FACTORS AFFECTING GRADE SCHOOL PERFORMANCE OF STUDENTS

WITH PRESCHOOL EDUCATION

A Thesis

Presented to

Graduate School Department

University of La Salette

Santiago City, Isabela, Philippines

In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree

Master of Arts in Education

By

PATSON P. OPIDO

May 2010
 Chapter 1

THE PROBLEM AND ITS BACKGROUND

Introduction

“Bright minds make bright futures!” Preparatory children nowadays are far

better than before they are more advanced in teaching and more capable of absorbing the

methods of learning that used with them. Modern teaching accompanied with modules

and analytical measures develop the preschooler’s memory retention that serves as the

foundation of their education. Kids today are more willing and not afraid to try to

discover new ways and methods of learning.

The value of preschool is a hot topic these days. A small but growing number of

studies link enrollment in preschool or child care centers (which typically include a

preschool curriculum) to higher cognitive and language scores on kindergarten-entry

tests. The early childhood stage is a permanent learning stage. Whatever they learn now,

they will take home. This preschool education is the provision of education for children

before the commencement of statutory education, usually between the ages of three and

five, dependent on the jurisdiction.

The institutional arrangements for preschool education vary widely around the

world, as do the names applied to the institutions. The terms usually given to centers for

the care of infants—those in the first phase of childhood (about three months to three

years of age)—are infant school, day care, day nursery, and crèche—the term crèche
being used not only in French-speaking countries but also in such places as Scandinavia,

the United Kingdom, Poland, Russia, and Israel. For the second phase of early childhood,

other institutional names and arrangements exist, the most common being the “maternal

school” (école maternelle), or nursery school, and the kindergarten. Typically, the

maternal school (for ages three to four or five) precedes kindergarten (for ages four or

five to six), but in some countries—Italy, for instance—a child goes from the maternal

directly to the primary school. In Germany, in addition to the Kindergarten, there is the

Schulkindergarten (school kindergarten), which is for children of school age who are not

considered sufficiently mature and which therefore serves as a kind of preparatory school

for primary school. In the United States, kindergarten is considered a part of primary

education.

Preschool work is organized within a framework that professional educators

create. The framework includes structural (administration, class size, teacher-child ratio,

etc.), process (quality of classroom environments, teacher-child interactions, etc), and

alignment (standards, curriculum, assessments) components that are associated with each

individual unique child that has both social and academic outcomes.

Effective preschool education can help make all children ready to learn the day

they start school and, more importantly, help close the enormous gap facing children in

poverty. Preschool gives our kids the strong foundation they need to be successful in

school and in life. Children who attend pre-kindergarten programs have bigger

vocabularies and increased math skills, know more letters and more letter-sound
associations, and are more familiar with words and book concepts, according to a number

of studies.

Nationwide, almost two-thirds (64 percent) of children attend preschool center in

the year prior to kindergarten, typically at age four. On any given day, more than 5

million Filipino youngsters attend some pre-kindergarten program.

And a preschool day is not just advanced babysitting for busy parents. Kids also

practice many key components of the school day, including the importance of routine.

That's key for early learners. Little kids have only a certain amount of what's called

'active working memory. If a large portion of their brain is figuring out what they're

going to do next, there's less room there to spend on learning. Result: Preschool has a

huge impact on their ability to keep up in class.

The Philippines faces overwhelming problems in education. We cannot depend

on the government alone to shoulder the task of educating people especially the poor. On

the contrary, the government itself is one of the problems in education by putting it in the

least priority and giving it a very low budget. Any private entities interested in helping

the poor people through education must implement its own program for education.

But any program for education to be implemented by private sector, commercial

or noncommercial, needs to conform to the national education system being implemented

by the government. Especially those education programs intended for the poor people

must be in accordance with the national education system if only to become legitimate

and be acknowledged by society.

 The researcher is motivated by the above mentioned situation and this led to the

conceptualization of this study. The Factors affecting grade school performance of

students with preschool education I believe is highly influences the different factors that

affect the academic performance of the Filipino youth in their growing years.

