% of the school’s population, but are the sole group that attends the Academy for all 4 years. This should give us our best idea of what the full impact our programming is yielding.
This first slide is a simple breakdown of gender at the school. As you can see, both the senior class and the school itself have a fairly even distribution of males and females. The four year senior group is only 55 out of the 429 total students, which is again roughly 13% of the student body.
As you can see here, there is an uneven number of Caucasians in the 4 year senior group at 38, with the next closest subsection being Asians, of which there are only 6. I want to caution us about making too many assumptions based on such a small sample, but this breakdown does give you some idea of the makeup of that particular group.
Now when looking at the entire school, it is a bit easier to appreciate the diversity at the Academy and, while Caucasians still have the majority, there is also a significant Asian population, African American population and, in the “Other” group are our European, African, Latino/Hispanic, Middle Eastern and multiracial population).
This next slide allows us to get into more of the meat and potatoes of the data. This is a breakdown of the performance on the SSAT, or Secondary School Admission Test, which is a required element of the admission process. The SSAT is a national level test that is said to be a good determinant of student performance both in class as well as on the SAT. As you can see, the chart breaks performance down by percentile, which refers to where the students scored in comparison to all SSAT test takers, worldwide. Given that we are looking at mathematics, this chart compares only the quantitative section of the test between 4 year seniors and the rest of the students at Mercersburg. It is important to note that not all students took the SSAT, as some came in later in their school careers and others had it waived. This chart only shows the 360 students currently enrolled that have taken the test. What you might notice at first glance is that females scored slightly lower than males, African Americans scored well below the averages of any other group and Asians scored well above the averages of other subsections. Our Caucasian population and school averages are just a hair above the 50th percentile.
As previously mentioned, with SSAT’s being considered a measure of eventual SAT performance, let’s take a look at the SAT scores for our 4 year seniors and compare them to the national averages as well as to the averages of students attending NAIS schools. NAIS is the National Association of Independent Schools and includes private schools from around the country as well as all of our peer institutions. As might be expected, the national average for the math section of the SAT hovers just above 500 for all test takers. Males have an average of 531 and females an average of 500. The performance of students attending member schools of the NAIS, however, average 602 (593 for females and 611 for males), while Mercersburg’s 4 year seniors are well aligned with these numbers at 625 for all students (597 for females and 660 for males). The discrepancy between genders that is seen on the national level is also reflected in both the NAIS population as well as our Mercersburg population.
In this final data slide, I attempted to look at math grades for each 4 year senior and chart their progress from 9th to 12th grade. I have not yet had the opportunity to do the same for the general school population, as that data was not made available. What this chart reveals, however, is the averages of the males and females in the 4 year senior population as well the averages for all of these seniors. A couple of immediate things probably come to mind when you first look at the chart. One question to consider is, “what accounts for the dip in averages for females in the 10th grade?” Another obvious element is the reflection of a steady improvement in class averages over the course of a 4 year student’s career, culminating with exceptionally high averages in the 12th grade. Again, this is only a population of 55 students and some very low scores, say in the female population, could be responsible for the drop in the 10th grade, but the jump in the senior year is almost universal. Is this a reflection of student improvement or could it also be possible that teachers are easing up in this final year?
Now, I imagine some of you are asking, so, what does all this mean? I collected this data in the hope that it would give us the opportunity to reflect on one area of student achievement, in this case mathematics. Ideally, this data will provide some evidence of student performance that will generate discussion and reflection. Some items I thought might be worth delving into are listed on this last slide. Considering the data you’ve seen today, do you notice any predictors of success for math? If so, what do they appear to be? Also, I’d like to discuss the comparison of performance between 4 year students, or those of different genders and/or nationalities? When looking at all of this information, can we make a judgment about whether or not we are adequately serving the needs of our students? And finally, what other data would be helpful to you as you think about the topic of mathematics and student performance?
