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Secondary Education Programs in Kuwait: an Evaluation Study

Posted on: Monday, 3 October 2005, 12:01 CDT

By Eid, Ghada K; Koushki, Parviz A

In addition to the existing two-semester system, the option of a credit system was for the first time offered to the students of the secondary (high school) education program in Kuwait in 1978. Earlier attempts which aimed at the quantification of the academic effectiveness of the two programs of secondary education have shown contradictory and inconclusive results. This paper reports the findings of a funded research project undertaken to examine and evaluate the performance of student graduates of the two systems of secondary education. A profile - by gender - of the two high school education programs is presented. The records of 16,445 student graduates of the two programs are examined and their performances are compared. Students' percentile graduation rank and their scores in Kuwait University's English, math and chemistry admissions (aptitude) tests are included in these comparisons. Findings showed that while the performance of students of both programs in admissions tests was generally poor, those who graduated from the two-semester system performed better than their credit system counterparts in math and chemistry admissions tests. The credit system students, however, graduated from high schools with a higher percentile rank. In general, the academic effectiveness of both programs is in need of a major face-lift.

Introduction and Background:

The credit unit concept, known as the Credit Hour System (CHS) first emerged in higher education at about the turn of the last century, fueled by two major developments; that was in the United States' higher education system (Heffernan, 1973). One was the "elective system" pioneered at Harvard under Charles Eliot's leadership after the Civil War, in which a wholly prescribed college curriculum was supplemented by additional courses that each student could personally select. The resulting need to "account" instructional activity in standard terms in an environment in which students may embark upon different individual paths of learning has been with us ever since. The second stimulus was a simultaneous expansion of access to higher education that called for some kind of rationalization of collegiate admissions requirements. Since high schools differed markedly in what they offered (as they do today), a standard unit of measure was needed to ensure that entering students had roughly the same levels of preparation.

Virtually all sources agree that the basic definition of a "credit hour" rests on the notion of single hour of "class time" per week occurring over a defined instructional period (term). But all elements of this seemingly simple definition are subject to empirical variation. An "hour," for instance, is often only fifty minutes. "Terms" range from semesters to quarters-though all are typically measured in elapsed weeks. And what "class time" actually means can vary a lot. A first-order difficulty here is what to do with scheduled activities like labs in which "learning" is clearly taking place, but no formal "teaching." As a result, lab courses in the hard sciences (and in many professional field settings) are often accorded a higher-than-standard credit value-a fact much resented by faculty in other fields. A second-order difficulty that proceeds logically from this is what to do with unscheduled discretionary activities, like studying and homework, in which learning also takes place in the absence of "teaching." Many early discussions of the credit concept (and not a few college catalogues) thus contain an implied codicil to the standard definition that establishes a normal expectation of an additional two hours of out- of-class time for every hour spent in class.

The option of a credit system - in addition to the two-semester system - was, for the first time, offered to students of the secondary education program in the academic year 1978-79 in the State of Kuwait.

The credit-hour system has obvious advantages over the year system. For one thing, students enjoy more freedom when choosing courses and professors - there is a substantial list of electives to choose from, and one can delay taking certain courses till later or take certain courses earlier. For another, it recognizes the principle of individual differences. Students who are unable to take 18 hours a semester, for one reason or another, can take 15 or 12. In some cases, they can even take nine or six. Students have the opportunity to finish earlier, if they wish to (i.e. three or three and a half years, instead of four) or finish later than five or six, should they choose to do so. In addition, while the yearly system allows students accepted in the same year to get to know each other well, the credit-hour system allows one to get to know students from the previous and the subsequent years as well. Furthermore, the credit-hour system enables students to study more than one subject, through the minors and double majors (and this reflects positively on their employment opportunities as well as on their broadness of vision), and it gives them more freedom in changing majors. Moreover, there are, in addition to the daily quizzes and homework assignments, two exams per semester for each course in addition to the final exam. Besides giving the student more chances to do well, the multiple exams enable students to get more feedback with respect to their performance and, simultaneously, enable the professor to assess the progress the students make more accurately. Some educationalists have also argued that the credit-hour system places more pressure on students and trains them (due to the shortness of the semester compared to the year - and the frequency of exams) to work and think at a faster pace.

