41061 FAO - World Bank Qualitative Assessment of Rural schools in Turkey by Hannu Kuitunen May 31, 2004 1 Table of Contents Foreword .......................................................................................................................67 Abbreviations ................................................................................................................67 Summary .......................................................................................................................78 1. Objectives of the study..............................................................................................89 2. Carrying out the study...............................................................................................89 3 Schools visited.......................................................................................................1011 3.1 Definition of a good school.............................................................................1011 3.2 Description of the schools visited ...................................................................1011 1 Bugduz Elementary School, Aykurt-Ankara .................................................1011 2 Mujgan Karacali Elementary School, Ankara................................................1112 3 Ikizce Elementary School, Ankara.................................................................1112 4 Mustafa Adiyaman Elementary School, Central Antalya..............................1112 5 Yesilbayir Elementary School, Antalya.........................................................1213 6 Elmali Ataturk Elementary School, Antalya..................................................1213 7 Istiklal Elementary School, Samsun ..............................................................1213 8 Haci Naipli Elementary School, Samsun.......................................................1314 9 100-Yil PIO Pension Elementary school, Samsun Yakakent ........................1314 10 Kozköy Elementary School, Samsun...........................................................1516 11 Altinfindik Elementary School , Ordu-Central ............................................1516 12 Turnasuyu YIBO, Ordu................................................................................1617 13 Beyli Elementary School, Ordu ...................................................................1617 14 Bolaman Elementary School, Ordu.............................................................1718 15 Mehmet Akif Ersoy Elementary School, Merkez-Erzurum........................1718 16 Guzelova Koyu Elementary School, Erzurum .............................................1819 17 Cumhuriyet Pension Elementary School, Cat-Erzurum...............................1920 18 Sehit Bulent Karatas Elementary School, Ciftlik Koyu-Erzurum...............1920 19 Dumlu Elementary School, Erzurum ...........................................................2021 4 Evaluation Studies on Turkish Primary Schools....................................................2122 4.1 Social Impact of Primary Education Schools..................................................2122 4.1.1 Recommendations for the YIBOs and PIOs ...........................................2122 4.1.2 Recommendations for the Bussing Basic Education Schools (PIO)........2223 4.2 The Institutional Evaluation of Primary Education Schools...........................2324 4.2.1 General results..........................................................................................2324 4.2.2 Summary ..................................................................................................2425 4.3 Cost Analysis of Primary Education Schools .................................................2526 4.4 Background information on Turkish schools based on PIRLS 2001 study. ...2627 2 4.4.1 The indices ...............................................................................................2627 4.4.2 Highest scores of the first category within selected indices.....................2829 4.4.3 Lowest scores of the last category within selected indices......................2930 4.4.4 Differences between biggest and smallest achievement scores within categories...........................................................................................................3031 4.4.5 Very remarkable and remarkable differences ..........................................3132 Urban.................................................................................................................3233 4.4.6 Some or no difference..............................................................................3233 5 How is schooling like in rural/urban Turkey .........................................................3334 5.1 Goals of the school..........................................................................................3334 5.2 Quality of Education .......................................................................................3435 5.2.1 General .....................................................................................................3435 5.2.2 Competition and tests...............................................................................3536 5.2.3 Materials...................................................................................................3536 5.2.4 Curriculum ...............................................................................................3738 5.2.5 Gender issue.............................................................................................3738 5.2.6 Teaching Methods....................................................................................3839 5.3 Community participation ................................................................................3839 5.3.1 Categories identified ................................................................................3839 5.3.2 Developing community participation.......................................................3940 5.4 Parents' participation.......................................................................................4041 5.5 Principals.........................................................................................................4041 5.6 Teachers ..........................................................................................................4142 5.7 Students...........................................................................................................4142 5.8 Special education.............................................................................................4243 5.9 Education in sparsely populated areas ............................................................4243 5.10 Aspects of a good school based on observations ..........................................4344 5.10.1 Constrains in all schools.........................................................................4344 5.10.2 Differences that make schools "good"...................................................4344 6 Documents affecting future developments............................................................4344 6.1 The government's budget for 2004.................................................................4344 Recommendations of this study ........................................................................4445 6.2 The Second Basic Education project...............................................................4445 7 Recommendations..................................................................................................4546 7.1 Principles behind recommendations................................................................4546 7.1.1 Student as a life-long learner....................................................................4546 7.1.2 Ownership ................................................................................................4647 7.1.3 Theory and practice together....................................................................4647 7.1.4 Networking...............................................................................................4647 7.1.5 Potential for rural schools ........................................................................4647 7.2 Recommendations...........................................................................................4647 7.2.1. Developing concept of leaning and concept of knowledge.....................4647 7.2.2 Curriculum ...............................................................................................4647 7.2.3 Pilot project on new teaching methods ...................................................4647 7.2.4 Reducing of testing...................................................................................4748 7.2.5 Developing the use of teaching materials and equipment........................4748 7.2.6 Special education......................................................................................4748 7.2.7 Nutrition of students.................................................................................4849 7.2.8 Gender......................................................................................................4849 7.2.9 Not to invent the wheel again...................................................................4849 3 8 Lessons learned......................................................................................................4950 8.1 Economic model.........................................................................................5152 8.2 The organic system......................................................................................5152 8.3 The human relations approach of organizations .........................................5253 9 Literature................................................................................................................5455 Annex 1 Education System in Turkey.......................................................................5556 1.1 Background factors .........................................................................................5556 1.2 Principles of education....................................................................................5556 1.3 The general goals of National Education........................................................5556 1.4 The structure of Turkish educational system ..................................................5657 Annex 2 Primary Education......................................................................................5758 2.1 Primary education reform................................................................................5758 2.2 "Big Bang" implementation of the Law 4306.................................................5758 2.3 Different types of primary schools..................................................................5859 2.4 Statistics on the primary education schools ....................................................5859 Annex 3 Analysis for Turkish schools based on the PIRLS 2001 data....................6162 3.1 Tables derived from PIRLS 2001 data............................................................6162 3.2 Indices sorted by the first category .................................................................7071 3.3 Indices sorted by the last category ..................................................................7172 4 5 Foreword This study takes place at a time when Turkish Government has made a big effort in enlarging compulsory education from five years to eight years and the new practice has been in effect for seven years. The implementation of the 8 year basic education characterized as a "big bang" approach has been successful in terms of students entering education, schools built and renovated, and teachers recruited. However, as the implementation was very straightforward, not too much attention was paid to discussions with counterparts and developing ownership with them, and above all, developing pedagogy for the new era was almost discontinued. By now the gaps in the implementation have been recognized and corrective measures are being taken. This study is a small scale intervention to rural and urban Turkish schools with median resources which have shown better success that other schools with similar resources. The aim is to find out ways to develop education by identifying good practices and developing strategies to make them spread among education and by identifying inefficiency in the system and suggest remedial actions and strategies. The fieldwork for this study was done during three missions to various areas of Turkey where schools that were identified to achieve good results were visited. I address my best thanks to the staff and students of the visited schools. It was a great privilege to have opportunity to visit those schools and meet their people who showed the best side of the Turkish school. My best thanks to my Turkish counterpart Dr. Ali Ekber Sahin, Assistant Professor of the Hacettepe University, Ankara, who selected the schools for visits together with local authorities and participated in the visits and their evaluation. This study was a common effort of World Bank and FAO. Ms Ferda Sahmali in the World Bank Office in Ankara and Ms. Eliane DiCintio in the FAO office in Rome organized fluently matters concerning missions. My best thank to all of you. Abbreviations IEP Individual Education Plan MEB see MONE MONE The Ministry of National Education PIO Primary Education School with a Pension TIO Primary Education Bussing School YIBO Regional Boarding Primary Education School 6 Summary The study was common effort of World Bank and FAO. The purpose of the study was to assess the quality of primary education in Turkey and find school characteristics that lead to higher performance compared with other schools with similar resources and clientele. 19 good performing schools with median resources and student populations were visited. Results from the visits were compared with information on "normal" schools got from recent evaluation studies. There were constrains common for "good" and "normal" schools. They were connected with curriculum, competition and testing, resources and their allocation, gender issue, and schooling in sparsely populated areas. In "good" schools there was a strong and democratic leadership, principals and teachers were goal oriented, competent, motivated and committed to their work. Relationships between students, teachers and the principal were open. Schools had living cooperation with the society and parents, who donated and had expectations for the school. Students behaved and studied properly, made their homework and often had extra courses either privately or from their teachers. Recommendations were done on developing a more diverse concept of learning and knowledge among educators, reducing testing, establishing pilot projects on developing teaching methods and using of audiovisual aids, on special education, on girls' education, learning from previous projects, and organizing projects in a way to support ownership, networking and connecting theory and practice and noticing the potential of rural schools. Recommended activities could be regarded as development projects included in Government budget and the Second Basic Education Program and financed through them. 7 1. Objectives of the study The objective of this study is to assess the quality of primary education in rural and urban areas of Turkey. The study is a small-scale intervention to rural Turkish schools which have median resources and which have shown better success than other schools with similar resources. This is a school-effectiveness research aiming to answer the question "which school characteristics lead to relatively higher performance compared with other schools with similar resources and student populations". The study will produce the following results: 1. A picture of "what is schooling like in rural Turkey," and what should or could be happening in classrooms and schools. 2) Identify schools that already embody good practices. 3) a) Assess (identify) good performance in schools b) Quantify current degree of waste or inefficiency in the system. 4) Qualitative analysis on a few "good" schools of those identified statistically what is going right in those schools and why. - Identify few effective typologies - Explore ways of improving the organization of schools for different clienteles 5) Examination how technical services to schools could be organized so as to optimize support for productive teaching and effective learning processes 6) "Issues" paper that summarizes the research as well as the policy discussion around the issue 2. Carrying out the study The study was carried out in six overlapping phases. 1. Background studies Background studies comprised of reading reports on Turkish school, visiting Web-sites on different aspects of Turkey and reading some Turkish documents. 2. Selection of Schools Main criteria of the school selection were good performance measured by students' achievements, and median resources compared with other schools in the same category of schools. Schools were selected by the Turkish counterpart Dr. Ali Ekber Sahin, Assistant Professor of the Hacettepe University, together with local authorities. The selection was done mainly based on recommendations of primary school inspectors of the provinces. The schools were selected both from developed and developing regions and among them were rural, suburban and urban schools. The schools represented normal day schools, schools with multigrade classrooms, two shift schools, bussing schools, and pension schools (PIOs and YIBOs). There were urban or suburban schools from wealthy areas as well from poor suburban areas, were people migrated from rural areas. 8 The Turkish counterpart organized the selection of the schools after the geographical area of the coming visit and the principles of selection were discussed together. The school inspectors who best knew the schools of the region were consulted during the process. 3. Visits to schools The field work consisted of 3 field trips to Turkey, around 10 days each. 19 schools were visited in Central Anatolia (Ankara) and Mediterranean area (Antalya) during 18-27 March 2004, Black Sea Area (Samsun-Ordu) during 13-22 April 2004, and East Anatolia (Erzurum) during 8-16 May 2004. According to State Planning Organisation (DPT), Ankara and Antalya are developed provinces, Samsun, Ordu and Erzurum are developing provinces (MEB 2002,1). Permission for the visits was requested from the MONE by WB office in Ankara and information about the visits was sent to the Provincial Office of National Education and to the schools to be visited. The researcher with his interpreter, Turkish counterpart, carried out the visits. In some cases a school inspector and in one case the Chief of the Primary school Inspectors attended the visits. A typical visit to a school included discussion with the principal and vice principals, discussion with all teachers or focus group of teachers when usually the principal was not present, discussion with focus group of students when principal and teachers were not present, classroom observations, and tour around the school. Discussions were carried out according to a protocol designed before and developed during the visits. The protocol was not followed strictly and topics discussed varied according to situation. The discussions were lead by the researcher or the Turkish counterpart and the researcher took notes by handwriting and typed them after visit. Photos were taken to document school premises, people and situations. 