HSA survey results shed light on what Blazers want

During the week of March 14-18, 553 foreign language students participated in an informational survey intended to discover what would motivate them to take the High School Assessment (HSA) exams each May. The exams are part of the National No Child Left Behind Act, for which Blair has failed to meet the standards for Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) the last two years.

Joseph Lynch, resource teacher for the Foreign Language Department, put the survey together initially, saying that it was just the beginning of the school wide plan designed to increase HSA scores at Blair. "This is one small component of a larger plan to increase HSA scores and HSA attendance," he said. "We wanted to see what things would entice kids" to attend the HSA's.

Lynch also asserted that much larger plans are underway through Blair's Instruction Leadership Team (ILT), which is comprised of all department heads and every member of the school administration. The survey, Lynch said, "is probably one percent of what we are doing. But it's also one of the only things that students have seen at this point. Every month for the past year, as an entire school, we work on the HSA's. We have been looking extensively at how to incorporate HSA strategies in class."

He also said that level-one and level-two foreign language classes were selected to take the survey because of the diversity in these classes. "Students who take foreign language come from every strata, because everyone can take it," Lynch explained. "If you go to an English class, for example, everyone will be a certain level, honors, AP, on-level. But if you look at foreign languages, at least in the lower levels, everyone can take it and everyone does take it."

The 15-question survey went through about five rounds of edits. It attempted to discover what students knew about the importance of standardized tests as well as what would entice them to attend school on test days and give their full effort on the exams. Each student was given the chance to write their own suggestions of what would motivate them to, as Lynch put it, "show and to try their best on the HSAs."

Sample questions were used to gauge student interest in various incentives. Some options included a chance to win a free car, free food on test day and thank you from Mr. Gainous.

If a student does not take the HSA's, he or she is not adversely affected because passing the tests are not a graduation requirement. However, the school is impacted severely, Lynch says. "The school gets a 'zero' if a student doesn't show up."

The results of the survey showed that 31 percent of all respondents believe that standardized tests are not important to their success in high school. Said Lynch, "We learned that first of all, we need to tell kids that these tests are important, because apparently a lot don't realize that."

When asked, "If you had to take a test in which it didn't matter how well you did, how hard would you try?" Sixty percent of those surveyed replied that they either would not try at all, would not try hard or would only do as much as they felt like doing. Only 26% replied that they would take the test seriously.

However, close to 70 percent of respondents said that they would "try their best" if they knew that a poor standardized test score would hurt their school, around the same percentage would try harder if they knew a good score would help Blair, a statistic which impressed Lynch. The results, he said, "showed that most people like this school and want to do their best to help it. Now we need to get the other 30 percent to understand that [the HSA's] are important."

According to the presentation submitted on March 21 by Lynch to the ILT, "95 percent of student respondents indicated that they would either try their best or make their usual effort to be in school on the day of a test if they knew their absence would hurt the school in some way."

In terms of the suggestions for incentives, Lynch said the survey's objective was to learn how students reacted to different potential enticers to raise HSA attendance. Lynch said, "Our intent was not to say, 'how can we best bribe our kids?' Our idea was to find what would most motivate kids in a positive way. We tried to put any option out there and see what kids reacted to."

The most positive reaction to an incentive was the hypothetical chance to win a free car on test day. That garnered an 83 percent positive response, meaning that nearly six in every seven students would be more enticed to attend the HSA if they could win a car.

That said, Lynch noted that the results do not necessarily mean that Blazers can expect to win a free car. "Even though the car got the highest positive response, it could be representative of something we'll try, but it doesn't mean we will give away a car. We're gathering knowledge. It's human nature," he said, "that if you're offered more, you'll be more enticed to do something."

The survey appeared to show that Blazers were more interested in material goods as incentives as opposed to kindness from Blair's administration. Only 35 percent of respondents said that a thank you from Mr. Gainous would further influence them to come to the HSA. Nearly the same said that a thank you would have "very little" or "not at all" of an impact in cajoling them to come take the tests.

Lynch added that there is no set cap on how much money can be spent on incentives, but that a thank you is not a bad idea. "I know that a thank you sounds insignificant, but it's free." Receiving encouragement from teachers emitted a positive response from just 40 percent of those surveyed, while free food garnered a 60 percent positive response.

Students also had the chance to suggest their own incentive, and Lynch noted that, while some were not helpful, the suggestions were all part of the information gathering process. "I think the most outlandish suggestion was to 'threaten the children with cattle prods.' I'm sure [the student] was being facetious, but we have to print all the suggestions."

Other popular replies included serving test takers free pizza and letting students leave after the test.

Lynch said that the final decision on what changes will be made for this year's HSA week is coming soon, and that, at the least, changes will be implemented. "I presented the findings the Wednesday before Spring Break," Lynch noted, emphasizing that it has been only two school weeks since the results of the survey came in. "But yes, we will make decisions for this year," he said.

He made clear that in addition to any potential incentives, getting teachers to base part of their daily lesson plan around HSA-related material was imperative. "Teaching HSA strategies in class is something you don't see because it's seamless," Lynch said.

"If we're doing it right, there should be more reading and writing in all classes", he said. "There should be at least one reading component every class period. And the reasoning is that if you read and interpret, you'll be good right off the bat."