ABDF

Below is the raw data showing the 2010 test results, along with the results from 2005 – 2009. The paperwork for 2006 has been lost, due to the chaos caused by the displacement at that time. Click on the images to get full-sized views.

Navatakadu 5th Grade Scholarship exam results; raw data

Navatakadu 5th Grade Scholarship exam results; analysis

What do the figures tell us? First is the obvious increase in higher ranged scores. Also obvious is the big increase in very low scores, indicative of the upcoming “bubble” of severely disadvantaged students that will work its way through the local education system. And, despite increased efforts to tutor and test ALL students, the percent of students who skipped the exam seems to remain pretty constant, at least from 2009. We can notice the following issues and trends:

• The scoring middle ground dropped significantly, with students either moving up or down.
• High-end scores increased dramatically.
• Even more dramatically, the percent of students performing very poorly increased wildly.
• As a result of the shift both up and down, despite the greater number of higher scores, the overall average for the entire class remained almost the same.
• Class size has clearly rebounded from the war years, and absenteeism is down from then as well.
• Despite intensive and free help with the exam, some students – or their parents – still refuse to take the test.

This, then, is the initial analysis of the data. They bring up several issues we need to consider, especially the oncoming bubble of low performers, and what we should do about them, or if we can do anything more at all, considering our limited resources. This also gives rise to the eternal debate about whether to concentrate resources on the middle- and high- performers, or to continue to give every student at least a chance. ABDF will continue to ask itself these questions and debate the possibilities.