From Leaving CertiFiCate to Leaving SChooL a Longitudinal Study ...

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From Leaving Certificate to Leaving School
Figure 4.7: Proportion taking LCA in the case-study schools, 2007 and
2008 combined
50
40
%
30
20
10
0
Dixon St Lang St Barrack St Dawson St Belmore St Argyle St
Across the case-study schools, 14 per cent of LCA students received a
distinction, 48 per cent a merit, 25 per cent a pass and 13 per cent a record
of credits. This compares with 18 per cent distinction, 52 per cent
merit, 17 per cent pass and 13 per cent a record of credits for the national
population taking LCA in 2007 and 2008 combined. Unfortunately, because
of the small number of students taking LCA in the case-study
schools, it is not possible to examine the relationship between student
experiences and LCA performance in any meaningful way. The remainder
of this chapter therefore focuses on results in the LCE/LCVP exams.
4.3 Leaving Certificate Performance: A Longitudinal
Analysis
In this section we take advantage of the longitudinal nature of the study
to explore the relationship between experiences during the whole of the
second-level schooling career and Leaving Certificate performance.
Analyses in this section are based on the 565 students who gave us permission
to access their LCE/LCVP exam results. The section looks descriptively
at variation in Leaving Certificate grade point average by
prior processes while multivariate models of the factors influencing performance
are presented in section 4.4.