Report on What Huntley High Students Doing After Graduation Confusing

Huntley High School

Huntley School District 158’s number two administrator Terry Awrey issued a

Post Graduate Survey Report (Class of 2010)

on what Huntley High graduates are doing after graduation.

It was addressed to Supt. John Burkey and all top administrators, including Dr. Mary Olson, Chief Academic Officer, and Chief Financial Officer Mark Altmayer.

It was also sent to all principals, who all report to the current associate superintendent.

The cover memo and report can be found beginning on page 62 of the 407 page of the board of education packet that was reviewed at June 3rd’s meeting.  You can find the document here.

As a reference point, there were 359 Huntley High graduates who got diplomas at the 2010 graduation ceremony.

So the first thing that may catch your eye or puzzle you is how this is at the top of the report:

“398 Seniors Reported”

One might think some kids didn’t graduate until remembering it is a post-graduation report.

And it’s not just a transposition error.

One could be excused for wondering whether anyone looked at the data for validity.

Having a board policy in Huntley requiring careful review of board reports apparently is a matter of subjective interpretation of what “careful” means.

I looked to see if the valedictorian’s four-year college, Michigan State University, was on the list of schools.

It wasn’t there.

I then looked at the list of four-year colleges and saw double counting with the same entry listed twice.

Univ of Iowa (2)

Univ of Southern California

Univ. of Iowa (2)

This seems to have been an easy to catch mistake, seeing how close together the duplicate entries are.

The accuracy of this report on educational outcomes of Huntley students is interesting.

The students can put any information on the survey about what their plans are.

There appears to be no apparent effort to verify or validate the information.

No matter how you might grade the quality of such a report, there’s one thing certain, no one will lose their job or get paid any less money because of the quality of work that was actually produced.

Could this be indicative of a low achievement work environment?

My prediction is that on Supt. Burkey’s upcoming evaluation by the entire board, the board majority will make sure he receives high marks for vision and leadership.

Will anyone be held responsible?

I can tell you the sloppiness in this report would not have been tolerated in the U.S. Bureau of the Budget when I worked there.

It seems like a responsible board of education would expect higher quality work from administrators who set an example for a district’s teachers.

This report is more relevant to teachers than most because it is about measuring and reporting students’ educational outcomes.

One final thing.

The year I attended grad school at the University of Michigan, my sister was at Michigan State. I loved kidding her about going to a party school, while the University of Michigan was, well, you know the rivalry. My sister had a legitimate reason for attending Michigan State. At the time, it was the only college offering an undergraduate degree in Special Education.

I do wonder why the student doing best at Huntley High is not going to Princeton or Stanford. Surely, he could get in, if he applied.


Comments

Report on What Huntley High Students Doing After Graduation Confusing — 2 Comments

  1. “I do wonder why the student doing best at Huntley High is not going to Princeton or Stanford. Surely, he could get in, if he applied.”

    Highly unlikely.

  2. Maybe he’s not going to Stanford or Princeton because his family can’t afford the $50,000 for his freshman year. Maybe hes not going there because there are other schools that better suit him for his chosen field of study. Maybe he’s not going there because he doesn’t want to move half way across the country to attend college.

    Joe, maybe before you insult the intelligence of students in Huntley High School, you should meet some of the top performers.

    Cal, I see your sabatical from attacking District 158 with meaningless tripe is over. Oh, well, it was nice while it lasted.

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