To Whom It May Concern:

I try very hard to be the best teacher that I can be. I want all of my students to excel in the
classroom. I appreciate student M’s concern for their grade and their commitment to their
academic success. Student M is arguing that question 3 on this exam was unfair, and should be
removed. I have looked very closely at the data provided to come to a conclusion, and believe
that it is fair to everyone if I keep this exam question included.

To start my observation, I wanted to compare student’s overall test scores (Y) to their score
specifically on question 3 (X). This graph has an r value of .16815838. Since this value is closer to
0 and further from, this proves that there is little to no correlation between the exam scores
and the performance on question 3.

Next, I figured out what each student’s test score would be if I removed question 3 altogether.
Looking specifically at student M’s score, it does not change at all whenever I remove the
question. Overall, with question 3, the average for all of the exam scores, is approximately
76.88%. With the removal of question 3, the average of all of the exam scores is 77.91%.
Although the average would be a little bit higher, it is not significantly higher at all. If I removed
question 3 altogether, it could work as a disadvantage towards some students because their
overall grade would decrease. This exam was out of 8 questions, and I have already removed
the lowest question grade for each student.

There are other factors to consider, such as attendance. Before exam 2, I held 15 classes to
teach the required information and to prepare students for the exam. The average for class
attendance is about 14 students per class. Looking at student M’s attendance record, he did not
miss one class while the material for exam 2 was being taught. Overall, most kids attended the
majority of the classes where all of the material for this exam was taught.

We can also compare the average scores of both exams that I have administered to my
students. On exam 1, the average score was 75.5%, and on exam 2, it was 76.9%. There was a
slight increase between the two test scores, which shows signs of improvement in the learning
of my students and their test scores. It appears that they were more prepared for exam 2 than
exam 1.

Looking specifically at student M’s score, he did significantly worse on question 6 than question
3. Overall, question 6 was the question where the students earned the most points. The lowest
scoring question on the exam was question 8. Although question 3 appears to be a more
challenging question, I would not say that it is unfair that I asked this question.

I would like to apologize to student M if he believes that the exam, specifically question 3, was
unfair. I make it clear to my students that I am willing to give extra practice whenever they
need it, so that is something student M can take advantage of for exam 3. It is evident that
question 3 is a fair question to ask on my exam, so I am going to leave it on there. A plethora of
students did well on question receiving 3, receiving full credit or close to full credit for the
question. There is no direct correlation between question 3 and the exam scores. I have a lot of
evidence from statistics that question 3 was fair to ask. It was all explained in this letter, and
attached as a separate document. If I remove question 3, it might bring some students’ grades
up, but some will go down, and the overall score remains about the same. In a situation like
this, I have to do what is fair for all of my students and not just one. I have already removed
each student’s lowest question grade, which helped improve their overall score.

Hence, I will keep question 3 on this exam.

Thank you for your time in this situation.

Sincerely,

Miss Kaitlyn A. Ellsworth

Miss Kaitlyn A. Ellsworth