4. Analysis of the visits Visits were discussed together with the Turkish counterpart and often with the interpreter, too. Categories, trends and events were identified which in turn resulted refining the programs for visits. Synthesis was formed during the process of record writing. 5. Drawing up conclusions, synthesis Finally all experiences gained were analyzed in a session by the Turkish counterpart, interpreter and the researcher. Results from the visits were combined by the information gained from the background studies to produce the findings and recommendations. 6. Writing of the Report The process of report writing started after second visit and continued since then. 9 3 Schools visited 3.1 Definition of a good school Elementary school inspectors (supervisors) know the schools and education very well in their region. When they were asked to select the schools for the visits of this study they used criteria that can be regarded as a kind of Turkish standards for a good school. They used the following criteria when selecting schools for the research (Manuscript by Ali Ekber Sahin) : 1. Reputation of the school among public 2. General performance assessment (GPA) of the school teachers given by school inspectors 3. Limited resources but good results in high school entrance tests 4. Remarkable improvements recently like high attendance rate, parent involvement, and test results 5. Feedback from parents and members of society about graduates 6. Discipline and order in the schools 7. Extra curricular activities and success in these activities 8. Being open to the public 9. Commitment to success. During visit no gaps or weaknesses were especially sought. The staff and students were encouraged to identify factors that make their school good. The preconception about the school to be visited was that it represents a good performing school with median clientele and resources. In most cases this was the case when results were analyzed. In some cases schools were performing well, but either their resources were much better than average or the students' socio-economic background was above average, or there was no criteria to be found what made the school better than average. 3.2 Description of the schools visited The schools are introduced in the order they were visited. More detailed descriptions are available from the author on hand notes made during visits or their typed versions. 1 Bugduz Elementary School, Aykurt-Ankara Bugduz Elementary School is a central village school with 12 teachers and 237 students. It has moved in a new school building a few years ago. Principal and almost all teachers of the school have changed during the couple of last years. The reason why National Education Supervisors recommended the school for our visit is that the new teaching staff has rapidly gained results with school organization, parents, cooperation with surroundings, and level of education. There is a continuous in serving training of teachers within the school. The principal is innovative problem solver who has initiated cooperation between 5 neighbor school principals. One of the school's strengths is its young teaching staff. Teachers have close relationship with students (e.g. play volley ball with students during lunch break) and they are willing to learn more. Teachers meet each other daily during common lunch and in the buss ("bussing seminar") when traveling school and home in Ankara. School showed potential for development. This or this kind of school and its active staff could be used in developing projects. 10 2 Mujgan Karacali Elementary School, Ankara This is a 2 shift urban school with 856 students and 44 teachers. The Basic strengths of this school are students with homogeneous and above average socio-economic background, competent teachers who have worked together for a long period of time, and innovative and dedicated leadership. Social infrastructure around the school is supportive and parents contribute much. Parents are middle class civil servants, more than 2 persons in a family are working, and all parents are literate. School has traditions, its staff has developed with the school. School has 18 computers, 22 TVs and 22 VDCs. The students have access to Internet, school is one of the first schools using computers in all school's activities. The school has long term plans: money will be put away for long term projects. Long term goals for the school are e.g. annex building, sports facilities, music classroom, second science laboratory, teachers' room (previous was taken for the computer lab). This school has much more resources than schools in average and its clientele represented the wealthy part of society. It was interesting to realize, however, that even here lack of space limits possibilities, and much potential would be released with more space and apparatus for competent teachers to use. 3 Ikizce Elementary School, Ankara This small multigrade rural school is about 40 km from Ankara in a village inhabited by Carcassians minority. There are1 principal, 1 teacher and 14 students in the school. Students do well in tests: National test scores on the sub-provincial level For 4th graders: Among 735 students 2, 21, 86, 273. For 5th graders Among 764 students 122, 128, 129, 138, 419 On the Provincial level the best 4th grader has position 3982 among 63 536 students. The school lives as a part of the village, teachers feel like mothers to the children. The principal lives in the village with her family. Families have only 1-2 children and are very keen supporting their children. Men are minimum wages working people, women handle the economic affairs of the family with skill. Teachers are dedicated to their work. Teachers regard education as holistic upbringing of the child. Libray is open all day and students can borrow books any time and bring them back without any supervision. The school building is renovated recently. Schoolyard is an important place where students can learn efficiently during their own time. 4 Mustafa Adiyaman Elementary School, Central Antalya There are 1300 students and 32 teachers in this urban school. Inspection was going in this school during our visit and we had occasion to discuss with inspectors. According to the Inspector (supervisor): "This school is the best of the 17 schools in the 6th zone". All teachers are good and hard working. Administration work hard, they have will. The Principal is like "locomotive", says a teacher. Parents are middle class, educated people. They wait a lot from teachers, they share things, solve problems together. Cooperation with parents is good; there are always 2-3 parents in the school. Outside official hours teachers help students. The school does not concentrate on the tests only. They are very successful e.g. in sports and folklore. Schools handball team is the best in Turkey. There are 1 OH projector, 4 computers, 4 TVs , and 3 VCDs in the school. 11 The vision of the school "As Mustafa Adiyaman Elementary School we would like to be the first in education, love, peace in line with Atatürk's principles and facts. We are ready as team to realize our vision and achieve the perfection." 5 Yesilbayir Elementary School, Antalya There are 614 students and 29 teachers. Bussing school. The students are at top in the province's annual tests. Principal and teachers are very dedicated in their work. School acts as change agent for the village. Girls participate in all kinds of sports, even drive bicycle. School has close relationships with the municipality and one factor in the success is the cooperation between principal and the Mayor. They are schoolmates and very dedicated in their work developing their home village. Principal's philosophy is to do good, "work hard to reach something". He feels like marathon runner: "we achieve in a long run". School organizes many kinds of extra courses for their students. Many local people have become rich through land reform. 40 % of parents are minimum wage workers. There was criticism towards curriculum and testing system, it should be changed. "Now everything concentrates on teaching for the national tests at the end of 4th and 5th grades. This is the weakness of our system. To be good in exams don't guarantee that student is good in other respects. Being good in tests don't guarantee a good future. Exam system is unfair; those having outside courses get better grades." School has very good resources. 6 Elmali Ataturk Elementary School, Antalya There are 430 students 19 teachers, 20 computers, contracted teacher for IT, IT lab is borrowed for the use of neighbor school. 14 TV/VCD (in each classroom), 4 OH projectors. 2 schools in the sub region have computer labs. All students want to come in these schools because of the PCs. Schools' working hours continue from the official end at 3 until 6 o'clock. There are extra courses for students. Almost all students participate in them. Parents insist more and more classes (without extra pay). Parents contribute to teaching aids. Teachers are effective, new desks are permanently fixed on the floor. 80-90 % of children will continue on secondary level. School makes academic success by overworking. Opinion: "Elite class parent's children come here on private courses and extra courses without charge." Opinion: "Inspectors visit school often and ask the same questions about success indicators. When teachers answer these questions again and again, they maybe forget the other goals of education, regard only the figures in secondary education test important." School has very good resources. 7 Istiklal Elementary School, Samsun 1611 students, 66 teachers, principal and 4 vice principals, 48 classrooms in 2 shifts, 28 computers of which 15 internet connected (1/classroom), 12 OHP. No limits for photocopying. "Elitist" say some. City center, good social background. As schools is Curriculum Laboratory School (MLO), its class size is limited to 30-40 sudents/class . Average class size now is 33 students/class. Students take private courses. School does not advertise, much more students would like to come. 12 Social background: 30-40 % public servants, 30 % have own business like shop or coffee, 20 % workers, 20 % daily basis living: agriculture, low lever earnings, unemployed. Two children/family on average. 60 % of all students are accepted to higher level secondary schools, like Anatolian High School, Technical High School. Many kinds of activities like: School participate in competitions on Samsun and national levels. Folklore, modern dance, theater, orchestra, theatre, scout, football clubs. School does not serve extra courses but students go to private institutions. Individual teachers give extra training individual students without extra pay. Teachers are devoted, work hard, voluntarily extra, as a response to parents' demands. There is e.g. school development team: Principal, ass. Principal, teachers, one from PTA, several parents, one student, one from university. "Its not important to give all knowledge, important is how to get the knowledge." 8 Haci Naipli Elementary School, Samsun 238 students, of which 18 bussing, 16 pre-school students.10 teachers. 2 computers, 2 OHP. Principal graduated 5 years ago, 2 years as principal. Cources: 2 courses on TQM, 1 computers, 1 counceling. 38 km from Samsun, bad mountain road, elevation 900 m, takes 1 hour to drive there from Samsun. Opinion of school advisors and teachers of other schools says the same: Poor background, very successful school. Problems in village: poverty, health, nutrition, road, water. All children from the village are at school. There are (8 or 20) students with mental impairments among other students (inclusion !). Methods used: Explanation, questioning, experimenting, (no school lab, we need it, materials have to carry from one classroom to another), group work, visits, observations. We would like to be student centered ­ you have get prepared for that- we are not ready for that yet. Limited resources, teacher has to show (not student experiment) not enough equipment. Teachers are young married women who all live in Samsun. They complain difficult journey to school and diseases they bring to their own children (husbands complain). It hard to come to school everyday, it brings negative attitude towards our school. Strenghts of the school: Cooperation with the society around, results in rural development: agriculture developing, gender issue, courses for young adult women. inclusion of students with impairments in normal classrooms, having visions which are shared with the villagers, dedicated, hard working principal, scarifying teachers. What quality means? "Team work (like we do), Continuous development and change." Indicators: Students want to be here What you would not like to change: "Hugging system, people are satisfied." This is a very good school, which has got results with median resources in a poor rural village. 9 100-Yil PIO Pension Elementary school, Samsun Yakakent PIO for girls, in addition local students who are boys and girls. 450 students, in Pension 147 (girls), 7 classroom teachers, 21 subject teachers. 17 classrooms, average classroom size 30 students/class. Pension started in 2000. It is 900 m away from the school. 13 Features of success: 1) Planned, systematic work. 2) Teachers' quality, experienced: 20 % are "normal", 80 % are scarifying teachers 3) Equipment: OH, Projector, PC Of students 80 % are successful in Turkish test, especially in Turkish grammar. At the beginning some girls in the pension were illiterate (6th graders) This is due bad teaching in some rural schools. 80 % of teachers in villages are incompetent, contracted teachers. No teacher will go there due to bad roads. In 28 villages around there is a container as a school. Does any teacher want to become a teacher in a container? Teaching basic life skills to Pension students: like electricity, use of equipment, running water, hygiene, etc. Last year 47 girls performed entrance test to high school but none of them entered. Reasons are poverty and tradition, their fathers did not allow. Activities are organized to get pension and local students work together. Recruiting students: Letters are sent to parents, meetings organized in villages and tours organized in school in order to make students come. Principal's days become very long, often up to 2 a.m. Vision: 1) 90 %success in high school entrance tests. 2) All pension students when going back to their villages add quality in life there. Problems on Pension students: 1) Bad education during the 5 first years in villages 2) Girls are not allowed to go secondary education. Ability groups are not allowed -> there is an awful mix of academic skills in a classroom. 8th grade concentrates on preparing students for entrance tests for secondary schools. There are three kinds of problems for the school. 1. Village background, education, tradition 2. Lack of money, time it takes to collect what is needed 3. Top level administration. Opinion of the 5-> 8 reform. It does not make any difference if the 5 first years of education are bad. Students' interview 8 graders 3 from pension, 2 local. Number of siblings at home: 7, 6, 4, 5, 8 Ideal occupation: Teacher, school counselor, two doctors and one nurse. We love all teachers. I corrected my behavior and I learned here speaking, cleaning, clothing, respect, talking friendly, living in community. I learned my rights such as further education. Good education, happy, learn a lot, how to share, teachers are friendly. Two teachers stay every night, delicious food, discipline and high control. Good reputation. What needs to be changed in PIO: Pension is too crowded, miss family, ability groups would be good. You should be able to focus on your talents like music, painting and sports. Teachers' interview, 5 teachers Turkish: she follows literature and supplementary text books, goes to urban area to find best books and materials. Visits other schools. Support students for creative writing not just memorizing. She selects classical novels for reading according to students' level. Bring the daily issues such as EU and Cyprus issue to discuss. Aim to improve culture and society. We get high support from the principal. He forces us to work hard. Teachers are their mothers, we do what is needed. We come even at midnight if needed. Parents must get educated as well. Students teach them in villages. Purpose is to develop villages, educate village students for village development. Curriculum is loaded which affect all social activities here. System is not good. Students are forced to memorize because of the tests. 14 10 Kozköy Elementary School, Samsun 240 students, 9 teachers, Principal Kaya Birer School. 240 students, 113 bussing. Principal + ass.principal + 14 teachers. 6 vacancies unfilled. Materials: 1 OH, 4 computers, no photocopy, math models, pre- school materials, science lab, soc. study materials. How outsiders might consider this school to be good: 1. Good teachers and administration who feel their responsibility. 2. Parents willing to support us. 3. Needs of students taken into account 4. Good communication 5 Principal always defends, teachers (e.g. on Monday there will be inspection in the school: teachers do what they want, principal defends them) Good reputation. Difference with other schools: All sacrifice here. We wanted to be a bussing school. Bussing almost doubled the number of students. There are 9 busses for transporting students. At the beginning bus companies did not accepted the low price demanded. It helped when the principal promised to organize some tourist group drives to the firms. Teachers' interview What makes this school good: The use of materials, learning by doing (science teacher). Classroom size (20 ­ 24). Teachers are from here. Good relationships with parents, individual relationships with students. Locals support us. Meet often parents here. Social activities, like theater. Student centered education. Give students clues, not ready answer, learn to think, creativity. Test results: From statistics you can red e.g. the following Grade no of no of bussing students rank of 10 best no of students in students in among 10 best students students the grade in the grade in the grade Samsun 4 20 0 1877-4241 16457 5 15 0 444-5700 15792 6 49 5 422-7191 20900 7 45 4 2077-4518 22044 8 49 9 1111-4614 21163 11 Altinfindik Elementary School , Ordu-Central 5 store building, not enough space. 