On Thursday the 6^th the state released School Performance Profile Scores for the second year in a row. Each public school in Pennsylvania received a score based on standardized tests, academic growth and other performance factors.

How important is this score to students and teachers at Harriton? Do students understand what goes into this score? Are standardized tests really necessary or fair?

The building level academic score is determined by considering factors such as Keystone scores, gap closure in different subjects and SAT and ACT scores as well as others.

Harriton scored a 96.4 building level academic score (out of a scale of 100). This score did not put us in the top 10 but beat out Lower Merion by 0.4 percent. Harriton also received 94.14 attendance rate.

I came up with three questions that may help understand the teacher and student body’s stance on these questions.

Before each interview I told the interviewee that each public school in Pennsylvania received an academic building score and that Harriton had received a 96.4, 0.4 more than Lower Merion. In total, I got answers from five people, 3 students and 2 teachers.

The first question asked if this score mattered to the student or teacher. Two students answered that from a school pride view yes because it is always good to beat Lower Merion. On a personal level, three of the five interviewees answered no.

One student cited the fact that, “As long as I try my best in school and towards my own education that is all that matters to me.” On the other hand, another student felt reassured by this score. “The score lets me know that I am getting one of the best educations in the area and state.”

The second question asked, “Do you know or could you make a guess at what factors go into determining this score?” The most common answer included something about standardized test and GPAs. Both teachers also included the number of people enrolled in AP and IB courses. One student added after his response, “Why would I know, it doesn’t matter to me?”

The final question came in two parts asking, “If this score was lower would you do anything to improve it?” and “If you would take action what would you try to do?” I asked the interviewees to answer this question on a personal level and not a recommendation for what the school should do.

The three students answered that they would try to seek out extra help from teachers for subjects as practice taking standardized test. One teacher said that they would add more practice of critical writing and close reading to their teaching.

The other teacher would choose not to take an action to change the score. This teacher stated that they had never heard of the score until now and did not believe that it was something that was in their interest to change. As the teacher put it, “If I told you that you received an 88.5 favoritism score from me with no context of whether that score was good or not and what went into determining it, would you spend all day trying to improve it? Probably not.”

Although this was a small sample size to analyze, the overall message is clear. The building level academic score it not something that is widely known to students and faculty nor something they care about.

As far as the validity in the curriculum of standardized tests seeing the disinterest in these scores, that is another debate. Considering all of the factors that go into the building level academic score, it may not be fair to point to standardized test as the single defining factor for the score of a school.