Objectives of the Study:

This paper seeks to report the findings of a research project aimed at the examination and evaluation of performance records of students graduating from the two programs of secondary education (high school) in Kuwait. Included in the records were students' high school percentile graduation rank, and university entrance-exam (aptitude tests) scores in English, math and chemistry.

Research Methodology:

This is a descriptive study that manipulates averages; the problem of the study can be rephrased in the following questions:

1- What are the Distribution of Sample Students' Gender, Nationality, and Percentile Graduation Rank, and Admissions Test Scores By High School Program?A Graduation Rank, and Admissions Test Scores By High School Program?

2- What are the correlation coefficients between: Gender, Graduation Rank, High School system, and admission test score (a English, Math., and Chem.)?

3- What are the Cross-Classification of Students' Graduation Rank, English Scores, Math Scores, Chemistry Scores By High School System?

4- Are there differences in: Graduation Rank(Percentile), English Score, Math Score, and Chem. Score By Program?

5- Are there differences in: Graduation Rank (Percentile), English Score, Math Score, and Chem. Score By gender in both Credit System and Semester System?

Data Collection Method

Seven years of student registration records at Kuwait University - 1995 through 2001 - were obtained from the Deanship of Student Affairs. The database included 19 items of information on each of the 16445 students, admitted to Kuwait University between 1995 to 2001. These included in order: college, department, term admitted, gender, nationality, high school district, credit or the two- semester system, percentile high school graduation rank, grade point average at Kuwait University, number of credits registered and completed number of academic warnings (overall and in specialty area), graduation status, number of semesters taken to graduate, graduation term, graduation date, and finally his/her scores in English, math and chemistry admission tests. The management of the data required its processing for purification and for software compatibility as well as homogeneous groupings for cross- classification analysis. Special care was taken to ensure appropriate homogeneity (proximity to the group mean) of data within each sub-group. This paper examines students' performance records at both the high school level and the aptitude test conducted by Kuwait University's Admissions Office.

Research Approach:

The research project was initiated from a successful proposal, written by the authors, and funded by the Research Administration of Kuwait University. Following a search of literature, and a clear statement of the problem, the research objectives were further defined and finalized. A significant amount of effort and time was however spent on obtaining, purifying, appropriately grouping, and developing a database for the analyses. The analyses of the data included those of the means and distributions, cross- classification, correlations, the test of chi-square and the test of significant difference between group means. Finally, a discriminate analysis was performed to determine whether a performance - based function could discriminate male/female students within each program.

Theoretical Framework:

The Status of the CHS in Kuwait:

Although a historical nation, the State of Kuwait is rather young with regards to the history of formal education system. The first secondary education programwas established in Al-Mubarakia school in 1937, and it wasn't until the early 60's, when it was changed to a four-year study program. The first credit system however came into existence in the academic year 1978-79 at Sabah Al-Salem Secondary School for boys, and a year later, at Al-Mansouria Secondary School, for girls (Taha & Others, 1995).

The main factor in support of the establishment of the credit system in the State of Kuwait was the notion that such a system would better prepare students for practical (vocational) specialization - greatly in demand by the Kuwait society at the time. In addition, it was generally believed that the credit system (as opposed to the traditional two-semester system), would enhance the development of students' personality trait, independence self- esteem, motivation, creative communication, and positive competition. Furthermore, it was felt that the credit system would encourage self-learning, minimize introversion, shyness, absenteeism, and cheating, and would provide the opportunity for better understanding of students' needs (After 10 years of implementing the Credit System in Kuwait, 1989).

Another major advantage of the credit system of education was the fact that upon failure, students would repeat only the course(s) in which they have failed. The two-semester system on the other hand would force the student to repeat the whole year upon failure in four or more courses. In addition, a repeated (twice) failure in a single course will force the student to repeat the whole year. The savings of students' time and the conservation of institutions' manpower and financial resources were obvious advantages of the credit system of secondary education (Nofal, 1998).