As an educator, the researcher is faced with the fact that there is an imperative

need to strengthen and streamline the internal management of educational arrangements

in order to achieve efficiency and responsiveness to trends and challenges of the next

millennium. It is therefore the aim of this study to empower parents and positively

influence them on the affirmative effects of pre-school education in the holistic

development of their children particularly on the advancement of their academic

performance.

Background of the Study

Education is vital for personal, social, and economic development. Poor

education largely and badly impacts on the national development. Thus, the governments

that really concern of national interest, sustainable development, and people rights

attempt to implement well-planned national education system, which could benefit each

and every citizen to develop.

Present education situation is still in turmoil, as present ruling government does

not want to make real changes to develop education sector. Though the regime claims

that it promotes education of Burma, it has yet to successfully implement a good

education system and free education for all. Without student rights, academic freedom,

and rights of education it could not be well developed.

According to government figures, over 3 million school-aged children failed to

acquire primary education. Children dropped out from schools for various reasons, but

the key reason is families' financial status. Even though legal context under existing laws

is prescribed for free primary education, there is neither clear legal protection mechanism

or monitoring body nor any attempt or action of public awareness to help implementing

the provision of Child Law effectively and successfully.

Currently, the regime has laid down a four-year national education promotion

program and a 30-year long-term education plan. However, the government assistance of

student facilities such as hostels, scholarship funds, and modernized learning materials

are not materialized yet. The government authorities have ordered to do self-reliance

program in education, particularly in rural areas. It is assumable that the government has

less responsibility for free compulsory primary education in these regions. Since people

are suffering of social burdens and high commodities price, they could not well support

such programs. Other education rights such as student rights, rights of education and

academic freedom are entirely no practice under successive military regimes. Because of

abuses on these rights, education standard reaches the lowest point and is not sustained.

Though the regime opened all universities and institutes in July 2000, it has never

focused on quality of education. They showed so-called achievement in education sector

to international community; the numbers of graduate students, school buildings, and new

institutes are increased they claimed.

 But, these numbers are just quantities and hollow, not the substance of quality

education. The regime has abused academic freedom and institutional freedom, and

government interference to education is widely common.

Universal access to primary education for all school-age children is an important

component of the education reform programs. Primary Education or Basic Education

should be compulsory and accessible freely to all in order to meet the main aims of all the

declarations and charters of education.

According to the World Bank, the government only spends 28 cents a year per

child in public schools.1 By the late 1990s, the regime's expenditure on civilian education

equaled only 1.2 % of the country’s Gross National Product - compared to 3.8% for

developing countries - and had declined 70% in real terms since 1990. Meanwhile, school

attendance has also dropped nationwide, primarily because of rising school fees. Schools

in some parts of the country have closed down due to lack of State funding. Children

drop out for several complex reasons, although the prime reason is based on families’

financial status. For example, most of the cases of school dropout in the primary levels

are strongly linking with economic factors. The high cost of tuition and school-related

fees are a major factor. School fees include enrollment, textbooks, exercise books, school

cleaning, examination papers, sports fees, in school tutoring fees and USDA membership.

A child failing their examinations is another reason for school drop-out.

The Pre-school Education Programme, established in 1992, aims to provide 5-

year-olds in disadvantaged areas and opportunity for early peer socialization and learning

activities before starting elementary education. The former DECS organized a total of
1,428 classes with 40,780 pupils in the twenty provinces covered by the Social Reform

Agenda (SRA). A total of 638 pre-school teachers were trained in nine selected regions.

Instructional materials and supplies were distributed to classes under the Department

Programme, pre-schools run by Parent-Teacher Associations, and community-based pre-

schools.

In the Philippines, education is a public or state function. Public elementary and

secondary education is supported by the national government, the former as mandated by

the Constitution (1987), which states that “the State shall protect and promote the right of

all citizens to quality education at all levels and shall take appropriate steps to make such

education accessible to all”, and the latter by Republic Act No. 6655 (Free Secondary

Education Act). Specific provisions on education upon which all decrees, policies,

regulations, and rules on education are based, are provided in the Constitution. These are

expressly stated by way of the constitutional mandate, Presidential decree, and other legal

provisions.

