Friday 16 March 2018

Identify Trends - Maori Student Achievement Data

In my last post I learned that overall performance in the senior sciences are mostly on par with Decile 1 and at times closer to National norms. This data included internals AND externals, and students of all ethnicities. 

Today I'm going to delve deeper and look at Maori student achievement data in science, as my inquiry title is: 

Can changes to cultural visibility and responsiveness in the junior science program improve Maori student a) reading achievement and b) enjoyment, confidence and achievement in science?

Before we jump in, I think it's really quite important to note that the number of Maori students who take senior science is not high. It's difficult to talk about trends in data when there are only one or two students involved, as their individual differences may be massive!  

For example there were 2 Maori students in Biology in 2015, 1 in 2016 and 1 in 2017. There was only 1 Maori student enrolled in Y12 Chemistry in 2017 and no Maori students enrolled in Y13 Chemistry. 

The fact that not many Maori students choose senior science is an area that I hope to improve by inquiring into the cultural visibility and responsiveness of the junior curriculum to the lives and cultures of our Maori akonga.

These %'s represent the total % of grades across the year in both internal and externals. For example in the Year 12 2015 Chem Maori results there were 5 standards sat by the lone Maori student, and they received NA for 1, A for 1 and E for 3 of them. 

So let's jump in!

Year 12 Chem Maori Results
2015 Maori results - 20% NA, 20% A, 0 M, 60% E.
2016 Maori results - 57% NA, 0 A, 0 M and 43% E.
2017 Maori results - 100% NA.
National Statistics Decile 1 - 37% NA, 37% A, 13% M, 13% E.

Year 13 Chemistry Maori Results
2015 Maori results - 46% NA, 18% A, 9% M, 27% E.
2016 Maori results - 75% NA, 25% A, 0 M, 0 E.
2017 Maori results - no Maori students enrolled.
National Statistics Decile 1 - 31% NA, 40% A, 11% M, 12% E.

Year 12 Physics Maori Results
2016 Maori - 67% NA, 0 A, 33% M, 0 E.
2017 Maori - 64% NA, 21% A, 14% M, 0 E.
National Statistics Decile 1 - 32% NA, 45% A, 21% M, 3% E.

Year 13 Physics Maori Results
2016 Maori results - 0 NA, 0 A, 100% M, 0 E.
2017 Maori results - 0 NA, 75% A, 0 M, 25% E.
National Statistics Decile 1 - 43% NA, 33% A, 12% M, 12% E

Year 12 Biology Maori Results
2015 Maori results - 0 NA, 43% A, 57% M, 0 E.
2016 Maori results - 46% NA, 46% A, 7% M, 0 E.
2017 Maori results - 33% NA, 50% A, 17% M, 0 E.
National Statistics Decile 1 - 39% NA, 42% A, 11% M, 9% E.

Year 13 Biology Maori Results
2015 Maori results - 80% NA, 20% A, 0 M, 0 E.
2016 Maori results - 0 NA, 0 A, 100% M, 0 E.
2017 Maori results - 75% NA, 0 A, 25% M, 0 E.
National Statistics Decile 1 - 42% NA, 35% A, 15% M, 8% E.

Some things that have just jumped out at me is that in three Years no Maori student has gained an E in senior Biology, (Y12 or 13), although the rest of the Y12 grade distributions are similar to that of other Decile 1 schools.  

Maori students seem to perform better in senior Chemistry compared to Physics and Biology. 

Again, it is difficult to say this data is conclusive when the stats are based on 1, 2 or occasionally 3 students per year.

Interestingly, this article was posted over the weekend and shows that Nationally, 80% of students pass 'Science' (across all 3 levels, I guess?) and that about 19% will pass with Excellence.

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