Comparative Study of High and Low Ability JHS Students’ Achievement Using Traditional and Performance Assessment in Ahanta West Municipality

Abstract

Assessment is sometimes implemented without assessors knowing which assessment type could enhance students’ achievement in tests in schools. This study compared traditional and performance assessment to determine the assessment type which could maximises high and low ability JHS students’ achievements in tests. The descriptive cross-sectional survey with quantitative approach was used. The population for the study was 2499 JHS students in Ahanta West Municipality. The cluster and lottery method of simple random sampling procedures were used to select a sample size of 234 students for the study. Teacher-made achievement tests were used to collect the data. Descriptive statistics, bar graphs, paired sample t-tests, multivariate analysis of variance and multiple linear regression were employed to analyse the data. Results of the analyses revealed that both high and low ability JHS students’ achievements in tests were improved when assessed with performance assessment type. The results further showed that traditional assessment provides the better prediction of high ability students while, in contrast, performance assessment better predicts achievement of low ability students’ achievements in tests. For these reasons, it was concluded that educators at JHS should be mindful of the assessment type they use to assess their students. It was recommended that assessors at the JHS level should adapt and integrate high percentage of performance assessment tasks mixed with less traditional tasks in assessing students order to maximise the students’ achievements in tests and examinations.