Standard 1.10: Analyzing Data
Standard 1.10: Leaders collect and analyze a range of feedback data from multiple stakeholder groups to inform decision-making that results in improvement.
Diversity Focus Group
As a result of the nationwide civil unrest following the death of George Floyd, PHS school leadership determined that we need to do a better job at confronting racism here in our space. As they discussed different possible approaches, it was decided that it must begin by listening. They convened a focus group made up of various students and community members with a variety of experiences. They were all persons of color or parents of persons of color. This opportunity to just listen to their experiences was insightful. Linked here, you will find the four pages of notes that the assistant principal took. From here the administration is brainstorming next steps.
Note: Data come in two forms: quantitative and qualitative. When most people say "data," they usually imagine only quantitative data. However, qualitative data--words that come from interviews, focus groups, and other gathering methods-- are also a scientifically valid form of data.
2020 Hybrid Graduation
Graduation for the class of 2020 posed an interesting problem. We were still in the early throes of the pandemic. School was 100% remote. The graduates of the class of 2020 had missed out on many of the anticipated, senior-year events like prom, the entire spring sports season, etc. As graduation approached, we spent a lot of time gathering data from the community to inform planning a unique graduation. One big question was whether to proceed with some form of a modified graduation on May 20, our regularly scheduled graduation day, or to postpone graduation until August, hoping that the restrictions on gathering would be lifted. When we surveyed the community, we found a majority of students and families wanted to do a modified graduation on the regularly scheduled May 20. Many people also stated that, if it were in August, they would be unable to attend. As a result, we planned a hybrid graduation. We created an instructional video describing how it would work. The graduation was a huge success. Hundreds of parents told us that it was the most personal and intimate commencement they had ever attended. ABC 4 News even covered our graduation as an example of an exceptional pandemic graduation. The success was due to our ability to incorporate data, in the form of community feedback, into our plans.
Grade & Attendance Data
Another area in which we utilize data to inform our decision-making and determine program effectiveness is student grades and attendance. The attached graphs indicate our longitudinal trends in these areas over the last several years.
For grades, you can see that from the 2011-2012 school year to the 2019-2020 school year, the percent of F grades earned dropped from 7% to 4%. Over the same time span, the percent of total grades earned that were A's rose from 45% to 56%. We worked with teachers on provided timely and effective tier one and two interventions with students, and continually reported these data back to the faculty so they could see the progress that their work was making.
We see a similar trend of improvement with our attendance. We have tracked unexcused absences for years. Several years ago we became aware that ours were higher than other high schools in our area, but that the total number of absences (unexcused plus excused) was about the same. We realized that fewer of our students were getting their absences excused. We implemented several programs intended to reduce the number of unexcused absences like a detention program, educating parents on how and why to communicate with the attendance secretary to excuse an absence, and updated district attendance policies. For PHS the average number of unexcused absences per student per term dropped from 7.4 in 2015-2016 to 4.1 in 2019-2020. We are gratified to see the number of unexcused absences reduce as a response to our interventions.
Longitudinal Data from State Testing
Below, you will find a table outlining our longitudinal data from the State end-of-level exams, formerly known as SAGE. These data were retrieved from the state's school report card website. They are presented to the faculty each year in order to inform their curricular and pedagogical decisions for the upcoming year. We can see in the data some fluctuations from year to year. Some of this movement in the data is due to the natural variation between classes of students from year to year. Overall, we see more increases than decreases from year-to-year.
Longitudinal AP Exam Scores
The following chart contains the ratio of students who passed all AP exams as a percentage of students who took the exams. The scores fluctuate between a low of 42% and a high of 54% with an average of 48%. Several factors can move this number like how many students take the test and the natural variation of students from year to year. In our case, our highest examinee turnout was 2020 in which 136 total students took the exam and 51% passed. Our lowest examinee turnout was 2019 when only 26 students took the exam and only 42% passed. This bucks the normal trend where during years when more students take the exam, the passing percentage is lower and vice versa. The standard deviation for our data is 5%, meaning that only the highest year of 54% and the lowest year of42% are outside of the "one standard deviation from the mean" window, and only by 1 percentage point each. This seems to indicate that the results we are seeing is due to natural variation rather than any specific cause.
Mean = 48%
Standard Deviation = 5%