Average exam results. How USE scores differ by region: results of schoolchildren and regional inequality

Rosobrnadzor summed up the results of the main and additional stages of the USE in 2017. In general, the statistics show that this year's graduates coped with the exams more successfully than last year. About 620 thousand people took part in the exam.

The number of doubles has been halved. So, for example, it happened at the exam in history. In other subjects, the figures vary, but there are indeed fewer unsatisfactory works: in biology - by 0.3%, in chemistry - by 1.1%, in literature - by 1.5%, in physics - by 2%, in social science - by 4%, in foreign languages ​​- by 25%.

The number of participants who scored from 80 to 100 points on the USE in 2017 increased by 2%.

Rosobrnadzor does not lose sight of talented graduates who managed to score the highest score in three subjects at once. This year there were six such guys: two from Yekaterinburg and one each from St. Petersburg, Penza, Perm and Kurgan. In 2016, there were only three three hundred points: from Olenegorsk (Murmansk region), Kemerovo and Kirov.

The number of fraud-related violations has decreased by a quarter compared to the previous year. However, "gets" not only graduates, but also teachers. So, in Ingushetia, a school principal was fired for trying to help students in the Unified State Examination. In all regions, teachers are fired pointwise for accidentally ringing the phone during the exam, as well as for the fact that they "overlooked" the students who brought their phone to the exam. Such cases of demonstrative reprisals (even against honored teachers with twenty years of experience) sometimes cause bewilderment.

But as for the scandals, this year they did not occur at the time of passing the exam, but on appeal. All over the country, USE participants complain about gross non-compliance with the rules of appeal.

In some regions, the conflict commission made a decision to change the points even before the start of the procedure itself, and notified the graduates after the fact (without the right to appeal, since all the points had already been entered into the final document; naturally, there was no mention of the graduate's signature next to the final grade and speech did not work). In other cases, the organizers prevented both the filing of an appeal and the personal presence of the USE participant at the meeting (for example, by "forgetting" to give the date or deliberately not allowing them to sign the documents necessary for attendance). Graduates also complained that their arguments were not taken into account, and the written justification for the appeal was refused to be filed with the case. The experts did their best to keep the original score, referring to non-existent evaluation criteria and finding fault with trifles that do not affect the scoring at all. All this caused a wave of indignation among the graduates and their families. Appeals to the USE hotline also did not bring results, because at the opposite end, upset parents were told that "the procedure for holding a meeting of the conflict commission will not be disputed."

The flagrant injustice towards the appellants, as well as the negligence in the initial verification of papers - this is what we will remember about the 2017 USE.

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On June 22, the results of the Unified State Exam 2017 in the Russian language according to passport data became known on the official website of the Unified State Exam.

An exciting time has come for graduates of the 11th grade - they are getting acquainted with the results of the USE 2017 in the main compulsory subject, which is the Russian language. It is known that schoolchildren, for whom school will soon be a thing of the past, took this exam on June 9th. It should be noted that about 628 thousand people applied for participation in it in the main period, and 5.4 thousand examination points were used to pass the exam both in the Russian Federation and abroad.

This year, Rosbrnadzor announced the results of the Unified State Examination in the Russian language 5 days earlier, that is, on June 22, as the head of the department, Sergey Kravtsov, announced on the eve of Monday at a press conference. Prior to this, it was planned that the results of the exam would be known on the 27th.

“There has never been such a thing in history,” Sergey Kravtsov noted.
In accordance with the data of the regions, the exam was held as usual. There were no leaks of control measuring materials to the Internet, the head of Rosobrnadzor said.

Rosobrnadzor reported that in 2017, 0.5% of USE participants in the Russian language did not overcome the minimum threshold for obtaining a certificate of 24 points.

“The Federal Service for Supervision in Education and Science has summed up the preliminary results of the Unified State Examination in the Russian language, which was held on the main exam date on June 9th. Almost 617,000 people took the exam. The minimum threshold for obtaining a certificate of 24 points was not overcome by 0.5% of the exam participants (in 2016, their number was 1%),” the agency said in a statement.

The press service also noted that the average score on the Unified State Examination in the Russian language this year is comparable to last year's result.

“This year, the trend of improving results in compulsory subjects continues. The share of graduates who were left without certificates has decreased by almost one and a half times, and this is without taking into account the results of the upcoming retakes. These results testify to the success of the project “I will pass the USE” and are the result of serious targeted work that was carried out with lagging schoolchildren in regions and municipalities, where the USE results of previous years revealed serious problems with the level of school education, ”said Sergey Kravtsov, head of Rosobrnadzor.