1670 students, 2 shifts, class size grades 4-5: 50 students, grades 6-8: 40 students, 64 teachers, library of 2400 books, 1 computer+ 70cm TV/class, 4 OH projectors, 1 data projector. Head of inspectors: Structure of this school is better than in others in terms of materials. Parents are constructive, contributions from parents 90 %. Parents trust us, believe us. Principal: Key of success is warm atmosphere, cooperation. Best students do a lot of homework, 6-8 hours + go to private courses. There is a tribal difference. Parents background: Wealthy 30 %, median 65 %, and poor 5 %. Parents pay the bussing of their children (is not an official bussing school) Test results are above average. In the Arts, science Education Center 60 students from Ordu, from this school 8 students. We train good personalities, members of society: never overreact calm, polite. Entering EU-quality people. Teaching techniques: General presentation techniques. TVs CDs, 50 % of teachers can use PC. Success of the school may depend on the private courses (80 % of 8th graders take private courses) taken and a lot of homework best students do. 15 12 Turnasuyu YIBO, Ordu Several buildings in a beautiful river valley, where wind often blows. Two years ago a flood where helicopters saved students and teachers. YIBO with 186 girls and 435 boys, total 435 students, no. of boarding students is 374. Average class size 25. Principal, 2 vice principals, 5 class teachers, 4 special education teachers (universal), 18 branch teachers, 9 servants. The best YIBO in Ordu: novelties, developments, seminars ->developments. What makes the difference: we find out problems, all workers are doing their best. We are lucky to be close to the city center, in high places living is more difficult. One of the very few principals being happy with the government budget, not on depending on local resources. School concentrates on giving the basic education to students after the years of villge schools, where quality of education is often bad. YIBOs are becoming more competitive as MONE has promised that any student graduating from YIBO with good marks can enter any vocational school in Turkey. This is a kind of reward. Testing system is reliable: during tests school staff leaves the school and teachers from other school run the test. This year there have been 5 general tests/year in Ordu. Teachers are not focusing on exam results they are a better school compared with others in terms of behavior change. Guide talented students to proper vocational school. Never thought that we are successful. Our staff is young and dynamic, have a good dialogue. Most students are happy in dormitory, 20-30 % miss their parents. Last year graduated 116 students, of which 48 (41 %) went to normal secondary schools. 15 to foreign language schools, 1 to Anatolian teacher's school. 22 went to Anatolian religious school: last year students were selected there based on school records, not central exams like usually. 13 Beyli Elementary School, Ordu 192 students, of which 100 bussed. 6 busses from 3 villages. The best school in the Ordu region. Canteen, multi-purpose room, crafts (with good equipment), sc. laboratory, library 500 books, 2TV, 2VCD 178 videocassettes, 1 OH, data projector. This school has not got computers. Poor region. Only 2 students for private weekend courses. Income from hazel nuts. TQM system started 2002-2003. School development-management team. Designed own vision, mission and strategies. Mission: To arise children and their results who will carry this country to better future, open thinking positive individuals. We are team who are open for changes and innovations, scientific education, we trust Atatürk's principles. There are 4 teachers' development groups. Good results. Vision: atmosphere, love & respect, etc, see notes Parents: 70 % have no other income but hazel nuts. 10 % receive government support. In wintertime whole family live in one room (heating). Difficulties: Curriculum, bussing students have dry food, schedule, personnel, materials. Missing teachers: English, music, arts, crafts. They never come to village schools. There are too many tests: local tests every month. Problems of the region: Parents are poor, nutrition, combination classes, students have to work. Principal calls every morning to parents whose children are absent. Would like to have a secondary school here. Study hours for students, make homework in the school as no place in home to do. 16 Mobile libraries used: when student has read 2000 pages certificate awarded. If more than 2000 pages success certificate. Regular counseling hours given even not counseling teacher. "We are successful or close to success. Economy and bureaucratic problems. Teachers: TQM, counseling, good relations with all, reputation, slow learners in some classrooms, no gap between village and city schools, we are so close, not much homework, research questions. Children: Homework 1-3 h. Enjoy school, teachers friendly, trees around, free time study hours, prepare for exams, not noise, no crowds, teachers flexible with time. Professions: archeology, 2 history teacher, 2 doctor, nurse, math teacher, 2 military officer, psychology, police. 14 Bolaman Elementary School, Ordu The best school in Fatsa municipality in 2003 (certificate on the wall) 23 km from Ordu. 877 students, of which 650 bussing (80 %), 39 teachers. Materials: Laboratory from WB, 1 OH, photocopy 70 000/year. Missing things: IT lab, SC lab materials. Methods: Student centered techniques, material from home, drama, projects, visual methods, maps. Where does the success come from? 1. Staff has not changed, has been a long time in the school. 2. Bussing students randomly mixed 3. Previously success was better. Bussing students dropped the level. We cannot contact parents as often as we used to. 4. Walking students were success. 5. Unlimited devotion of teachers 6. Local students get extra courses Bussing: There are 33 busses, 90 % come in time (means that 65 students don't come in time). Drivers have written instructions. One teacher has two busses to be controlled. If needed, National Education authorities are informed on drivers' misbehavior. Management: never close doors, teachers or students can come any time. We were teachers in fact. Students come from many villages; school brings them together. Teachers don't leave school when school ends. There are TQM groups. Teachers give extra courses for local students (not for bussing) and students (10%) take private courses. Quality: Students want to come here. Developing moral values. Send students to secondary school. What you would not like to change: coordination with teachers, human relations. We were one of the best schools if we were not a bussing school. Suburban school which have enough room and young energetic teachers for e.g. developing of working in science laboratory or teaching methods. 15 Mehmet Akif Ersoy Elementary School, Merkez-Erzurum "Even the school is in rural area and students background is poor, we can compete with any school in city." Pupils 500 in two shifts, only grades 1 ­ 5, Teachers 20, principal + vice principal 20 students/class in average. School is 5 km from the city center. Poorest district of the city, area where immigrants from countryside first come to seek their place in the town. Only 36 parents of the 350 who are connected with the school live permanently in the area. Parents are poor, 99 % of them are green card holders (support from government). About 100 orphans in the school. Some students have difficulties to get food. Collections to them. For Bajram, donations are collected from companies and given to poorest 17 families. Special needs students are included in the school. School was established in 1979. Principal has been in this school for the last 12 years. Materials. 2 photocopy machines10000 copies/month, no limits for copies. Computers: Teacher's room well equipped, principal' and vice principal' as well. Library: Thousands of books scattered around the school. City's mobile library comes every two weeks. No hiring extra workers; paintings of the walls done by ourselves. All teachers are computer literate. Have attended many courses. Principal's principles: Cannot accept, endure failure. I don't set goals I cannot achieve. Setting goals -> teamwork->companies assistance -> realization. Visits other schools, try to find practical ideas to be moved in his school. Success of the school: School is adapting principles of TQM since 1999. Principal has used it much longer. 1. Team work: collecting resources from the companies around 2. Following technological development 3. School-students- parents cooperation 4. Trust, belief, devotion. What could be moved to other schools: 1. Open doors to technology 2. Trusting teamwork 3. Integrate schools to their surroundings, not closed boxes, open boundaries to city, to Turkey, to the world. All staff open to innovations from principal to maids. Not carry their problems to National Education Authorities, solve problems themselves. 10 students, randomly selected (every 5th in alphabetical order), from 4th and 5th grades: Future profession:3 medical doctors, 1 governor, 3 policemen, 2 nurses, 1 scientist. Number of siblings: 2,3,6,5,2,3,3,6,2. Hours of homework: 1, 2-3, 1,1,1-2, 2-3, 1,5-6, 5- 6. Most liked subjects: Religion (8), learn rules to become good person, learn the truth, learn to pray, learn being clean. Social science (1), Science (3), experiments, problem solving, Mathematics (4) enjoyable, English (3),Turkish (2). 16 Guzelova Koyu Elementary School, Erzurum Rural school with 3 buildings, discussion of girls' future. There are 203 students in the school. Rural school, poor traditional village of 2000 inhabitants and 350 homes. One of the biggest villages in Erzerum. Living mainly from agriculture, cows, sheep and grass production. Grass production, transported to harbors. School is successful in terms of doing its work in difficult circumstances and developing relations with the village. Last winter was severe. There was 120 cm snow and temperature sometimes ­ 35 centigrade. However, all students came to school. Heating is one of the biggest problems in the area. If there were better heating teachers would stay here longer, at least 5 years. School has 8 classrooms, 1 laboratory for computers (3) and science computers for teachers, 2 principals, teacher's room, 2 principals and vice principal's rooms. 1 OH projector, teaches make transparences themselves. Vice-principal: I live in city and my daughter could go to a city school, however, I bring her here. If I would not believe in this school, she would not be here. She is among 100 best students in Erzerum. Teachers do all work, build fences of stone and concrete, clean chimneys etc. If village had a secondary school, girls could enter secondary education, nowadays it is not possible in most cases. Villagers need more education. 90 % of students don't know what is going outside the village. In other places students have private lessons, here they cannot have. Teachers give extra instruction during brakes and lunch hours. Muhtar was taken to University to discuss agricultural engineers on villages problems and new ideas were taken to the village. There are good relationships between school and Army. Army has donated laboratory to the school. One good student attends Army's school. Villagers are not allowed to use school premises for their own purposes like weddings etc. Formerly some females became fanatics on terrorist groups wearing their colors, now all 18 have settled down. School had bussing students from other villages. The practice was discontinued: bussing students got free lunch, locals did not. It caused envy. Bussing students were behind locals and it effected negatively. Sending villages stopped sending girls, they were foreign to the village. Ministry was informed that there is not space enough and the bussing was stopped. Teachers: What makes this school good: 1. Good dialogue within teachers. 2. Devoted teachers, dynamic young staff. 3. Every teacher has good education. 4. Equipment are used actively in classrooms 5. Enthuaism of families/ children in learning 6. Beeing close to city center (not crowded classrooms) 7. Few students/classroom 8. Effective counseling (all teachers do). 17 Cumhuriyet Pension Elementary School, Cat-Erzurum Computer lab, 9 computers working, no network. Cat is about 50 km from Erzurum to the south. High hills between the two towns, the highest point during the travel 2303 m. Last winter minum tempersture in Cat was ­45, there was snow > 2m. Engines could not be started, fuel froze. The main road between Cat and Erzerum was cut for 4 days. PIO collects its students from 14 villages nearby. Farms need all work power in hand and students are sometimes difficult to come to school. Principal has recently changed during the investigation on an accident where 2 students died. Dormitory was in a bad condition. School has not much resources for feeding the students. Washing machine was out of order. School had debt for food. Meat is seldom on the menu. Students get washed once a week. It was interesting to see this PIO, however, there was not much to offer in terms of good practices, nobody interviewed could identify. At a short distance there was a new built YIBO. YIBO and PIO decide together villages where they take students in the beginning of the year. Teachers interviewed were in their first job here and were heading to somewhere else. "When they are trained for PIO teachers, they leave." Instead of homework we teach in classroom. Targeting for what? Improve students' performance, 50 % to continue higher, girls to continue, more to universities. Children: "We know our rights". This school visit showed the severe circumstances where people live and a school operates in this area. It is a fight on existence in the extreme conditions. The standards normally used are not perhaps valid here. Teachers can not hire houses in Cat because they have not central heating, all travel to Erzurum (40 km). 18 Sehit Bulent Karatas Elementary School, Ciftlik Koyu-Erzurum A village in about 6 km from the Erzurum: 156 students, of which 68 girls, 88 boys. Teachers 10. Principal Türker Gündojdu, 9 years experience, only in this school, has been principal 8 months.. Equipment, premises: Computers 7 of which 4 in school lab (WB provided 5), 1 OH, photocopy machine from NE, science lab with basic equipment (NE), 3 CDs no TV. 8 classrooms, 1 teachers' room, 1 principal, 1 vice principal, 4 small rooms, 1 for sc instruments. Missing music classroom, IT lab. There are about 100 families who send children to this school. About them 45 are poor, middle level 30-35, wealthy 20 families. Principal: First door to village is Imam. I have good relations with him, we find common views with him. Then I visit families. Previously girls were not sent to school, now all girls come. Girls are not sent to secondary school because of tradition and work force reasons. Village headman is a very 19 important contact. When I need money I go to him. We are close to city so we don't have problems in getting branch teachers. Problem is that teachers change often. Teachers interviewed have been in school 1-3 years. What makes you better than some others? Smaller classes, equipment, material, general conditions, interested teachers. 50 % don't go to secondary schools because parents don't allow. Try to make change. Students express themselves openly, self-confident. We do trips to theater, exhibitions, museum etc. in town . Tests: We don't trust the test results because in some school teachers help students during tests. Without national tests students would not know their real performance level. Discussion with muhtar and his group: We are happy with the principal, he visits families. All his free time goes with us. Education changes children: good behavior. Receipt for building cooperation with school? "I would go to village where there is already a school and ask 1) Muhtar 2) Imam 3) school principal how they have handled the matter." A girl not allowed to go to secondary school: "According to Atatürk, we should be people to secure our country. They prevent us to make our job." Homework hours: 1-2,5. Teachers: "We don't know we are different." 19 Dumlu Elementary School, Erzurum Bussing school with 377 students. Bussing started in 1998. There are 89 bussing students who come from 10 villages. There is no difference between bussing or walking students. Bussing students get dry lunch, like biscuit, cakes, fruit juice. There is a student in each buss reporting events. Bussing should be directed to Erzerum, not in other villages in order to educate students more. In villages women don't wear traditional clothes. 350 parents, 45 % very poor (have 1-2 animals) School has not been able to collect money from students for 4 years, they cannot pay. Mayor help a lot. School has 2 OH, 3 computers, 1 data projector, science lab. No photocopy Schools interior was nice and clean, a lot of green plats in the corridors. Main School Building has around it a wide green yard surrounded by pine trees. Second building is about 200 m away. There are a lot of visitors coming from abroad to see the school. Success come from: 1. Discipline 2. Coordination between teachers and 3. respect, love, understanding, truth, reliability. There is a military base close and it has had a big importance to the school and surroundings. Recently there have been rearrangements and only a few of the soldiers are left. This was a loss for the school and whole area. Army gave manpower to make reparations in the building. School follows their students through secondary education. 90 % (100 % of boys, 80 % of girls) of students go to secondary education (10 % not because of poverty), 20 % to universities. Lot of students who were graduated from us have become important people. Lot of social activities. Teachers: There are a group of experienced and a group of young teachers. "We feel ourselves younger among young people". Six of the interviewed teachers had been in the school 2-8 months, others 24, 24, 14, 6, 6, 2 years. 20 4 Evaluation Studies on Turkish Primary Schools There are several and national and international studies that give information about Turkish primary schools after the 1997 reform. Three studies were made within the Basic Education Project, the World Bank financed project that MONE developed to support the implementation of the 8 year compulsory education. These studies are: 1) Social Impact of Primary Education Schools (MONE 2002,a) 2) Institutional Evaluation of Primary Education Schools (MONE 2002,b) 3) Cost Analysis of Primary Education Schools (MONE 2002,c) Data got from international reading ability comparison study PIRLS 2001 was analyzed as part of this study . 4) Turkish School Analysis Based on data from PIRLS 2001 study (PIRLS 2001, Kuitunen) 4.1 Social Impact of Primary Education Schools The purpose of the Social Impact of Primary Education Schools Study (MONE 2002,a) was to perform study for assessing the social impacts of YIBOs, PIOs, and TIOs. The study was based on the opinions of the school principals, teachers, students, parents, provincial and sub-provincial national education directors and primary education inspectors, and community leaders like muhtars and imams. The circumstances in the schools studied are described in detail in the report. 