This letter is in response to the letter to the editor printed in the Sept. 16, 2015 edition of The Citizen written by a retired McIntosh High School science teacher, Mike DeLisle.
Mr. DeLisle, I read your letter with amazement. You attempted to make a causal relationship between a decline in SAT scores and the existence of a seven period day at four high schools and a six period day at one high school.
While it is true that McIntosh saw a moderate increase in SAT scores while the other high schools saw a decline, I am amazed that you equate that difference only to the organization of the instructional day.
For your logic to hold true, the five schools would have to be identical in every other way, and we both know that is not the case.
As a former science teacher, one would assume that you are familiar with the concept of “confounding factors,” factors that could affect the outcome other than the one factor being considered. Mr. DeLisle, did you consider any of these factors as possible reasons that SAT scores were different?
1. The difference in poverty levels at our schools is very different. While McIntosh enjoys a relatively small poverty level (11 percent free and reduced lunch), Fayette County High School works with a student population with over 40 percent receiving free or reduced lunch.
Those students, unlike the ones at McIntosh, cannot afford to take expensive SAT and ACT prep classes, giving the MHS students a competitive edge. Impoverished students also cannot afford expensive tutors to supplement the instruction. Tutoring businesses in Peachtree City are very lucrative with many students participating.
Much educational research shows that here is a very strong correlation between affluence and academic achievement. In fact, the achievement rates at all five high schools in Fayette County follow the level of affluence perfectly. Could poverty be a confounding factor?
2. What about transience? Fayette County Board of Education records show that McIntosh’s student population was very stable from last year to this year, and has been for the last several years.
Fayette County High School, on the other hand, welcomed over 160 new students this school year from other school systems, most of which do not have the same level of rigor as the Fayette County School System.
Therefore, the teachers at FCHS not only have to work to move the curriculum forward, but also have to work to fill in the curricular gaps experienced by the new students in their classes. Over the course of four years, almost half of the school could be students new to Fayette County. Do you think that transience might also be a confounding factor?
3. Let’s talk about gifted students. McIntosh is fortunate to have a gifted population (also positively correlated with affluence) of over 30 percent. Those academically gifted students will achieve often in spite of the teacher or the instructional day.
Fayette County High School’s gifted population numbers 12 percent, still higher than the national average, but considerably less than the one at McIntosh. Could gifted rates also be a confounding factor?
4. The SAT scores that you reference are an average. As a scientist, one would think you would know how strongly averages are influenced by outliers. Apparently not. Yes, with the given situations that FCHS is facing, they may have more outlying low scores which can significantly pull down their average, but that average is not an indication of the quality of instruction that is occurring in the building.
All five high schools yearly have students with near perfect SAT scores as celebrated by the STAR student program, and four of those five STAR students attended seven periods of class.
I find it very short-sighted that you attribute the number of periods a student attends as the only factor influencing SAT performance. As a Fayette County High School parent, I love that my daughter has additional opportunities at FCHS that wouldn’t be afforded to her at MHS, which will make her more college and career ready.
I am sorry that the McIntosh students don’t have the same opportunities, and I know of many MHS parents that are in favor of the seven period day. It would be nice for the Fayette County School System to become a unified system instead of the disjointed one that currently exists.
Mr. DeLisle, while I appreciate you entering the discussion, your opinion is very elitist and ill-informed. The number of periods a student attends in not the real problem — poverty is.
Fayette County High School teachers and staff work diligently to overcome the effects of poverty, and they are making great strides despite your narrow-minded comments. Peachtree City has the nickname “the bubble” for good reason.
Therefore, any comparison that you would like to make should be with schools that are demographically like yours, not with a school that exists in the real world.
Proud FCHS parent
[The editor comments: Typically, we do not print unsigned letters absent a showing of likely retaliation against the letter writer. This letter doesn’t meet that test. However, it meets another test: Presenting an otherwise unavailable cogent argument and a differing perspective on an issue of local interest that has an impact upon many people. For that reason we print this rebuttal to a previous letter to the editor.]
