Power law distribution in High School Education: Effect of Economical, Teaching and study conditions

TL;DR

This study analyzes the distribution of high school students' exam scores, revealing power law tails in science subjects linked to study, teaching, and economic conditions, and suggests improvements for science education.

Contribution

It identifies power law distributions in science exam scores and links them to socioeconomic and educational factors, providing insights into improving high school science education.

Findings

Power law tails observed in science subject scores.

Better conditions correlate with higher mean scores.

Science scores show more sensitivity to conditions than humanities.

Abstract

We studied the statistical distribution of student's performance, which is measured through their marks, in university entrance examination (Vestibular) of UNESP (Universidade Estadual Paulista) with respect to (i) period of study - day vs. night period (ii) teaching conditions - private vs. public school (iii) economical conditions - high vs. low family income. This examination reflect quality of high schools education. We observed long ubiquitous power law tails in Physical and Biological sciences in all cases. The mean value increases with better study conditions followed by better teaching and economical conditions. In humanities, the distribution is close to normal distribution with very small tail. This indicate that these power law tail in science subjects are due to the nature of the subject itself. Further better study, teaching and economical conditions are more important for physical and biological sciences in comparison to humanities. We explain these statistical distributions through Gradually Truncated Power law distributions. We discuss the possible reason for this peculiar behaviour and make suggestions to improve science education at high school level.