4.1.1 Recommendations for the YIBOs and PIOs Physical conditions There are detailed recommendations on the living conditions of boarding students in dormitories aiming to peaceful sleep, better ward system, lounges, resting and playing grounds with proper equipment. More funds are needed to developing areas to reach equality with developed areas. Reparation of school buildings, more IT laboratories and internet access, more equipment and teacher training on using them, more qualified staff, space and services for health, hygiene, cleaning, security and nutrition are needed. Parents Increasing parents' involvement by training and informing them better and organizing room for their visits. Better students' adaptation to school, and strengthening administration-school-public links. YlBO/PIOs are suggested to serve as a center of social development and adult education in summertime. Gender Education programs should be arranged, which would change traditions and attitudes that prevent girls from attending schools. Education and financial assistance should be given to families to send their girls to school. Students More visits to home for students to prevent psychological problems. No cleaning responsibilities for students. No violence against students by staff. Quality of meals should be improved and the quality should be examined by dieticians. Personnel Better guidance and psychological consultancy services through adequate materials, equipment and personnel. More in-service training for school personnel on changes and 21 latest developments in their fields. More services personnel, and more females among them. More salary and social allowances to staff. Water and heating problems should be solved. Motivation added. Quality of administrators and teachers should be taken in account when appointing. Teachers' turnover should be stopped by means of economic rewards. More pension schools Number of YIBO/PIOs, especially for girls, should be increased and they should be launched across Turkey. More money allocations needed. 4.1.2 Recommendations for the Bussing Basic Education Schools (PIO) Physical conditions Teaching equipment-devices, laboratory equipment, multi - purpose lounges, gymnasiums and resting fields, personal cupboards for students needed. Students should be transported to the sufficient central schools. Libraries, book campaigns and funds to get books for them. Better guidance services: equipment and devices. Health , nutrition, services Infirmaries should be provided with necessary personnel and equipment and students' health should be scanned at certain intervals. Places organized for lunch, quality of the food should be examined by experts (dietician) and the competent persons (school administrator, inspector, teacher, parents, etc) should take corrective measures. All students in bussing school should have free lunch. Busses/drivers Busses should be frequently inspected and drivers should be trained. A teacher or a parent should be present in the bus in order to prevent admission of passengers to the bus, ensure that buses depart and arrive on time, prevent inappropriate behavior between students and ensure that drivers do not exceed speed limits, they don't smoke in the buss and take care of cleanness and maintenance of the buss. Parents-school communication To strengthen school-environment-parents relations. Better communication between parties trough flyers, meetings, tea services etc. If needed, transportation of parents in these activities. Homes should be visited if needed. Money that is collected from parents should be handled transparently. Local and national programs and materials on parents- school issue. More sensitivity to parents. School/society Bussing center should be established in a central village, which will help in preventing migration of rural area students to towns. Bussed students should be transported to different schools instead of one single center. Thus, both goal of bussing education will be attained, in one respect, and equality in education will be ensured. Necessary arrangements should be made to ensure that this implementation does not prevent thee school in village from being closed and teachers from enlightening the village and that rural people do not emulate the urban life. Educational programs should increase contribution of schools to society. Others Extra educational training programs to the bussed students to remove the difference in academic success level between the bussed and walking students. Verbal, physical and emotional violence against students should be prevented. Playgrounds should be improved to a sufficient level; sports and social activities should be arranged. Financial support should be provided to the bussed students in need. Integration/interaction between bussed and walking students should be enhanced through theater, chorus, quiz shows, sightseeing trips etc. in which bussed students may have more active roles. The 22 problems caused by transportation of the children in grades l, 2 and 3 to the remote centers should be taken care. Social assistance Social assistance should be given to poor students. The assistance from state should be used for the student and not for the family. Personnel Cooperation should be organized between schools for guidance services. Quality in- service training on latest developments. Extra payments to teachers for the additional responsibilities and burden incurred by bussing. Selection of teachers and administrators should be made carefully and attention should be paid to appointment of experienced and qualified teachers and administrators. More cleaning staff is needed. Successful administrators and teachers working in these schools should be rewarded; and arrangements should be made for ensuring exchange of their experience with their colleagues and providing guidance to them. Administrators should be selected among teachers having had a post-graduate degree and fluent in foreign language. More branch teachers are needed. Others Access to computers and Internet should be given to the students. Number of students in classrooms should be immediately decreased. Sports and cultural activities should be increased. As YIBO/PIOs seem more functional, educative and inexpensive in long term compared to TIOs, TIOs should be maintained only where YIBO/PIOs are not possible. A strict inspection should be implemented for purchasing any service to these schools. 4.2 The Institutional Evaluation of Primary Education Schools The goals of the study (MONE 2002,b) were to 1) determine the physical improvements obtained as the outcome from the first phase of the Basic Education Project, 2) identify the views of the administrators, teachers, students, parents and shareholders about the effects of the physical improvements on education, and 3) make institutional evaluation of primary education schools based on the second item (MONE 2002 b, 1). 4.2.1 General results · Obvious improvements in physical features and equipment have been realized. In every region new schools and extension buildings have been built; some schools have been renovated and many schools have been provided with equipment. · The administrators and teachers have not been consulted about the improvements and their suggestions have not been followed. This leads to especially administrators' complaints like "senior administrators do not treat us decently". · To consult to the views of school directors, teachers, students, local administrators and shareholders in issues regarding facilities and their equipment will help to lower the possibility of errors and they will contribute more to the school and the solution of its problems. · Expectation level of teachers and administrators in issues regarding improvements is not high and their views on the level of realization is even lower. These findings could be explained by low motivation levels of teachers in East and Southeast provinces. · It has appeared that all parties are in agreement with the fact that the improvements realized have not had enough impact on the quality of education because of the problems in application as explained above. 23 · School directors and teachers have shown the following as reasons for low success rates: building, facility and equipment shortages, inadequacy of subsidies; management problems; indifference of parents and the community, heterogeneous structure of schools, and classes formed by students with; different and low cognitive and affective readiness levels; the curriculum not meeting the needs of students and tradition; curriculum full of necessary information; low motivation of students; students becoming lazy as a result of regulation which eliminated failures; difficulty in maintaining discipline in school which is a result of the abandonment of disciplinary act. · However, teachers and school administration have not been observed to be in search for approaches to raise the quality of education with existing means. Teachers do not know what they can do in school regarding this issue. · Actually, the existing system does not encourage such a inquiry. It is understood that as a lot of the teachers are used to a traditional system which is 'selective'and 'eliminative'and which bases itself on 'failing students'and 'penalizing students', they cannot get themselves adapted to an education system which is 'encouraging', 'educative'and 'directive'. · Besides their concerns about the physical and equipment shortages of classrooms activity rooms, public areas and extension facilities, students have voiced their complaints about the inadequacy of the education system they are in; and have said that they will not be able to attend high school due to financial reasons and even if they do, they will not be successful because of the education they have had. · Parents and shareholders do not show any interest to the physical improvements realized. They have complained that students are not treated well at school and they are not shown enough interest. In addition, they have emphasized that the education provided at school is not adequate; students are weak, they will not be able to go to high school and that even if they do; they will not succeed. · The following quotation from a muhtar summarizes parent-shareholder views. "What is the point of studying in a school which is like a palace if one cannot even learn how to write his name? Let them study in a hut with a proper teacher." (MONE 2002,b 171-173) 4.2.2 Summary · Basic Education Project has contributed to primary education in terms of quantity and quality. It has develop physical features and equipment of schools. · The impact of physical improvements to education has not been as high as expected, what indicates need for administrators and teachers to have in-service training on these matters. · When making decisions about school buildings, the views of teachers, administrators, parents and local administrators should be taken into consideration. · Bussing of the lst-5th grades or at least lst-3rd grades should be discontinued. Piloting of the early childhood education by establishing pre-primary classes should be started and the practice should be spread according to results from the pilot projects. · Measures should be taken to ensure that teachers stay at school for longer hours and spend time with their students especially in YIBOs and PIOs. · The curriculum to train primary education teachers in Education Faculties should be reviewed, keeping the complaints about recently graduated teachers in mind. At least one semester in senior year should be allocated to practice teaching. And some of this 24 practice teaching should be performed in rural regions, YIBOs and PIOs. (MONE 2002,b 171-173) 4.3 Cost Analysis of Primary Education Schools In this study (MONE 2002 c) the answer was sought to the question: "What are the differences in unit student costs in terms of current costs and investment expenses among basic education implementation?" It was found that a normal school is the cheapest and a YIBO is the most expensive. Big standard deviations reveal that the costs vary much from school to school. The costs/student/year are expressed in the table 5.1. School type Number of Mean St.dev schools (million TRL) Normal average 158 446 221 -non bussing 390 -bussing 654 YIBO 32 873 202 PIO 29 533 216 all 490 Table 5.1 Total costs/student/year in different type of schools (MONE 2002 c, 40, 65) Major part of the costs come from personnel expences. In average they take 77,9 %. transportation 3,7 %, food 4,6 %, and investments 3,6 % of total costs. In bussing schools 34 % (223 mTRL) of the total costs of 654 mTRL come from transportation and 13 % (86 mTRL) from meals. The total cost of one bussing student is 1,68 times that of a non-bussing student. The costs according to regions vary from 359 mTRL in Marmara Region to 673 mTRL in Agean Region, the average being 490 mTRL. E.g. the following recommendations were done: · As there are many difficulties with the transportation of young children it would be beneficial to quit bussing education for 1st ­ 3rd grades and to pilot early childhood education for one group. · There were difficulties in collecting data for the study. It is obligatory to have a computer-based record system to keep financial records. · Student number in provinces and schools are not taken into account when sending subsides. That's why a set of criteria should be developed for the allocation of subsides by the central organization. · YIBOs are necessary for primary education. The capacities of YIBOs should be reviewed and the existing capacity should be used efficiently. 25 4.4 Background information on Turkish schools based on PIRLS 2001 study. Findings are based on data from IEA's Study of Reading Literacy Achievement in Primary Schools: The Progress in International Reading Literacy Study (PIRLS 2001) The International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement (IEA) has conducted a series of internationally comparative studies designed to provide policy makers, educators, researchers, and practitioners with information about educational achievement and learning contexts. The Progress in International Reading Literacy Study (PIRLS 2001) is an IEA's assessment of students' reading achievement at fourth grade. The PIRLS 2001 assessment had goals to cover the domain of reading literacy, which was defined as "the ability to understand and use those written language forms required by society and/or valued by the individual. Young readers can construct meaning from a variety of texts. They read to learn, to participate in communities of readers, and for enjoyment." Three aspects of reading literacy were identified: processes of comprehension, purposes for reading, and reading behaviors and habits. Thirty-five countries joined together to conduct the PIRLS assessment in 2001: Argentina Belize Bulgaria Canada Colombia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, England, France, Germany, Greece, Hong Kong, Hungary, Iceland, Islamic Republic, of Iran, Israel, Italy, Kuwait, Latvia, Lithuania, Republic of Macedonia, Republic of Moldova, Morocco, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Romania, Russian Federation, Scotland, Singapore, Slovak Republic, Slovenia, Sweden, Turkey, and United States. In the analysis international average of students achievement was 500 points. National averages varied from 561 points (Sweden) to 372 points (Belize). Turkey's average was 449 points and it ranked 28th among the 35 participating countries. 4.4.1 The indices In order to add understanding on the factors which contribute to good teaching and effective learning PIRLS collected a lot of background information on the conditions in which students' attainment was achieved. Based on that information it developed indices and for each index categories. The categories were formed according to the achievement points. The first category in each index is for the best test scores and the last for the worst scores. The index number 4:1, "Index of Early Home Literacy Activities (EHLA)", is presented as an example how indices were defined and how categories inside an index were defined Parents were asked how often they engaged in the following activities with their child before the child began primary school: Read books, Tell stories, Sing songs, Play with alphabet toys (e.g., blocks with letters of the alphabet), Play word games, Read aloud signs and labels. Responses about each activity were on a three-point scale: Often=3, Sometimes = 2, and Never or Almost Never=1. To construct the index, parents' responses were averaged across the six activities and then students were assigned to one of three categories High level indicates an average between 2.33 - 3. Medium level indicates an average between 1.67 - 2.33. Low level indicates an average between 1 - 1.67. The results of Turkey for the index 4.1 are presented in the table below together with the international average (See Annex 3.1). 26 High EHLA Medium EHLA Low EHLA % of Average % of Average % of Average students Achiev. students Achiev. students Achiev. Turkey 26 474 39 450 35 435 International Avg. 52 520 35 499 13 481 26 % of the Turkish students belonged to the high level category achieving 474 points in average. 35 % of students belonged in the low level category and achieved 435 points in average. For this study 26 indices developed by PIRLS were selected to give information about child's experiences in learning to read, their own reading, literacy resources in the home, school characteristics such as school location and composition of the student body. students' reading attitudes, self-concept, and out-of-school activities. The indices were selected to answer the question: "In what kinds of circumstances students achieve best/ worst in Turkey?" It was supposed that the comparison between reading achievements in different circumstances gives information on learning in a wider sense, too. It is well known that various aspects of reading contribute in learning in many ways. The values of the indices for Turkish schools were picked from the international data and they are presented together with the international average scores in the Annex 3.1. It is revealing to study the average achievement scores in the first and last categories of an index as well as their differences among all indices. In the table 5.2 below there are presented the 26 indices and average achievement points for the first (highest) and the last (lowest) categories and the difference of the points for each index. 27 Aver. achievement points Index with its number used in the PIRLS 2001 study First Cate- Last Cate- Diffe- gory gory. rence 1 4.1: Index of Early Home Literacy Activities (EHLA) 474 435 39 2 4.2: Parents Read Books with Their Children Before the 456 461 -5 Children Began Primary School 3 4.7: Parents' Reports of Books in the Home 501 426 75 4 4.10: Educational Resources in the Home,computer 467 445 22 5 4.10: Educational Resources in the Home,study desk, table 465 431 34 6 4.10: Educational Resources in the Home,own books 465 414 51 7 4.10: Educational Resources in the Home,daily newspaper 461 442 19 8 4.11: Highest Level of Education of Either Parent 512 437 75 9 4.12: Parents' Employment Situations 487 435 52 10 4.13: Fathers' Occupation 505 445 60 11 7.1: Principals' Reports on Their Schools' Locations 464 423 41 12 7.2: Students Coming from Economically Disadvantaged Homes 508 434 74 13 7.6: Teachers Meet to Discuss Instruction 474 450 24 14 7.7: Teachers Meet to Plan Reading Curriculum or Teaching 456 421 35 Approaches 15 7.8: Teachers' Recent Participation in Workshops or Seminars 441 450 -9 (Table 2) 16 7.9: Index of Home-School Involvement (HSI) 446 451 -5 17 7.13: Seriousness of Absenteeism in Schools 482 430 52 18 7.14: Index of Principals' Perceptions of School Climate (PPSC) 477 447 30 19 7.18: Index of Availability of School Resources (ASR) 477 444 33 20 7.19: Availability of Computers for Instructional Purposes 484 439 45 21 8.1: Index of Students' Attitudes Toward Reading (SATR) 478 410 68 22 8.3: Index of Students' Reading Self Concept (SRSC) 484 393 91 23 8.6: Students Read Stories or Novels Outside of School 459 403 56 24 8.8: Students Read for Information Outside of School 465 385 80 25 8.10: Parents Talk with Their Child About What the Child is 464 422 42 Reading 26 8.12: Students Spend Time Watching Television or Videos on a 450 430 20 Normal School Day Table 4. 