Otsego juniors kept their SAT scores above the state average in the second of two years of the mandatory college prep testing.
That was one of the takeaways from an overview of the spring scores and testing data given by Heather Kortlandt, the district’s director of instruction.
“What’s essentially on the SAT is a reading, writing and math test,” Kortlandt said, noting that the 11th-graders also take a portion of the MSTEP to cover social studies and science.
Of the total possible score, Otsego’s juniors’ mean score (an average of their scores) was 1,047. That’s up from last year’s mean of 1,036. Those scores were ahead of the state means of 1,001 and 1,007.6, respectively.
That put the district ahead of the rest of the schools in the county; Plainwell’s mean score was apparently only 1 point lower.
Of the possible 800 points for the reading and writing portion, Otsego juniors had a mean score of 529.8 this spring; they had 532 last year. As with the overall mean score, those were ahead of the state means of 509.9 and 507.4.
Of the possible 800 points for the math portion, Otsego juniors had a mean score of 515 this spring; they had 506.8 last year. Again, those were ahead of the state means of 497.6 and 493.6.
While she said that broadly implied there was some work to do on the math side of things, there was some variation in which subjects a given class of students was better or worse at.
School board member Jay Petty asked if it just came down to a matter of one or two questions being answered incorrectly. Kortlandt said it was possible, as there were only about 40-60 questions for the entire subject.
Data
This is the second year high school juniors statewide have taken the SAT since Michigan switched away from the ACT as the mandatory college preparedness test. They take it in April right after spring break.
Kortlandt said the state pays for districts to administer the test as well as administer the Pre-SAT to ninth- and 10-graders. Otsego Public Schools chipped in to give the test to its eighth-graders both years as well.
She said that has resulted in some very individualized help for the students. As part of taking the PSAT, the students are given accounts with the College Board, a nonprofit that provides materials to help prepare for the test.
That company’s partnership with Khan Academy provides videos on the content areas students answered incorrectly on the PSAT.
Kortlandt said, “Through their Khan Academy account, they can practice what they need to learn. It’s so differentiated; it gives students some real control over their future.”
Whereas that helps individual students, Kortlandt and the teaching staff pour over the data to understand how to improve instruction more broadly.
“Students find out their scores before the summer; we don’t get it until more like July,” she said. After she dives into understanding how students scored, she provides the data to the teachers and throughout the year, they meet in teams to break things down—that is among the things teachers do with the time provided them by the delayed starts that occur most Wednesdays.
“They look for the breakdowns,” she said. “Were these students struggling with words and context? Was it writing specifically or algebra or higher math content? And then they discuss how to target those areas to improve student understanding.
“They’ll dissect. They’ll think about how they’re teaching it. They can pinpoint why students are doing well or poorly.”
Find more SAT results countywide and statewide at www.mischooldata.org.
Contact Ryan Lewis at rmlewis@allegannews.com or (269) 673-5534.
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