Determinants of Academic Achievement in Turkey

Abstract

The relationship of in-school and out-of-school factors with academic achievement has been subject to long-term discussion in the context of educational equality. In Turkey, the achievement gap between schools is relatively high, therefore, examining the factors related to achievement is crucial to the mitigation of these differences. Related studies often utilize international large-scale assessments and yield results for particular school types. Therefore, the current study aims to determine the factors related to academic achievement by using data from a student population who took the 2020 High School Transition System (LGS). Accordingly, this study is novel in that it examined the factors related to academic achievement in a high-stake test in Turkey. Data analysis used two-level hierarchical linear modeling. The results demonstrated that between-school variance in LGS achievement is relatively low compared with international large-scale assessments, such as the PISA and TIMSS. The variable with the most significant relationship with student achievement is socioeconomic status of the school followed by teacher seniority, school size, and class size. Moreover, the relationships of the student–teacher ratio and participation in in-service training to achievement are nonsignificant. The results highlight the importance of academic support for socioeconomically disadvantaged students.