Trend Analysis of Gradebook Data of Grade 8 Students

The primary aim of this research project was to analyse the trend of how the performance of students in their Mathematics exams had changed over the years 2017 up to 2021. This research aimed to explore how the Covid-19 pandemic had impacted the learning outcomes of students by measuring their performance in Mathematics exams before and after the advent of the coronavirus. Quantitative research methods were used in this research, using already existing data on students’ performance in mid-year and end-of-year examinations from 2017 to 2021.

This research was divided into three parts; in part one we separately examined the data of mid-year examinations and end-of-year examinations and drew conclusions regarding the effect that Covid-19 had on student learning by performing a comparative analysis over the four-year period. The second part entailed comparing the mid-year examination scores with the end-of-year examination scores in an attempt to identify any hidden patterns or correlations which could provide insights into student performance. Lastly, we took a bird’s eye view of how the student performance trends varied over the years per city per CSO/region.