Selective Secondary School Research Articles

Does Selective Secondary Schools Make a Difference? A Quasi-Experimental Study in Chilean Public Schools

This study utilizes longitudinal data from two 10th-grade student cohorts in Chile to investigate the effects of selective secondary schools. Employing propensity scores and difference-in-difference methods, we find significant and positive short-term effects, ranging from 0.2 to 0.3 SD, with minor variations across subjects and cohorts studied. Likewise, these schools are not a viable alternative for vulnerable students, even though the greatest measured effect is on students with lower socioeconomic status. Our findings suggest that the additional value of selective schools may not be directly linked to standardized test performance but rather related to the interactions among equally talented students.

Does education prevent job loss during downturns? Evidence from exogenous school assignments and COVID-19 in Barbados

Canonical human capital theories posit that education, by enhancing worker skills, reduces the likelihood that a worker will be laid-off during times of economic change. Yet, this has not been demonstrated causally. We link administrative education records from 1987 through 2002 to nationally representative surveys conducted before and after the COVID-19 onset in Barbados to explore the causal impact of improved education on job loss during this period. Using a regression discontinuity design, we show that females (but not males) who score just above the admission threshold for more selective secondary schools attain more years of education than those who scored just below (essentially holding initial ability fixed). We then find that these same females are much less likely to have lost a job after the onset of COVID-19. We show that these effects are not driven by labor supply decisions, selection into more resilient sectors and occupations, the ability to telework, job seniority, health status, fertility or access to child care, or improved social networks. Because employers observe incumbent worker productivity, these patterns are inconsistent with pure education signaling and suggest that education enhances worker skill.

Substance Use Prevention: Knowledge, Attitude and Practices among Secondary School Workers in Enugu State

The phase of adolescence holds significant importance as it marks a critical period for initiating habits that can have enduring effects. This is crucial in preventing avoidable illnesses and fatalities resulting from unfavorable health-related actions, like the use of substances. This current research was conducted to assess the understanding, perspectives, and actions of secondary school educators regarding the prevention of substance use among adolescents. This initiative seeks to identify factors that might impede the efficacy of substance use prevention programs within secondary educational institutions. Descriptive research design was carried out in three select secondary schools: Uwani Secondary School, Maryland Secondary School, and Federal Government College Enugu, in Enugu state. Ninety-two (92) participants were sampled using a multi-stage sampling technique. The self-administering questionnaire was used as a tool for data gathering. The filled questionnaires that met the criteria for analysis were coded into the computer using SPSS software and data were analyzed using descriptive statistics and presented in frequency and percentage. Knowledge of the attributes that increase the risk of adolescent substance use is poor at 88% of the respondents, while attitude and practice were fair. The knowledge of attitudes and practices of secondary school teachers in Enugu state on the preventive measures for substance use among adolescents is inadequate. Therefore, for effective intervention on substance use preventive strategies in adolescents, teachers and other workers in secondary schools should be equipped with adequate knowledge concerning substance use preventive practice. Keywords: Attitude; Enugu State; Knowledge; Practices; Substance use prevention; Secondary school workers.

EFFECTS OF FREE EDUCATION POLICY ON QUALITY EDUCATION: A CASE OF SELECTED SECONDARY SCHOOLS IN LUSAKA DISTRICT, ZAMBIA

EFFECTS OF FREE EDUCATION POLICY ON QUALITY EDUCATION: A CASE OF SELECTED SECONDARY SCHOOLS IN LUSAKA DISTRICT, ZAMBIA

Human capital consequences of missing out on a grammar school education

This paper disentangles the effect of selective schooling on long-term human capital from that of individual background. The study design proxies entry test scores for selective secondary schools in England with historical data, estimating discontinuities in school assignment directly from the data. We find that, for the marginal admitted student, selective school attendance positively affects educational attainment. Adult labour market and health outcomes are not affected for the marginal admitted student. The effect on educational outcomes is conditional on having a favourable background, and partly explained by higher-ability peers and single-sex schools.

