RAISING THE BAR: A COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS ON THE ACADEMIC PERFORMANCE OF STEM STUDENTS

RAISING THE BAR: A COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS ON THE ACADEMIC PERFORMANCE OF STEM STUDENTS USING QUALIFYING EXAMS AND DISTANCE LEARNING MODALITIES AS BASIS FOR SCHOOL POLICY INSTITUTIONALIZATION
TMC-BR-TL-SHS-STEM-41-22
Ronald A. Pereña, Jessica T. Baybay
[email protected]

Purpose: The recent educational events brought by the pandemic made schools work their way through the challenges of the academic years. This probe investigated the effectiveness of the school’s policy changes among STEM students in a public standalone senior high school in Cavite. The policy changes include the conduct of qualifying exams and the modality shift from full modular to online.
Design/methodology/approach: The study follows a quantitative-descriptive design. The data source was the academic performances of Grade 11 STEM students from the first semesters of two SYs, 2020-2021 and 2021-2022. The students from the former SY were not exposed to any qualifying exam, and the modality was modular. Meanwhile, the latter underwent the school’s policy changes: provision of entrance exams and complete online modality. Data were analyzed using t-test.
Findings: The statistical test revealed that STEM students who took and passed the admission exam (from SY 2021-2022) performed better than the STEM students of the previous year. This was evident from the averages obtained from the students’ records. The findings also uncovered the heterogeneity of the batch’s grades from SY 2020-2021 compared to those from SY 2021-2022, who exhibited closer means from their generated average.
Research limitations/implications: Seeing the effectiveness of the qualifying exam and the shift of modality from modular to online for STEM students, the results of this probe may be used as a basis for policy institutionalization at the school level.
Originality/value: This probe is authentically crafted by the researchers and not copied nor replicated elsewhere.
Keywords: policy, qualifying exams, distance learning modalities

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