2. The 26 indices selected from the PIRLS 2001 studies, the average achievement points for the first (highest) and the last (lowest) category and the difference of these points for each index. 4.4.2 Highest scores of the first category within selected indices The indices were organized according to the achievement points in the first category of each index (see Annex 3.2). This analysis shows the students who perform best of all among the best performers in each index. Four highest average achievement scores of the first category were from 512 points to 501 points. All of the four indices at the top of the list refer to the socio/economic background of students. Students whose parents are highly educated and wealthy, whose father has a good occupation and who have a lot of books in the home, achieve best of all having average achievement scores more than 500. 28 Index Index Av. points of the No highest category 4.11 Highest Level of Education of Either Parent 512 7.2 Students Coming from Economically Disadvantaged Homes 508 4.13 Fathers' Occupation 505 4.7 Parents' Reports of Books in the Home 501 Table 4.3 The Four indices having the highest average achievement points of the first category of an index Best of all achieved the 12 % of students whose one or both parents have finished university, see table below. Finished Finished Post- Finished Finished Finished Some University Secondary Upper- Lower- Primary or or Higher School but Secondary Secondary Lower-Second. Not University School School or Did Not Go to School % of Aver. % of Aver. % of Aver. % of Aver. % of Aver. stud Achiev stud Achiev stud Achiev stud Achiev stud Achiev Turkey 12 512 23 474 0 - 65 437 0 - Internat.23 549 15 531 36 511 17 480 9 452 Avg Table for index 4.11: Highest Level of Education of Either Parent, see Annex 3.1 4.4.3 Lowest scores of the last category within selected indices For this analysis indices were organized according to the achievement points in the last category of each index. This analysis shows the students who perform worst all of all among the lowest performers in each index. Five lowest average achievement scores of the last category were from 385 points to 414 points. The 4 lowest scores reflect students reading habits outside the school, their self-concept and attitudes toward reading. Even though PIRLS study is not planned reveal causalities between the index categories and test score, based on numerous studies you might to draw a conclusion that for a young Turkish reader a weak self concept is a self fulfilling prophecy. It easy to believe that students with low self concept believe they are weak readers and act accordingly. Index of the Students' Reading Self Concept (SRSC) plays an important role in the following analysis, too. No Index av. points of the lowest category 8.8 Students Read for Information Outside of School 385 8.3 Index of Students' Reading Self Concept (SRSC) 393 8.6 Students Read Stories or Novels Outside of School 403 8.1 Index of Students' Attitudes Toward Reading (SATR) 410 Table 5.3 The Four indices having the lowest average achievement scores of the last category 29 4.4.4 Differences between biggest and smallest achievement scores within categories The differences between the average achievement points in the first and the last category were calculated for each of the 26 indices, and the indices were organized according to the difference (see Table 2.4). Interesting is which indices are related with the biggest difference of the achievement points and among which indices there is no remarkable difference. Aver. achievement points Index with its number used in the PIRLS 2001 study First Last Diffe- Cate- Cate- rence gory gory. 1 8.3: Index of Students' Reading Self Concept (SRSC) 484 393 91 2 8.8: Students Read for Information Outside of School 465 385 80 3 4.7: Parents' Reports of Books in the Home 501 426 75 4 4.11: Highest Level of Education of Either Parent 512 437 75 5 7.2: Students Coming from Economically Disadvantaged Homes 508 434 74 6 8.1: Index of Students' Attitudes Toward Reading (SATR) 478 410 68 7 4.13: Fathers' Occupation 505 445 60 8 8.6: Students Read Stories or Novels Outside of School 459 403 56 9 4.12: Parents' Employment Situations 487 435 52 10 7.13: Seriousness of Absenteeism in Schools 482 430 52 11 4.10: Educational Resources in the Home,own books 465 414 51 12 7.19: Availability of Computers for Instructional Purposes 484 439 45 13 8.10: Parents Talk with Their Child About What the Child is Reading 464 422 42 14 7.1: Principals' Reports on Their Schools' Locations 464 423 41 15 4.1: Index of Early Home Literacy Activities (EHLA) 474 435 39 16 7.7: Teachers Meet to Plan Reading Curriculum or Teaching Approaches 456 421 35 17 4.10: Educational Resources in the Home,study desk, table 465 431 34 18 7.18: Index of Availability of School Resources (ASR) 477 444 33 19 7.14: Index of Principals' Perceptions of School Climate (PPSC) 477 447 30 20 7.6: Teachers Meet to Discuss Instruction 474 450 24 21 4.10: Educational Resources in the Home,computer 467 445 22 22 8.12: Students Spend Time Watching Television or Videos on a Normal 450 430 20 School Day 23 4.10: Educational Resources in the Home,daily newspaper 461 442 19 24 4.2: Parents Read Books with Their Children Before the Children Began 456 461 -5 Primary School 25 7.9: Index of Home-School Involvement (HSI) 446 451 -5 26 7.8: Teachers' Recent Participation in Workshops or Seminars 441 450 -9 Table 4.4 Indices sorted by the difference between the achievement points of the first and the last category of each index 30 The differences of achievement points varied from 91 to ­9 points, the total variation being 100 points. The indices were divided into four groups, 91-66, 65-41, 40-16, 15-(- 9), according to difference of average points between the first and the last category. Group 91-66: very remarkable difference Group 65-41: remarkable difference Group 40-16: some difference Group 15 ­ (-9): no difference. 4.4.5 Very remarkable and remarkable differences Indices reflecting students' self concept, students' reading habits and their reading possibilities, as well as parents' socio-economic status have very remarkable difference between high and low achievement scores. Next to these come indices on absenteeism in schools, and schools' location. The biggest difference of 91 achievement points was within the index 8.3, "Index of Students' Reading Self Concept (SRSC)". Students who showed high reading self concept, average was 484 points while the students whose reading self concept was low achieved only 393 points in average. The table for the index 7.2 below shows that only 5 % of students go to schools where 0- 10 % of students come from disadvantaged homes and 60 % of students go to schools where more than 50 % of students come from economically disadvantaged homes. This is in accordance with the fact that almost half of Turkey's population belongs to the low- income category. The achievement scores of 508 and 495 in the two highest categories are remarkable higher than those (448, 434) in the two lowest categories. Thinking of the students' competition for entrance to better quality secondary schools it looks like to be a competition among the students in these two highest categories who represent 20 % of all students. 0-10% 11-25 % 26-50 % More than 50% Economically Economically Economically Economically Disadvantaged Disadvantaged Disadvantaged Disadvantaged % of Average % of Average % of Average % of Average students Achiev. students Achiev. students Achiev. students Achiev. Turkey 5 508 14 495 21 448 60 434 International Avg 33 518 24 505 20 493 23 478 Table for index 7.2, see Annex 3.1 Table for Index 7.2: Principals' Reports on Their Primary-Grade Students Coming from Economically Disadvantaged Homes The table below shows on the differences on achievements between students in urban, suburban and rural schools. 31 Urban Suburban Rural % of Average % of Average % of Average students Achiev. students Achiev. students Achiev. Turkey 36 464 39 455 25 423 International Avg 36 507 25 502 29 485 Table for Index 7.1: Principals' Reports on Their Schools' Locations, see Annex 3.1 Difference between students' average achievements in Turkish urban and rural schools is 41 points. It doesn't make a big difference whether the school is urban or suburban; their students achieve considerable better than students in rural schools. 4.4.6 Some or no difference Somehow surprising is the result from the indicator 7.9: "Index of Home-School Involvement (HSI)". The index is based on principals' responses to how often and what percentage of students' parents participate in the following provided by the school: teacher-parent conferences; letters, calendars, newsletters, etc., sent home to provide information about school; written reports (report cards) of child's performance sent home; and events at school to which parents are invited. High level indicates that 4 or more times a year schools hold teacher-parent conferences and events at school attended by more than half of the parents; send home letters, calendars, newsletters, etc., with information about the school 7 or more times a year; and send written reports (report cards) of child's performance 4 or more times a year. Low level indicates schools never hold teacher-parent conferences, or if they do, only 0- 25% of parents attend; schools never hold events, or do so only yearly, attended by 0- 25% of parents; send home letters, calendars, newsletters, etc., no more than 3 times a year; and send home written reports of children's performance never or only once a year. Medium level indicates all other combinations. High HSI Medium HSI Low HSI % of Average % of Average % of Average students Achiev. students Achiev. students Achiev. Turkey 8 446 11 444 81 451 International Avg 41 508 28 499 31 490 The result indicates that the smaller the home-school involvement is, the better students achieve. One explanation for this result might be that home and school meet only when students are in trouble with their readings. If there is no trouble, there is no need to meet. Teachers' Recent Participation in Workshops or Seminars Astonishing and against the preconception of many educators is that the scores of the index 7.8 "Teachers' Recent Participation in Workshops or Seminars" correlates negatively to the test scores. This results from this index should be analyzed more accurately because it may give clues of developing teacher in-service training. 32 In the table below two first categories and categories 3 and 4 of the original table are combined to reduce standard error.. Percentage of Students Whose Teachers Participated in Workshops or Seminars During the Past Two Years More than 16 Hours 1- 15 hours No time % of Average % of Average % of Average students Achiev. students Achiev. students Achiev. Turkey 28 441 33 456 39 450 International Avg 25 499 47 500 28 498 Students in the school where teachers go to seminars achieve less than students in school where teachers use no time for seminars. The data for this analysis in obtained from the PIRLS 2001 International Report (PIRLS 2001) from the website http://isc.bc.edu/pirls2001.html. 5 How is schooling like in rural/urban Turkey The findings on the Turkish schools are based on the visits to the good schools and evaluation studies introduced in chapter 5. The importance of the visits to good schools was to find out what is possible to achieve in schooling with median resources and clientele and to identify good practices, gaps and practices that were not so good at all. Most of the findings were documented already in the reports mentioned above; some findings were not discussed there at all. 5.1 Goals of the school All schools have the same aims defined by the law. However, there are big differences how these aims are implemented in a school. Schools have designed themselves their the mission, goals, and strategies. Within this research it was not possible to study how deeply these principles were understood among the school personnel and how much they were guiding everyday activities of the school. In all schools visited the preparation of students for national and local tests was one dominant factor directing all schools' work. In many schools teachers and parents expressed opinions like this: "Curriculum is over loaded which affect all social activities here. System is not good. Students are forced to memorize because of the tests." As entrance tests for secondary schools cover knowledge from 7th and 8th grades, students have much to memorize. It looks like in some schools the preparation for tests is the major concern in school's life and school is focusing to academic goals only. In many rural and urban schools, however, there is space for other activities like sports, folklore, dance, theatre, and chess, too. This reflects the tendency to bring up a holistic individual, and a good citizen. In some schools the schools' activities are focused inside the school. In some cases a school is involved with the development and the life of whole society around it. If we present these two dimensions at right angles to each other we get a space 33 divided into four quartiles. Most of the schools visited can be located in one of the quartiles according their goal settings. all society I II Figure 8.1 The two dimensions of goal setting of successful schools: academic academic IV III holistic goals ­ holistic goals, and school concentrated ­ all society included. school A school aiming to educate a holistic child and which is involved in the activities of the surrounding society is located in the second quartile. A school, which is aiming to educate a holistic child but is not developing society around is located in the third quartile. Schools in the fourth quartile, aim educating academic child and they are not very much interested in their surroundings. There are rural schools in the quartile II and the title of it could be "Rural development." Quartile III could be called as "Urban tradition" and the schools in quartile IV could be labeled as "Knowledge factory". Quartile I remains empty. Urban schools don't play such an important role for their surroundings as rural schools do. In town there much more institutions to take care of the needs of the people whereas in rural areas the importance of the school can be remarkable. In this classification PIOs and TIOs may have a double role. Boarding or bussing students may come to them from the village school with almost no basic skills and knowledge. Students may know nothing about electricity, running water or how to use electric devise, how to discuss or behave. For them the purpose of the school is set to educate village students for village development. For the local students academic achievements are important and they are heading to further studies. There are many difficulties in implementing this double role. There were frequent complaints in these schools about the difficulty to maintain the academic level to which school was used when it was a normal school with local students only. 5.2 Quality of Education 5.2.1 General In general, the level of education in Turkish schools is regarded low in terms of international comparison study and national surveys. In the international comparison study on reading abilities Turkey was 28th among the 35 participating countries (PIRLS 2001, see 4.4). According to the Social Impact Assessment (MONE 2002a, vi) principals and teachers are generally satisfied in teaching quality in YIBOs, PIOs and TIOs. According to the Institutional Evaluation (MONE 2002 b, see 5.2) inspectors, principals (p. 131), teachers(137), students (153) and parents (142) regarded the quality of education to be low. 34 "It was observed that most of the primary education school directors find the quality of education at schools low. They stated the above problems listed under physical features, equipment, management, human relations and motivation headings lead to the low quality of education. Some school directors highlighted physical deficiencies, some shortages in equipment and managerial problems depending on the condition of their schools." 5.2.2 Competition and tests One of the major features of primary education in Turkey is competition for the entrance to university. This competition starts early when parents try to get their children to the schools with good reputation, sometimes even using false documents(Istiklal, Altinfindik) about their living place. After the child has entered primary school, he/she has to aim to a good secondary school which is known to be successful in preparing to the University. Those primary school students (even in the poor areas like Beyli) who can afford take courses in private institutions to prepare them for the entrance tests. Most of visited schools give extra courses and classes for their students. In an urban school (Altinfindik) good performing students told that they study even 8 extra hours daily. In another school teachers (Elmali) told to give 3 extra classes every day to all students, and sometimes sports classes were changed into mathematics. From the analysis based on PIRLS 2001 study (see 5.4) the conclusion can be drawn that the socio-economic background of the student and the location of his/her school (rural or urban) are strongly related with the success in competition. In addition to the entrance tests there are national, provincial, and local tests. Tests are very important for the reputation of a school, teacher and the student. Test results are public and the schools and students are listed according their success and you are able to see each student's position in this list (excamples, Ikize, Kozköy) on a province and on a sub-province level. Preparation for these tests directs education in school. There is criticism towards testing system and many teachers (e.g. Yesilbayir) and parents (e.g. Elmali) think it should be changed. There are opinions in favor of this system, too (Cumhuriyet). In many cases children have no free time when preparing for tests. "Now everything concentrates on teaching for the national tests at the end of 4th and 5th grades. This is the weakness of our system. To be good in exams don't guarantee that student is good in other respects. Being good in tests don't guarantee a good future. Exam system is unfair; those having outside courses get better grades.(Yesilbayir)" Mother asked during discussion: Children make success in mathematics but at what price? (Elmali) The competition and tests direct education to memorize, not to learn learning skills. To learn for the tests takes time that could be used to give to the child more varying conception of learning and give him/her an opportunity to learn using various types of learning strategies. And through the use of different kinds of learning strategies a student would get a feeling of success more often than today, which would result in a better self concept and hence in a better success in future. 