The growing awareness of the benefits of education, the constitutional provision

(a new constitution was adopted in 1987) for free and compulsory education, the demand

for education relevance and responsiveness to changing societal needs and the alarming

rate of increase in the country’s population have contributed to the problem of providing

education for all, a problem which becomes more serious each year. The Department of

Education, Culture and Sports (now the Department of Education, DepED) has attempted

to implement educational reforms, programmes and projects to address the key issues of

access and quality of basic education, relevance and efficiency of the education system.
However, many problems are besetting education in the Philippines. Among the school-

related causes are the unqualified and poorly trained teachers, inadequate facilities and

equipment, and lack of instructional materials (textbooks and teacher’s manuals). Non-

school factors include poverty, low educational attainment and illiteracy of parents, and

poor health and nutrition.

Pre-school education at the kindergarten level (age group 5-6 years) must aim to

develop children in all aspects (physical, social, emotional, and cognitive) so that they

will be better prepared to adjust and cope with life situations and the demands of formal

schooling; and to maximize the children’s potential through a variety of carefully selected

and meaningful experiences considering their interests and capabilities.

In order to attain and ensure the holistic development of children, a well-planned

curriculum and a well-balanced programme of activities are necessary, although they may

vary according to each pre-school’s approach. Indoor and outdoor play is essential

whatever approach the pre-school follows. The language spoken by the child should be

valued. It is necessary that such language be used initially and until the children have

attained the facility and confidence in expressing themselves in English and Filipino. The

following table shows a sample programme of pre-school activities:

Theoretical Framework

This study hinged on Gagne’s theory of Conditions of Learning. This theory

stipulates that there are several different types or levels of learning. The significance of

these classifications is that each different type requires different types of instruction.
Gagne identifies five major categories of learning: verbal information, intellectual skills,

cognitive strategies, motor skills and attitudes. Different internal and external conditions

are necessary for each type of learning. For example, for cognitive strategies to be

applied on pre schooler’s to be learned, there must be a chance to practice developing

new solutions to problems; to learn attitudes, the learner must be exposed to a creative

role model or persuasive visualizations.

Gagne suggests that learning tasks for intellectual skills can be organized in a

hierarchy according to complexity: stimulus recognition, response generation, procedure

following, use of terminology, discriminations, concept formation, rule application, and

problem solving. The primary significance of the hierarchy is to identify prerequisites

that should be completed to facilitate learning at each level. Prerequisites are identified

by doing a task analysis of a learning/training task. Learning hierarchies provide a basis

for the sequencing of instruction.

These events should satisfy or provide the necessary conditions for learning and

serve as the basis for designing instruction and selecting appropriate media (Gagne,

Briggs & Wager, 1992). Different instruction is required for different learning outcomes.

Events of learning operate on the learner in ways that constitute the conditions of

learning. The specific operations that constitute instructional events are different for each

different type of learning outcome. Learning hierarchies define what intellectual skills are

to be learned and a sequence of instruction.

 The most famous and leading theory of Cognitive Development is that of Swiss

psychologist Jean Piaget. Piaget’s theory, first published in 1952, grew out of decades of

broad observation of children, including his own, in their natural environments as

opposed to the laboratory experiments of the behaviorists. Even though Piaget was

interested in how children reacted to their environment, he projected a more active role

for them than that suggested by learning theory. He envisioned a child’s knowledge as

composed of schemas, basic units of knowledge used to prepare past experience and

serve as a basis for understanding new ones.

Schemas are frequently being modified by two complementary processes that

Piaget termed assimilation and accommodation. Assimilation refers to the process of

taking in new information by incorporating it into presented schema. In other words,

people assimilate new experiences by involving them to they already know. Conversely,

accommodation is what happens when the schema itself changes to accommodate new

understanding. According to Piaget, cognitive development involves a continuing attempt

to achieve a balance between assimilation and accommodation that he termed

equilibration.