Advantages of the CHS:

Basically, the following are the good characteristics of the credit hour system:

Simplicity:

Based on a direct correspondence between time and defined activity, the credit-hour system is straightforward in concept and (at least in principle) is easy to apply. Unlike direct measures of cost or student learning, it does not require a large assessment superstructure to collect the data needed for management or accountability purposes. Its central logic of time-on-task, moreover, is remarkably well suited to an enterprise in which most costs are people costs and in which the ways in which people spend their time (and on what and how much) do remain significant determinants of valued outcomes. This means that useful and appropriate variants of the credit model-for example, shifting the focus to student time spent in learning activities of known value or disaggregating faculty instructional functions to account for time spent doing different kinds of things-can be easily imagined without throwing out the approach entirely.

Flexibility:

The credit hour system has also proven remarkably flexible in application across different kinds of institutions and instructional settings. Indeed, given its origins in the emerging elective system of the late nineteenth century, this is exactly what it was designed to do. With significant exceptions, most institutions and agencies have been able to make appropriate translations among such settings through the establishment of credit equivalences-even though the system may be forced a bit to do so. This includes such fundamentally dissimilar situations as formal college class work, competency-based demonstration, training provided by employers or the military, and learning arising through prior experience. Despite the acknowledged validity of the many objections advanced, this is not a virtue to be given up lightly.

Credibility:

Founded in a rough but believable equivalence between time spent, content covered, and learning attained, the credit hour concept has powerful face validity across multiple publics. For one thing, it corresponds directly to the way most people experienced their own education. Until substantial proportions of the public (and their elected representatives) directly experience a different kind of post-secondary learning, many will continue to find nonclass-based and non-instructor-centered instructional approaches to be "by definition" less rigorous than their traditional counterpart. Certainly some recentlyadvanced alternatives-most prominently the direct assessment of learning-are proving even more credible in some political settings. But behind the surface appeal of approaches like competency testing lie formidable challenges of gaining agreement on what is to be tested and how-and these raise corresponding questions about their ability to gain wide credibility any time soon. Similarly, time-based measures are hard to fake and easy to check. Alternative modes of delivery, meanwhile, raise inevitable suspicions about "something for nothing" as well as the real possibility of fraud.

Demerits of the CHS:

Objections to the credit hour have come from many quarters and some have been around almost as long as the concept itself (e.g. Veblen, 1918). In general, though they center on two principal difficulties-inconsistency and inappropriateness.

Inconsistency:

The inconsistency objection accepts as valid the conceptual basis of the credit hour as a measure of instructional activity, of cost, and (to some extent) of educational attainment. It simply contends that the system isn't working (e.g. Lorimer, 1962). Largely this is due to the sources of variation noted already in connection with measuring instructional activity, and of the resulting modifications made to accommodate non-standard instructional situations like labs, internships, and independent study. In the absence of national guidelines, accommodating these variations is generally a matter of institutional (or, at most, state) resolution. Exacerbating this situation is the fact that the act of promulgating a particular credit value for a particular course is intimately bound up with inter-departmental politics involving the assignment of faculty lines, the allocation of resources, and the development of faculty workload policies.

Inappropriateness:

The inappropriateness objection contends, in contrast, that the equation of instructional time with cost, and especially with learning, is simply unwarranted-even if the system is working consistently. One set of objections comes from those practicing modes of instruction that violate the assumptions of the classroom- based model. These include entirely self-directed learning approaches (such as home study or resource-based education), competency or examination-based approaches and experiential approaches in which many learning activities-while face-to-face- take place outside the bounds of formal classroom settings. In situations like these, the premises of the credit model simply don't apply, though costs can surely be accounted and the fact that learning has taken place can be certified through other means. Such objections have, of course, been exacerbated by the recent explosion of web-based delivery approaches in which students may be both physically distant from instructors (and one another) and be proceeding at different paces. A related set of objections contends that the use of "seat-time" measures actively inhibits the development of appropriate curricula and pedagogies by creating inappropriate incentives for faculty and institutional behavior. Most prominently, these objectives contend that the credit hour reinforces a "content delivery" mindset for instructor behavior (as opposed to one based on mentoring and individual guidance) and that it actively inhibits faculty from engaging in known "good practices" like group-work outside formal instructional settings.

