Identifying Major Determinants of the Academic Performance of Students from a State- operated Senior High School

Abstract

This pilot paper aims to identify the factors assessed by Senior High School Students (SHSS) from a State-operated Senior High School (SOS) as contributors in their Academic Performance (AP). A total of 495 set of responses of SHSS coming from different strands were retained after administering a validated questionnaire containing 22 probable factors that affects their own AP. These probable factors were either pre-identified to have significant effects to the AP of High School students or included for substantiation purposes.

By applying Exploratory Factor Analysis, 19 factors were reclassified into Eight Major Determinants (8MD) while the remaining three factors were eliminated. The 8MD, namely, are (1) Overall Performance, (2) Driving Forces, (3) Guardian Influence, (4) Teacher Expertise, (5) Academic Perplexity, (6) Self-Improvement, (7) Studying Costs, and (8) Teacher Consideration. This study also revealed that the overall assessment of SHSS on these factors are significantly associated to (A) age and (B) school where they finished Grade 10 but not in terms of (C) sex and (D) strand. This study, therefore, provides empirical evidences on starting points where future studies about SHSS, AP, or both, are focusing on especially if the samples are coming from any SOS.