Occurrence of Bimodal Classroom Achievement in Ontario

Authors

  • Timothy Sibbald Schulich School of Education, Nipissing University

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.11575/ajer.v60i1.55939

Keywords:

bimodal, classroom distributions, ability grouping, distributional clustering

Abstract

The occurrence of bimodality in classroom distributions of student achievement is assessed for a population sample of 143,925 Ontario grade 9 students in 6,943 classrooms using standardized assessment scores. A pattern recognition approach―which makes no assumptions about the underlying latent variables―was used to identify the number of modes. The resulting finding was that one quarter of classrooms exhibit bimodal characteristics, with approximately 20% having two modes and 5% having three modes.

Author Biography

Timothy Sibbald, Schulich School of Education, Nipissing University

Dr. Sibbald is an Assistant Professor with a focus on mathematics education and teacher development at the Schulich School of Education at Nipissing University.

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Published

2014-12-18

How to Cite

Sibbald, T. (2014). Occurrence of Bimodal Classroom Achievement in Ontario. Alberta Journal of Educational Research, 60(1), 221–225. https://doi.org/10.11575/ajer.v60i1.55939

Issue

Section

RESEARCH NOTES