At the center of Piaget’s theory is the principle that cognitive development occurs in

a series of four distinct, universal stages, each characterized by increasingly refined and

nonfigurative levels of thought. One of these stages is the Pre-operational stage (toddler

hood and early childhood). In this period, which has two sub-stages, intelligence is

demonstrated through the use of symbols, language use matures and memory and

imagination are developed, but thinking is done in a non-logical reversible manner.

 Preschoolers, age’s three to six, should be at the “pre-operational” stage of Piaget’s

cognitive development theory, meaning they are using their imagery and memory skills.

They should be conditioned to learning and memorizing and their outlook of the world is

usually very self-centered. Preschoolers have developed their social interactions skills,

such as playing and cooperating with other children in their own age. It is normal for

preschooler to test the restrictions of their cognitive abilities and they learn pessimistic

concepts and actions, such as talking back to adults, lying and bullying. Other cognitive

development in Preschoolers are developing an increased attention span, learning to read,

and developing structured routines, such as doing household chores.

Conceptual Framework

This study is based on the systems concept which consists of three components:

The Input, the Process and the Output.

The Input which is actually the load of the system consists of all things that enter

the system. In this research the Input refers to the profile of the respondents and the

factors affecting grade school performance of students with preschool education.

The Process which transforms Input into Output is sometimes referred to as the

transformation function. In this research, the Process consists of Data Gathering,

Questionnaires, Informal Interview, and Analysis and Interpretation.

The Output of the system is the product or accomplishment of the system. In this

research the Output refers to the measures that could be applied in order to enhance the

grade school performance of students with preschool education.

INPUT PROCESS OUTPUT
Profile of the respondents

The Factors affecting grade

school

performance

of

students

with

preschool

education

PROCESS

Measures that could be applied in order to enhance the grade school performance of

students with preschool education Data Gathering

Questionnaires

Informal Interview

Analysis and

Interpretation

OUTPUT
Figure 2. Relationship of Variables
Statement of the Problem

This particular study was done to determine the Factors affecting grade school

performance of students with preschool education. Specifically, this study was

undertaken to answer the following question.

1.0 What is the profile of the respondents in terms of:

a. Age

b. Educational Attainment

c. Family Income

d. Gender

2.0 What are the factors affecting the influence of enrolling their children to have

preschool education of the respondents in terms of:

a. Family Income

b. Educational Attainment

c. Demographic Location of the School

d. School’s Reputation/Achievements

e. Societal Influences (e.g. Peer Influence)

3.0What are the factors affecting the effectiveness of preschool education to

performance in elementary school in terms of:

School’s Achievements
Definition of Terms

The following terms were used with the context of the study:

Educational Attainment. In this study, this refers to the level of education attained or

accomplished by the respondents either primary, secondary, tertiary level or vocational

course. This also refers a term commonly used by statisticians to refer to the highest

degree of education an individual has completed (Wikipedia.com).

Elementary School. In this study it refers to the stage after preschool education.

This also refers to an institution where children receive the first stage of

compulsory education known as elementary or primary education (Wikipedia.com).

Family Income.In this study, this refers to the monthly income of the family which was

categorized into a) Php 10,000 below b) Php 10,000-Php 20,500 c) Php 20,501-

Php30,000 .

Also, this is generally considered a primary measure of a nation's financial

prosperity (Britannica. com)

Preschool. In this study it refers to the toddlers aging 5-6 enrolled at Messiah’s Angel

Learning Center. This also refers to be generally considered appropriate for children

between three and five years of age, between the toddler and school stages. During this

stage of development, children learn and assimilate information rapidly, and express

interest and fascination in each new discovery (Merriam Webster Dictionary, 2004).
Performance. In this study this refers to the academic competence of the toddlers aging

5-6 enrolled at Messiah’s Angel Learning Center.

This refers to how the student is performing well in class with different factors

affecting each level of performance (Merriam Webster Dictionary, 2004).

 Chapter II

RELATED LITERATURE AND STUDIES

Foreign Literature

According to Mayer (2002), children thrive in an environment of consistency,

order, and empowerment. Teachers are only facilitators and not the primary focus. Most

classes are large (25-30 kids), with a two- to three-year age span. Children are treated as

responsible individuals, cleaning up their own spills, cutting up raw fruit and veggies to

make their own snacks, going to the bathroom without assistance, and sweeping and

dusting at the end of the day.