The fastest way to find out the results of the exam in 2017 is on the Internet. The exam results are posted on the official website of the Unified State Exam, which is located at ege.edu.ru. In order to find out the results of exams in the Russian language and other subjects, you need to enter the passport data of the graduate, the registration code for the exam, indicate the region and agree to the processing of the entered data.

You can apply for admission to 5 universities, each of which has no more than 3 faculties.
It is known that the completed main period of the Unified State Exam 2017 is continued by reserve days for passing all subjects of the Unified State Examination, which will be held from June 20 to July 1. Graduates who graduated from schools last year and students who received an unsatisfactory result in one of the compulsory subjects will be able to pass the exams within this period.

The Unified State Exam in Russian is a mandatory exam. In total, 616,590 people took part in the main period of the USE in the Russian language in 2017 (in 2016 - 658,392 people; in 2015 - 672,407 people).

The results of the USE in the Russian language in 2017 are generally comparable with the results of the USE in previous years.

On the official website of the FIPI in the section "Analytical and methodological materials" published "Methodological recommendations for teachers, prepared on the basis of an analysis of typical mistakes of participants in the USE in 2017", it is here that you can find information about what was the average USE score in the Russian language in 2017.

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Table 1

Average USE score in the Russian language 2015 - 2017

Year	Average test score	Test score range
		0–20	21–40	41–60	61–80	81–100
2017	69,06	0,43%	2,62%	23,61%	48,30%	25,04%
2016	68,5	0,82%	3,40%	24,45%	45,75%	25,58%
2015	66,16	1,69%	4,79%	26,98%	46,75%	19,80%

The share of examinees who scored 100 points on the exam results remained unchanged compared to 2016 - 0.5%. The share of high scorers also remains stable: 25.5% in 2016 and 25% in 2017.

In 2017, the share of graduates who did not overcome the minimum threshold (who did not receive the minimum (24) test score) decreased by 0.5%: from 0.99% (2016) to 0.54% (2017). The main reasons for the decline in the share of such participants in the Russian language include the successful implementation of the system of measures of Rosobrnadzor to improve the quality of teaching the Russian language in the constituent entities of the Russian Federation. Data on the change in the number and share of 100-point students in 2015–2017 are given in table. 2.

table 2

Statistics on the performance of the work as a whole and of individual tasks makes it possible to identify the main problems in the preparation of examinees in the Russian language. As in previous years, the sections of the course related to the formation of communicative competence remain insufficiently learned. Insufficiently developed skills of analytical work with the word and text, the lack of sufficient practice in the analysis of linguistic phenomena also affect the quality of writing an essay-reasoning. Graduates experience the greatest difficulties when applying punctuation and spelling norms in written speech.

An interesting article is presented on the site "Teach at School" Average USE score 2017 in Russian, based on other data from the Internet.

Recently, a new wave of the unified state exam has started, and for those 8 years that the USE has been in a mandatory mode, the controversy around it has not subsided. In this material, we attempt to show the dynamics of the average USE scores in the Russian language and mathematics in the regions, as well as explain what regional differences in exam results may be related to.

The data presented here is collected from open sources. The results of the USE were obtained from the regional websites of educational departments and centers for assessing the quality of education. Other indicators are collected on the websites of the Ministry of Education and Science of the Russian Federation, Rosstat, and the Federal Treasury.

USE results: regional differences

If you look at the map, you can see that the highest average scores in both the Russian language and mathematics show the regions of the Central Federal District. In 2015, the leaders in the Russian language were the Orenburg and Samara regions, as well as the Perm Territory, in profile mathematics - the Republic of Kalmykia, the Perm Territory and Udmurtia. The lowest results, contrary to stereotypes, are observed not in the North Caucasian regions, but in the Far East.

Of particular interest is the dynamics of the USE results in the regions. It is incorrect to compare scores by years directly - over the years, the exam has experienced many changes. For example, in 2013, during the massive leaks of answers, the scores of participants in the whole country were higher, and in 2014, after tightening security measures, they fell. With this in mind, we looked at the position of the regions relative to the average score in Russia and used standardized z-scores. In other words, we compared the dynamics of the regions relative to the national average. The results of the regions in 2010 and 2014 were compared, since during this period the content and structure of the exam were the most stable.

In general, a significant (more than one standard deviation) growth over these five years was demonstrated by 16 subjects of the Russian Federation in mathematics, and 11 subjects of the Russian Federation in the Russian language. Basically, these are the regions that in 2010 showed results below the average. A serious decrease in scores occurred in mathematics in 6, and in the Russian language in 3 regions - where in 2010 there were quite high scores. In the subjects of the Russian Federation with average results, there were no significant changes in scores.

Factors of Regional Differences in USE Results

2009-2014:

In order to understand what explains the results of the USE in mathematics and in the Russian language in 2009-2014, we analyzed their relationship with a number of regional characteristics. The focus was, firstly, on the role of resource support for schools, and secondly, on the role of family resources.

