SCHOLASTIC EFFECTIVENESS INDEX

The scholastic effectiveness index includes the end-of-semester average result, marks in some priority subjects, results achieved at study and arts competitions, language proficiency examination, and in a negative sense, secondary school failure. These

in-dicators are considered to provide, on the whole, an approximate picture of the scho-lastic achievement of a young person in secondary education.

We found a significant difference in average results by both grade and school type.

In grade 11 marks are somewhat higher than in grade 9, particularly in the case of students in vocational training schools. This is due to some extent to the fact that this stage of training is more dominated by subjects related to the specific trade or chosen in accordance with the student’s interest, which results in students often achieving better-than-average marks. On the other hand, 11^th grade average results are probably driven up also because by then some of the poorest achievers are no longer within the system.

Besides marks, achievements at competitions have also been taken into consid-eration in the scholastic effectiveness index. While the proportion of students partici-pating in competitions somewhat increases with the progression of studies there is little difference between the answers of the two grades, which indicates that competi-tions typically mobilize a certain group of students and this group emerges early on.

Achievement at competitions seems to be just as uneven as participation: general sec-ondary school (grammar school) students and in particular students of 6- and 8-grade secondary schools scored unequivocally higher in terms of both participation and results achieved.

We also included successful or intended language proficiency examinations as an indicator. This can be considered as an effectiveness indicator not only because there are obvious advantages attached to a certificate of language proficiency in higher edu-cation and in the labour market but also because it indicates an extra investment into learning.

Repeating a grade or failure in one or more subjects can also be an indicator of secondary school success or rather failure. Almost one-tenth of students fall in the category of repeaters, another 6% had to sit for a retake examination for failure at the end of the school year, and 18% failed in one or more subjects at the end of the autumn semester. Here again students in vocational training schools are the most vulnerable.

The proportion of repeating is very high at the end of grade 9; less in more advanced grades because supposedly fewer repeaters reach grade 11.

From the variables outlined above a complex scholastic effectiveness index with a mean of 0 and a standard deviation of 1 was created based on the average values of the standardized variables described above.⁶ The continuous variable was divided into quarters in both grade 9 and grade 11 and the researchers looked at the students who ended up in each of the quarters. As expected, the highest quarter of scholas-tic success included general secondary school students and parscholas-ticularly students of 6- and 8-grade secondary schools in highest numbers, and vocational school students in both grades had considerable less-than-average chance to make it into the highest quarter.

6 When developing the index standardized variables were used. The steps of creating the variables and the background analyses of the components of the index are described in detail in the longer Hungarian paper written about the same topic.

0 20 40 60 80 100

% 10 30 50 70 90

Figure 3: The distribution of students in the individual quarters of the scholastic effectiveness index by school type

Vocational training school Vocational secondary school 4- or 5-grade grammar school 6- or 8-grade grammar school Vocational training school Vocational secondary school 4- or 5-grade grammar school 6- or 8-grade grammar school

Grade 11Grade 9

35 34 21 10

33 27 24 16

12 19 29 40

7 9 20 64

41 34 18 7

31 29 26 14

12 18 29 41

4 7 22 67

1st quarter 2nd quarter 3rd quarter 4th quarter

p<0.001

By controlling the type of school, the relationship of the index to some of the back-ground variables was examined. It was found that in the same school type the index value of girls was significantly higher than boys, and the same applies for differences by parents’ educational attainment and the family’s financial status: the higher the family status the higher the mean index even within the same school type. It seems that daily commuting also has a negative bearing on the scholastic achievement in-dex; conversely, dormitories have a positive influence on the index in all school types, particularly in grade 9. Not surprisingly, the primary school record has a major impact on the secondary school record, and the fact that a student started his or her studies in a primary school other than the one closes to his or her residence has some bear-ing. This, however, is likely to be related to the parents’ educational attainment and as such, also shows the effect of parental ambitions: in all secondary school types a lot more students with better educated parents tended to start grade 1 in a primary school outside their school district.

THE COMPLEX SUBJECTIVE EFFECTIVENESS INDEX

The other effectiveness index developed expresses the relationship to learning and going to school, and also depicts effectiveness of schooling, although from a different approach. It is in harmony with the school and education policy goals which are tar-geted inter alia to prevent early school leaving. The complex index summarizes the in-dicators of perseverance in studies, the recognition of the importance and usefulness of studies, the willingness to go on to further education, and ideas about the future. In

the researchers’ opinion these are also important dimensions of studying effective-ness as they reflect to what extent students have internalized the values related to the usefulness of learning and whether they are likely to be able to employ the knowledge acquired at school – on the whole, to what extent does the time spent so far at school supports successful preparation for adult life. Motivation to learning plays a prime role in educational achievement. The learning environment including the school can make an important contribution to motivation, particularly in the case of youths with a less favourable socio-economic background (Pásku 2013).

The idea of leaving the school never occurred to two-thirds of students. Converse-ly, more than one-tenth seriously considered it at least once, and the idea occurred to another one-fifth although not as a definite intention. While this variable shows a significant correlation with the school record and the type of secondary educational institution failures in studies or poor achievement are not the only reasons for quitting school. The general atmosphere of the school (relations with teachers and classmates), dissatisfaction with the school or the trade also has a significant part in young people contemplating early leaving. In this respect the period of grade 9 is critical than the later school years, indicated by the fact that 28% of 9^th grader respondents admitted that the idea of leaving school had occurred to them. The same idea occurred to not many more of the 11^th grader respondents (32%).

