This study assessed the mathematics mid-year achievement of senior students of the Agusan del Sur public high schools during the school year 2001-2002. Specifically, the study sought to answer the following questions:

1.  What is the level of achievement in Mathematics of senior students of the Agusan del Sur public high schools in terms of the following:

A. Content areas

1. Counting Techniques

2. Polynomial Function

3. Circles

4. Plane Coordinate Geometry

B. Mathematical skills

1. Acquisition of Concepts

2. Computation Skills

3. Problem Solving Ability

2. What are the common difficulties encountered by the students in learning the different content areas in terms of the different mathematical skills?

METHODOLOGY

         This study utilized the descriptive method of research. The respondents consisted of 600 students coming from the five classified big schools, 182 students from four classified small schools, and 188 students from the four public high schools along the river towns of the Agusan del Sur of school year 2001-2002. The main instrument used was the teacher-made test to determine the level of achievement in the content of high school Mathematics IV in the New Secondary Education Curriculum.

         There were 180 items in the preliminary draft of the test based on the table of specifications. This was face validated by the panel of test evaluators. The test items were shortened to 160 items and were pilot-tested to sixty senior students of Sta. Irene National High School. The first try-out was administered to 185 senior students of Lapinigan National High School. The test items were analyzed and revised based on the result of the item analysis using the U-L Index Method. Of the 160 original items, 181 items were accepted as good, 19 items were retained after revision while the remaining 60 items were improved and included in the pool bank for future reference.

         To see if the newly constructed 100 – item test including those revised items were good, another item analysis was conducted to 187 randomly selected students of the Agusan del Sur National High School.

         Result showed that of the 100 items 95 items were accepted good and 5 items were retained after revision. To establish concurrent validity of the test, the test was administered to 100 randomly selected students of the Agusan del Sur National High School. The obtained coefficient of the test using the Pearson-Product Moment of Correlation was 0.88, a high correlation.

         To establish the reliability of the constructed test of 100 items, the test was administered to 100 randomly selected students of the Prosperidad National High School. The obtained reliability coefficient of the test was 0.81, a high correlation, using the Pearson correlation.

In view of the findings, the following conclusions are drawn:

1. The overall mean achievement of senior students which is 38.23% is within the “below average” level of achievement.
2. The mean achievement level of the students in terms of all four content areas, such as Counting Techniques, Polynomial Functions, Circles and Plane Coordinate Geometry, fall within “below average” level of achievement, except on Circles which fall within “average” level of achievement. 
3. The mean achievement level of the students in terms of those mathematical skills, namely: acquisition of concepts – average level while computational and problem solving skills are within “below average” level of achievement.

         On the basis of the foregoing findings and conclusions, the researcher offers the following recommendations:

1. That the test be administered as a pretest to senior high school students at the beginning of the school year to determine their strengths and weaknesses for the teacher to use as basis for instruction. The same test or an equivalent from of the test given at the end of the semester to find out if the students have achieved something.
2. In order to have more concrete diagnosis of error patterns committed by the students in problem solving and computational skills, the students should be given opportunity to write or show solutions to their answers.
3. The future researcher should conduct similar investigations on assessing students’ achievement in any subject area in high school so that he/she can properly guide students for academic growth.
4. Teachers in Mathematics IV should stress and clarify and, if possible, provide concrete real life situations as examples in the teaching of the following topics: counting techniques, polynomial functions and plane coordinate geometry. The use of modules and worksheets should be provided.
5. School heads should conduct conference among math teachers after each grading period to discuss problems encountered in the classrooms. They can have sharing of ideas on teaching styles and on solutions to existing problems. If possible, Mathematics teachers who need assistance in teaching the contents of Mathematics IV be sent to trainings and seminars.
6. Administrators should conduct seminar – workshops on teaching strategies of Mathematics IV.If possible competent trainers from known universities of institutions be hired for this purpose.

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