Hong Kong Diploma of Secondary Education (hkdse)

http://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/education-community/article/1839946/disabled-students-battle-against-odds-diploma

In this news, it reports some disabled students battle against the odds in the Hong Kong Diploma of Secondary Education (HKDSE) examination. The reporters interview a 21-year-old girl, Josy, with spinal muscular atrophy, has completed six subjects in the HKDSE examination and scored 21 marks. The reporters mention how difficult for a people with muscular dystrophy to survive and put forth that Josy’s disabilities have not stopped her to pursue her studies. The reporters then report two disabled students who also took the HKDSE examination, did not achieve the scores they hoped for. However, the reporters contend that those students are still optimistic for their future and the school principal was moved by the perseverance of her students.

http://everydaylife.globalpost.com/students-social-class-affect-success-11958.html

In this article, it reveals that social class can enormously affect a student’s academic achievement. The writer points out some academic problems and believes most of them are caused by low socioeconomic status. Following this, the writer puts forth that parents are their children’s first role models, and so a student’s educational level is totally affected by his parent’s level of achievement. Also, a student with higher social class can get more financial support from parent to assist his studies. The writer then indicates that students from lower social classes are more likely to be neglected and abused, and so their abilities to do well academically will be interfered. However, the writer states that there is still a chance for students from the lower social class to succeed academically. The writer then suggests some ways that can change the fate of students from lower social classes.

http://www.apa.org/news/press/releases/2014/04/girls-grades.aspx

In this article, it purports that girls perform better in school than boys. The writer states that boys do better on achievement tests in math and science while girls do better on school grades. Furthermore, the writer provides research that spanned more than 30 countries to put forth that language courses are the largest differences in grades among girls and boys, and the smallest are math and science. Following this, the writer points out that this problem have become a global phenomenon and people form all countries are not surprised about it. The article then shifts it focus to the reasons of why girls perform better in school than boys. The writer reveals that social and cultural factors are the main reasons among this phenomenon.