Twenty-seven percent of students have a definite idea of the sort of job they would like to have as adults, and every second respondents have some idea. About one-fifth are uncertain. Having some or not having any idea does not seem to depend on the school record, and is only related to school type in that the rate of vocational training school students having a definite idea is above the average, and this holds even more for those of them whose school record is good. Looking at it from the perspective of grades, two more years seems to mean a lot for grammar school students: by grade 11 more of them have definite ideas.

Almost three-quarters of students aspire to a higher educational attainment in the course of their lives than the level at which they currently study. The influence of sev-eral factors can be detected in this respect. Examining the aspiration to a higher edu-cational attainment and the factors influencing in the framework of logistic regression (logit model) pointed at school average and parents’ educational attainment as well as the type of school as the most important factors but supportive family and friends also enhance the chance of further studies.

Attitudes related to learning are an important dimension of effectiveness. Not only can attitudes affect the school record, they also stay with the young person over a longer period in their life. Belief in the usefulness of learning despite all the hardships learning involves conspicuously improves opportunities, as seen for example among the students involved in the Arany János Programme (Fehérvári 2015). Analysts also point out that the institutional system’s and the particular institution’s ability to create a system of val-ues and norms that supports learning also makes a difference in terms of effectiveness (Dronkers−Róbert 2005; Pusztai 2009). Of course scholastic achievement and motivation, the attitude to learning are not unrelated to each other; numerous surveys highlight poor motivation to learning as a possible underlying cause of failure of certain groups of stu-dents. Motivation to learning, therefore, has an effect on school marks but the effect also works vice versa: marks also influence students’ motivation (Józsa 2002; Fejes 2005).

Attitudes to learning were assessed through two types of questions; one explored how students assessed the learning process, and the other approached from the direc-tion of learning outcome. Typically, respondents are of the opinion that learning is dif-ficult, boring and unpleasant but nevertheless more useful than unnecessary. With mi-nor variations this is the general attitude in both grades in all school types. Correlation is strongest with the school record: those who have a higher average result consider learning a lot more useful and also a more pleasant, easier and more interesting activity.

Several statements were used to assess attitudes to learning and school, then factor analysis was applied to sort the replies into various dimensions. Factor analysis gener-ated a structure of five factors which encompassed 42% of the 16 variables involved (see Appendix, Table 1). From among them, the factor values of belief in the usefulness of learning/school, and result orientation attitude were used in the subjective effective-ness index as factors having a positive content from the point of view of effectiveeffective-ness.

Our index assessing the attitude and dedication to learning is a continuous vari-able with a mean of 0 and a standard deviation of 1 based on the mean value of four standardized variables and two factor variables.⁷ Dividing the continuous variable into quarters there is some difference compared to the scholastic effectiveness index:

while here too it is mainly grammar school students that appear in the highest quarter, the subjective effectiveness index is less selective than the scholastic effectiveness in-dex. Obviously there is a mild correlation (0.394) between the two indexes and the sub-jective index also correlates with the end-of-semester result, though to a much lesser extent than the scholastic effectiveness index (0.379).

7 The steps of creating the index and background analyses of the components of the index are described in detail in the longer Hungarian paper written about the same topic.

0 20 40 60 80 100

%

1st quarter 2nd quarter 3rd quarter 4th quarter

Vocational training school Vocational secondary school 4- or 5-grade grammar school 6- or 8-grade grammar school Vocational training school Vocational secondary school 4- or 5-grade grammar school 6- or 8-grade grammar school

Grade 11Grade 9

35 30 22 14

27 27 25 20

17 20 27 35

13 17 25 46

36 26 22 15

28 27 24 21

16 23 27 34

12 20 29 40

Figure 4: The distribution of students in the individual quarters of the subjective effectiveness index by school type

p<0.001

Because of the differences by school type here again the mean values of the index were compared in several dimensions. Although all of the differences were significant, the explanatory power of some variables (e.g. parents’ educational attainment, previ-ous school record) was less than in the case of the scholastic index. Conversely, satis-faction with the school is a background factor that very strongly correlates to the value of the subjective index, which suggests that dedication to learning may be influenced by various characteristics of the school background. The impact of the family does not disappear in the subjective effectiveness index either but is conspicuous through the supportive family background rather than through educational attainment; in other words, the index shows a strong correlation to how frequently the parents talk about the school with their child and whether they follow the child’s school achievement.

These findings support the research outcome of Pusztai (2009), who demonstrated the positive effect of the family’s social capital on school effectiveness among students in Church schools.

FACTORS HAVING AN IMPACT ON EFFECTIVENESS:

THE ROLE OF THE FAMILY AND THE SCHOOL

In what follows an attempt is made to analyse what factors have an impact on which of the two effectiveness indexes, and how the particular factors affect student suc-cess, also taking the impact of other factors into consideration – all condense in a single model. As has been demonstrated above, numerous factors have a bearing on effectiveness: to mention a few, from the family side, the financial status of the family, the cultural capital the student brings from home, a supportive family environ-ment; from the school side, primary school results, learning opportunities in primary school, and of course the current secondary school is also crucial with its professional work, values and supportive atmosphere. Naturally not all of the factors can be consid-ered; to do so would go far beyond the time and other limits of a questionnaire-based survey. The researchers must also reckon with the uncertainties in general inherent in the nature of research employing questionnaires, such as lack of answers and the truthfulness of answers. The two types of effectiveness indexes described above were subjected to linear regression analysis in an effort to find factors that affect one or both of the indexes. Because of the exploratory nature of the task, stepwise regression was applied and attention was paid to only include variables in the model that do not cause multicollinearity, therefore in some cases complex variables or factors compris-ing multiple variables were used.