Everyone matters: a new h-type index as an educational performance evaluation metric

Abstract

In view of the limitations of taking the average as the overall evaluation of a group and inspired by the popular idea of the h index in bibliometrics, this paper proposes a new h-type index called h-efficiency index (HEI) for educational performance evaluation. The definition of the proposed h-efficiency index (HEI) is as follows: among the scores of n objects, if at most E% of all the n scores is no less than E% of the full score, then the HEI will be E%. Using some class course examination scores as an example, the new index is compared to the commonly applied average and median scores. The results show that the HEI is easy to compute, and it not only considers the overall score but also includes the number of objects covered by a score level. A study on the science performance of 11 parallel classes in a senior high school also shows that the HEI has a better correlation with the comprehensive evaluation results of teaching quality than the average and median. Compared to the average and median, the HEI can provide different information for overall test score evaluations. HEI may provide a useful and alternative index for educational performance evaluation.