Analysis of institutional competitiveness of junior high schools through the admission test to high school education

Abstract

This descriptive and correlational research studies 15,658 students from 335 secondary schools in the state of Chihuahua, Mexico, through the results of the examination of admission to high school education (National High School Admission Test - EXANI I from the National Assessment Center for Education - CENEVAL) on logical- mathematical and verbal reasoning, mathematics and Spanish, comparing along the variables of sex, system (public or private), type of school of origin (there are seven types) and ranking of grades, with which, the main objective is to identify levels of institutional competitiveness. The main findings of the research were: (i) private schools, in comparison with public ones, showed percentages of more favorable grades (60.54 and 43.58 respectively); (ii) influence of the academic average of the students in the result of the examination of admission (correlation of .0403; (iii) greater competence in the area of verbal reasoning (56.47) compared to logical-mathematical reasoning (55.69); and (iv) the identification of a small number of secondary schools considered as having sufficient institutional competitiveness (11 schools, equivalent to 3.28% of the total).