Both of these objections arise largely from within the academy and are advanced largely by educational reformers or by practitioners at alternative institutions. Another set of objections comes mainly from outside colleges and universities, and is advanced by a range of stakeholders concerned about the integrity of the degree. Statisticians have long been interested in direct measures of student attainment-both because the credit system seems unable to assure them that real learning has taken place and because it cannot ensure that valued common outcomes have been achieved. Meanwhile, business leaders and employers object that college graduates often come to them lacking essential skills that the current "credit economy" has neither counted nor guaranteed. The implications in both cases center on accountability and quality more than they do on managing the higher education enterprise.

A number of researchers have examined and compared the success and the effectiveness of the credit education system with that of the two-semester system, both before, and after the invasion of Kuwait by the Iraqi Army (After 10 years of implementing the Credit System in Kuwait, 1989; Al-Balool, 1997; Helal, 1996; Sherif, 1988; Taha & Qatari, 1987; & Taha & Others 1995). In a comparative pre- invasion study (Sherif & Qatari, 1988) of students' success at both, the high school and the university levels, the school performance records of 178 students from the credit, and 3521 students from the 2-semester study program were examined. Students' performance records included the high school graduate rate, and the university- level Grade Point Average (GPA).

Findings of the study indicated that the high school graduation rate was higher for all of the credit system students, in general, and for the female students, in particular. No significant difference was however found to exist in the university GPA of students, admitted from the credit and the two-semester systems of high school education programs.

A post-invasion study (Taha & Others, 1995) of students' performance - the Grade Point Average (GPA), the Major Point Average (MPA), the graduation rate, and the average rate of failure (dismissal), for both, the credit and the two-semester programs of the secondary educ\ation, also failed to provide support for the findings of other studies. Surprisingly enough, the findings of the study were contrary to those of the study by Sherif & Qatari (1988): students graduated from the two-semester system of secondary education, demonstrated a significantly higher GPA and MPA; took fewer number of years to graduate; enjoyed a higher graduation rate; and experienced fewer dismissals from the study program.

Bebergal (2003) conducted a study for predicting retention of first-year college students. The purpose of this study was to investigate demographic and academic variables that may contribute to the persistence of students at a mid-size, public, four-year institution in southeast Florida. A discriminant analysis was performed using 16 demographic (gender, age, ethnicity, permanent address location, residential or commuter status, and types/amounts of financial aid received) and academic variables (major, high school GPA, SAT verbal scores, SAT quantitative scores, ACT composite scores, total credits attempted first semester, and type of orientation program attended) as predictors to differentiate between classification as a persister or a leaver. The predictive accuracy of the analysis was assessed using a one-tailed z test that compared the results of the analysis to the proportional chance expectation (Huberty, 1994). Analyses were also completed to investigate the contributions of individual and subsets of variables on predicting the criterion. The research questions considered were: Can a predictive model based on student demographic and academic variables known to an institution of higher education prior to a student's matriculation correctly classify students as potential persisters or leavers with greater accuracy than chance? Is there a significant relationship between the criterion and any of the individual variables or subsets of variables in the model that correctly classify students as potential persisters or leavers? The findings indicated that the model failed to classify students as persisters better than chance; however, it was able to provide some predictive accuracy in the classification of leavers. In the most parsimonious model, it was found that persisters were more likely to receive moderate student loan amounts and attempted greater numbers of credit hours than leavers. Since a large number of students at this institution expressed an intention to transfer from the onset of their studies and because student intent could not be used as a variable, the predictive accuracy of the model was affected. Another study by Johansen (2003) indicated that for both adult, nontraditional students and younger, traditional students, prior college credit was more related to academic success than other variables included in the study. Traditional students were more likely to persist if they had higher GPAs and were aware of University support services, including mission-based, and reported having relationships with faculty, staff, and other students. Nontraditional students were more likely to persist if they had prior college credit, worked more than 31 hours per week, and received loan funding.