5.2.3 Materials It is maybe the strong oral tradition in education that is reflected in the teaching methods and teaching aids. In most schools there is a lack of equipment and materials, there is no palace to keep them or use them; they are not used at all or they are used in an improper way. 35 If we take that there are three generations of audiovisual aids in a modern classroom, blackboard represents the first generation, OH projector and video recorder belongs to the second generation, and PCs, VCD/TVs with CD ROMS and data projectors can be regarded as the third generation equipment. Equipment of each generation complete each other and each of them has strength and weaknesses which should be known in order to use them pedagogically effective. There were very few OH projectors or video recorders in good performing schools, even in those, which were well equipped in terms of third generation equipment. It looks like the second generation of audiovisual aids are missing in Turkish schools and the pedagogical use of them is not known very well. As there is not the tradition of use the equipment of missing generation, the training of the use of new equipment must start from much more basics than in cases were teachers are used to use various audiovisual techniques. As Dulger (2004,14) says "Computer-aided instruction and ... physical facilities improvement were included in the Eight-Year Compulsory Education School program. However, the focus was mainly limited to construction and purchase and installation of equipment, rather than any substantial innovations in the way in which education is provided." In the following there are some observation on individual objects: OH projector, which could be a standard device like blackboard in every classroom, was not seen very often in use. There may be a TV and DVD player in every classroom but only a few OH projectors in the entire school (1 in Mustafa Adiyaman, Kozkoy, Sehit Bulent, Beyli, Guzelova, Bolaman, Turnasuy; 2 in Haci Naipli, Dumlu, Yesilbayir; Altinfindig with its 5 floors had 4 OH:s maximum number had Istiklal, 12 OH:s). Once OH projector was in use, it was used instead of blackboard just for writing text for students to copy. Computers: There were few schools with an IT laboratory (e.g. Elmali, Yesilbayir, Müjgan Karcali, Sehit Bulent (4)). Some schools had several computers but no classroom for them and they were scattered in normal classrooms on teacher's desk, cupboards, teacher rooms and principals' desks. As a rule there is a lack of computers, there is no proper place for them, they are not used, and there are not enough IT skills among teachers to use or teach to use them. School cannot afford Internet connections or telephone lines don't work properly for the connections. Language problems limit the effective use of Internet if the connection exists. TV/CD ROM/ DVDs: Donors have equipped some schools with CD/DVD players connected with TV. In the cases these were seen in use they were used like an example from the book how not to use video program. Teacher just put the CD in and let everything come out until the class was ended. In a school there was a covering list of hundreds of CD ROM programs organized by subjects(Akif Ersoy). This is an example of good practice. List would help more if there were more time-related list of contents for each record. Data projector has a high priority in the wish list of the principals. Its use is not very practical in most cases because it needs a computer to be used. It might be practical, however, when used for presentations for bigger groups in multi purpose halls etc. Laboratory equipment: Science laboratories are often missing. Sometimes they are build like commercial laboratories with fixed boards. There are only few series of equipment for group experiments. Photocopier: In some schools there were no limits (Yesibayir, Akif Ersoy, Bolaman, Istiklal) for taking photocopies on teaching purposes, is some schools there was not a photocopier even for administrative purposes (Dumlu, Kozkoy). 36 5.2.4 Curriculum The new primary education program combined the existing five-year primary school curriculum and the existing three-year lower secondary school curriculum without almost any adjustments. Thus the curriculum became crowded and not very modern. The weaknesses of the existing curriculum are widely reported and noted and remedial actions have been started on the national level (Dulger 2004, 20). In many cases schools have adopted the curriculum according their needs and possibilities like sports classes have been changed into mathematics and in some cases schools there is no English teacher and in some schools extra curricular classes have been given for preparation of tests. In some schools there is a wide variety of extra curricular programs for arts and social activities like sports, folklore dancing, modern dancing, theatre, chess etc. Curriculum development has started on the national level. "Failure to revise the curriculum to integrate first through fifth grade programs with sixth through eighth grade programs substantially reduced the program's effectiveness. As a result, the primary education curriculum is being taken up for review and upgrading in 2004. (Dulger 2004, 20) 5.2.5 Gender issue The gender issue was one of the most discussed topics when visiting rural schools. Turkey has made a big improvement to its education system by implementing the 8 year compulsory education and by watching carefully that all children between 6 to 14 years go to school. Girls are equal (at least almost equal) with boys in terms of graduating from basic education. This is not the case when secondary education is considered. Even family could afford sending their daughter to secondary school and the girl would like to go, this does not always happen. There is a tradition for girls to stay home and get married in early age. Media gives a negative picture what is taking place in towns and parents are afraid what might happen if they send their daughters there. In many cases mother would like to send girls to school but father, brother, other relatives and society around are against. There are examples that this tradition is gradually changing. In a village, the village head, muhtar (Haci Naipli), was the first ever sending his daughter to school in town. He became as role model for other villagers. During basic education girls become aware of their equal rights to education, they have dreams about their future in terms of occupation, and they know the importance of family planning. A girl whose access to secondary education was denied wrote to the President of the country complaining that her rights has not been respected. This caused a process after which the girl entered secondary school. There was two strategies to be identified among principals for educating girls. One was not to set high academic goals for girls coming from village schools to PIO but educating them for rural life and rural development. Girls were to go back to their villages after the primary school and implement there what hey have learned. Another strategy (was to encourage girls for higher academic achievements and further studies: "If you don't go to university you go back to village and marry somebody from there and get a village life. If you go to university you marry somebody with same education and get a better future." 37 5.2.6 Teaching Methods Teaching methods used reflects well the goal of knowledge transfer. As teachers were asked about the teaching methods they use, answers were as "explanation, questioning, experimenting, group work, visits, observations, applications, visual aids, experimentation, presentation, learning by doing". An effective science teacher explained her method (Elmali): "Before I start, I try to invent a point of interest for children about the issue to be handled. Before starting lesson, I explain students, why we are studying just this issue. I make cause-effect relationship clear. I explain terminology using children's own language. Love children and vice versa. We know all parents- we share like colleagues. There is not much homework it is repetition type. I explain students why it is important to get them done. We don't go out of the classroom, and we have no research projects." Horizontal seating arrangements in 80-90 % of classrooms revealed the popularity of traditional methodology. Even group work was rare there were some good examples. A teacher used group work frequently with changing groupings in order to make students know each other better (Guzelova). Due to the lack of equipment and space there was very few laboratory experiments done by students themselves. 5.3 Community participation Community participation can secure resources for the school, better sources for needs identification, data and access, and through it it is possible to educate community members in matters like clothing, hygiene, traditions, and to be a parent for a student or a member of school-society community. There were several good examples of community participation among the visited rural schools like Hazi Naipli Elementary School in Samsun, Ikize Elementary School in Ankara, and Yesilbayir Elementary School in Antalya are very different rural schools, the communities around them are different and the schools' approaches to community participation vary accordingly. Many good aspects of cooperation could be identified during visits to Bugduz Elementary School in Ankara, Beyli Elementary School in Ordu, Guzelova Elementary School in Erzurum and Sehit Bulent Karatas Elementary School in Erzurum. The examples from these schools much support worldwide experiences found to be important when building community participation (UNESCO/IIEP 2002, 32-38). In urban and suburban schools the focus of community participation is more in the relationships with parents or institutions directly connected with the school, not so much in community development. 5.3.1 Categories identified Among schools visited there were many kinds of approaches to school-community relationships. In those schools, which were successful in their cooperation, the nature of the school's approach can be classified into following categories: a) Harmonious cooperation. Poor village where parents trust education and teachers, and they care about their children. Principal herself lives in the village. (Ankara, Ikize) 38 b) School as change agent in a poor distant village. Principal as primus motor, empowerment of villagers (Haci Naipli, Samsun) c) School as change agent in a wealthy central village. Principal making his vision true together with the Mayor of the village (Yesilbayir, Antalya) d) School fulfilling parents' will. In a wealthy urban/suburban community parents contribute to school and wish to their children become good humans and to enter a good secondary school and university. (Mujgan Karacali, Ankara; Elmali, Antalya; Altinfindik, Ordu) e) School as a charitable organization in a poor suburban community. Poor migration families, 100 students from an orphanage. Religious approach. School collecting donations to families (Mehmet Akif Ersoy, Erzurum) 5.3.2 Developing community participation Stakeholders of the community participation are parents, community and religious leaders, school, school principals and teachers, NGOs, voluntary groups, private sector organizations, industry, community members, institutions of higher learning, local and foreign financial institutions. Creating successful community participation takes time. Ownership creates commitment to it what is necessary for cooperation to be sustainable. For a principal it is essential to make community to trust him/her and what school is aiming and doing. In many cases concentrating too much in collecting fees or donations disturbs the school/community relations in poor areas. The trust comes from presence, being personally known by the stakeholders, affection and empathy, vision and commitment, communication, and results. There can be seen many phases to educate and build ownership for the participants. In the following the list of phases comes from literature (UNESCO/IIEP 2002, 32-38), the examples are collected through visits to Turkish schools. 1. Training for participation In several schools principals stressed that cooperation with parents and villagers must start by training the participants. Participants trained are not only villagers; school personnel must be trained as well. 2. Use existing community structures as much as possible in promoting community participation. In rural areas village headman, muhtar, and religious leader, imam, are the key persons with which to cooperate. In a bigger community mayor was a key counterpart for the developing efforts. Lions Club, Rotary Club, member of provincial parliament, supermarket chain, companies, enterprises were partners in cooperation. 3. Networking with other educational institutions: resource support, spreading information about "what works". Networking took place within primary schools: principals from 5 schools met regularly and the practice was to be widened to teachers' meetings and seminars. Several schools had connections to University. Departments of Agriculture brought information to the villagers and students visited University. Principals and teachers connected their further studies in university with school development. 39 4. Multidisciplinary and multisectoral approaches. School development is connected with many aspects of life like roads, water systems, agriculture, employment, and telecommunication. Cases were seen where roads were built or rebuilt, water pipes were constructed and wells were dug, teacher with agricultural background assisted villagers to find new plants to grow, carpet weaving courses were organized for girls and adult training courses for women were held, telephone lines for the school and village were renovated. 5.4 Parents' participation Generally A majority of school directors are of the opinion that school-teacher-parent- community relationships are not at the level expected. While some school directors only complain about this issue, some others try to better it. (MONE 2002, b). According to international comparison (see 5.4) Turkish parents don't have very intensive relationships with the school and there are indications that parents-school communication takes place mostly if there are troubles to be reported or parents are required donations. During the visits of this study there were lot of positive examples of school-parent relationships, see chapter 8.3 above. Attitudes In the small village school parents participated in all possible ways wishing their children to be nurtured into good humans, not measured only by academic standards. In urban schools parents required more academic success, especially in aiming their children to enter universities. It looks like that due to better economic conditions parents have more time to participate in school activities than in poor rural areas. Presence at school There are regular parents' meetings, parents' associations are established and teachers contact parents when needed. In one school there is even a separate room for parents to meet school personnel. In some schools there are always some parents present. Contributions It is common that parents pay a fixed tuition to the school. In wealthy areas parents furnish classrooms with TVs, videos and CDs. In a village with limited resources villagers pay heater's salary. In some schools each parent contribute in a way that fits for him/her: e.g. architect plans an annex building, a housewife works in library or canteen, craftsmen fixes desks and doors, etc. In the poor areas parents can not participate, not even afford water colors for their children (MONE 2002 b, see 5.2). 5.5 Principals Much of the school's results and image can be traced down to the principal's personality, leadership and devotion. School looks often like its principal. One of the most mentioned factor of the success was the good cooperation between the principal and the staff. Principal in a good school has vision, he creates the atmosphere, he takes leadership, cooperate and listen to students and teachers, sacrifices a lot. There was examples where principal has moved mountains by having a vision, will and skill to make his vision reality. Often principals wanted to articulate their principles or mottos according to which they act. "We plan and act" (not only plan), "I feel like marathon runner", "We make as good soup as we can from what we have got" (not keeping complaining). Building a good school takes time and effort and everyday running of the school may require very big efforts. There is option just to be satisfied with what you have or you can fight the problems and overcome the obstacles. All principals told that decisions were made in a democratic way, in some cases it was easy to believe that many decisions were made by 40 principal himself. In many cases principal was easy to reach; he was moving around the school, kept his office door open and had classes to teach. There is an example when the new principal has changed the image of a school positively in two years completely. On the other hand it looks like in old "good" schools with tradition of success the change of principal does not affect very much. School and teachers know how to operate anyhow. Due to the lack of resources to run the school one of the principals main tasks seems to be fighting everyday collecting donations for the school. There are dozens of sources and in order to be successful the principal has to have good relations with them. Sometimes it looks like some of the independence of the school are beeing given to the donators. 5.6 Teachers There are many problems related with teachers. However, teachers met during visits were positive and gave good impression as representatives of their profession. Attitudes: Teachers are concentrated in problems they face with respect to the school, the students and parents; they are not interested in finding solutions and the existing system does not encourage such an inquiry. (MONE 2002 b,132, 172) Competence: There are a lot of incompetent, "contracted" teachers especially in rural areas. In a PIO some incoming 6th grades have been found to be illiterate when they arrive from the village school. It is a big challenge to train teachers to a proper level of competence. Teachers change too often: Teachers want to move close to their home areas and to more wealthy areas. One of the biggest problems in Eastern rural areas is accommodation of teachers, missing of the central heating. Bad roads. Missing teachers like Counseling and guidance and English teachers. Successful teachers There could be separated two kinds of teaching stuff who made success: In the rural schools teachers are mostly young and they are in their first or second occupation. They are married and live often in a nearby city traveling daily to the school. They stay in the school 1-3 years and move then to a school closer to city. They are energetic, competent and make a homogeneous team that would have potential to develop school like new approaches in teaching. In many teachers' rooms you could sense an atmosphere favorable for innovations. In urban schools teachers are experienced and in order to get in schools with good reputation they have had to show high performance in their previous occupations. Teachers in urban schools usually have worked together for a long time and they have developed their receipt for success. Teachers are dedicated to their work and they usually give extra classes without extra pay in order to prepare students for tests. Devotion: One of the most often mentioned factor for school to be successful was teacher's devotion. Most teachers met during this study were devoted, who scarify for the success of the students. Teachers give extra courses and extra lessons, used their own equipment, collected donations, brought novels to students to read and used time for extracurricular activities like theater, folklore, chess and sports. 