Declining trends in student performance in lower secondary education

Lindy A Wijsman,P Michiel Westenberg,Matthijs J Warrens,Jan H Van Driel,Nadira Saab

doi:10.1007/s10212-015-0277-2

Lindy A Wijsman, P Michiel Westenberg + Show 3 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.1007/s10212-015-0277-2

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Abstract

Student performance is related to motivation to learn. As motivation generally declines during lower secondary education, one might expect performance to decline as well during this period. Though, until now, it has been unclear whether this pattern exists. In the present study, we examined student performance during the early years of secondary education from a developmental perspective. Participants were 1544 Dutch secondary school students across three grades (grades 7 to 9). To investigate student performance trends, we analysed report card grades by using hierarchical linear modelling with two levels (level 1, time point; level 2, student). Potential moderators to be examined were (1) gender, (2) school type and (3) initial level. A linear decline in report card grades from grade 7 to 9 was found for boys and girls, in all school types, and regardless of initial level. Two variables moderated the steepness of the decline: school type and initial level. Gender and school type had a main effect on performance level. The same pattern was observed for the subset of ‘core subjects’—Dutch, English and mathematics. Motivational and cognitive factors that may explain the performance decline are discussed.

Highlights

Student performance is related to motivation to learn
We examined student performance during the early years of secondary education from a developmental perspective, by analysing report card grades across three grades
We investigated to what extent an overall declining pattern in student performance in lower secondary education was apparent, and to what extent this pattern was moderated by gender, school type and initial performance level

Summary

Introduction

Student performance is related to motivation to learn. As motivation generally declines during lower secondary education, one might expect performance to decline as well during this period. Given the interdependence of academic motivation and student performance, one might expect performance to decline as well during the early years of secondary education It is unclear whether performance level decreases with a similar pattern to motivation. In a longitudinal study, Gottfried et al (2007) reported a decline in mean levels of math performance during the early high school years. These researchers used percentile grades on a standardized test to compare student performance between the ages of 9 and 17. We compared the developmental trend for performance on the core subjects with the trend for overall student performance

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