As described by Zinzitzel (2006), many parents judge the value of a preschool by

how much reading is taught there. The philosophy that underlies this book does not

support this measure, although it does support parents' belief that reading is important.

After reviewing a large body of research on how children become good readers, a panel

of experts commissioned by the National Academy of Sciences concluded that having a

preschool language and literacy foundation is important for later reading success. That

foundation involves all kinds of experiences with stories, conversation, word play, books,

and other meaningful print (signs, notes, lists, directions, etc.). Its most important

component is a rich vocabulary, in whatever language or languages the child speaks.

Providing the range of experiences that will build a strong foundation is more important

in the long run than simply teaching children to recite the alphabet or to read simple

books.
 As described by Mayo et.al (2005), a meaningful knowledge base is developed

through having many varied experiences with materials, places, and people. Vocabulary

building occurs through talking about those experiences. Oral language is developed

through participating in back and forth communication, individual conversations, and

group discussions. Looking at books and having books read aloud to them also promote

children's oral language skills. Phonological awareness is developed through noticing

sounds, playing with the sounds of words, and noticing what sound a word begins with.

Print awareness is developed as children notice the usefulness of print. This occurs as

they experiment with making notes and scribbling and as they find a word in a line of

print. Alphabet knowledge is developed as children recognize and name letters and name

the letter that represents a certain sound.

Foreign Studies

The current educational policy debate worldwide is centered largely on the

educational achievement gap that persists between low-income and minority students, on

the one hand, and higher-income and non- minority students, on the other. Present school

reform efforts that seek to address this problem assume that establishing high curriculum

standards, test-based accountability, and higher-quality teaching in pre-school education

can close this gap. Many researchers and experienced educators question that such

reforms alone can close or significantly narrow the achievement gap. The achievement

gap has deep roots that begin before school entry. Studies show that the foundation for

literacy and other academic learning is laid down before age 5 (Nido, 2006).
 Other studies demonstrate that high-quality preschool education can improve the

school readiness and school performance of children, especially low-income children.

Growing evidence shows that preschool education benefits children who are not poor,

although the effects may not be as pronounced as they are for economically

disadvantaged children (Yang, 2007).

Accordingly, more and more states are establishing universal, state-funded

prekindergarten educational programs for 3- and 4-year olds. Emerging research evidence

suggests that such universal programs have the potential for improving the school

readiness of low-income and minority children as well as of those from higher income

and non- minority families. An important element in the success of such state initiatives

appears to be high teacher education requirements, which other research has found to be a

strong predictor of high-quality environments for children, and equitable teacher salaries,

which help pre-kindergarten programs, recruit and retain talented teachers (Myrna et.al,

2007).

Historically in the United States, universal access to elementary and secondary

schooling eventually became a reality. Universality of access has not, however, resulted

in equal educational achievement, and schools still differ from one another in the quality

of the education they provide. The reference is to the well documented, persistent

association of educational achievement to socioeconomic status (SES) and race/ethnicity.

As a group, that is to say, on average, students of higher SES fare better on indices of

educational achievement than do those from lower SES families (Galean, 2007).
 African American, Hispanic, and other non-White groups who are over-

represented in the lower socioeconomic strata tend, as a group, to lag behind their White

counterparts in school achievement. Equal educational achievement has been a goal of

local communities, the states, and the federal government for decades, as expressed in

such efforts as the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965 (Gormley, 2007).

Local Literature

Filipino families are stable. Divorce rates have increased since the 1960's, but

remain relatively low. In 1980 the number of divorces was 1.2 per thousand people, while

the comparable figure for the United States was 5.2 per thousand. Just 6 percent of all

Japanese families are headed by a single parent (Manabat, 2008).

