Explore the vast range of titles available.

The study set to investigate the Finnish matriculation examination with a focus on the social studies. The goal was to examine how well the subject-specific exams of the examination measure students’ attainment in the courses of the respective subject across upper secondary studies.The data was drawn form a longitudinal study of 6,172 Southern-Finland upper secondary students in 62 schools who passed their matriculation examination in spring 2017. Data on course choices and attainment was received from school and matriculation examination results from the Finnish Matriculation Examination Board.Key finding of the study is the unanimity between the two assessments: students’ grades in the subject-specific exams of the matriculation examination correlated strongly with their respective grades across the courses during their three years of upper secondary studies.The findings give strong support for the matriculation examination as an exit exam and for its use in student admission to higher education.Corresponding author:Najat Ouakrim-Soivio, Mannerheiminkatu 2, 06100 Porvoo, Finland. najat@arviointi.fi: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9139-4145Suggested citation:Kantasalmi, K., & Kupiainen, S. (2021). Classes with selective intake in Finnish Comprehensive School: A Problem of Societally Equal Opportunity for Schooling or a Boost for Learning and Equity in Pedagogical arrangements? International Journal of Educational Research, 109, 101857.Kupiainen, S. & Hotulainen, R. (2017). Metropolialueen nuoret toisen asteen opiskelijoina: osaamisen ja oppimisasenteiden kehitys yläkoulun alusta lukion ja ammatillisten opintojen toisen opiskeluvuoden kevääseen. [The metropolitan youth as upper secondary students: The development of learning and learning attitudes from the beginning of lower secondary studies to the second year of general or vocational upper secondary studies]. In A. Toom, M. Rautiainen & J. Tähtinen (Eds.) Toiveet ja todellisuus – Kasvatus osallisuutta ja oppimista rakentamassa.Kupiainen, S., Marjanen, J., & Hautamäki, J. (2016). The problem posed by exam choice on the comparability of results in the Finnish matriculation examination Journal for Educational Research Online, 8(2), 87. Retrived 15.10.2022 at https://www.waxmann.com/index.php?eID=download&id_artikel=ART102868&uid=freiKupiainen, S., Marjanen, J. & Ouakrim-Soivio, N. (2018). Ylioppilas valintojen pyörteessä. [The matriculate in the whirlwind of choices]. Suomen ainedidaktisen tutkimusseuran julkaisuja. Ainedidaktisia tutkimuksia 14. Retrived 15.10.2022 at https://helda.helsinki.fi/handle/10138/231687Ouakrim-Soivio, N., Kupiainen, S., & Marjanen, J. (2017). Toimivatko oppilas- ja opiskelija-arvioinnin kriteerit? Oppiaineiden välinen ja sukupuolen mukainen vaihtelu perusopetuksen ja lukion päättöarvosanoissa ja arvosanojen yhteys nuorten oppiainevalintoihin. [How do the criteria for student assessment work? Subject and gender-based variation in students’ final grades and their relation to students’ subject choices]. In V. Britschgi, & J. RautopuroRantala, J. & Ouakrim-Soivio, N. (2020). Why does changing the orientation of History teachingtake so long? A case study from Finland. In, Berg, C. & Christou, T. (Eds.) The Palgravehandbook of History and Social Studies education. Cham: Palgrave Macmillan, 471–494.Kupiainen, S. & Ouakrim-Soivio, N. (2019). Do centralised upper secondary school exit examinations offer added value? Presentation on NOFA7-konference13.–15.5.2019. Retrieved 15.10.2022 at https://www.diva-portal.org/smash/get/diva2:1347552/FULLTEXT01.pdfDeclaration of conflicts of interests:No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Faculty of medicine plays a role to support the students' success in passing national exit exam through mentorship. Peer-reflection evaluates the students' learning process. We aimed to analyze the impact of peer-reflection to change the students' learning attitude and improve national exam score. Nine test-retaker students participated in mentorship program for three months. They took two parts of faculty-level examination. After the 1st and the 2nd part of faculty exam, there were peer-reflections I and II that argued about the characters, strengths and weaknesses, suggestions. Then, they did self-reflection to conduct responses about the mentorship including the impact of peers' input and finally took national exam. The examination score before and after peer-reflection were compared. We analyzed the statement of reflection by documents and content analysis. The progress of examination score was analyzed descriptively. The students objectively understood the strengths and weaknesses of their way of learning, and then implemented the peers' advices. Peer-reflection method provided a feeling of same purpose, then developed ways of learning that promoted them to be higher motivated. Finally, 6 of 9 students passed the exam. Suggestions given by peers would be memorable and powerfully changed motivation. Peer-reflection explored non-academic problems that determined the pattern and the way of how students learned.

Recent theoretical conceptualizations of student engagement have raised questions about how to measure student engagement and how engagement varies not only across schools, but also within school and within classrooms. The authors build on existing research on student behavioral engagement and extend this research to emphasize a continuum of disengagement, active engagement, and passive engagement. They review common approaches to measuring engagement and highlight areas where new theoretical conceptualizations of engagement require new approaches to measurement. The authors analyze how student behavioral engagement changed depending on the context and demonstrate the need of a finer scale of engagement. They find there was not a uniform association of higher behavioral engagement and student interaction with peers, but it was the interaction with other students and the teacher that was predictive of increased engagement. Their work suggests that disaggregating behavioral engagement into disengagement, active engagement, and passive engagement has important research and conceptual implications.

