JSAT Level 8 2019-2020 Analysis of General Results
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JSAT Level 8 2019-2020 Analysis of General Results JSAT Level 8 2019-2020 Analysis of General Results JAT Level 8 2019-2020 Analysis of Results CoJDS is proud to present a detailed analysis of the 2019-2020 JSAT Level 8 exam. We strongly encourage you to read this document as it will help you understand the results in context. In the pages which follow, we will describe the demographics of test-takers, analyze the scores, and highlight points of interest gleaned from the exam. Section I – Demographics of Test Participants Number of Participants and Schools As of December 31, 2019, results were tabulated for 1,952 8th grade students who completed the 2019-2020 JSAT Level 8 exam in fifty-one schools across North America. The following is a list of lower schools that offered the exam to their students: School City State 1. Academies at Gerrard Berman Day School Oakland NJ 2. Adolph Schreiber Hebrew Academy of Rockland New City NY 3. Ahi Ezer Yeshiva Brooklyn NY 4. Bais Yaakov of Queens Kew Gardens NY 5. Barkai Yeshivah Middle School Brooklyn NY 6. Ben Porat Yosef Paramus NJ 7. Bi-Cultural Hebrew Academy Stamford CT 8. Bnos Malka Academy Flushing NY 9. Bnot Yaakov of Great Neck Great Neck NY 10. Brauser Maimonides Academy Ft. Lauderdale FL 11. Bruriah Middle School Elizabeth NJ 12. Carmel Academy Greenwich CT 13. Emek Hebrew Academy Sherman Oaks CA 14. Harkham Hillel Hebrew Academy Beverly Hills CA 15. Hebrew Academy of Five Towns and Rockaway Lawrence NY 16. Hebrew Academy of Long Beach Woodmere NY 17. Hebrew Academy of Miami Miami Beach FL 18. Hebrew Academy of Nassau County Uniondale NY 19. Jewish Education Center Elizabeth NJ 20. Jewish Foundation School Staten Island NY 21. Kinneret Day School Riverdale NY 22. Manhattan Day School New York NY 23. Mazel Day School Brooklyn NY 24. North Shore Hebrew Academy Great Neck NY 25. Park East Day School New York NY 26. Rabbi Pesach Raymon Yeshiva Edison NJ 27. Rohr Bais Chaya Academy Tamarac FL 28. Rosenbaum Yeshiva of North Jersey River Edge NJ 1 JSAT Level 8 2019-2020 Analysis of General Results 29. SAR Academy Bronx NY 30. Shulamith School for Girls of Brooklyn Brooklyn NY 31. Shulamith School for Girls of Cedarhurst Cedarhurst NY 32. Silverstein Hebrew Academy Great Neck NY 33. Sinai/RYNJ River Edge NJ 34. Solomon Schechter Day School of Bergen County New Milford NJ 35. Solomon Schechter School of Queens Queens NY 36. Tenafly Chabad Academy Tenafly NJ 37. The Moriah School Englewood NJ 38. The Rabbi Haskell Lookstein Middle School of Ramaz New York NY 39. The Shefa School New York NY 40. Torah Day School of Phoenix Phoenix AZ 41. Westchester Day School Mamaroneck NY 42. Yavneh Academy Paramus NJ 43. Yeshiva Derech HaTorah Brooklyn NY 44. Yeshiva Har Torah Bellerose NY 45. Yeshiva Ketana of Long Island Inwood NY 46. Yeshiva Merkaz Hatorah Staten Island NY 47. Yeshiva of Central Queens Flushing NY 48. Yeshiva Shaarei Tzion Girls School Piscataway NJ 49. Yeshivah of Flatbush Brooklyn NY 50. Yeshivat BitaHon Brooklyn NY 51. Yeshivat He'atid Teaneck NJ 52. Yeshivat Noam Paramus NJ In addition, testing events were held in Chicago at the Ida Crown Jewish Academy and in Los Angeles at YULA school for girls who administered the exam as part of their high school application process. Events were also held at Yeshiva of Flatbush, Yeshivat Noam and our Cedarhurst offices for out-of-network students whose school did not offer the exam. Demographics of Test Takers Grade Level 8 9 10 Total Male / Female 877 / 1,075 1 / 13 0 / 25 1,991 Chareidi / Yeshiva 169 13 25 207 Day School / Modern Orthodox 1,670 1 0 1,671 Community 31 0 0 31 Other 82 0 0 82 All Test Takers 1,952 14 25 1,991 2 JSAT Level 8 2019-2020 Analysis of General Results As can be inferred from the table above, 98% of students who completed the exam were in 8th grade, and approximately 86% of all 8th grade students who completed the exam attended schools that identified themselves as Day School / Modern Orthodox. The male to female ratio for students in 8th grade who took the exam was 45% vs. 55%. Considering that 98% of all test takers were in 8th grade our analysis will only focus on this population. Section II – Methodology: Our exam contained nine sections plus an optional Gemara section, which was scored separately. The mandatory portion of the exam consisted of 160 questions which were distributed as follows: Number of Section Questions Weight Section 1 – Chumash Skills 35 22% Section 2 – Chumash Vocabulary 10 6% 19% 30 ( ָ פּ ָר ָ שׁ ה) Section 3 – Chumash Knowledge Section 4 – Critical Thinking 5 3% Section 5 – Dinim/Yediot Klaliot 30 19% Section 6 – Navi Knowledge 15 9% Section 7 – Hebrew Language Skills 25 16% Section 