There is a strong consensus regarding roles and the appropriate division of labor

within the family. A man's primary focus is the workplace, which often includes

extensive work related socializing with male colleagues during the evening hours. In

contrast, a woman's primary focus is her home and family, with particular attention to the

rearing of children. The family-centered role of women is reinforced by their relative lack

of long-term career opportunities outside the home (Villanueva, 2007).

While most Filipino’s subscribe to the view that a woman's place is in the home

and that work should not interfere with her primary responsibilities to children and

husband, women nevertheless make up almost 40 percent of the labor force. More than

half of these women are married. Many mothers with small children work only part-time

so they can be at home when their children are not in school. The extra income generated
by mothers working outside of the home is often used to help meet the cost of their

children's education (Sanglap, 2006).

In many white collar families, the father is a proverbial "guest" in his own house,

returning home most evenings after the children have gone to bed. Although fathers

provide children with certain role models and many take an active interest in education

matters, the task of attending to the child's upbringing and education is usually left to the

mother. Mothers take that responsibility seriously. Mothers and their children are

especially close. Filipino mothers seldom confront their preschool children. Rather, they

attempt to appease the child and foster an intimate, dependent relationship. The purpose

of this approach is to get the child to comply willingly with the mother's wishes and to

shape behavior gradually over the long term. Another goal of early training is to instill in

the child a deep sense of responsibility to the mother and family. This becomes an

important factor in developing motivation for school achievement in the Philippines.

Early childhood training includes attention to manners and proper social behavior

required outside of the home, but there is little actual exposure to group situations beyond

the family until the preschool experience (www.tanikalangfilipino.com).

Much of a mother's sense of personal accomplishment is tied to the educational

achievements of her children, and she expends great effort helping them. In addition,

there is considerable peer pressure on the mother. The community's perception of a

woman's success and educational attainment depends in large part on how well her

children do in school. Filipino parents are strongly committed to early education, though
pre-elementary education in the Philippines is not a part of compulsory education nor is it

linked, like American kindergartens, to the formal school structure. Virtually all

Philippine pre-elementary education takes place in one of two types of institutions:

preschools and daycare centers. Preschools, enroll children primarily between ages 3 and

5. They are in session approximately 5 hours per day. Daycare centers, are primarily for

the children of working mothers. They accept children from infancy through age 5 and

are in session 8 hours per day. In most other respects the two types of institutions are

similar in physical facilities, curricula, teaching styles, and classroom activities

(Villacruz, 2008).

Both types of pre-elementary institutions require tuition. In the case of daycare

centers, parents are assessed charges in accordance with their income. In addition to

income from tuition, pre-elementary institutions receive subsidies from all three levels of

government in varying amounts. The close nature of the mother-child relationship and the

strong cultural and parental commitment to education enable the mother to provide a

strong foundation for the child's entry into elementary school (Nieves, 2008).

Local studies

In the past 25 years, a series of well-designed and well-implemented model

preschool programs have shown significant effects on young children's cognitive growth.

Such effects have been reported for small demonstration programs such as the carefully

controlled barangay early interventions and the Infant Health and Development Project

(Zabala, 2006). These effects have been shown to last through the elementary grades and
beyond. These include not only effects on reading achievement and literacy scores but

also on reduced rates of grade retention and of special education placement and higher

rates of high school graduation.

According to Hernandez (2008), we take it as axiomatic that higher levels of

human capital increase a nation’s wealth and add vibrancy to its political and cultural life.

Perhaps the best-validated determinant of human capital is the amount of engaged time

that learners spend on age appropriate cognitive tasks. This concept has spawned the

advocacy of educational policies as diverse as increasing the time devoted to cognitive

learning during each school day, adding to the length of the school day and to the number

of school days per year, and increasing the fraction of students graduating from high

school, attending college, or starting school at an even younger age (thus, before

kindergarten).

The evidence is overwhelming that preschool programs can work to increase

performance in the early school grades (Sungyap, 2004). Evidence also suggests that

these programs can positively affect later high school graduation rates, labor force

participation, stable household formation, and criminal behavior (Reyes, 2005).