School resources are largely determined by the amount of public funding. If per capita school funding is adjusted for inflation and differences between regions in the cost of living, then the increase in this indicator from 2006 to 2013 was about 40 percent. At the same time, the maximum gap in per capita financing over the same period slightly decreased - from 6 to 5 times. The largest increase in school funding occurred in 2012, when the “May Decrees of the President” were adopted.

Changes in school funding are important for student outcomes. According to our estimates, regions with a higher level of per capita funding show higher average USE scores in mathematics (with equal levels of economic development, incomes of the population, and a number of other characteristics of the regions). According to the Russian language, there was a significant correlation between the results of the USE and per capita funding (taking into account other regional indicators) in 2009-2014. not found. In part, this can be explained by the fact that the social characteristics of families play a large role in the results in the Russian language.

The main share in the budget financing of schools is teachers' salaries. At the same time, the dynamics of their salaries relative to the average level of wages in the region is important. In general, this trend has been positive. The most significant increase in the relative salaries of teachers was observed in 2008 and 2012-2013, with a slight decrease in 2007 and 2010.

According to our estimates, the level of teachers' salaries relative to the average salary in the region is positively associated with the regional results of the Unified State Examination in both the Russian language and mathematics. What teachers will come to schools and with what attitude they will work depends on wages. For example, data from the 2012 PISA survey of school principals shows that teachers in regions with higher relative salaries are more motivated, enthusiastic, and driven to achieve.

In addition to the state, families invest in the education of children. The resources of families are determined by their income. Our analysis shows that in regions with a high level of poverty (the share of people with incomes below the subsistence level), the USE results are lower. The high level of income inequality within the region also negatively affects the average USE scores (with an equal level of budgetary funding for schools and a number of other regional characteristics).

In other words, family resources are also important for improving the educational achievements of schoolchildren. At the same time, in the constituent entities of the Russian Federation with low incomes, the resources of regional budgets, and hence the funding of schools, are on average lower.

In general, at this stage, equalizing the level of budgetary funding of schools between regions is not enough to equalize the scores of children.

2015:

If we talk about the results of 2015, then the gap between the regions with the minimum and maximum average USE scores can be 28 points in the Russian language and 16 in mathematics. The socio-economic characteristics of the subjects of the Russian Federation (gross regional product, school funding per student, the share of the population with higher education, and the share of the urban population) explain the average USE score in mathematics by 25 percent and the average USE score in Russian by 34 percent. Children from less prosperous regions are less likely to score high on exams than those who live in more economically developed parts of the country. Moreover, in the Russian language, this gap is somewhat larger than in mathematics.

Almost to the same extent (28 percent in mathematics and 30 percent in Russian) the average scores in the regions are explained by the characteristics of schools and teachers. It is important to take into account how many children in the region go to college after grade 9, and how many remain in high school and take the exam. As our analysis shows, in schools where less than half of the ninth-graders remain in the upper grades, the results are also higher than in those where the selection (or self-selection) of children is less strict.

Teacher characteristics also matter. In all regions, teachers with completed higher education prevail, however, where there are more than 80 percent of such teachers, the results of the USE of students are higher. However, the relationship between the results and the category of a teacher turned out to be not so unambiguous - the highest results are among graduates in regions where the proportion of teachers with the highest category varies from 22 to 30 percent.

Thus, our analysis shows how unequal the chances of students from different regions for high USE scores are. By the way, the average results of Moscow schoolchildren on the Unified State Examination are 13 points higher in specialized mathematics and 5 points higher in the Russian language than those of schoolchildren from the Republic of Buryatia.

In general, the economic and educational characteristics of the regions determine the USE scores by 64 percent in the Russian language and by 53 percent in mathematics. At the same time, these factors are outside the sphere of influence of teachers and schools themselves, so it is incorrect to evaluate them by this result.

findings

As our analysis shows, there are rather large regional differences in the educational results of schoolchildren in Russia. These differences can determine the future fate of children, including affecting admission to universities.

In many ways, this difference is related to the extent to which schoolchildren are provided with educational resources. Inequality of resources exists both at the level of families and at the level of public funding of schools. Often one accompanies the other.

Our analysis does not take into account variations in the scores of the unified exam within regions, although this task seems to be extremely useful in the development of educational policy measures. Such an analysis requires access to anonymized USE data for researchers. In developed countries, the results of such tests are used to analyze and develop management decisions, and it is important to use this experience in Russia as well.

The USE, as an objective tool for evaluating school graduates, showed the existence of a problem with inequality in education. It is impossible to place the entire responsibility for solving this problem on the exam itself or teachers. Equalization of educational opportunities is a task of state policy.