ERHS PTSA   November 1, 2004

 

Recently The Washingtonian printed an article that ranked local high schools. Ann Davidson wrote a rebuttal to the ranking given to ERHS. Here is the letter and chart she provided at the PTSA meeting.  The letter is the abridged one that will be published in the December 2004 edition of The Washingtonian.
 

Dear Mr. Lindsay,

The October 2004 Washingtonian’s 22-page cover story on “Top High Schools” in the local metropolitan area provided information of interest to those concerned about the best high school options for their children.

The explanation that the Research Center had created a “performance index” to determine the listed “Head of the Class” schools, in the chart of “Maryland’s Top Performers”, was useful.  It allowed astute readers to see that a crucial factor had been ignored in the index. That factor is the national “achievement gap” (mentioned in your article) between students of different races.   With the achievement gap ignored, your list is merely a reflection of the almost linear correlation between the percentages of high-scoring racial groups in schools and the schools’ gross test scores.  It is not a list that ranks the quality of the instruction or of the educational environment in the schools listed.

This point is starkly seen when the four 2004 HSA subject scores (English 1, Biology, Government & Algebra) for each of the four major racial groups, at each of the schools on your list, are examined on the Maryland State Department of Education’s web site.  The achievement gap is consistently seen in all the scores for all the schools.  Comparisons of those scores show that, in all of the subject areas that are tested, larger percentages of African-American students score at Proficient or Advanced levels at Eleanor Roosevelt High School (ranked # 10) than do so at almost any other school in the list, including at Winston Churchill High School (ranked # 1).  Furthermore, in three of the four subject areas (Biology, Government and Algebra), more White students at Eleanor Roosevelt score at Proficient or Advanced than do the White students at Winston Churchill.  Yet Winston Churchill’s gross scores look significantly better because 89% of its students are Non-Hispanic Whites or Asians, versus only 40% of these students at Eleanor Roosevelt. 

Though the Research Center’s list ranked Eleanor Roosevelt High School as the tenth “Top Performer”, a closer breakdown of the test data proves that there are few, if any, public high schools in the local area where better test performance occurs or where minority students perform better than at Eleanor Roosevelt.

Sincerely,

 

Ann Harris Davidson

Berwyn Heights, MD

MARYLAND’S TOP PERFORMERS, 2004

 Winston Churchill High School (Washingtonian #1) vs. Eleanor Roosevelt High School (Washington # 10)

 TABLE 1: Maryland HSA Scores for the Schools, Without Racial Disaggregation

 

All Students, of All Races, At or Above Proficient (%) in 2004

 

English 1

Biology

Government

Algebra

Winston Churchill HS

91.2

93.7

92.5

75.3

J. H. Blake High HS

66.7

73.8

82.8

47.0

Eleanor Roosevelt HS

73.9

76.7

81.6

76.5

 

TABLE 2: Maryland HSA Scores for the Schools, With Disaggregation by Major Racial Groups

 

Students, by Race, At or Above Proficient (%) in 2004

 

English 1

Biology

Government

Algebra

Race

Asian

Bl.

White

Hisp.

Asian

Bl.

White

Hisp.

Asian

Bl.

White

Hisp.

Asian

Bl.

White

Hisp.

W. Churchill HS

94.7

54.3

94.2

83.9

92.1

50.0

92.2

80.8

94.9

57.1

95.1

84.8

76.5

53.8

80.6

53.8

J.H. Blake HS

73.9

48.7

82.9

48.9

87.8

54.2

89.9

54.8

82.5

69.8

93.8

68.9

68.4

29.8

71.4

30.4

E. Roosevelt HS

87.8

62.5

92.4

75.0

93.8

63.7

94.8

50.0

92.9

72.9

96.4

78.3

94.2

68.0

92.1

88.9

COMMENTS:

The Washingtonian magazine did not use the most recent statistics.

Page 103 of the October 2004 edition of the Washingtonian magazine charts the “Top Performers” in public schools in Maryland, Virginia and the District of Columbia.  In these ratings, Winston Churchill High School is listed as Maryland’s “Top Performer (ranked # 1) while Eleanor Roosevelt High School is listed as #10.  These rankings were based the schools’ performances on the 2003 Maryland High School Assessment scores.  The 2004 Maryland High School Assessment scores were released in early September of 2004.  The latest results do not significantly change the rankings but it is always preferable to review and rank subjects on the most recent statistics.

The Washingtonian’s rankings on page 103 of its October 2004 edition ignore the differences in the racial composition of the schools in their rankings, even though the “achievement gap” is widely known.

When “apples are compared with apples” by examining the scores for each of four racial groups, it is statistically evident that similar students at Winston Churchill High School do not, on average, perform better than their counterparts at Eleanor Roosevelt High School. 

□       In all of the subject areas that are tested, larger percentages of Black (African-American) students score at Proficient or Advanced levels at Eleanor Roosevelt High School than do those at Winston Churchill High School.  This is the case even though only 6% (125 students out of a total of 2,078) of Winston Churchill’s students are Black, as compared to 56% of students (1,562 out of a total of 2,778 students) who are Black at Eleanor Roosevelt.

□       In three of the four subject areas (Biology, Government and Algebra), more White students at Eleanor Roosevelt score at Proficient or Advanced than do the White students at Winston Churchill.

□       Of the 16 sets of test scores for the four listed racial groups on the four tests given, the students at Eleanor Roosevelt High School have better average performances than do the students at Winston Churchill High School in 10 of the 16 categories.

When the demographic differences between the student bodies are factored into the equation, it is difficult to see how Winston Churchill High School can to rated nine places better than Eleanor Roosevelt High School in the list of “Top Performers”.   The other eight schools that are rated ahead of Eleanor Roosevelt are even more flagrantly less successful, on academic scores for each of the racial groups, than is Eleanor Roosevelt.  Blake High School is rated as the ninth “Top Performer” and yet in every single one of the sixteen different categories the students at Blake score less well than the students at Eleanor Roosevelt do.  (In eight of the categories, the averages for students at Eleanor Roosevelt are ten or more percentage points better than those for the students at Blake.)

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