5.7 Students While urban students fight in entering good secondary schools, rural students worry whether they can enter secondary education at all because of the poor economic 41 conditions of the family. The students met during this study were clean dressed, open, well behaving, self confident and could expressed themselves well. They had plans for their future. Many students participate in private courses and may spend several hours daily with studying outside school hours. According to Institutional evaluation (MONE 2002 b, see 5.2) "Most of the school directors think that having no regulations for failing caused students to become lazy." Students spend 1/2-3 hours/day with their homework. Homework and checking of homework had high priority, in a school even parents were engaged with the checking signing students' assignments daily. In a school that offered much daily extra courses, the load of homework was reduced. 5.8 Special education Turkey is developing inclusive education approach for the education of students with special needs. There are plans for programs on special education in the Basic Education Project Phase II (see 6.2). There was already seen a lot of students with special needs in normal classrooms. There are students with special need who have no special impairments but whose cognitive and affective abilities vary greatly. This is the case specially in PIOs and bussing schools where students come from different villages where they have had their school for the first 5 years. In a PIO there were illiterate students coming to the 6th grade. There are already good examples of approaches where students' background and abilities are studied before teaching starts (e.g. Yakakent). Individual Education Plan, IEP, is one more structured step forward and it should be taken in use. One problem arises from the fact that students don't know each other. Cooperative learning methods would speed up the process of feeling comfortable together. Some schools and teachers have made local adaptations according to the needs. E.g., in a PIO they have different programs for local and boarding students. Individual Education Plan The making and use of Individual Education Plan should included in teacher training and NEs programs. 5.9 Education in sparsely populated areas One of the major questions for rural education is how to organize schooling in sparsely populated areas and isolated communities. Turkey has developed different strategies to overcome this problem. One of the first strategies was establishing multigrade classrooms in small schools. Solutions like bussing schools TIOs, boarding schools PIOs and YIBOs were introduced. These developments have had various effects on one hand on village schools where students came from and on the other hand to central schools where the students were taken. The many problems connected with TIOs, PIOs and YIBOs are well known. There is no universal solution but based on the experiences gained the best possible solution in terms of economy and social well being can be sought for each case. As these issues are discussed throughly and recommendations to solve problems are given in the two studies (MONE 2002,a,b) and renewals of the system are taking place (Dulger 2004, ) this issue is not discussed more within this study. 42 5.10 Aspects of a good school based on observations Results from the Social Impact Assessment and Institutional Evaluation (MONE 2002a,b; see 5.1 and 5.2) can be regarded as results from "normal" schools in Turkey. These results were compared with the results obtained from "good" schools visited during this study. Comparison revealed problems that are same for both types of schools and, in addition, there were factors that made difference between "good" schools and "normal" schools. 5.10.1 Constrains in all schools The following constrains that were identified for "normal" schools were present in "good" schools, too. Principals complain like "senior administrators do not treat us decently", there are shortages with buildings, facilities and equipment, and staff; subsidies are inadequate and there are management problems. Curriculum does not meet the needs of students and tradition and it is full packed of information. Students will not be able to attend high school due to financial reasons. 5.10.2 Differences that make schools "good" The strengths of the "good" schools are those that make difference between them and "normal" schools: Teachers and principals are competent, motivated and committed to their work. They set goals for themselves, their school and their students, and they sacrifice a lot. They are interested in their work; even their housing circumstances and salary are not satisfactory. Relationships between students, teachers and the principal are open. Students behave and study properly, make their homework and often take extra courses either privately or from their teachers. School has living cooperation with the society around. Parents cooperate with school, they have expectations for the school to educate their child for the further studies and to become good persons and citizens. 6 Documents affecting future developments Information about plans to develop education in Turkey helps to formulate proposals compatible to them. Documents or developments that have importance in this sense are e.g the Governments budget for 2004, Second Basic Education Project, and European Union's Indicators on quality education. These documents are referred later when conclusions and recommendations of this study are presented. 6.1 The government's budget for 2004 The government's 2004 budget puts special emphasis on education. Excluding education budgets of other public institutions and higher education, MONE's budget represents 3.07% of GNP. The government's current commitment to the program is illustrated in the details of its budget proposal to the Planning and Budgeting Commission of the Parliament, (MEB 2003b, p.30-31, Dulger 2004): 1. Universal schooling will be provided, with more emphasis put on the quality of education and on elevating student achievement. 43 2. Increasing the quality of education in schools serving small settlements, bussing centers, YIBOs and PIOs will get priority. 3. YIBO and PIO service area coverage will be increased. 4. Double-shift education will be eliminated as quickly as possible. 5. Multi-grade classroom practice in village schools will be reduced to an acceptable level. 6. An Open Primary School Project will be launched for those who are above the age of compulsory schooling and for adults. 7. Guidance and counseling services will be improved to help children discover their talents and develop physically and psychologically. 8. At least one foreign language learning opportunity will be offered to all students, and second foreign language learning will be encouraged. 9. In all primary education schools, experimental skills workshops will be set up. 10. The goal of reducing the average classroom size to 30 will be pursued strictly. Recommendations of this study 1. Better use of teaching equipment, new methods development, students' motivation elevation, and strengthening students' self concept 2. Very complicated area of issues, what was said in 1 holds here, too. 3, 4, 5, 6, 8, 10 are in agreement with this study. 7. Developing of IEP, and teaching methods development. 9. Developing of science labs and equipment for them. 6.2 The Second Basic Education project The Second Basic Education project will concentrate on increasing coverage and improving quality among the children of low-income families and children with special needs, on expanding access to computers in basic education schools across the country, and on supporting the development of preschool and special needs education as an integral part of basic education. (World Bank, June, 2002) Proposed Strategy Coverage 1. Renovate 1,100 basic education schools in rural and low-income urban areas. 2. Renovate 40 special education schools and construct additional facilities at 20 existing schools. 3. Built and furnish 300 preschool classrooms at existing basic education schools. Quality 1. Equip 3,000 schools with computers and educational software, design and maintain an educational portal, and install ICT in special education schools. 2. Provide a package of educational materials to 800 preschool classrooms and 1,340 schools serving children with special needs. 3. Support both formal and non-formal early childhood education programs to expand coverage in provinces with low schooling rates and high immigration. 4. Partner with NGO to implement non-formal ECE programs. 5. Construct facilities and furnish preschool centers. 6. Pilot interventions integrating students with special needs into ordinary education. 44 Delivery 1. Provide in-service training in ICT to 31,500 teachers, 5,800 school administrators, 3,000 primary education inspectors, and 22,800 rural teachers. 2. Offer in-service training for 4,500 preschools teachers. 3. Impart in-service training in special needs education. 4. Expand a network of Mother and Child Education programs to all 81 provinces. Project Implementation Support Strengthen the Ministry's project implementation capacity. Monitoring and Evaluation 1. Expand and improve the monitoring and evaluation system under the first project. 2. Disseminate findings of monitoring and evaluation. 3. Update social, institutional, and economic evaluation studies of basic education schools carried out during the first project. Expected Benefits 1. More motivated and better qualified teachers. 2. Less crowded classrooms. 3. Mothers of young children will be better prepared to address the educational, nutritional and health needs of their children. 4. Children with improved school readiness due to increase coverage and quality of ECD programs. 5. Better educational materials, including access to ICT for many children and communities. 6. Improved training and incentives for teachers. 7 Recommendations 7.1 Principles behind recommendations 7.1.1 Student as a life-long learner Basic education students are in the beginning of their career as life-long learners. For this career learning skills are fundamental tools for success. Each primary school teacher is a teacher of these skills and the ground for teaching comes from the concept of learning the teacher has created for him/herself. It makes difference if human learning is regarded as something similar that happens for a test animal while running the maze or if it is regarded as something that takes place in an interpersonal and group context with interaction of motivation, cognition, emotion, affect and attitude. The concept of knowledge is closely related to learning. For a creative and critical thinking citizen of the information society knowledge is more dynamic than passive, and rather active than static and he/she is aware of relation between experience and reasoning. To ensure a good start for a life long learner some changes in curriculum, teacher training, teaching, and testing are suggested below. 45 7.1.2 Ownership It would strengthen the sustainability of the implementation if the development activities would be organized in a manner to develop ownership of the participants. 7.1.3 Theory and practice together In teacher in-service training Learning, ownership and motivation can be enhanced if practice and theory are interwoven to make learning described as experiental (Kolb 1984) to happen. 7.1.4 Networking New practices that teachers employ are learned mostly from peers or together with peers. Activities that help networking schools and teachers should be encouraged. 7.1.5 Potential for rural schools Rural schools can in many cases organize free space for new developments like laboratories. Through visits it was found that the young teachers in these schools have potential to develop education. Some projects could be arranged based on these findings. 7.2 Recommendations 7.2.1. Developing concept of leaning and concept of knowledge An effective and widely used means to communicate new concepts of learning or concepts of knowledge to teachers is applying experiental learning approach (Kolb 1984), where theory and practice are interrelated, and learning takes place as part of teacher's work. In Turkey there have been government operated pilot projects and experiments in laboratory schools on the concept multi-intelligence Dulger (2004, 14). 1. To review results from multi-intelligence activities 2. Continue spreading the results gained 3. Continue developing multi-intelligence approach in education 7.2.2 Curriculum When planning the coming curriculum it would be of great help if the concepts of learning and knowledge were discussed in it and some conclusions drawn in the contents of it. The curriculum development should be a process where more schools and educationalists were included to work with. This would increase ownership and help the spreading of new ideas among the users of the curriculum. To include many types of schools in the curriculum development process. 7.2.3 Pilot project on new teaching methods Developing and diffusing new teaching methods can be regarded as a means to widen the concept of learning in a concrete way. Using different types of methods bring change for students and give students possibility to learn using different learning styles. Many methods are effective in learning skills that are needed in learning. 46 The duration of the pilot project is two years. There are 5-7 schools working together. From each school participate 2-5 volunteer teachers and the principal in the project. Participants meet every second month in a weekend seminar (e.g. in a Teachers' Guesthouse) during which they learn the basics of the new method to be studied and make plans for experimenting the method in their teaching. Between the seminars participants experiment the method in their work and write a brief report on experiences gained. Experiences are discussed in the school and consulted with participants from other schools (e.g. email, internet). In the next seminar experiences are discussed together and a new method is learned. At the end all experiences are collected in a book or series of booklets to help other activities to spread the new methods. 1. To launch a pilot project on introducing and developing new teaching methods 2. To share information about various teaching methods 7.2.4 Reducing of testing As a first concrete step to widening the concept of learning among educators and public the importance of national or local tests should be discussed and the number of the test be reduced. The tests are a powerful tool to change education. There could be optional national or provincial tests for schools and teachers to test their education but the results should remain in school. 1. No compulsory national or provincial tests for primary school students 2. Optional national, provincial or local tests for school's self evaluation and as models for schools to develop education, not so much for outside assessing schools' performance. 3. The nature of entrance tests to secondary education to be changed o Decreasing memorizing o Testing of basic skills like reading, writing, and mathematics 7.2.5 Developing the use of teaching materials and equipment 1. Training on proper pedagogical use of teaching aids as computer, OH projector, Video, DVD and TV . 2. Priority of purchasing different equipment should be discussed and lists of priority produced (there is no "correct" list, important is to make priorities discussed with those involved). High in the priority list could be considered o to supply more classrooms with OH projector. o to organize possibility to copy learning materials to students 3. Local and national experiences should be gained and examples and results from them disseminated widely. 7.2.6 Special education 1. Designing individual education plans (IEPs) for students with special needs would guide their education in a structured manner. 2. Using of cooperative teaching methods would help students from different backgrounds to get to know each other and learn together. 47 3. Providing schools with ramps and toilets accessible with wheel chairs would make it possible for students with physical impairments to be included in normal classes. 7.2.7 Nutrition of students Rural children who are hungry simply do not have the energy to learn effectively. Hunger impairs both their mental and physical growth. (Food for thought: Education for rural people. FAO, UNESCO). Bussing students and poor students in some areas, more than 1 million students altogether, get free lunch by the Government. However, more than half of the 10 million students are coming from poor conditions. Based on observations during visits in some schools students get a proper warm lunch, however, often lunch is dry containing e.g. a half of loaf and two small packets of jam. As some students don't get any breakfast at home, school lunch should be nourishing enough in terms of quality and quantity. The system that only bussing students get lunch and local students don't get was often mentioned as unfair and unequal causing envy and discomfort within bussing school. Providing quality lunch to all students in bussing schools and in all students in poor areas would increase the well-being and learning of those students. 7.2.8 Gender Gender issue lies deep in the tradition, it is well recognized and the changing of girls' situation takes time. There are many recommendations in the studies by MONE (2002 a,b) and it is not necessary to repeat those here. When discussing with parents they often expressed their fears about the circumstances like drugs and child abuse in cities where secondary schools are. These views were got mainly from media. 1. Media could help in changing attitudes and removing fears about sending girls to secondary education by offering to public frequently encouraging programs. 2. Widening secondary education to central villages would help all rural students, especially girls, in entering secondary education. 