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

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From Leaving Certificate to Leaving School
Analyses of Leaving Certificate performance indicate a significant
achievement gap between young people who had been in lower stream
classes at junior cycle and other students. This gap is only partly due to
underperformance at Junior Certificate level since a gap of 4 grade
points per subject remains, even controlling for prior grades. The longer
term impact of streaming on academic outcomes would appear to reflect
restricted access to higher level subjects among those in lower stream
classes as well as a climate of lower expectations emerging in these class
contexts. It is noteworthy that, contrary to the rationale for utilising
streaming, students assigned to higher stream classes achieve no academic
advantage over those in mixed ability base classes.
A significant minority (four in ten) of the students in this cohort took
Transition Year. Previous research (Smyth, Byrne and Hannan, 2004)
had shown high performance levels among TY participants, even controlling
for their higher levels of prior achievement and greater engagement
in school. The findings from the current study are more complex.
Taking TY in a school where it is compulsory has no net effect on Leaving
Certificate performance, all else being equal. This pattern is likely to
reflect the more mixed views of TY among those in schools where they
were required to take the programme (see Smyth and Calvert, 2011). In
schools where TY is optional, the relationship between participation and
grades varies by prior levels of achievement; thus, TY is associated with
a gain in performance for higher-achieving students.
Many students experience a difficulty in adjusting to schoolwork on
entry to Leaving Certificate programmes, with LCE and LCVP students
reporting more challenging course material and more complex modes of
assessment. Successfully coping with schoolwork after the transition to
senior cycle is found to be predictive of later educational performance.
Students who found it easier to keep pace with their schoolwork in fifth
year tended to make more progress relative to their initial achievement
levels than other students. Students’ lives outside school are also associated
with later achievement, with more time spent in part-time work or
social activities associated with lower grades. Students who take private
tuition in sixth year tend to achieve higher grades on average, although
there seems to be a complex interaction with time spent on homework/study
and the subject levels taken. Time spent on homework and