8 – Torah Sheb'al Peh 3 2% Section 9 – Tefillah 7 4% Total: 160 100% Upon completion of the exam, we sent the raw results to Dr. Nilis Myszkowski, Ph.D. of Pace University for statistical analysis. Dr. Myszkowski who has worked as a psychometrics and statistics consultant for multiple domestic and international companies suggested that we drop forty-one questions from the exam to maintain the highest degree of internal reliability. Questions that lack this reliability might have been worded in a manner that was confusing or simply didn’t discriminate between high and low scorers reliably for some reason. The following is an example of two questions which were dropped. and the ו' ַ ה ִ ה פּוְּך This question sought to measure if a student understood the function of a correct answer was C. 3 JSAT Level 8 2019-2020 Analysis of General Results Another example of a question that was dropped: The answer is A and would seem to be pretty straight forward. Thus, it is difficult to know at times what makes a question lack internal reliability. However, be that as it may, based on Dr. Myszkowski’s recommendation, the revised distribution of questions became as follows: Number of Section Questions Weight Section 1 – Chumash Skills 24 20% Section 2 – Chumash Vocabulary 10 8% 18% 22 ( ָ פּ ָר ָ שׁ ה) Section 3 – Chumash Knowledge Section 4 – Critical Thinking 4 3% Section 5 – Dinim/Yediot Klaliot 18 15% Section 6 – Navi Knowledge 13 11% Section 7 – Hebrew Language Skills 20 17% Section 8 – Torah Sheb'al Peh 3 3% Section 9 – Tefillah 5 4% Total: 119 100% Section III – Results for Students With and Without Learning Differences No Reported Learning Diff Students With Learning Diff Grade 8 (All Populations): Number of Students: Number of Students: 1,505 641 864 447 234 213 AVG Score Male Female AVG Score Male Female Section 01: Chumash Skills 77% 74% 78% 64% 62% 66% Section 02: Chumash Vocabulary 82% 79% 85% 70% 67% 73% Section 03: Chumash Knowledge 71% 71% 72% 59% 58% 60% Section 04: Critical Thinking 30% 33% 27% 23% 24% 22% Section 05: Dinim / Yediot Klaliot 80% 78% 81% 69% 68% 70% Section 06: Navi Knowledge 58% 54% 61% 47% 44% 51% Section 07: Hebrew Language 48% 45% 51% 35% 34% 36% Section 08: Torah Sheba'al Peh 66% 70% 63% 48% 49% 47% Section 09: Tefillah 74% 73% 75% 60% 60% 59% Overall Average Score (1-9): 68% 66% 69% 56% 54% 57% 4 JSAT Level 8 2019-2020 Analysis of General Results Learning Differences As can be seen from the table above, of the 1,952 8th grade students who took the exam, 447 or 23% were reported to have learning differences. The average overall grade for students without learning differences was 68% and the average for students with learning differences was 56% which is a gap of 12% and quite significant. This gap holds for both males and females. In general, both for students with and without learning difficulties, the overall average score for girls was 3% higher than for boys. Also, the girls scored higher than the boys in every category except for critical thinking and Torah Sh’bal Peh. (In Teffilla, among students with learning differences, the boys scored three-tenths of one percent higher than the girls.) Note: Learning differences are based on the use of an IEP and schools identifying students who have learning differences. The actual number of students with learning differences might be higher as not all schools completed this section of the sign-up portion. If it was not noted at sign up, we assumed students had no learning difficulties unless they had an IEP. Due to the possible gap between students with learning difficulties and those without, schools might wish to analyze the results of these populations separately. In our interactive reporting software, there is the ability to focus on students with and without learning differences individually. However, in our PDF reports which are static, we grouped these two populations. In our analysis which follows, we only review the composite results of these two populations. Section IV – Scores for All Test Takers (With and W/O Learning Differences) ALL Students (With and W/O LD) Grade 8 (All Populations): Number of Students: 1,952 877 1,075 AVG Score Male Female Section 01: Chumash Skills 73% 71% 75% Section 02: Chumash Vocabulary 79% 76% 82% Section 03: Chumash Knowledge 68% 67% 69% Section 04: Critical Thinking 28% 31% 26% Section 05: Dinim / Yediot Klaliot 77% 76% 79% Section 06: Navi Knowledge 56% 51% 59% Section 07: Hebrew Language 45% 42% 48% Section 08: Torah Sheba'al Peh 62% 64% 60% Section 09: Tefillah 71% 69% 72% Overall Score: 65% 63% 67% 5 JSAT Level 8 2019-2020 Analysis of General Results Overall Scores: In the composite results (for students with and without difficulties), the average (or mean) score was 65% with a standard deviation of 15.