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

xviii
From Leaving Certificate to Leaving School
key influences on later outcomes. The analysis shows that those who had
difficulty coping with schoolwork in second year achieved lower Leaving
Certificate grades, all else being equal. In addition, the use of streaming,
whereby students were allocated to ‘higher’ or ‘lower’ ability
classes for all of their junior cycle subjects, resulted in significantly
lower Leaving Certificate grades for students in lower stream classes,
without any corresponding achievement gain for those in higher stream
classes. Our findings show that Junior and Leaving Certificate exam
grades are highly correlated, so many students who achieve lower grades
in the Junior Certificate exam do not regain ground when they reach senior
cycle. Students’ social and work lives outside school can also operate
as an impediment to later achievement. Not surprisingly, given the focus
on ‘learning for the exam’, students who spend more time on homework
and study in sixth year achieve higher grades. However, those who spend
considerable amounts of time on homework (over four or five hours) do
not achieve an advantage over those spending moderate amounts of time
on homework.
Guidance and Student Decision-Making
In sixth year, students regard their parents, particularly their mothers,
as the most important source of advice in terms of their post-school
plans. Siblings and wider family networks also contributed to shaping
decisions around post-school education or employment. In terms of
formal school guidance, our findings show wide variation in the nature
and amount of guidance provided to students. Although students were
generally positive about guidance provision, they were often critical of
the lack of time made available for guidance classes or individual guidance
sessions. An important issue that emerged was the timing of guidance
provision, with many students feeling that it had been provided
too late and at a time when they had already chosen their subjects and
subject levels. Other students criticised the way in which guidance provision
over-emphasised higher education as a post-school pathway,
with less information provided on Post-Leaving Certificate courses,
apprenticeships and employment.
While higher education was the intended route for the majority of
students, working-class students were much less likely to plan to go on