Table 1

Characteristics of the Two Secondary Education Systems in the State of Kuwait

Table 2

Distribution of Sample Students' Gender, Nationality, and Percentile Graduation Rank By High School Program

In a study of "scientific thinking", students' ability to recognize the relationship between cause and outcome to form a hypothesis; ability to explain findings; and ability to make conclusions - the four main parts of a test (developed by the Ministry of Education's Center for Educational Research and Curriculum), were measured for students enrolled in the credit and the two-semester systems (Helal & Others, 1996). The study findings produced, yet another surprising result: no significant differences were found to exist between the frequency of the test responses (for all test parts), for students enrolled at each of the two programs of secondary education.

Table 3

Distribution of Sample Students' Admissions Test Scores By High School Program

The advantages and the disadvantages of the two-semester system of secondary education was also examined in a pre-invasion study of a limited sample of 300 students, 96 teachers, and 12 administrators (Al-Balool, 1997). Results indicated that the two-semester system made a positive impact on the development of students' independence and self-esteem; on student-teacher relationship; and reduced the work load on administrators. On the negative side however the two- semester system of secondary education, significantly increased the administrative workload of teachers. Due to its limited sample size, however, the study recommended that a thorough and comprehensive evaluation of the program was needed for a conclusive quantification of its effectiveness.

In Dale, and Klitzke (1980) study, Fifty-eight Wisconsin high schools have undergone a comprehensive evaluation of their total vocational education program, including program management and administration as well as capstone, sequence, and exploratory programs in all vocational discipline areas. All aspects discussed- employability, job relatedness to training, employer hiring preference, employer satisfaction, and current student satisfaction and post-high school plans-indicate program effectiveness.

And a review of research findings compares evaluations of the effectiveness of programmed instruction in secondary schools. The meta-analysis of Kulik and Others (1982) showed that results from programmed instruction were similar to those from conventional teaching. Programmed instruction did not raise student achievement on examinations, nor did it increase positive attitudes about school or courses.

Murphy and Ventura (1998) Evaluate the results of the first three years of the national secondary Education Certificate in Malta to determine its impact on educational equity. The new examinations attempt to offer access, relevance, and appropriate assessments to a wide range of students. There have been some implementation problems, but much has been achieved.

And Dolle-Willemsen (1998) Examines principles and practices of the Dutch educational system, emphasizing the process of implementing new educational concepts in schools and teacher education. Discusses school failure among students at all levels and examines the failure of schools to prepare students for social, economic, and political responsibility. Notes governmental and educational measures that have attempted to solve the problems.

Since, the overall aim of the research study was the examination and evaluation of students' performance at each of the two high school (secondary school) education programs, the data was first categorized by the program (system) into two main subgroups. Each subgroup was then further categorized by students' gender for further examination of male/female performance similarities/ dissimilarities within each of the two high school programs.

Findings of the Study:

Table 1 presents a profile - by gender - of the credit and the semester systems for the years 1995 through 2001. The number of schools, student enrollment, the number of faculty and the average cost per student for each program is also shown in the table. In general, the credit system has a higher average cost than the semester system, and the annual cost for a female student is significantly higher than that of a male student, at both programs. The extra material cost for food items and fabrics for cooking and tailoring courses, required for the girls is the main cause for the higher average cost of the secondary education program for girls.

Table 4

Correlation Coefficients for Selected Variables

Table 5

Cross-Classification of Students' Graduation Rank by High School System

Table 6

Cross-Classification of Students' English Scores by High School System

1 - Frequency Distributions

As expected, girls outnumbered boys by a significant margin. Since the postinvasion period of 1990-1991, girls have entered the educational systems of the State at all levels in large numbers. As presented in Table 2, at both high school programs, the girl graduates outnumbered the boys by a ratio of more than three to two. As for nationality more than 2/3 of the students in the Credit System, and nearly 80% of those in the Semester System, were Kuwaiti nationals.

Table 7

Cross-Classification of Students' Math Scores by High School System

Table 8

Cross-Classification of Students' Chemistry Scores by High School System

The percentile graduation rank of students for the two high school programs also indicated (Table 2) that nearly five times as many students from the Credit System ranked in the top 10 percentile compared to the graduates of the Semester System. Also, while more than 12 % of the Semester System graduates ranked in the 70th percentile and less only 2.4 % of students in the Credit System finished high school in this range.

