Economics Network IREE Virtual Edition

Appendix

Appendix to "A Comparison of Academic Performance in A-Level Economics between Two Years" by Ray Bachan and Barry Reilly

Table A1 Summary statistics for economics samples, 1998 and 2000

Variable Economics 1998 Economics 2000 z-score/chi-squared tests
A-level grade performance
A 0.226 0.248 –1.66
B 0.175 0.183 –0.67
C 0.191 0.196 –0.41
D 0.165 0.166 –0.09
E 0.110 0.110 0.00
N/U 0.129 0.093 3.67
Chi squared 5df 14.262 (0.014)
Gender
Male 		0.577 0.609 –2.10
Ethnic background
White 0.830 0.813 1.48
Black 0.026 0.021 0.99
Asian 0.105 0.112 –0.76
Chinese 0.013 0.020 –1.83
Other 0.026 0.034 –1.45
Chi squared 4df 7.358 (0.118)
Mother tongue – English 0.915 0.899 1.72
GCSE background
Average GCSE score 6.165 6.308 –5.76
GCSE Maths – A/A* 0.403 0.482 –5.12
GCSE Maths – B 0.397 0.356 2.74
GCSE Maths – C 0.185 0.146 3.39
GCSE Maths – D 0.015 0.016 –0.35
Chi squared 3df 28.039 (0.000)
School type
LEA 0.309 0.346 –2.51
Grant-maintained 0.203 0.236 –2.54
Private 0.205 0.219 –1.13
Sixth-form college 0.167 0.134 2.95
Further education college 0.116 0.065 5.68
Chi squared 4df 48.478 (0.000)
Parental characteristics
Mother’s status:
Deceased 0.007 0.009 0.86
Retired 0.012 0.006 1.86
Unemployed 0.019 0.024 –1.16
Full-time employment 0.373 0.413 –2.56
Part-time employment 0.323 0.278 3.15
Self-employed 0.069 0.087 –2.12
Student 0.010 0.009 0.19
Homemaker 0.187 0.174 1.10
Chi squared 7df 21.292 (0.003)
Mother’s education:
Secondary education 0.398 0.332 4.43
Further education 0.350 0.374 –1.63
Higher education 0.252 0.294 –3.04
Chi squared 2df 20.630 (0.000)
Father’s status:
Deceased 0.021 0.021 0.04
Retired 0.036 0.027 1.70
Unemployed 0.028 0.019 1.83
Full-time employment 0.687 0.715 –1.94
Part-time employment 0.030 0.021 1.76
Self-employed 0.192 0.193 –0.05
Student 0.003 0.002 0.32
Homemaker 0.003 0.002 0.65
Chi squared 6df 10.193 (0.117)a
Father’s education:
Secondary education 0.355 0.297 4.02
Further education 0.264 0.264 –0.04
Higher education 0.381 0.439 –3.80
Chi squared 2df 19.321 (0.000)
Examination board
Edexcel 0.467 0.350 7.26
OCR 0.141 0.231 –7.42
AQAb 0.376 0.419 –2.81
Chi squared 2df 83.618 (0.000)
Other A-levels taken
Mathematics 0.328 0.386 –3.87
Physics 0.068 0.101 –3.81
English 0.255 0.248 0.54
Statistics and Accounting 0.013 0.020 –1.72
Science subject 0.166 0.200 –2.79
Social science subject 0.347 0.340 0.49
Humanities subject 0.220 0.277 –4.22
Modern languages 0.150 0.133 1.54
Arts subject 0.095 0.087 0.93
Number of observations 2,086 2,019

Notes:

z-scores are used to test differences in proportions between 1998 and 2000, and t-tests are used to test differences in means. The appropriate critical value at the 0.05 level using a two-tailed test is ±1.96.

Chi-squared values are used to test the assumption of independence in the sets of categorical variables between 1998 and 2000. The significance levels for these tests are reported in parentheses.

a Chi-squared value with six degrees of freedom. The categories ‘father student’ and ‘father homemaker’ were grouped together.

b AEB and NEAB are grouped together as ‘AQA’ for 1998.

‘Arts subject’ includes Art, Communication Studies, Design and Technology, Graphical Communication, Music, Photography, Theatre Studies and Performing Arts.

‘Humanities subject’ includes Classical Civilisation, Environmental Studies, Geography, Politics, History, Home Economics, Latin, Law and Religious Studies.

‘Social science subject’ includes Sociology and Psychology.

‘Science subject’ includes Biology, Chemistry, Electronics and Computing.