Socioeconomic and academic conditions of preparation for the Paes of students of secondary education : San Salvador and La Libertad case

Abstract

The aim of this research was to determine the factors which influence the successful outcomes of the PAES test 2012. The population included male and female youths, between the ages of 16 and 21, who took the Paes 2012. They came from both the urban and rural areas, and from the public as well as the private sector, whether they had taken a general or a technical high school program, having obtained test scores between 0.3 and 10.0. The sample consisted of 1,291 participants, stratified among the fourteen departments of the Republic of El Salvador, 38 % of which belonged to the departments of San Salvador and La Libertad, on which this article is based. Part of the results indicated that students from both, the private and the public sector, had a positive impact in their test scores thanks to the Paes test training received outside their institutions. In like manner, the higher the academic level of the parents, the higher the score their children had, although there were a few isolated cases which proved otherwise. Public safety is an element of concern for the students, and it also has an impact on their performance in the test, especially among those students coming from public schools. 

Entorno, august 2014, issue 56: 37-47