It should however be noted that the two programs evaluate their students' performances independently, and a higher percentile ranking of graduates from one program does not necessarily point to the academic superiority of that program.

The distribution of English, math and chemistry aptitude test scores for students entering Kuwait University from the two high school programs are presented in Table 3. The data in this table however is a better reflection of the academic strength of students - and thus of the high school program. It is quite obvious that neither program is successful in the teaching of the English language to its constituents. Only 9 and 10.1 percent of the students from the credit and the semester programs, respectively, scored more than 75 points in the English Test. The graduates of the credit system performed slightly better in the English test than their semester system counterparts. Good perform\ance in English is an important resource and ability for those who pursue higher education. At Kuwait University, English is the official language of many colleges including medicine, engineering, sciences, business administration, etc.

Table 9

The Mean Statistics and the Test of Significance for Selected Study Variables by Program

A similar trend also appeared to exist in students' performances in the math and the chemistry aptitude tests (Table 3). Those who graduated from the semester system scored better in the math and much better in the chemistry tests compared to their credit system counterparts. Again, only 2.4 and 8.2 percent of the graduates of the credit and the semester systems, respectively, scored higher than 75 points in the math test. Students' performance in the chemistry test however was more respectable for the graduates of both programs in general, and the semester system in particular. In general, as is evident from the aptitude test results, neither of the two high school programs adequately prepares students academically. A study is thus warranted to determine individual program deficiencies and to recommend options for the improvement of the academic base of the secondary education program in Kuwait.

Table 10

The Mean Statistics and the Test of Significance for Selected Variables By Program and Gender

2. Correlation Analysis

A correlation analysis was also undertaken to determine the degree of linear association between students' gender and their high school performance for the two programs combined. Results are presented in Table 4. Also shown in Table 4, are the probabilities that these coefficients are occurring only by chance. A review of these correlation coefficients indicates that with the exception of the association between gender, English and chemistry test results, all other coefficients are statistically significant, at the 95% level (α = 0.05).

The correlation coefficients in Table 4 indicate that the majority of boys had graduated from the Credit System (γ^sub xy^ = 0.061, p < 0.0001); they (combined both programs) ranked lower than girls when graduated from high school (γ^sub xy^=0.114, p < 0.0001); and scored only slightly worse than girls in the chemistry aptitude test (γ^sub xy^ = 0.004). The girls from both programs on the other hand, scored slightly lower in English (γ^sub xy^ = -0.016), and in math (γ^sub xy^ = -0.097) tests.

Students who graduated from the Semester System (boys and girls combined), finished high school with a lower percentile rank compared to those who graduated from the Credit System (γ^sub xy^ = -0.437). They were also overpowered by their Credit System counterparts in the English test, but scored significantly better in math and chemistry tests (γ^sub xy^ = 0.154 and 0.110, respectively). Naturally students who finished high school with a higher percentile rank also scored higher in all of the admissions tests. Very strong and positive correlations were also found to exist between the English, math and chemistry scores, as would be expected (γ^sub xy^ = 0.512, γ^sub xy^ = 0.656 and γ^sub xy^ = 0.706).

3- Cross-Classification Analysis

A cross-classification analysis was performed on the data to gain further insight in students' performance in high school as well as in aptitude tests upon their graduation from the two high school programs. In addition, a chi-square test was also employed to test the probability of independence between students' performance and high school programs.

As presented in Table 5, students (girls and boys combined) from the Credit System outscored their Semester System counterparts in high school graduation ranks. For example, while more than 40% of the credit system students graduated in the 90-100 percentile rank, only 8.2% of the semester system students finished high school in such a percentile range. The test of chi-square also indicated that these program differences in the percentile graduation ranks were statistically significant at the 95% level (ξ^sup 2^ = 2780.3, df = 4, p<0.0001).

