Korean Educational Development Institute(KEDI)

Analysis on the Actual Status and Quality of School Education in Korea: A Study on the Elementary Schools (Ⅲ)

This research is concerned with the elementary school in the third cycle of the Research on the Actual Status and the Quality in School Education (general highschool, middle school and elementary school) which has been carried out since 2003. The research aims to measure the actual status and the quality of elementary school education and to identify the changes by comparing with previous cycles.

In order to achieve the goal of the research, indexes were modified and developed to reflect the pending issues of elementary school education based on the established theoretical model in the Research on the Actual Status and the Quality in School Education: Elementary, Middle and General High Schools which was carried out from 2003 to 2010. In the mail survey for 250 schools nationwide, 214 schools participated in 2005 and 2008, and 36 schools additionally sampled in 2011. The survey attempted to evaluate Korean language skills, math and also science achievement. The collected students' results were connected to their parents' answers for analysis. The statistics DB of Korean Educational Development Institute was linked to school information and calculated weights were applied for estimating parameters in national level. Moreover, achievement level of each subject was classified to identify students' academic levels through standards setting process based on the results of academic achievement tests.