Recently, a new wave of the unified state exam has started, and over the 8 years that the Unified State Exam has existed on a mandatory basis, the controversy around it has not subsided. In this material, we are trying to show in dynamics the average USE scores in Russian language and mathematics in the regions, as well as explain what may be associated with regional differences in exam results.
The data presented here is compiled from open sources. The USE results were obtained from the regional websites of educational departments and centers for assessing the quality of education. Other indicators are collected on the websites of the Ministry of Education and Science of the Russian Federation, Rosstat, and the Federal Treasury.
USE results: regional differences
If you look at the map, you can see that the regions of the Central Federal District show the highest average scores in both Russian and mathematics. In 2015, among the leaders in the Russian language were the Orenburg and Samara regions, as well as the Perm Territory, in specialized mathematics - the Republic of Kalmykia, Perm Territory and Udmurtia. The lowest results, contrary to stereotypes, are observed not in the North Caucasian regions, but in the Far East.
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Of particular interest is the dynamics of the USE results in the regions. It is incorrect to compare scores by year directly - the exam has gone through many changes over the years. For example, in 2013, during massive leaks of answers, the scores of participants in the country as a whole were higher, and in 2014, after tightening security measures, they fell. With this in mind, we looked at the position of the regions relative to the average score in Russia and used standardized z-scores. In other words, we compared the dynamics of the regions relative to the national average. The results of the regions in 2010 and 2014 were compared, since during this period the content and structure of the exam were the most stable.
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In general, 16 subjects of the Russian Federation showed significant (more than one standard deviation) growth over these five years in mathematics, and in the Russian language - 11. Basically, these are the regions that in 2010 showed results below the average. A significant decrease in scores occurred in mathematics in 6, and in Russian in 3 regions - where in 2010 there were quite high scores. In the constituent entities of the Russian Federation with average results, there were no significant changes in scores.
Factors of regional differences in USE results
2009-2014:
To understand what explains the results of the USE in mathematics and the Russian language in 2009-2014, we analyzed their relationship with a number of regional characteristics. The focus was, firstly, on the role of resource provision for schools, and secondly, on the role of family resources.
School resources are largely determined by the size of government funding. If we adjust the volume of per capita financing of schools for inflation and differences between regions in the cost of living, then the growth of this indicator from 2006 to 2013 was about 40 percent. At the same time, the maximum gap in per capita financing over the same period decreased slightly - from 6 to 5 times. The largest increase in school funding occurred in 2012, when the May Presidential Decrees were adopted.
Changes in school funding are important to student outcomes. According to our estimates, regions with a higher level of per capita funding show higher average USE scores in mathematics (with an equal level of economic development, household income, and a number of other characteristics of the regions). In the Russian language, there is a significant relationship between USE results and per capita funding (taking into account other regional indicators) in 2009-2014. not found. This can be partly explained by the fact that the social characteristics of families play an important role in the results on the Russian language.
The main share in the budgetary financing of schools is made up of teachers' salaries. At the same time, the dynamics of their salaries relative to the average level of remuneration in the region is important. On the whole, these dynamics were positive. The most significant increase in the relative salaries of teachers was observed in 2008 and in 2012–2013, with a slight decrease in 2007 and 2010.
According to our estimates, the level of teachers' salaries relative to the average salary in the region is positively associated with regional USE results in both Russian and mathematics. Wages determine which teachers will come to schools and with what attitude they will work. For example, data from the 2012 PISA survey of school principals show that in regions with higher relative salaries, teachers are more motivated, enthusiastic, and driven to achieve.
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In addition to the state, families invest in the education of their children. The resources of families are determined by their income. Our analysis shows that in regions with a high level of poverty (the proportion of people with incomes below the subsistence level), the USE scores are lower. The high level of income inequality within the region also negatively affects the average USE scores (with the same level of budgetary funding for schools and a number of other regional characteristics).
In other words, family resources are also important for enhancing the educational achievement of schoolchildren. At the same time, in the constituent entities of the Russian Federation with low incomes of the population, on average, the resources of regional budgets are lower, and hence the funding of schools.
In general, at this stage, the leveling of the level of budgetary funding of schools between the regions is not enough to equalize the scores of children.
2015 year:
If we talk about the results of 2015, then the gap between the regions with the minimum and maximum average USE scores can be 28 points in Russian and 16 in mathematics. The socio-economic characteristics of the constituent entities of the Russian Federation (gross regional product, school funding per student, the proportion of the population with higher education, as well as the proportion of the urban population) explain the average USE score in mathematics by 25 percent and the average USE score in Russian by 34 percent. Children from less affluent regions are less likely to get high scores on the exam than those who live in the more economically developed part of the country. Moreover, in the Russian language, this gap is somewhat larger than in mathematics.
Almost to the same extent (28 percent in mathematics and 30 percent in Russian) the regional average scores are explained by the characteristics of schools and teachers. It is important to consider how many children in the region after the 9th grade go to colleges, and how many remain in high school and take the Unified State Exam. Our analysis shows that in schools where fewer than half of the ninth graders remain in high school, the results are also higher than in schools where the selection (or self-selection) of children is less strict.