This article investigates the extent to which state-mandated high school exit examinations are associated with state-level public high school completion rates in the United States. The authors estimate a series of state and year fixed effects models using a new measure of state-level public high school completion rates and archival information about states' policies on high school exit examinations from 1975 through 2002. The study finds that state high school exit examinations-particularly the \"more difficult\" examinations that have been implemented recently in some states-are associated with lower public high school completion rates and higher rates of General Educational Development test taking. Furthermore, the study finds that the association between state policies on high school exit examinations and public high school completion grows stronger as states become more racially and ethnically diverse and as poverty rates increase.

Background: An accelerated Bachelor of Science in Nursing (ABSN) program was introduced in an effort to reduce the nursing shortage in response to the growing health demands. Nursing educators strive to examine factors that promote students' success in passing the National Council Licensure Examination for Registered Nurses (NCLEX-RN) on their first attempt. However, little is known about which factors predict the NCLEX-RN first-time pass rate of ABSN students. Method: This descriptive retrospective study examined academic and nonacademic indicators (e.g., age) that can predict ABSN students' NCLEX-RN first-time pass rates between 2008 and 2019. Results: A total of 591 ABSN students were included in the study. Both GRE (Graduate Record Examination) verbal reasoning scores (p < .001) and cumulative grade point averages (p < .001) were significant predictors. Conclusion: The findings of this study can help inform ABSN programs in terms of admission criteria and curriculum consideration for including standardized tests to improve ABSN students' NCLEX-RN first-time pass rate. [J Nurs Educ. 2024;63(1):10–16.]

This article uses an added value measure to assess the gender-specific impact of attending a STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) program. Using the results of the mandatory Colombian national exit exams, we compare the math and reading scores at the end of high school and at the end of college by gender. A difference-in-differences technique combined with propensity score matching is used to address selection bias. We find that the gender-related achievement gap in math and reading scores increases after college affecting women. The gap is larger for those individuals studying a STEM major in comparison with a non-STEM major. Moreover, we find that the gender gap is higher in public and accredited universities.

This article examines upper secondary vocational education students who have failed the exit examination ( Matura ) at least twice. Repeated failure leaves such students with only a basic education certification, restricting their access to higher education and limiting their labour market prospects. Although most of these young people wish to make another attempt to pass the Matura , they have lost their formal student status, along with its associated benefits, and most are compelled to seek employment. Academic failure, particularly at these critical transition points, can have profound implications on students’ educational and professional trajectories and their identities. The research question we posed here, therefore, is: How do the identities of upper secondary vocational education Matura examinees evolve during the two years after they fail the final examination? The data corpus for this study consists of biographical interviews with 46 informants who failed the Matura . The data analysis reveals that they struggled to anchor their identities through study, work, or family, with some exploiting non‐systemic permeability mechanisms.

Recent literature has called into question resident readiness for operative independence at the end of general surgery training. We used a simulation-based exit examination to assess resident readiness. Six chief residents performed 3 simulated procedures: bowel anastomosis, laparoscopic ventral hernia (LVH) repair, and pancreaticojejunostomy. Faculty assessed resident performance using task-specific checklists, Objective Structured Assessment of Technical Skills (OSATS), and final product analysis. Residents' individual task-specific checklist scores ranged from 25% to 100% across all 3 procedures. Mean OSATS scores ranged from 4.06 to 4.23/5.0. Residents scored significantly higher on “instrument knowledge” (mean = 4.78, standard deviation [SD] = 23) than “time and motion” (mean = 3.94, SD = .48, P = .025) and “ability to adapt to individual pathologic circumstances” (mean = 4.06, SD =.12, P = .002). Final product analysis revealed a range of errors, including incorrect technique and poor intraoperative planning. Despite relatively high OSATS ratings, residents had a wide range of errors and procedure outcomes. Exit assessments using multiple evaluation metrics may improve awareness of residents' learning needs.

Since 1992, the UK Government has published so-called 'school league tables' summarising the average General Certificate of Secondary Education (GCSE) 'attainment' and 'progress' made by pupils in each state-funded secondary school in England. While the headline measure of school attainment has remained the percentage of pupils achieving five or more good GCSEs, the headline measure of school progress has changed from 'value-added' (2002-2005) to 'contextual value-added' (2006-2010) to 'expected progress' (2011-2015) to 'progress 8' (2016-). This paper charts this evolution with a critical eye. First, we describe the headline measures of school progress. Second, we question the Government's justifications for scrapping contextual value-added. Third, we argue that the current expected progress measure suffers from fundamental design flaws. Fourth, we examine the stability of school rankings across contextual value-added and expected progress. Fifth, we discuss the extent to which progress 8 will address the weaknesses of expected progress. We conclude that all these progress measures and school league tables more generally should be viewed with far more scepticism and interpreted far more cautiously than they have often been to date.

Background: This study assessed the validity of a widely used standardized exit exam (E2) as a predictor of Next Generation NCLEX (NGN) and examined the relationship between policies governing E2 use in programs and success on the NGN. Method: A total of 32 programs across the United States and Canada provided NGN outcome information for 1,753 students who took the E2 in April to December 2023, and 36 programs provided information about their policies. Results: Students who achieved an average E2 score of 850 and above had an NGN first-time pass rate (FTPR) of 98%, significantly higher than those with average scores under 850. Policies such as test preparation requirements and remediation for the E2 were associated with significantly higher student E2 benchmark attainment. Conclusion: This study presents updated evidence on the validity of the E2 and expands research in the ways specific policies can support student success on the E2 and, by extension, potentially the NGN.