Senior High School Strand Choice: Its Implication to College Academic Performance

Abstract

“Ready for work, ready for entrepreneurship, ready for college,” this is the battle cry of the Philippine Education System in implementing the K-12 Curriculum. The additional two years of basic education is intended for career or college preparation. Moreover, since CHED Memorandum Order No. 105 emphasizes academic freedom, learners can still enroll whichever college course they prefer regardless of the senior high school strand they have taken. This somehow depicts the purpose of having different tracks to prepare learners either for the job, business or college education. Thus, this study aimed to find out how this misalignment implicates the college performance of the learners. The study made use of explanatory sequential design following a mixed-method approach. Purposive sampling was employed in choosing the respondents for the study since the study was delimited to STEM-related courses. A set of a questionnaire consisting of three parts was used to elicit information on the different variables of the study. The first part was used to obtain the profile of the respondents. The second and third part was used to identify the factors influencing students’ choice of senior high school strand and measures the level of students’ difficulty on the specialized subject in STEM curriculum using a four-point Likert scale. A SWOT analysis was done through an interview to validate the respondent’s assessment of the importance of the STEM strand to their college course. The results revealed that half of the respondents are Non-STEM graduates. The academic performance of STEM and non-STEM graduates in Mathematics and Science subjects showed a significant difference. The level of difficulty experienced by the respondents on their college subjects are highly related to the strand they have taken in senior high school. Those who are graduates of STEM excelled over the other as evident in their college academics. Based on the result of the study, it showed that misalignment, of course, is due to personal choice and job opportunities. There is an evident difference in the level of difficulty of STEM and non-STEM graduates as well as on their academic performance in Math and Science subjects. There is strong relationship between the students’ level of difficulty and their academic performance in Math and Science subjects. Findings also revealed that the classification of the school was the student graduated senior high school is not a guarantee to set better grades in college.