Grade Improvement Differs Greatly in Each School

Entering students of general high schools nationwide achieve an average of 39.8 point increase in the government-sponsored scholastic aptitude test three years after their entry. Scholastic improvements are shown to differ widely according to schools.

As for the upper-level students whose scholastic aptitude test`s scores were 300 and above and the lower-level students whose scores were below 180 points, those attending non-equalizing high schools displayed higher improvement in academics, and as for students who scored between 180 and 300 points, they did better in equalizing high schools.

The Joong-Ang Education Promotion Research Center, a private institute for college entrance, made a comparative analysis between the scholastic aptitude trial test scores taken in March, 1998, by 105,958 incoming students of 253 different general high-schools and special-purpose high-schools and the trial test scores taken in October last year by the same students in their third year. The results showed on the 16th that during the past three years, the average score increase was 39.8 points (9.95 points when 100 points is the perfect score)

In terms of the high schools, equalizing high schools showed an improvement (42.3 points) 6.7 points higher than non-equalizing high schools (35.6 points). Among equalizing schools, a certain school`s average score went up by 73.5 points while another school marked a mere 7 point increase. Differences in score increases were also evidenced in non-equalizing schools. While a certain school experienced a 68,8 point increase in the average score during the three year period, another school showed only an 8.7 point increase. The difference totaled 60.1 points.

Among upper-level students who scored above 300, those attending non-equalizing schools (30.8 points) exceeded those attending equalizing schools (26.6 points) by 4.2 points.

In the case of those who scored between 260∼300, equalizing schools (42) exceeded non-equalizing schools (33.5) by 8.5 points. For those with score ranges 220-260 and 180-220 equalizing schools showed a respectively higher increase, 7.1 and 4.3, than non-equalizing schools. For those who scored below 180, non-equalizing schools (25.5) showed a high increase of 4.1 more than equalizing schools (21.4). Kim Young-Il, the head of educational consulting department of this research institute, stated that, ``When the new students entered school, even schools with similar scores showed varying degrees of academic improvement based on their method and effort of academic supervision. Such pattern was not very different between equalizing schools and non-equalizing schools.``

Lee Jin-Yeong ecolee@donga.com