Determinants of Academic Achievement of Middle Schoolers in Turkey

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to discuss student and school factors, including cross level interaction, that cause inequalities in seven and eighth grade students' achievement in Turkish context by using national achievement test scores with a multi-level statistical approach. Our results are in line with most other studies with similar purpose. Our results show that approximately 17% of the variation in student test scores is explained by differences between schools, while the remainder of the variation is accounted for by within-school factors. Our results highlight that student-level variables alone explain nearly 73% of the between-school variance and approximately 19% of the within-school variance in student achievement scores. Our school-level variables explain a relatively small amount of the variation, approximately 5%. This has demonstrated that between-and within-school differences in student achievement are largely accounted for by the socio-demographic background of students. This is in line with the Coleman Study findings; the effect of school characteristics on student achievement was modest compared to the effect of students' socio demographic characteristics. Our results also show that average parent education and income, full-day schooling, attending an urban school and the percentage of female students in the classroom mediate the relationship between student-level variables and student test scores.

The Effects of Student and School Level Characteristics on Academic Achievement of Middle School Students in Turkey

“…Female students had higher average GPA scores than male students after controlling other variables. This finding is consistent with several studies (Börkan & Bakış, 2016;Dayioğlu & Türüt-Aşık, 2007;Engin-Demir, 2009;Ferreira & Gignoux, 2010;Gevrek & Seiberlich, 2014;Güvendir, 2014;Van Houtte, 2004). For example, Engin-Demir ( 2009) studied with sixth, seventh, and eighth grade students to investigate factors influencing their academic success by using their GPA.…”

“…Diğer değişkenler kontrol edildiğinde, kız öğrenciler erkek öğrencilere göre daha yüksek başarı ortalamasına sahiptir. Bu araştırma sonucu diğer araştırma sonuçları ile benzerlik göstermektedir (Börkan & Bakış, 2016;Güvendir, 2014;Engin-Demir, 2009;Van Houtte, 2004). Araştırmalar bazı sebeplerden dolayı kız öğrencilerin erkek öğrencilere göre daha iyi performans gösterdiklerini ortaya koymaktadır.…”

“…Academic achievement is one of the most important determinants of education quality. Educational researchers agree that many factors have an impact on students' achievements (Börkan & Bakış, 2016;Coleman et al, 1966;Engin-Demir, 2009;Gelbal, 2008). To monitor the quality of education, educational assessment studies associated with academic achievement are taken into consideration in many countries.…”

“…Numerous studies have been conducted in Turkey to examine student achievement on TIMSS, PISA, or PIRLS data (Akyüz, 2014;Anıl, 2009;Atar, 2014;Özberk et al, 2017;Özdemir, 2016;). However, a few studies conducted in Turkey to examine student academic achievement on national large scale assessment such as Placement Test Results (SBS), Student Achievement Determination Exam (ÖBBS), Transition from Primary to Secondary education (TEOG) or on students' GPA in schools (Börkan & Bakış, 2016;Çiftçi, 2015;Engin-Demir, 2009;Gelbal, 2008;.…”

Investigation of the science achievement models for low and high achieving schools and gender differences in Turkey

“…As can be seen in Figure , SES is the third and the second significant variable that predicted science achievement in LAS and HAS, respectively. Although these findings may seem to contradict the results of the previous studies that reported the predominant effect of SES on other variables in science achievement (Alacacı & Erbaş, ; Börkan & Bakış, ; Kalender & Berberoglu, ), they confirm results from other studies which indicate that students cluster in schools according to their SES in Turkey (Alacacı & Erbaş, ; Dincer & Uysal, ). In other words, in this study, because schools were classified based on their science achievement, this methodological design might act as a confounder for the effect of SES on achievement.…”