A study and comparison of students’ English language achievement with school type: The case of private and public schools in the lower northern region of Thailand

There has always been a common perception that students’ academic achievement differs with school type. Very few studies have been conducted in Thailand which focused on comparing students' English language achievement in relation to school type in order to give suggestions on how to improve students' English language competencies. This study aimed at 1) assessing and compare students’ English language achievement with the school types and programs in the lower northern region of Thailand. A total of 1,242 selected using disproportionate stratified sampling technique formed the sample (917 and 325 students from general education and English programs respectively. An extract of the 2019 Ordinary National Education Test (ONET) English language achievement test for twelfth grade, ninth grade and sixth grade whose validity and reliability had been determined by the Ministry of Education constituted the research instruments. Descriptive and inferential methods were used for data analysis and interpretation. The results revealed as follows: 1) Students’ English language achievement by school type for general education at all levels excluding special programs (EP) revealed that private schools slightly outperformed public schools for general programs as follows: for sixth-grade students (x =60.60, and x =46.63 for private and public schools respectively). The results were similar for ninth grade (x =52.32 andx =46.84 for private and public schools respectively and for twelfth grade students (x =52.00 andx =44.93) for public and private schools respectively. A comparison of students’ English language achievement in English programs for ninth and twelfth grade revealed no significant difference for grade nine (x =69.18 and x =69.60) and grade twelfth (x =70.99 and x =71.75) for private and public schools respectively. Discussions are made with respect to research finding and reasons for the differences in English achievement.