This research investigates the impact of class size on student performance in Azerbaijani public secondary schools, utilizing State Examination Center (SEC) final exam scores as a key indicator. Data from the Ministry of Science and Education is analyzed, covering approximately 80,000 9th and 11th-grade students in 4,400 schools. The primary…

Secondary Checkpoint assessments are taken by students at the end of the Cambridge Lower Secondary programme (aged 14) in countries around the world. Many students continue with Cambridge after this and take IGCSE exams two years later. Given that there is a high level of coherence between the curricula in the two stages, performance in Secondary…

This study examines the relationship between two secondary End of Course (EOC) exams, the Biology EOC and the English I EOC exams, and their impact on Emergent Bilingual (EB) students in a small district in South Texas. This study is a mixed methods study which uses both quantitative and qualitative data to answer three research questions: (a)…

The Black Lives Matter movement has increased attention paid to whiteness and education. This paper contributes to this attention by investigating epistemologies of Geography and their enactment in two 'multicultural' schools. Through textual analysis, lesson observations and interviews with GCSE Geography students and teachers, I inquire into the…

In England, GCSE (General Certificate of Secondary Education) qualifications offered to students aged 14-16 were recently reformed. For mathematics specifically, the new GCSE aimed to be more demanding, provide greater challenge for the most able students, and support progression to post-16 mathematics. However, there have been concerns that the…

This paper describes the Berlin "Abitur" examination in the twentieth century and its written documentation in files. By the late nineteenth century, the "Abitur" examination was fully established in Prussia and with it a graduation certificate that was obligatory for university entrance. Thus, the "Abitur"…

In England, Wales and Northern Ireland, the General Certificate of Secondary Education (GCSE) has been for the last 35 years the most common qualification by which students' attainment at age 16 has been measured. The range and balance of processes by which the GCSEs' programmes of study have been assessed have varied over the decades, to include…

This paper addresses the question of how classroom-based peer assessment practices can be improved in relation to student interpretations of subjective assessment criteria. To achieve this, this research study considers the possible pedagogic benefits and implications of using a comparative judgement (CJ) approach to the peer assessment of GCSE…

The practice-based research focus of this dissertation was the under preparedness of Liberian secondary school students for the newly introduced school leavers' external examinations and tertiary education. The problem addressed by this qualitative exploratory case study was that the successive decimation of the Liberian educational system…

The prevalence of private supplementary tutoring (i.e. shadow education) is growing, particularly in nations with selective school exams. The hypothesis that tutoring attendance rises as pressure to perform increases has not yet been tested. Therefore, our research question is: does the likelihood of attending shadow education increase with an…

Academic attainment is a core education policy priority. Wellbeing is recognized as critical for adolescent development, and is linked to academic attainment. Yet research with adolescents primarily focuses on life satisfaction or overall wellbeing, despite differentiating conceptually between two wellbeing components "feeling" good…

This report investigates the progression of students from GCSE to A level in the same (or related) subject. That is, for a range of subjects, the proportion of GCSE students who continue to study the subject at A level is calculated. To understand possible sources of variation progression rates are broken down by GCSE grade and student gender.…

The exit examination from upper-secondary school represents an essential part of the educational trajectory. However, the transition to the labour market or higher education can be complicated by failure. The qualitative study deals with repeatedly unsuccessful students who have struggled to pass the Czech exit exam called the Matura examination.…

In the sequential explanatory mixed methods study reported on here we examined school-based factors contributing to the poor performance of Grade 12 accounting learners' the GCSE in the Lubombo and Manzini regions of Eswatini. The random sample for the quantitative phase comprised 400 accounting learners and 80 accounting teachers from 10 schools…

Evidence suggests that adapting teaching responsively to pupil assessment can be effective in improving students' learning. However, existing studies tend to be small-scale, leaving unanswered the question of how such formative assessment can operate when embedded as standard practice. In this study, we present the results of a randomized trial…