Surprisingly enough, students from the Semester System were more frequent among both, the poorest (scores 30 points), and the best performers (scoring between 76 to 100), in the English test. The differences in the English test scores for the graduates of the two high school programs were again statistically significant at the 95% level, as shown by the chi-square test result in Table 6 (ξ^sup 2^ = 13.6, df=3, p = 0.004). The Semester System students generally scored higher in the English aptitude test.

Students from the Semester System were clearly superior to their Credit System counterparts in both math and chemistry tests, as the data in Tables 7 and 8 show.

The result of the chi-square test also pointed to the statistical significance of these score differences in the math (x^sup 2^ = 176.5, df = 3, p<0.0001), and the chemistry (x^sup 2^ = 156.2, df = 3, p<0.0001) tests as presented in Tables 7 and 8, respectively.

4- Analysis of Means and Variations

The mean and the standard deviation of performance measures were also computed for the student graduates of the two high school programs. In general, and with the exception of the percentile graduation rank (which is believed to be inflated), students' performance in Kuwait University's aptitude tests were very poor, as the means and deviations of the data indicate.

The mean, the standard deviation, and the student size for the percentile rank, and the aptitude test scores for each of the two high school programs are given in Table 9. Also presented in Table 9, is the result of hypothesis test of significant difference in the mean scores. With the exception of the English test scores, the difference in all other performance scores were statistically significant at the 99% significance level (a = 0.01). The Semester System students performed better than their Credit System counterparts in both, math and chemistry aptitude tests.

How do the male and the female students perform within each program ? Are the male/female performance differences within and in- between the two programs statistically significant ?

As the data in Table 10 indicate, within the Credit System, girls outperformed boys in the percentile graduation rank as well as in the chemistry aptitude test. Boys on the other hand performed better in math, and no significant difference existed in the male/female English test scores.

The female students in the Semester System demonstrated only a higher percentile rank upon their graduation from high schools. They were however outperformed in both math and chemistry aptitude tests by their mate counterparts by a significant margin (Table 10). Again, no significant difference was found to exist in the English test scores between the male and the female students enrolled in the Semester System.

Once again, it should be noted that these mean test scores are out of a total of 100 points in each test. With scores practically all in the 40's and the 50's. It is safe to conclude that neither high school program in the State does an adequate job in preparing students for successful performance in programs in higher education.

Conclusions

The objective of this research study was to evaluate the effectiveness of the semester and the credit programs of high school education in terms of their graduating students' preparedness for continued and successful academic performance in programs of higher education. Students' percentile graduation rank from high school and their performances in the English, math and chemistry Aptitude Tests conducted by Kuwait University's Admissions Office are included in the evaluation of program effectiveness.

Findings indicated that the student graduates of the Semester System had a lower percentile rank compared to their credit system counterparts, when graduating from his schools. However, they outscored the graduates of the Credit System in the math and chemistry aptitude tests by a significant margin. The differences in the math and the chemistry test scores for the graduates of the two high school programs were statistically significant.

Although the girls outperformed the boys in terms of the percentile graduation rank, in both systems, those graduating from the credit program performed similarly to boys in the English, better in the math, and worse in the chemistry test. On the other hand, girls graduating from the semester program, were outscored by their male counterparts in all aptitude tests, especially in the math and chemistry tests.

In light of the relatively better performance of its students in the pre-university aptitude tests and a significantly lower annual per capital cost (17 and 21.7 percent lower for girls and boys, respectively), the Semester System is thus judged more effective in academic preparation of its students to pursue higher educational objectives.

Finally, it is of special importance to note, however, that, based on the generally poor performance of students in the aptitude tests conducted by Kuwait University's Admissions Office, it is fair to conclude that neither program is effective in the preparation of students academically. A study is thus warranted to determine program deficiencies and recommend measures for the improvement of their academic effectiveness.

Acknowledgements

The research project (No.: TPO1/03) was funded by the Research Administration of Kuwait University.

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GHADA K. EID1

1 Assistant Professor

Kuwait University, Department of Educational Psychology

College of Education

Kuwait University

PARVIZ A. KOUSHKI2

2 Professor

Department of Civil Engineering

College of Engineering and Petroleum

Kuwait University

Copyright Project Innovation Fall 2005

Source: Education

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