Changes in Literacy of Students in Turkey by Years and School Types: Performance of Students in PISA Applications

Abstract

The assessment of students' academic achievement via international monitoring studies provides important insights to participating countries. Besides the cognitive performance of students, educational equity is one of the emphasized topics within the scope of Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) study. Results regarding educational equity are quite important in Turkey because academic achievement differences among school types are relatively high in Turkey. Although a wide range of studies is conducted to examine the performance differences between school types in Turkey, it is observed that most studies focus on mean scores of school types. The aim of this study is to examine the change in student ratios at a basic-and advanced level of proficiency by school types in PISA applications between 2003 and 2018. Results show that approximately all students in science high schools and social sciences high schools have basic proficiency in all literacy fields and throughout PISA 2003 and PISA 2018. The ratio of students with basic proficiency in Anatolian high schools and Anatolian imam hatip high schools tends to be increased. However, the ratio of students with advance proficiency seems to be low in all school types in Turkey except science high schools. Steps to decrease the achievement differences between school types in Turkey within the scope of findings are suggested.

Horizontal Skills Mismatch in Vocational Education in Turkey: The Reasons for Out-of-Field Employment

“…Studies show that, when students are placed in schools based on their academic performance, achievement gaps between school types increase (Karaağaç Cingöz & Gür, 2020;Suna et al, 2020a, Suna et al, 2020c. Clustering comparatively low-performing students in a particular school type such as VTAHs leads to higher levels of absenteeism and even school dropout (Bölükbaş & Gür, 2020;Suna et al, 2020a;Suna et al, 2020b). Some VET graduates also attribute their out-of-field employment to low quality education at VET schools, even though the problem only becomes visible in the labor market.…”

Türkiye’de Özel Yeteneklilere Yetenek Geliştirme Desteğinde Bilim ve Sanat Merkezleri: Mevcut Durum ve İyileştirme Alanları

“…Son olarak, Türkiye'de eğitim sistemi ile ilgili temel problemlerden bir tanesini okullar arası başarı farkları oluşturmaktadır (Bölükbaş ve Gür, 2020;Cingöz ve Gür, 2020;Güllüpınar ve İnce, 2014;Oral ve Mcgivney, 2014;Suna, Tanberkan ve Özer, 2020;Suna vd, 2020a;2020b). MEB, bu problemin eğitim sistemi üzerindeki etkisini azaltmak için yıllardan beri çalışmakta ve her geçen gün soruna çok-boyutlu yaklaşan yeni projeler geliştirmektedir (Gençoğlu, 2019;Özer, 2021;Özer, Gençoğlu ve Suna, 2020).…”

Akademik Başarının Yordayıcıları: Sosyoekonomik Düzey ve Okul Türü

“…PISA 2012 and 2015 results also confirmed the dramatic differences in test performance across high school types in Turkey (MEB, 2016;World Bank, 2013). Suna, Tanberkan and Ozer (2020) analyzed the distribution of students in a Turkish sample of basic and advance levels of proficiency by school types between PISA 2003 and PISA 2018. It was found that there are significant and remarkable differences in ratios of students who have a basic and advance level of proficiency between school types in all literacy areas.…”