MANAGEMENT OF THE TEACHING INSTRUCTION IN THE NEW NORMAL AMONG THE SELECT PUBLIC SECONDARY SCHOOLS IN AREA 1, BATANGAS PROVINCE

This study assessed how the teaching instruction is managed in the New Normal among the select Secondary High schools in Batangas province. The study employed a descriptive research approach with a researcher-made questionnaire serving as the primary data gathering tool. The statistical methods of weighted mean and composite mean were utilized to manage the data gathered. Findings revealed that the management of teaching instruction in the New Normal is always well-organized in terms of planning, organizing, staffing, directing, and controlling functions. Further, problems were sometimes encountered in the management; the most common problem is the lack of scholarship grants for teachers. Hence, intervention measures were proposed to address the problems met. Keywords: management, teaching instruction, planning, organizing, staffing, directing, controlling, problems, intervention measures

School Choice and Educational Mobility: Lessons from Secondary School Applications in Ghana

Do school choice programs increase opportunities for educational mobility or reinforce initial disparities in schooling? I address this question in the context of the public education system in Ghana, which uses standardized tests and a nation-wide application process to allocate 150,000 elementary school students to 650 secondary schools. As has been found in other settings, students from lower-performing elementary schools in Ghana apply to less selective secondary schools than students with the same test scores from higher-performing elementary schools. My analysis suggests that dierences in application behavior are largely due to imperfect information about admission chances and dierences in decision-making skills, rather than dierences in preferences or the costs and accessibility of schools. Additionally, I show that the impact of uncertainty declines following a series of reforms in the application process that expanded the number of choices students could list, and encouraged students to select a more \diversied

‘I worry about getting it wrong and looking like a silly billy’: does explicit classroom-based strategy intervention change pupils’ attitudes towards speaking in the modern foreign languages classroom?

ABSTRACT A number of factors among schoolchildren in England are currently contributing to poor attitudes towards speaking in the modern foreign languages (MFL) classroom. Although multiple explicit strategy-based instruction (SBI) intervention studies have appeared in recent years, very few studies have focused on its effect on oral skills and, in particular, pupils' attitudes towards speaking in the target language (TL). From the small pool of SBI investigations into schoolchildren whose first language (L1) is English, there is some evidence of success among boys in particular. The present quasi-experimental, two-cycle action research and development study of beginner (Year 7) and intermediate (Year 10) learners of L2 French (N = 148) investigated the impact of 12 hours of strategy intervention training on attitudes towards TL speaking skills in the MFL classroom in an all-boys selective secondary school in England. To assess the impact of the intervention, a mixed-methods approach was adopted; data were captured via questionnaires, lesson observations and interviews. In Cycle 2, pupils navigated the ‘Strategy Island Map', an innovative tool to track their strategy use when speaking in the TL. Results suggest that explicit SBI improved attitudes towards speaking among both age groups. Implications for practice and suggestions for future research are discussed.

Exploring the learner profile of the English Home Language classroom in select urban secondary schools

In a democratic South Africa, English has increasingly become the preferred medium of instruction despite the majority of South African learners being mother tongue speakers of other languages. Many learners in urban areas are enrolled to take English Home Language and especially novice teachers expect them to have mother tongue proficiency. However, the reality is that learners come from diverse backgrounds and a single class comprises learners with varying levels of English proficiency. This study seeks to establish who is the actual target audience seated in the socalled English Home Language class. Quantitative data were collected through a questionnaire completed by 642 Grade 8 and 9 respondents at three suburban schools in Gauteng. Cross tabulations were used to compare different variables. Key findings indicate that respondents – although multilingual – do not considerthemselves adequately proficient in English. Secondly, the role of the caregiver as initial source of learning English has been underestimated. Although smallscale, the study highlights the mismatchbetween classroom reality and curriculum requirements. Results suggest that the national education authorities need to adapt policy documents so that what is currently expected of learners might be more easily accomplished in the English class. The questionnaire may serve as a useful resource to determine the linguistic profile of a particular target group.

Filipino Basic Education Teachers’ Awareness of and Attitude Towards the Child Protection Policy

Schools shall be conducive to children’s education, and that the children’s’ best interest shall be the primary consideration in all policies and actions of educational institutions. This descriptive cross-sectional survey gauged the Filipino public school teachers’ awareness of and attitudes towards the child protection policy (CPP). The study involved 99 basic education teachers in select public elementary and secondary schools in Zambales, Philippines. The basic education teachers are aware of the policy, and they have a favorable attitude toward its implementation. No significant difference has been found in their awareness and attitude towards CPP when grouped according to demographics. The study concludes that as the teachers become aware of the policy, they tend to have a more favorable attitude. The study recommends that the teachers be capacitated through continuing professional development programs to provide special protection to children who are seriously susceptible or threatened by situations that distress their normal growth. Further study may also be conducted to probe other CPP dimensions in basic education to come up with relevant and research-based recommendations towards the policy’s improved implementation in the public schools in the Philippine context.

