Defining Success Criteria in Formative Assessment and Learners’ Academic Performance in History and Government: Evidence from Public Secondary Schools in Kenya

Abstract

This article examines the influence of the definition of success criteria in formative assessment on learners’ academic performance in History and Government (HAG) in Kenyan public secondary schools, taking Makueni County as the empirical case. The analysis was informed by Wiliam and Thompson’s (2007) theory of formative assessment and Ramaprasad’s (1983) three conditions of feedback, both of which treat a shared standard of quality as the precondition for all subsequent formative activity. A mixed-methods descriptive design was adopted. From a target population of 4,409 principals, HAG teachers and HAG students in 393 public secondary schools, Yamane’s formula yielded a sample of 366, stratified across the county’s nine sub-counties; 316 respondents participated, an overall return rate of 86.3%. Data were gathered using questionnaires for teachers, structured interviews for principals, 26 focus group discussions with students and a document analysis guide. It was analysed using descriptive statistics, linear regression and thematic analysis. Although a majority of teachers 113 (67.0%) strongly agreeing that they regularly define the success criteria in FA as is required, 96 (57.4%) teachers reported that the FA given to learners aligns well with stated objectives. On their side, the students differed, reporting that the success criteria are rarely articulated in advance and that assessments arrive unannounced. School-level composite means regressed on five-year KCSE averages returned B = 2.242, β = .732, R² = 0.536, p < .001, and in a four-predictor model the practice carried the smallest standardised weight of the four (β = .251, p = .011). The article concludes that the constraint is not the absence of success criteria but the failure to transfer them to learners, and recommends co-construction of criteria with students, exemplar-based instruction in assessment literacy, and departmental audit of criterion transfer rather than criterion articulation.