Teacher characteristics are also important. In all regions, teachers with completed higher education prevail, however, where there are more than 80 percent of such teachers, the results of the USE of students are higher. But the relationship between the results and the category of teacher turned out to be not so unambiguous - the highest results were among graduates in the regions where the share of teachers with the highest category varies from 22 to 30 percent.
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Thus, our analysis shows how unequal are the chances of high USE scores among students from different regions. By the way, the average results of Moscow schoolchildren on the USE are 13 points in profile mathematics and 5 points in the Russian language higher than those of schoolchildren from the Republic of Buryatia.
In general, the economic and educational characteristics of the regions determine the USE scores by 64 percent in Russian and by 53 percent in mathematics. At the same time, these factors are outside the sphere of influence of the teachers and schools themselves, therefore it is incorrect to evaluate them by this result.
conclusions
As our analysis shows, in Russia there are quite large regional differences in the educational results of schoolchildren. These differences can determine the future fate of children, including, affect admission to universities.
To a large extent, this difference is related to the extent to which schoolchildren are provided with educational resources. Inequality of resources exists both at the level of families and at the level of public funding of schools. Often one accompanies the other.
Our analysis does not take into account variations in the scores of a single exam within regions, although this task seems to be extremely useful in developing educational policy measures. Such an analysis requires access to impersonal USE data for researchers. In developed countries, the results of such tests are used to analyze and develop management decisions, and it is important to use this experience in Russia as well.
The Unified State Exam as an objective tool for assessing school graduates has shown that there is a problem with inequality in education. You cannot place all the responsibility for solving this problem on the exam itself or on the teachers. Equalizing educational opportunities is a public policy challenge.
In our country, the unified state examination in mathematics is obliged to pass every student who graduates from a secondary school course. We will not go into the details of possible changes in the exam form and those exceptional cases when a graduate, being the winner of, for example, the All-Russian Olympiad, automatically receives 100 points for the exam.
Consider the results of the Unified State Examination in Mathematics in previous years, when it contained both very simple problems and complicated ones, but solved by graduates of ordinary schools, and very complex ones, requiring special training. Based on the statistics published on the Official Information Portal of the Unified State Exam ( http://ege.edu.ru/ru/main/satistics-ege/), the picture is as follows:
Recent USE results in mathematics
In fact, the entire 11th grade (and sometimes even longer) is preparing schoolchildren for the final exam, which for some of them is also an entrance exam. And what's the bottom line? Most of the graduates wrote the Unified State Exam for 51-60 points (26%), the percentage of "twos" is very noticeable (up to 20 points, this is about 6.2% or almost 50,000 people!), And only 0.7% of all students were able to pass the Unified State Exam by 91-100 points! And in general, only 8% of all children who graduated from the 11th grade of secondary school were able to pass the worthy points (more than 70) required for admission to the country's leading universities.
It is interesting to compare the USE results in mathematics with the USE results in the Russian language.
USE results in mathematics and Russian language
We see that it was incomparably easier to pass the Russian language successfully. The turning point in points occurs around 60. This is also shown by the average score: in the Russian language - 63.4, in mathematics - 48.7.
At the same time, a work was written for 100 points: in Russian - 2559 people, and in mathematics - 538 (that is, almost five times less), which is less than 0.07% of all results.
It is in mathematics - the lowest percentage of maximum results among all subjects taken in the form of the exam! And this is still "optimistic" statistics! Not so long ago, after a series of scandals around the Unified State Exam, the high results were carefully checked, and as a result, only 64 people received the maximum score in mathematics - 8.4 times less than the year before! As a result of inspections, the proportion of graduates who passed by more than 80 points also decreased.
Now let us consider the results of the graduates of the same year who were trained in the "Mathematica". More than 70 points were scored by 32 people, of which: 71-80 - 19 people, 81-90 - 9 people, 91-100 - 4 people.
Now they are students of the Moscow State University. M.V. Lomonosov, National Research Institute "Higher School of Economics", Russian University of Economics. G.V. Plekhanov, Moscow State Institute of International Relations (MGIMO), Moscow State Technical University. N.E. Bauman, Federal University under the Government of the Russian Federation and other prestigious universities in our capital.
Among the graduates of "Mathematica" there is a 100-point result for the Unified State Exam. It was received by Ivan Pavlov in a year, when only 157 people from 43 regions of Russia passed the exam for the maximum score. It is logical that among all the faculties Ivan chose the Mechanics and Mathematics of Moscow State University. Very close to this result was Konstantin Slavnov, who entered the Faculty of Computational Mathematics and Cybernetics of Moscow State University. He passed the USE by 98% (then 214 people passed 100 USE points in mathematics, which was 0.03% of all graduates).
Thus, "Mathematica" carefully prepares its graduates, and they successfully pass the Unified State Exam not only for high, but even for maximum scores! That, as can be seen from the USE statistics, is a very, very rare result.
The Unified State Exam in Russian is a compulsory exam. In total, 616 590 people took part in the main period of the Unified State Exam in the Russian language in 2017 (in 2016 - 658 392 people; in 2015 - 672 407 people).