PARENTS’, TEACHERS’ AND HEAD-TEACHERS’ VIEWS ON ABOLISHMENT OF CORPORAL PUNISHMENT IN SELECTED SECONDARY SCHOOLS IN KASAMA URBAN OF NORTHERN ZAMBIA

The purpose of the study was to establish views of parents, teachers and head teachers on the abolishment of corporal punishment in schools. Three objectives guided the study which were; to assess parents’, teachers’ and head-teachers’ views on the authority of teachers over pupils following the abolishment of corporal punishment; to establish views of parents, teachers and head-teachers on whether loco-parentis existed among teachers following the abolishment of corporal punishment; to explore the views of parents, teachers and head-teachers on the need to incorporate parents on school disciplinary committee as a way of managing pupils’ behaviour in the school system. A descriptive design using qualitative research approach was used to conduct the study. The sample consisted 28 participants comprising 3 head teachers, 15 teachers and 10 parents from 3 selected secondary schools and communities in Kasama district. Purposive procedure was used to select parents and head-teachers while teachers were selected using simple random sampling. The study used semi-structured interviews as data collection tools. Thematic analysis was used to analyse the data. Major findings indicate that the authority of teachers was drastically reduced and affected by the policy. Loco parentis among teachers who taught at the day secondary schools did not exist while it existed at a boarding school due to the nature of the school. In light of these findings, the study recommended incorporation of parents on the school disciplinary committee and strengthen counselling services in schools. Article visualizations:

Blended Learning: A Case Study of Select Secondary Schools at Aligarh Muslim University, Aligarh, Uttar Pradesh

Online learning has been gaining wide publicity across the globe, helping people gain access to high quality courses in their field of study or work with highly qualified instructors available at a click.
 People from non-native English countries have managed to improve manifold in language with the help of e-tutors in improving their English. While the world has been updating and educating itself with e- learning programmes, there still exist places where e- learning is still an alien concept.
 This paper will explore the need of blended learning to teach/learn English language at one of such places, Secondary Schools at Aligarh Muslim University. It will also shed light on the advantages and disadvantages of an effective blended learning. The authors aim to highlight the teaching methodologies used at this level. This study will use the questionnaire- based method with a two- point scale questionnaire, so that the respondents i.e. both teachers and learners at this level can easily answer in ‘Yes’ or ‘No’.

Cosmopolitanism as transnational literacy: putting Spivak to work

ABSTRACT Recent rapid increase in the number of Australians of Asian backgrounds has significantly altered the demographic mosaic in schools. This has major ramifications for Australian classrooms with regards to the transnational exchanges now ubiquitous. In response, this paper proposes a view of cosmopolitanism as “transnational literacy” as enunciated by Spivak. It draws on a pedagogical intervention that explored the emerging spaces of the Australian classroom as they negotiate their complex relationship with Asia. This intervention sought to elicit responses from 20 students, predominantly from Asian backgrounds, in an all-girls selective secondary school. Interviews were conducted with 10 of these students; group discussions were audio-recorded; and written responses were gathered before and after the course. Several key themes emerged from their responses. First, students reported difficulty negotiating norms of Australian-ness. Second, they identified nation-centric narratives as key sources of feelings of exclusion. Finally, many reported changes in their epistemic constructions of themselves and of others after contesting these norms. As a result of thinking with Spivak, this paper suggests a view of cosmopolitanism that highlights the importance of our learning to become implied readers of culturally different texts in ways that generate ethical sensibilities towards spaces of intercultural exchange.