However, studies demonstrating long-term effects tend to be small and local in

scope, as are the studies showing only short-term effects; and two of the studies claiming

long-term benefits left program implementation up to the program developer. So while it

is well warranted that preschool programs can work, the main policy question is whether

they do in fact work when they are implemented at scale. That is, when the program’s

reach is state-wide or federal, when its management is in the hands of education

bureaucrats, and when its daily classroom implementation depends on local officials and

teachers whose knowledge and motivation may not match those of the program

developer’s own staff. In the language of medical research, the evidence for the efficacy

of preschool programs is stronger than the evidence for their effectiveness (Forcadela,

2006).

Relevance of Cited literature and Studies

Past and current studies involving preschool education are particularly associated

with the effectiveness and ventures that enlighten the factors behind the reasons for such.

Such studies made way on describing the effectiveness of preschool towards the

advancements of educational achievements.

A 27 year longitudinal study of participants in the High/Scope Perry Preschool

Project found that kids who participated in the program had significantly better outcomes

than children who did not attend preschool. Participants were more likely to complete

high school and have higher monthly earnings and be married. They were less likely to

need special education, receive welfare or be arrested.

A study of the Abecedarian early childhood pre-school program compared

participants to a control group and found that students who attended the early care

program were 74% less likely to become teen mothers and could earn $3,750 more a year

then those who had not been in a pre-school program.

A 15-year longitudinal study of low-income children in Chicago who participated

in a school district preschool program found a 33% reduction in the rate of juvenile
arrests, a 40% reduction in grade retention, a 41% reduction in the need for special

education, and a 29% increase in the rate of high school completion.

A review of a number of pre-school programs found that the programs provided

varying improvements in a number of different areas. These included gains in cognitive

development, improvements in educational outcomes, reduced levels of criminal activity

and increased economic self-sufficiency, first for the parent and later for the child.

These realizations clarified and exposed the different researches that pursued the

effectiveness of preschool education and how it can help in the advancement of the

child’s educational achievements.

 CHAPTER III

METHODOLOGY

Research method to be used

The study is driven to establish the FACTORS AFFECTING GRADE

SCHOOL PERFORMANCE OF STUDENTS WITH PRESCHOOL EDUCATION.

This study made use of the descriptive-correlational method. This study describes

the profile of the respondents, and the establishment of relationship between factors

affecting grade school achievements and performance with their previous preschool

education. Descriptive statistics was used to explore the data collected regarding the

personal profile of respondents and made general observations about the data collected.

Moreover, it employed a correlative method of research wherein it compares and

discusses the association of the factors affecting grade school achievements and

performance with their previous preschool education.

Population and sample Size

The research will be conducted at Messiah’s Angel Learning Center at España,

Manila. The subject of the study are mothers of preschoolers in which their children have

been enrolled with the same institution starting from nursery to preschool, 25-45 years of

age, and have been connected with Messiah’s Angel Learning Center from school years

2003-2009. 75 percent of the total qualified number of sample in the population will

beselected or 300 respondents will be chosen. Sample size will not be computed

secondary to restricted amount of subjects.

Instrumentation

This survey is a self-made survey questionnaire that will serve to determine the

factors affecting grade school achievements and performance with their previous

preschool education. The researcher incorporated into the survey questions investigating

the awareness of parents regarding the long term impact of pre-school education to their

children. The survey is divided into two parts. First part includes description of the socio-

demographic profile of respondents. The second part is composed of a set of close ended-

question to represent the different factors that affects the Performance in Elementary

School of those respondents who have had previous preschool education. Given the

Survey uses 5-point response choices Likert Scale, we can assume that agreement with

positively-worded items would represent the factors affecting predictive validity. The

questionnaire will go through validity tests where in measures to ensure its validity will

be based on review of related literatures, conduction of focus groups, seeking opinions

with experts for content and phase validity and pre-testing the questionnaire to a different

set of participants.