The results of the USE in the Russian language in 2017 are generally comparable to the results of the USE of previous years.
On the official website of the FIPI in the section "Analytical and methodological materials" there are published "Methodological recommendations for teachers, prepared on the basis of an analysis of typical mistakes of participants in the USE 2017", it is here that you can find information about what is the average USE score in the Russian language was in 2017.
Download the document.
Table 1
Average USE score in Russian 2015 - 2017
| Year | Average test score | Test score range | ||||
| 0–20 | 21–40 | 41–60 | 61–80 | 81–100 | ||
| 2017 | 69,06 | 0,43% | 2,62% | 23,61% | 48,30% | 25,04% |
| 2016 | 68,5 | 0,82% | 3,40% | 24,45% | 45,75% | 25,58% |
| 2015 | 66,16 | 1,69% | 4,79% | 26,98% | 46,75% | 19,80% |
The share of examinees who scored 100 points based on the exam results remained unchanged compared to 2016 - 0.5%. The share of high-scorers also remains stable: 25.5% in 2016 and 25% in 2017.
In 2017, the share of graduates who did not overcome the minimum threshold (who did not receive the minimum (24) test score) decreased by 0.5%: from 0.99% (2016) to 0.54% (2017). The main reasons for the decrease in the share of such participants in the Russian language can be attributed to the successful implementation of the Rosobrnadzor system of measures to improve the quality of teaching the Russian language in the constituent entities of the Russian Federation. Data on changes in the number and share of 100-point students in 2015–2017. are given in table. 2.
table 2
Statistics on the performance of the work as a whole and on individual assignments allows us to identify the main problems in the preparation of examinees in the Russian language. As in previous years, the sections of the course related to the formation of communicative competence remain insufficiently mastered. Insufficiently developed skills of analytical work with word and text, lack of sufficient practice in the analysis of linguistic phenomena also affect the quality of writing an essay-reasoning. Graduates experience the greatest difficulties when applying punctuation and spelling norms in writing.
The site "Teach in School" presents an interesting article Average USE score 2017 in Russian, based on other data from the Internet.
So, the exams have been passed, the mountains of textbooks and notebooks have been removed to the distant shelves, and the sites with the results are updated daily. While you are waiting for your points, we will tell you how fruitful the past year has been.
Has the grading system been revised? Updated the format of the state examination? What discipline is popular now? Read about it below.
Innovations
New tasks
The developers have introduced several questions in subjects such as Russian, physics, chemistry. The graduates themselves declare that certification has not become more complicated because of this, on the contrary - there is a good opportunity to earn more!
Completely changed
This can be said about computer science. Most of the examination KIM has been revised and brought up to modern conditions. The students themselves are glad that common programming languages are used in the problems.
Points recalculated
In the exam, the most important thing is the criterion for setting marks and the final amount, since it is this that will affect the successful admission to the university. In social science, literature, this system has been modernized. From this the following conclusion: take a good look at the updates to get an idea of the point structure.
Became clearer
You have probably come across the fact that you did not understand the meaning of the tasks and the requirements for his answers. This problem was eradicated by the introduction of clearer and more specific wording in the description of the test question and the assessment criteria. This applies to foreign, social science, physics.
USE statistics 2018
In 2018, 731 thousand Russian schoolchildren took part in state tests. Of these, 645,000 were graduates of previous years. This is significantly more than last year.
As usual, “society” turned out to be the most relevant, it was chosen by 62% of the children. This discipline will be required for the humanitarian, social and pedagogical areas of universities. It can be assumed that the competition here will be high, and therefore the best of the best will be able to enter. We must not forget that the number of budget places is mainly reduced annually.
Natural science subjects exceeded the indicators of 2017. Physics became the second most popular exam - 29% of high school students (the value increased by 2%).
25% of schoolchildren signed up for biology, which was unexpected for Rosobrnadzor specialists. A significantly smaller number of future applicants wanted to take history - 24%.
17% passed chemistry, 15% - English, 14% - computer science, 11% - literature.
What are the results?
Nobody knows yet. The check is still ongoing, the forms are being scanned, points are affixed, but not published, and the participants in the state examinations are in anxious anticipation. However, tentative dates have already been published when everyone will know how hard they prepared. The first will be geography - June 15th.
But do you know why the check takes so long?
On average, 15-19 days pass from the moment you leave the classroom until you receive a score on a computer screen.
For 3-4 days, the forms are scanned, the information received is recognized and checked against the records for correctness. Scans without a participant number are checked at the regional level.
7-8 - a check is carried out at the federal level (it is because of this that ninth-graders find out their results on the OGE earlier than eleventh-graders - they do not have this stage). A recheck takes place, after which the works are returned to their regions.
1-4 - the final results are approved and the publication itself.
In this regard, before swearing for a long wait, remember this long chain that your labors go through.
Expectations from the exam 2019?
Officials say the state certification will not see any changes anytime soon. Well, we just have to wait. We will inform you about future innovations as soon as possible so that you have time to prepare to the maximum!
