Conclusions for reading performance
Minimum proficiency levels
In grade five, approximately one out of three students (35%) in Federated States of Micronesia performed at or above the minimum proficiency level. In grade seven, close to half the students (47%) performed at or above the minimum proficiency level. Similar to patterns across the region, the highest proportion of students were performing at levels 0–1 for both Grade five (48%) and Grade seven (27%).
Gender
Girls performed better than boys in both grade five and grade seven. Grade five girls performed 21 points better than boys (431 compared to 410); grade seven girls performed 15 points better than boys (489 compared to 474); 39% of grade five girls were at or above the minimum proficiency levels compared to 33% of boys; and 50% of Grade seven girls were at or above these levels compared to 45% of boys.
School authority
Students in non-government schools outperformed those in government schools in both grade five and grade seven. In grade five, the mean difference in performance was 126 points between government and non-government schools. In grade seven, the mean difference was 107 points. The variance in performance was higher in government schools. There has been a bigger drop in student performance in government schools compared to non-government schools between 2018 and 2021. Students in grade seven non-government schools performed slightly better from 2018 to 2021, while grade seven students in government schools performed worse between 2018 and 2021 (41 points).
Note the small number of non-government schools in the sample.
Coding
The coding of student responses in reading shows that students in Federated States of Micronesia did well in locating information from the text but struggled when asked to identify information when there is competing text in the way. Both grade five and grade seven students struggled when asked to interpret and make inferences from what they had read and when asked to think critically in order to form an opinion or give a reason for a response.
Trends
Compared to the regional average, fewer students in Federated States of Micronesia performed at or above the minimum proficiency level. In grade five, 35% were at or above the expected level compared to 43% in the region. In Grade seven, 47% were at or above expected level compared to 53% in the region. There was a drop in the mean performance scores of students in both grade five and grade seven from 2018. Notably, both grade five and grade seven mean performance scores dropped below the 2015 score.
