Method

Participants
Twenty juniors and seniors were personally interviewed. There were 10 juniors
and 10 seniors and they were all asked the same questions. The students were randomly
chosen from a mixture of students who had a wide range of cumulative GPAs.
Additionally, 6 teachers were also interviewed. Four were males and 2 were females.
They were each specifically chosen because they had over 10 years of experience
teaching at Hilliard Darby High School. Lastly, 22 parents of students at Hilliard Darby
were given a survey to complete. Of the 22 parents interviewed, 11 said that they have
gone to graduate school, 9 said that they have gone to college, and 2 said that their
highest level of education was high school.
Instruments
The first instrument used was a student interview (see Appendix B). It included 4
questions that were all open-response regarding their opinions on the education system at
Hilliard City Schools. The second instrument was another interview that was given to the
teachers (see Appendix C). It included 5 questions that allowed the teachers to rate the
Hilliard City Schools based on their years of experience teaching. The third instrument
was a survey that was given to the parents of students who attend Hilliard Darby High
School (see Appendix D). It included 6 questions that allowed them to state their level of
satisfaction with the Hilliard City Schools education system. The survey was formatted so
that the participants could rate their answers on a scale from 1 to 5 (1 meaning disagree
and 5 meaning agree).
Procedure

The student and interviews were conducted in the span of 2 days while the
community surveys were collected over the span of about a week. The community
surveys were collected at random through a Google Form survey sent out to parents of
students at Hilliard Darby. The student and teacher interview were not completely
conducted at random because the questions required them to be experienced for the
validity of the research.
Student Interview. Students who are in 11th and 12th grade were interviewed.
They were first asked to how satisfied they were with the Hilliard City Schools system
and why they felt this way. Then they were asked if they believed that Hilliard Darby
prepared them for college and provide reasons to back their claim. The following
questions asked the students to choose between general features of the Finnish and
American education system like the amount of standardized tests given and the separation
of students based on academic abilities. After they gave their answers, they were asked to
give the range of their GPA and SAT or ACT scores.
Staff Interview. Teachers were also asked to state how satisfied they were with the
Hilliard City Schools education system but they were also asked to rate Hilliard City
Schools in relation to the school district they grew up in. In addition, they were asked if
they felt like they had the resources to prepare their students for college and to explain
why or why not, and what improvements they would like to see with the Hilliard City
School education system. Finally, they were also asked to compare the American system
to the Finnish system by answering a question that regarded their opinion on the
separation of their students based on their academic abilities.

Community Survey. Parents were given a survey that gauged their satisfaction of
their childrens education. They were asked how satisfied they were with Hilliard City
Schools. Next they were asked if they felt like Darby prepared their child for college.
Like the teacher interviews, they were asked to compare Hilliard City Schools to the
school districts that they grew up in and they were also asked to provide improvements in
the Hilliard City Schools education system. Additionally, they were also asked to choose
between the same features of the American and Finnish education system as the ones
listed for the student interviews.
After all the data was collected, I compared the results of the three groups and
categorized their answers into charts, graphs, and tables.
Results
The results of the student and parent data were similar. The teacher data showed that they
gave a more favorable rating to Hilliard City Schools when compared to the other two
data. The teacher data was also the most consistent.
The first method of data collection used was the student interview (see Appendix
B). The first question asked was related to the students level of satisfaction (1 being the
worst and 5 being the best) in relation to their school district. The results of this question
are as follows:
Figure 1

Are you a Junior or

Senior

How satisfied are you with the Hilliard City Schools

System?

Senior

Junior

Senior

Senior

Junior

Senior

Junior

Senior

Senior

Senior

Junior

Junior

Senior

Senior

Senior

Junior

Junior

Junior

Junior

Junior

Through this result, it is shown that most of the students interviewed would rate the
Hilliard City Schools education system a 3 or a 4 since those values are the mode of the
data. The data also shows that there is no correlation between grade and satisfaction with
Hilliard City Schools. The next question that students were asked was if they felt
prepared for college. The results are as follows:
Figure 2

The results show that there is a wide range of ratings with some students giving their
level of preparation a 5, which means they feel really prepared, and with other rating their
level of preparation a 1. Like the previous question, most students rated their degree of
preparation as a 4. The next question asked students whether or not classes should be
separated based on academic abilities or blended regardless. The results are as follows:

Figure 3

The results show that 75% of the students interviewed believe that it is better to
have more advanced and regular classes and 25% of the students felt as though students
should not be separated based on their academic ability. The students were told that the
separated category also included below-average classes as well as above-average
classes. The following question asked students whether or not they felt as though Hilliard
City Schools and the state of Ohio pass down to many standardized tests. The results are
as follows:
Figure 4

The data shows that 12 of the students believed that they have received too many
standardized tests in their school career while 8 of the students believed that they have
received not enough or just the right amount of standardized testing. The students were
also asked if they would get rid of any standardized test, and most mentioned the Ohio
Graduation Test (OGT). The next part of the interview asked the students to reveal the
range of their Grade Point Average (GPA). The results are as follows:
Figure 5

