Analysis of Achievement Tests in Secondary Chemistry and Biology

Abstract

The study analyzes the performances of students in a regular high school, a special education school and a special science high school of different regions in the division achievement tests in Chemistry for school year 2009-2010. It also identifies the content of the division achievement tests in chemistry as well as in biology. The biology achievement test serves as a benchmark on how sophomores are being prepared, prior to taking a chemistry course. Test items in the division achievement tests are classified according to the level of thinking being developed. Difficulty indices for each item in the Chemistry achievement tests are also determined. The study found out that both Chemistry and Biology achievement tests focus on factual knowledge which promotes lower order thinking skills. It also found out that the special school and regular high school’s performances in the achievement test still fit a bell-shaped normal curve while a special science high school has a skewed to the right curve. Performances of students are also affected by face validity.