Data gathering Procedure

The researcher sets out to assess the factors affecting grade school achievements

and performance with their previous preschool education. The researcher would like to

mention how the locale of the study, Messiah’s Angel Learning Center started with the

formal utilization of the said program. This is grounded on the idea that no study and

evaluation may be done on the said program if it is yet to be implemented by the

institution. Messiah’s Angel Learning Center was built on May 2001, and has been
purposely built to accommodate preschoolers and expose them to the fun and creative

way of learning. The school started with 6 teachers and a principal, with 20 pre-school

students divided into two sections, with the efforts of the Board of Directors it expanded

and presently accommodates 60 pre-school students, divided into 6 sections with 2 highly

qualified teachers supervising each student. The schools adopted the modern concept of

preschool curriculum, incorporating computer subjects with the traditional subjects of

Filipino, Mathematics, Reading, English, Science and Religion. Messiah’s Angel

Learning Center, has produced hundreds of academically competitive students among the

top elementary schools in España, Manila. For the purpose of producing more valid, non-

biased and non-discriminatory data, the researcher will choose to seek the aid/assistance

of a statistician coming from PUP graduate school. The said person will primarily be

tasked of conducting and administering the distribution and gathering of survey

questionnaires.

Statistical Treatment of Data

Descriptive statistics will be used to explore the data collected regarding the personal

profile of respondents and general observations were then done. The descriptive

quantitative analysis will be used to determine the factors affecting grade school

achievements and performance with their previous preschool education.

The following 5-point Likert-type scale was used in interpreting the responses on the

factors affecting grade school achievements and performance with their previous

preschool education
Table 1: Likert scale

Scale

Description

4.5 – 5.0

Very Highly Effective

3.5 – 4.49

Highly Effective

2.5 – 3.49

Moderately Effective

1.5 – 2.49

Minimally Effective

1.0 – 1.49

Not Effective

This study will also utilize a correlative analysis using Pearson’s 2-tailed

analysis, which measured the English and Filipino questionnaire correlation and

significance. Fundamentally, a high positive correlation with r value of 0.916 considers

the relationship to be significant.

The following Correlation will be followed in the study:

Correlations

English

Filipino

english
Pearson Correlation

.916(**)

Sig. (2-tailed)

.000

144

144

filipino

Pearson Correlation

.916(**)

Sig. (2-tailed)

.000

144

144

** Correlation is significant at the 0.01 level (2-tailed)

The Weighted Mean will also be used to determine the factors affecting grade

school achievements and performance with their previous preschool education. With this,

comparisons and differentiations of the different responses of the respondents to the

different factors affecting grade school achievements will be achieved.

 Percentages will also be used to describe the respondents’ profiles. It is a

proportion expressed either in decimal or fractional form that can be computed into a

percentage by multiplying the proportion by 100 and affixing the percentage symbol (%).

This was used as a descriptive analysis describing a part as a whole using the formula:

%=F/N x 100

Where;

%= Percentage distribution

F = Frequency Distribution

N = Total Number of Respondents

Frequency Distribution is an important character of a large mass of data that can

be readily assessed by grouping the data into different classes and then determining the

number of observation that fall in each of the classes.

Analysis of variance (ANOVA) was used to test the significant differences when

the respondents are grouped according to age, educational attainment, family income and

gender to the effectiveness of preschool education to performance of their children in

elementary school. Analyses of variance are a collection of statistical models, and their

associated procedures, in which the observed variance is partitioned into components due

to different explanatory variables. In its simplest form ANOVA gives a statistical test of

whether the means of several groups are all equal, and therefore generalized. In this

study, in order to test the different responses of the department utilized in the locale,

ANOVA testing was used and implemented.

 The analysis of variance uses variance to cast inference on groupm eans. The null and

alternative hypotheses are:

:H0 :1 = :2 = . . . = :k

:H1H0 is false (“at least one population mean differs”)

where :i represents the population mean of groupi.

Thus, if the variance between groups exceeds what is expected in terms of the variance

within groups, we will reject the null hypothesis.

Let F²W represent the variance within groups in the population. Let F²B denote the

variance between groups within the population. The null and alternative hypotheses may

now be restated as:

:H0 s2 B# s2W

:H1 s2B > s2W

The variance between groups may be thought of as as ignal of group differences.

The variance within groups may be thought of as background noise. When the signal

exceeds the noise, we will reject the null hypothesis.