The Prediction of Turkish Students’ Reading Literacy Skills by SES Related Variables for PISA 2003-2006-2009

Abstract

Reading literacy is a crucial skill in educational settings and daily life. The economic, cultural and social status of the family does influence the children’s learning in various ways. Literature shows a particular strong relationship between family background and reading performance. The purpose of this study is to determine the best predictors of reading literacy by the variables of parental education, family wealth possessions, cultural possessions, home educational resources for PISA 2003, 2006, 2009. For this purpose, Turkey’s PISA data (2003, 2006, and 2009) on Reading Literacy is retrieved from OECD’s official website. In these data, the predictive variables (parental education, family wealth possessions, cultural possessions, home educational resources) are indicated as index values. The stepwise procedure of multiple regression analysis was carried out to the data. According to the results of the analyses, the best predictors for each term are respectively, home educational resources, parental education and cultural possessions. The findings are discussed with the related literature.