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126 From Leaving Certificate to Leaving School compulsory is associated with somewhat higher Leaving Certificate grades, but this is not a statistically significant difference. The effect of taking TY where it is optional is found to vary by prior Junior Certificate grades, with TY associated with a greater performance gain for higherachieving students (Table 4.3, model 1). Many fifth year students reported difficulties in adjusting to the academic demands of senior cycle, highlighting in particular the very detailed content of many subjects and the difficulty associated with higher level subjects (see Smyth and Calvert, 2011). Capacity to cope with school-work in fifth year is found to be significantly associated with later performance at Leaving Certificate level. Model 2 (Table 4.3) looks at aspects of students’ lives outside school. In keeping with previous research (McCoy and Smyth, 2004), students who work long hours during term-time tend to achieve lower exam grades. In addition, students who have very active social lives outside school tend to underperform academically. Section 4.3 indicated a performance gap of 2.9 grade points between those taking private tuition and other students. Model 2 indicates that taking account of the fact that more ambitious and higher-achieving students are more likely to take grinds reduces this difference by over two-thirds (68 per cent) to just under a grade point per subject. Model 3 explores the extent to which time spent on homework and study in sixth year is associated with academic performance. As might be expected given the nature of assessment at Leaving Certificate, students who spend an average of more than three hours per night on homework and study make more progress relative to their initial achievement level than other students. Interestingly, spending much longer amounts of time on homework and study (e.g. more than five hours) does not appear to yield any additional performance advantage. Section 4.2 highlighted significant differences between the casestudy schools in the number of higher level subjects taken. In model 4, we add number of higher level and number of foundation level subjects taken in the Leaving Certificate exam. The causality of the relationship with grades must be interpreted with caution. Chapter Two has shown that the selection of subject levels reflects a long-term process, with ongoing movement ‘down’ from higher to ordinary level. Thus, other sen-
Leaving Certificate Exam Performance 127 ior cycle factors, such as taking grinds and amount of time spent on homework/study, will reflect decisions about subject levels. However, it is worth including subject levels in the models in order to illustrate their association with achievement levels and with between-school differences in student outcomes. As might be expected, students who take more higher level subjects achieve higher grade points while those who take one or two foundation level subjects achieve lower grade points. Parttime work, taking grinds and time spent on homework/study are no longer significant when subject levels are included, indicating the complex interplay between decisions about subject levels and engagement in schoolwork. Around half of the effect of prior achievement (in the Junior Certificate) is mediated through level take-up, indicating that Junior Certificate level take-up and performance serves, at least in part, as a channel into related subject levels at senior cycle (see Smyth and Calvert, 2011). The results of the multilevel models presented in Tables 4.2 and 4.3 can be used to adjust the size of between-school differences to reflect variation in student intake across schools (shown in Figure 4.13). These patterns should be taken as illustrative as a larger sample of schools would be needed to provide very precise estimates of between-school differences. The first set of columns shows the ‘raw’ difference between each of the schools and the average; that is, the variation without including any controls for student intake. This is similar to what a ‘league table’ of the schools would look like. The pattern is, of course, similar to that shown in Figure 4.2, with lower grades found in Hay Street and higher grades in Harris Street, Fig Lane and Belmore Street. The second set of columns adjusts the estimates for the gender and social background of students coming into the school. This reduces the scale of between-school differences, that is, some of the initial difference was due to variation in student intake. The third set of columns adds a further adjustment for the reading and maths scores of incoming first year students, which further reduces the scale of between-school difference among our sample. However, differences in Leaving Certificate performance are evident even controlling for student intake. The fourth set of columns adds a further control for Junior Certificate performance
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The Economic and Social Research In
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FROM LEAVING CERTIFICATE TO LEAVING
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CONTENTS List of Tables and Figures
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Contents vii 5.3.3 Always Wanted to
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x From Leaving Certificate to Leavi
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xii From Leaving Certificate to Lea
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EXECUTIVE SUMMARY Introduction Curr
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Executive Summary xvii centrate on
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Executive Summary xix to higher edu
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Executive Summary xxi Such a focus
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2 From Leaving Certificate to Leavi
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10 From Leaving Certificate to Leav
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Chapter Two CURRICULUM, TEACHING AN
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REFERENCES Airasian, P.W. and Madau
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References 241 Grodsky, E., Warren,
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References 243 Mickelson, R.A. (199
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References 245 Smyth, E. and Calver
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Current debates about senior cycle
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