Socioeconomic status and academic achievement: An analysis of the equity assumption of the College Entrance Examination in Taipei, Taiwan, the Republic of China.

Abstract

In Taiwan, as in most countries around the world, test scores are used as a basis for students' academic evaluation. Based on the historical background, a unique examination system has been developed. The most competitive test is the nationwide Entrance Examination for Colleges and Universities which is the gate for accessing higher education. The major focus of this thesis is to examine the relationships of socioeconomic status, high school experience and performance to academic achievement as measured by the college entrance examination. The study included only those who were the third year students attending public high schools in Taipei city for the academic year 1986-1987. According to the Bureau of Education (1987), a total of 11,710 students would be eligible for inclusion. From this I have drawn a sample of 1,259 students, approximately ten percent of the population. To investigate the relationships of background variables, high school experience and performance to academic achievement, the study approached data analysis in several interrelated steps. Simple descriptive statistics were performed to obtain an initial observation at the pattern of relationships between achievement and related variables. Then, other general linear methods involving one and two way analysis of variance and multiple regression were used to disentangle the relationships between socioeconomic status and academic achievement while controlling for the related variables. According to the theoretic framework of this research, a causal diagram, which show the causal relationships among variables, was constructed to explain the process of educational attainment. Path analysis and Linear Structural Relations (LISREL) were used to explore and predict academic achievement, as measured by the college entrance examination. It was found that the direct effect of socioeconomic status is negligible, but there are strong indirect of SES on both educational aspirations, aptitude and performance in high school. In addition, the findings show that the direct effect of gender on academic achievement is significant and negative, i.e., females score lower than males on the college entrance examination, all other factors being equal. However, other factors are seldom equal. Females have slightly higher aspirations and slightly higher high school GPAs than males, mitigating the disadvantage that they appear to have based on gender alone. In the conclusions, recommendations for educational change and directions for further studies are offered. It is hoped that the findings from this study will shed more light on the speculation related to the concept of equal opportunity to access higher education and provide important information for the Ministry of Education in Taiwan, the Republic of China.