The Impact of Implementing the Independent Curriculum on Elementary School Students' Learning Outcomes

The Independent Curriculum is an essential component in Muhammadiyah Elementary Schools in Semarang, supporting the spirit of learning that has developed over time. However, there is an imbalance in student achievement scores between phases that require data-based tracking. This study aims to evaluate the effectiveness of the Independent Curriculum in improving students' cognitive understanding using the factorial design method. This type of research is quantitative descriptive. The research population is Muhammadiyah Elementary Schools in the independent school category, with a sample of four schools selected using the two-stage cluster random sampling technique. Data collection techniques are observation and questionnaires. The application of analysis methods includes descriptive and inferential statistics. The research results show that the implementation of the Independent Curriculum can significantly improve students' cognitive understanding, as reflected in the increase in the average student achievement scores between the 2022/2023 and 2023/2024 academic years. In addition, the analysis of the elementary school phase shows that the Independent Curriculum can support the development of student competencies in stages according to educational needs in each phase, thereby improving the quality of learning.