Friday, May 21, 2010

565 Week 2

This week I have spent a lot of time looking at the WINSS website. I was able to look at some recent data for my own school in Tennessee but since I am in a middle school and the state test is different from that of Wisconsin, I decided to adopt a Wisconsin school so my group could have a better study. I adopted my alma matter, Waukesha South High School. I was shocked to see how much achievement has dropped since I graduated from Waukesha South in 2002. The graduation rate has gone down by 12% as well as the state test scores. My group decided to look at gender achievement differences between our three schools and we discovered that the national trend of girls acheiving higher scores holds true in Wisconsin. The WINSS website is easy to use and provides a lot of interesting information. I really wish Tennessee's TVASS website was this easy.
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3 comments:

  1. Ryan BoylenMay 23, 2010 at 1:46 PM

    I think you and your group have chosen a valuable topic and I think your findings hold a lot of validity, not just in the three schools you've chosen to view but throughout the country. I think girls are certainly feeling more empowered in schools to utilize their intelligence and I believe that the maturity level of teenage girls vs. teenage boys inherently predisposes them to higher achievement levels. In addition to this I believe that as our young women see more and more female role models in positions of power, they are driven to achieve more than previous groups.

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  2. JennyMay 24, 2010 at 4:51 PM

    Isn't WINSS data interesting? It causes individuals/schools/districts to start asking themselves questions that perhaps they wouldn't otherwise ask themselves. Data itself is dispassionate. Whether you interpret the data as good or bad, it almost always elicits a reaction.

    BTW - I graduated from Waukesha North! Go Northstars!

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  3. Master BloggerMay 27, 2010 at 6:46 AM

    Melissa I was shocked you graduated from Waukesha South, and then I was shocked that you graduated in 2002! It is interesting to see the disparity between the three high schools and will be an interesting study as the district moves toward creating criteria based grading and common assessments. There are definitely demographic differences between the 3 face to face high schools and even at iQ.

    Something to look at an perhaps figure out what can be done.

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