Does attending a selective secondary school improve student performance? Evidence from the Bicentenario schools in Chile

ABSTRACT We investigate the effect of attending selective secondary schools belonging to the Bicentenario schools program in Chile, a free education option that is intended to give vulnerable students everywhere in Chile a unique educational opportunity, in the period from 2011 to 2014. By using propensity score methods, we find that attending a Bicentenario school improves students’ performance by a range of 0.35 to 0.23 SD in language and 0.5 to 0.35 SD in math. Also, we show that a proportion of this effect is due to the outstanding performance of the new Bicentenario schools as opposed to the restructured version of the program. We prove the robustness of the previous results through falsification, changes-in-changes, and a more demanding control group. This paper adds new evidence to analyze the effect of selective schools in developing countries like Chile, where the quality of public education is low.

An Evaluation of the Teaching of Spanish in Selected Secondary Schools in Jamaica

This paper discusses the evaluation of the teaching and learning and Spanish in non-traditional and traditional secondary schools across Jamaica, and focusses on determining the contexts, inputs, processes and product of the implementation of the Spanish curriculum in select secondary schools. Implications of the research point to four major needs; a) for an official Modern

Selective Secondary School Education In Barbados: The Need For Change

This article examines the implications of selective secondary school education in Barbados for the provision of an inclusive and equitable education system and highlights its impact on educational outcomes. The concepts of inclusion and equity in education are discussed and their importance in achieving the education goals of nations within the Englishspeaking Caribbean are highlighted. The historical development of the selective secondary school system in Barbados is outlined and the inequity perpetuated by high stakes selection examinations are examined. The ongoing effects of the ability grouping that result from this process are discussed. The need for a move away from a selective secondary education system is proposed and a possible means for bringing about this change in Barbados is explored. This has important implications for countries in the Caribbean and in other parts of the world that have selective secondary school education systems.

Selective Secondary Education and School Participation in Sub-Saharan Africa: Evidence from Malawi

Large scale tracking policies, allowing academically apt pupils to enter a select group of secondary schools, can be found in many Sub-Saharan countries. However, evidence on the impact of these policies on school outcomes, especially school participation, is limited. This paper fills this gap by providing regression discontinuity evidence on the impact of Malawi’s tracking program. The analysis is based on unique institutional data covering an entire cohort of pupils. Estimates show that Malawi’s tracking program raises school participation of top students without a reduction in pupil learning. These findings have implications for education policy in Sub-Saharan Africa.

Control and resilience: The importance of an internal focus to maintain resilience in academically able students

ABSTRACTThis article reports one component of a longitudinal multilayered research project originating from a unique partnership between a university and a selective secondary school in Victoria, Australia. One hundred and twenty-five Year 10 academically able students at the school completed a survey at two different times to investigate a range of motivational constructs, including locus of control and resilience. Students were grouped according to their locus of control (LoC) focus (either internal or external), and, subsequently, scores from their resilience profiles were compared using multivariate analysis of variance. Findings illustrated that students with a more internally focused locus of control were more resilient at two time points. These findings have important implications for educators, as resilience is recognized as an important attribute to be developed in all students, including academically able students.

Fair equality of opportunity and selective secondary schools

Can selecting on the basis of academic ability at secondary school level be reconciled with equality of opportunity? One common view is that although the two can be reconciled in principle, for various contingent reasons selection tends to undermine equality of opportunity in practice, for example, it tends to advantage children who have been fortunate enough to be born into better off families. In this article, it is argued that the problems with selecting on grounds of academic ability go deeper because of the fact that children develop at different rates, and that a proper appreciation of the difficulties this creates for reconciling equality of opportunity with selection casts doubt on the meritocratic conception of equality of opportunity, including Rawls’s principle of fair equality of opportunity. It concludes with some thoughts concerning what a better approach to theorising equality of opportunity would look like in light of the issues raised by secondary school selection, drawing upon social egalitarian ideas and a Dworkinian hypothetical insurance scheme.

Who gained from the introduction of free universal secondary education in England and Wales?

This paper investigates the introduction of free universal secondary education in England and Wales in 1944. It focuses on its effects in relation to a prime long-term goal of pre-war Boards of Education. This was to open secondary school education to children of all social backgrounds on equal terms. Adopting a difference-in-difference estimation approach, we do not find any evidence that boys and girls from less well-off home backgrounds displayed improved chances of attending selective secondary schools. Nor, for the most part, did they show increased probabilities of gaining formal school qualifications. One possible exception in this latter respect relates to boys with unskilled fathers.