An analysis of the academic performance levels of the British Virgin Islands\u27 public primary schools and their class five students during the period 1994--1999

This study sought to investigate whether the variables teacher turnover and class size predicted the British Virgin Islands\u27 public primary schools\u27 academic performance levels based on their class five students\u27 performance on the Primary Five Examination in English, Mathematics and Social Studies during school years 1994--1999, (except 1996) in school level analysis 1.It also sought to summarize the collective perception of that system\u27s principals and class five teachers relative to the effectiveness level of their schools in the areas: leadership, teacher behavior, student behavior, school climate and parental involvement, in school year 1998--1999 in school level analysis 2.Finally, the study sought to investigate whether the variables: attendance, mobility, gender, amount of daily television viewing, hours of video games played weekly, number of adults in the home, age of parents, educational status of parents, parental involvement in their child(ren)\u27s school, and the family\u27s socioeconomic status, predicted the academic performance of the class five students on the examinations in school year 1998--1999 (student level analysis).The design called for a census of the entire target populations, given the relatively small size of the education system. Linear multiple regression was used in school analysis 1, and the student analysis to predict academic performance. Descriptive statistics were applied to school analysis 2 to describe the joint perception of the principals and class five teachers relative to the five variables.With school analysis 1, class size was the only variable that significantly correlated with the schools\u27 performance in all three subjects. The principals\u27 and class five teachers\u27 joint opinion was that their schools are average to slightly above average in their collective level of effectiveness in school analysis 2. The student analysis found that parents\u27 educational status, parental involvement, and socioeconomic status significantly correlated with the students\u27 performances in all subjects.However, the most significant finding of this study was a dramatic fluctuation of the regression results across the years 1994--1999. Since class size and teacher turnover were fairly constant in their means during the period in question, the likely cause of the fluctuation in the coefficients of determination was the examination, likely suggesting that the instrument\u27s psychometric qualities are poor, and that all other findings of this study may be unreliable since raw data from the examination underpinned the study