The results show that the majority of the students who were interviewed are taking
Honors and/or AP Classes since they had a range of 4.0 to 5.0 for their GPA. Most people
who said that their GPA was from 3.0-4.0 complained that upperclassmen were not
offered enough Honors classes since at their grade and most students who had a 4.0-5.0
GPA said that they hated the ranking system and that they would like an unweighted
grading system. Since the students interviewed were underclassmen, they were also asked
to say the range of their ACT scores. These are the following results:

Figure 6

The data shows that similar to Figure 4, there are also a wide range of ACT scores. The
students who stated that their GPA was in the 4.0-5.0 range were not guaranteed to have
an ACT score in the 30-35 range and vice versa.
The second instrument used for data collection was the interview of 5 teachers
who have taught for over 10 years at Hilliard Darby High School 9 (see Appendix C).
The first question that the teachers were asked also was their level of satisfaction of
Hilliard City Schools. The results are as follows:
Figure 7

As mentioned above, the teachers gave higher ratings in regards to their satisfaction with
the Hilliard City Schools education system when compared to the data collected from the
student interviews. In the student results, there were some who gave their level of
satisfaction a 3 but the lowest rating given within the teacher data was a 4. The following
question also related to their satisfaction as a Hilliard Darby teacher and the results are as
follows:

Figure 8

The results for this question also show how the teachers gave high ratings to the Hilliard
City Schools education system. Also like the previous question, 4 is the mode of the data.
The next question was also similar to a question from the student interview and it asked
based on their experience teaching, do they have a preference of separating or blending
students based on their academic abilities. The results are as follows.
Figure 9

Is it easier to teach students if they were separated based on

academic abilities or if they were blended regardless of academic
abilities?
Separated
Separated
Separated
Separated
Separated
The results of this data were unanimous in showing how all the teachers felt as though it
was better if students were separated based on the students academic abilities. All of the
teachers said that it was easier to teach students of the same caliber rather to have a class
where all the students are of different calibers. The next question allowed the teachers to
compare their school district in relation to the Hilliard City Schools district.

Figure 10

The results show that most of the teachers thought that Hilliard City Schools was
somewhat better than the school district they grew up in. One teacher believed that the
school district they grew up in was slightly better than Hilliard City Schools. Two of the
teachers stated that they grew up in Hilliard so they were asked to compare the old
version of the district to the new version of the district. The last question asked the
teachers for their input by asking what improvements they want to see in the system. The
results are as follows:
Figure 11

The results show that each teacher has their own way of improving the district. For
instance, one teacher wishes that the district would start the school year weeks earlier so
that it gives AP teachers time to fully prepare their students for the AP Exam while
another teacher believed that giving students the opportunity to leave early makes them
miss the opportunity of taking an elective that might help them in their future career.
The third instrument used was a parent survey in which parents of Hilliard Darby
students were asked to take a modified version of the question from the student
interviews (see Appendix D). The first question asked the parents their level of
satisfaction with Hilliard City Schools. The results are as follows:
Figure 12

The results show that the data differs from the results of the teachers. While all the
teachers gave the district either a 4 or a 5, the parents gave a wide range going from 2 to
5. Similar to the teacher data, the mode of the results was also a 4. The next question
asked parents if they felt as though their children were ready for college. The results are
as follows:
Figure 13

The results show that some of the parents had contrasting views regarding whether or not
their child was ready for college with some giving their level of confidence a 1 and others
giving their level of confidence a 5. The majority of the parents gave their level of
confidence a 3 or a 4. The following question asked the parents to compare the school
district they grew up in to the Hilliard City Schools district. Here are the results:
Figure 14

The results show that most of the parents believe that Hilliard City Schools is a better
district than the one they grew up in. Some parents believed that the school district they
grew up in was similar to the Hilliard City School district and finally, some believed that
their school district is better than Hilliard City Schools. The following question asked the
parents about the amount of standardized testing. The results are as follows:
Figure 15

The results show that there is not a consensus between the parents regarding the amount
of standardized tests given to their children. Some of the parents think that their children
are receiving the right amount or not enough of those tests while other parents believe
that their children are receiving too many standardized test. The next question as the
parents whether or not they believe that classrooms should be separated based on
academic abilities. The results are as follows:
Figure 16

Similar to the student interviews, about 85% of the parents believe that their children
should be divided based on if they are eligible for advanced classes. Twenty-five percent
of the parents thought that it would be better if students of the same grade took the same
classes. The next question also asked for the input of the parents in improving the school
district. Here are the results:
Figure 17

The results show that most of the parents views are aligned with most of the students
views. For example, both the parents and the students believe that there should be more
focus on performing arts and less on standardized testing. The last question asked the
parents what their highest level of education is. Here are the results:
Figure 18

The results show that half of the parents who took the survey have graduated in their field
of studies from a graduate school. It shows that about 9 of the parents have graduated
from college. Lastly, about 2 of the parents have graduated from high school or have
gotten their GED.