7.2.9 Not to invent the wheel again A number of educational pilot projects and experiments were under way at the time the new 8 year program was introduced. Laboratory schools experimented with 1. school-improvement grants, 2. total quality management for schools, 3. elective courses designed by schools, 4. school-developed curricular revision, 5. one-year pre-school classes in primary schools, 6. teacher empowerment, 7. multiple intelligence approaches, 8. more democratic models for school administration, 9. open-door policies to encourage parents and the public to participate more in schools affairs, 10. empowerment of school administrations, 11. decentralization of central ministry tasks, 12. alternative primary schools, 48 13. alternative systems for organizing school buildings, 14. variations in social and physical education space, 15. regional differentiation in school construction projects, 16. experimental rooms for workshops and skills practice, 17. school networking (OKULSIS) and 18. computer-aided instruction. By discontinuing developments and experiences gained in these projects a lot of experience and knowledge was put aside or rejected. People who were involved in them often felt frustrated. Most of these abandoned projects looks like very fresh and up to date for the development needs. There are many indicators, like the Government budget for 2004 and plans for the Second Basic Education Project (see 6.1 and 6.2), showing that the new phase of the reform has started where the pedagogical aspects are in focus. In order not to discover the wheel again it would be time to review the discontinued practices and start to build on their results. Strategies that build ownership, empowerment and networking of participants should have the priority. 1. To review the educational pilot projects and experiments that were discontinued. 2. Of the reviewed projects to continue the projects that are up to date 3. To start new projects to increase ownership, empowerment and networking of the participants. 8 Lessons learned During a visit to a school that recently had changed into a bussing school from a normal suburban school, we had discussion with teachers and the principal. While discussion about the results the school had achieved the principal explained school's new situation saying: "We would do even better and we would be more effective if we wouldn't have the bussing students". This was not the only place where a statement like this was made. Because of the students who came from rural schools and had gaps with their basic skills and knowledge the academic results of the school were not as good as previously when only the local children were attending. In the new situation teachers and the principal were working at least as much and professionally as before. Actually when adapting themselves to the new situation they perhaps were working more. But the average scores students gained in tests were not as good as before and this made the principal give his statement. Had the school lost its efficiency when the bussing students came in? Should there be other public criteria but test results to assess the performance of a school? Or, taking into account the different circumstances in which schools work, should the test results between different types of schools be compared at all? One of the goals of this study is to identify good performance in schools with median resources and median clientele to address both effectiveness and (productive, short term) economic efficiency. After having visited a variety of schools in different areas, with different resources, personnel, socio-economic backgrounds of students, schools which are serving a homogeneous urban settlement or a poor rural village or both of them, which are working in one or two shifts, it became obvious that one efficiency model does 49 not make justice to all of them. That's why in the following discussion several school efficiency models are addressed, not only the economic model. The basic, commonsense definition of an effective school is roughly the same as a 'good' school, a school that achieves its goals. If the good result has achieved as cheaply as possible, school is efficient. In other words an efficient school is an effective school that does it work with a minimum cost. Schools differ in performance in terms of students' achievements. We can compare schools by assessing pupils' achievement and say that one school is more efficient than another. This leads to the very interesting question: "What does make the difference?" Efficiency is a causal concept. If the cause for better performance can be identified, it can probably be used elsewhere, too. Because schools differ with resources and the body of students they have it is not fair to take into consideration only the achievement level of students but the added value that schooling has had on students. For instance if bussing students come from remote villages, it takes time to make them learn basic facts. During this time their academic achievement level does not change but, never the less, the schooling has added value on students. Taking this into consideration, "school effectiveness is seen as the degree to which schools achieve their goals, in comparison with other schools that are 'equalized', in terms of student-intake, through manipulation of certain conditions by the school itself or the immediate school context (Scheerens 2000, 20). Because schools differ so much only one efficiency model can not satisfy those who are interested to use these models. The potential users of efficiency models are those interested in grass root school development, like principals, teachers, and parents. By using a relevant efficiency model they have a tool for self assessment. On the other hand, if they use an efficiency model that does not fit for their situation or that model is used to evaluate their efficiency they may become depressed and feel frustrated. To choose a right efficiency model can mean emancipation and empowerment for the school staff. They can feel that their work really make difference and they can influence. Another group that is interested in school efficiency are school planners, politicians and economists, who are working with too little resources and who would like to use resources as efficiently as possible. When speaking of school efficiency we must think of the basic task of the school. The 8 year basic education reform was done as part of poverty reduction strategies. In that sense if a school succeeds in changing traditions in a village in such a way that girls are allowed to go further studies or contribute in some other ways village development like organizing the building of water pipes or teaching to grow new plants or educating women to weave carpets, it fulfils according to its task. The main task of a school is learning. A crucial question arises here that an eminent thinker on public education Professor Emeritus of Yale University Seymor Sarason (2004) has given as a title of his latest book: "And what do you mean by learning". Sarason speaks about productive and unproductive learning. Learning is productive if it causes and reinforces wanting to learn more. If not, learning is unproductive. Learning is a process that occurs in an interpersonal context and is dynamically comprised of factors 50 like motivation, attitude, cognition, affect and self-regard, and whose strength is never zero. Sarason opposes two famous characters in education, Dewey and Thorndike. Dewey was interested in how to make learning happen, Thorndike developed ways to measure learning. 8.1 Economic model (school is a production unit) In a simplistic economic effectiveness model of a school there are three basic elements: inputs, process and outputs. Inputs include students with their characteristics and financial and material aids. Outputs are pupils'attainment at the end of schooling. Two kinds of effectiveness can be recognized: Technical effectiveness refer to outcomes that can be seen at the end of schooling (short term effects), social effectiveness refer to society level, long term effects. A strict implementation of the economic model of effectiveness brings many problems. What are the desired outputs of the school? Number of students passing their school leaving diploma, grades achieved in different subjects, passing entrance test to secondary schools, the level of the secondary school student has entered, cognitive processes, social skills or attitudes attained? It is difficult to determine the monetary value of inputs and processes, and there is lack of clarity on how the production process operates. As the major cost of schooling comes from teachers salaries, the time learning takes contribute much in efficiency. This in turn may lead in rejecting class repetition or into methods and processes that favor learning on surface level. Maturation and growing up takes its time. And like Scheerens (2000, 23) states it: "Relevant to the question of the usefulness of defining effectiveness in economic terms, is the question of whether it is acceptable to consider the school as a production unit." 8.2 The organic system (school lives in a symbiosis with its surroundings) The organic system model is based on the analogy between an organization and a biological system. In order to survive and grow they have to adapt to their environment. Characteristic for this approach is that the organizations interact openly with their surroundings and can actively influence it. Concepts like rural development, parents involvement, and donors, are closely related in adapting this model to Turkish schools. Days of many principals interviewed during this study were filled with meetings with groups, institutions or private persons to get resources organized for the school. In order to get donations or non-material support, principals must have good relationships with their surroundings. In another school teachers worked extra hours every day in order to adapt themselves to the parents' requirements. A small village school was training young adult women, helping farmers in finding new plants to grow and got in turn assistance for renovating the school building. When the village leader is the first who ever has sent his daughter to secondary school this makes change in the attitudes among villagers. This can be achieved only if school has adapted into its environment and villagers trust the principal. Only the school with organic approach can influence in rural area and make sustainable changes. 51 Opposite for organic model school is a school (YIBO), whose resources are secured through state budget and which is physically far away its counterparts and beneficiaries. However, a YIBO can of course be efficient, but it is efficient in a different way and its efficiency musyt be measured in terms of some other approach. For the organic system model flexibility and adaptability are the most important conditions for effectiveness, i.e. for survival. School effectiveness may then be measured in terms of yearly intake, which could be attributed to intensive school marketing. Although the organic system model is inclined towards inputs, this does not necessarily exclude a concern for satisfying outputs. This may be the case in e.g. situations where parents makes the availability of inputs dependent on the quantity and/or quality of previous achievements (output) (Scheerens 2000, 24-25). 8.3 The human relations approach of organizations (School is a good place for students and for all staff) In the human relations approach the focus is inward of the organization. Emphasis is on the well-being of the individuals within an organization, and the importance of consensus and collegial relationships as well as motivation, personal and professional development. Job satisfaction of workers and their involvement within the organization are appropriate criteria for measuring the most desired characteristics of the organization. The organizational theorists who share this view regard these criteria as effectiveness criteria. If we accept the view that school is a part of students' and teachers' life, this model supports the aspects that make school life good. And we must add here the view that school may be part of the life of the whole society like in a rural village, where school acts a part of the society, teachers feel like mothers for the children and villagers contribute to the practical aspects of school life like employing heater for the school and preparing costumes for school celebrations. During school visits very often heard statements like: "We are like a family", "We love each other", "We are like mothers to the children", "I love my teachers", "Peer students are like my sisters" "Love is something I would not change in 100 years" describe the harmonious well being in these schools. Of course the aim of the school is not to be harmonious place only, these schools get good results measured by students achievements, too. The human relations approach alone does not cover the schools' basic aim but it adds something very essential to the concept of efficiency. 52 Organizational effectiveness models (based on Scheerens 2000) Theoretical Effectiveness Level at which Main areas Role of the Factors of the background criterion the of attention school efficiency effectiveness question is asked Business Productivity The Outputs School as Achievement organization production unit Organic Adaptability The Acquiring School- School- system organization essential environment community theory inputs symbiosis relations, Rural development, parents' involvement, donors Human Involvement Individual Motivation School as a harmony, relations members of good place delegation, human approach the to live relations personal organization development 53 9 Literature Dulger, I. 2004: Turkey: Rapid Coverage for Compulsory Education Program Case Study. Shanghai Poverty Conference - Scaling Up Poverty Reduction EC 2000. European Commission. Directorate-General for Education and Culture European report on the quality of school education-sixteen quality indicators. Report based on the work of the working committee on Quality Indicators (1), MAY 2000. (http://europa.eu.int). FAO-UNESCO 2003. Education for rural development: towards new policy responses. Kolb, D. 1984. Experiental learning. Experience as the source of learning and development. Englewood Cliffs, N.J:Prentice-Hall, Inc. MONE 2001. Republic of Turkey, Ministry of National Education. The Turkish education system and developments in education. January, 2001 MONE 2002a. Research on Social Impact Assessment of Basic Education Schools. Project Coordination Center. Basic Education Project (Ln-4355- TU) Ankara University, Ankara. MONE 2002b. The Institutional Evaluation Research on Primary Education Schools; Project Coordination Center. Basic Education Project (Ln-4355- TU) Ba kent University, Ankara. MONE 2002c. The Cost Analysis Research on Primary Education Schools; Project Coordination Center. Basic Education Project (Ln-4355-TU) Ba kent University, Ankara MONE 2002d. National Education at the beginning of 2002 http://www.meb.gov.tr /Stats/apk2002ing/apage29_48.htm MONE 2003b; Government Proposal for the 2004 Fiscal Year Education Budget Ankara: MEB, APK PIRLS 2001 International Report: IEA's Study of Reading Literacy Achievement in Primary Schools, Mullis, I.V.S., Martin, M.O., Gonzalez, E.J., & Kennedy, A.M. (2003), Chestnut Hill, MA: Boston College. Sarason, S. 2004. And what do you mean by learning? Heinemann. Portsmouth, NH. Scheerens, J. 2000. Improving school effectiveness. Fundamentals on Education Planning ­ No. 68. UNESCO/IIEP. Turkish Daily News 2004. Gaps in development levels between towns soar. 20.5.04 UNESCO/IIEP 2002. Education for rural development in Asia: Experiences and policy lessons. FAO/UNESCO Seminar. Bangkok, Thailand, 5-7 November 2002 World Bank, June, 2002. Project Appraisal Document. Turkey Second Basic Education Project. Contact: World Bank, Human Development Unit, Europe and Central Asia Regional Office, Washington. 54 Annex 1 Education System in Turkey 1.1 Background factors There are many interwoven and sometimes confronting factors affecting in the Turkish school that must be taken into account in order to understand the modern state of the schooling and its potential to develop. These factors are e.g. fast population growth, inward migration from rural to urban areas, the history of the country and the birth of the republic of Turkey, tradition of the people, low GNP, issues joining with religion, geography inside the country and within the neighboring countries, climate, national and international policy, and relations to international organizations. 1.2 Principles of education The Turkish school system is regulated by the Constitution of the Turkish Republic, Laws on Education and Training, Development Plans, Government Programmes, and Recommendations of the National Education Councils. Atatürk's principles are in a central role in all areas of the society. In education the leading principles have been defined as follows: Education shall be national, Education shall be Republican, Education shall be secular, Education shall have a scientific foundation, Education shall incorporate generality and equality, and Education shall be functional and modern. (MONE 2002) 1.3 The general goals of National Education The general goals of National Education are 1. 'To raise all individuals as citizens who are committed to the principles and reforms of Atatürk and to the nationalism of Atatürk as expressed in the Constitution, who adopt, protect and promote the national, moral, human, spiritual and cultural values of the Turkish Nation, who love and always seek to exalt their family, country and nation, who know their duties and responsibilities towards the Republic of Turkey which is a democratic, secular and social state..., and who have internalized these in their behaviour; 2. To raise them as constructive, creative and productive persons who are physically, mentally, morally, spiritually and emotionally balanced, have a sound personality and character, with the ability to think freely and scientifically and have a broad worldview, that are respectful for human rights, value personality and enterprise, and feel responsibility towards society; 3. To prepare them for life by developing their interests, talents and capabilities and providing them with the necessary knowledge, skills and attitudes and the habit of working with others and to ensure that they acquire a profession which shall make them happy and contribute to the happiness of society. (MONE 2002b,21) 55 1.4 The structure of Turkish educational system Optional pre-primary education, ages 3 to 5, may be organized as independent infant schools or as nursery classes within a primary education school or as practice classes affiliated to other related education institutions. Compulsory 8 year primary education is for all citizens, and is given free of charge in public schools. There are several kinds of general and vocational secondary education institutes for students between ages from 15 to 19. The best of them like Anatolian Highschools give best possibilities for further studies and there is a severe competition for their entrance. In higher education there are institutes for 2-year diplomas and universities for academic degrees. The Turkish education system is described in the Table 3.1. Table 1.1 The Turkish school system (MONE 2002d) 56 1.5 School Administration School administration is centralized under the Ministry of National Education. The Ministry is responsible for all educational services in the country, like drawing up curricula, coordinating the work of official, private and voluntary organizations, designing and building schools, developing educational materials, etc. Provincial directors (81) of national education lead educational affairs in the provinces. They are appointed by the Minister and they work under the direction of the provincial governor. Primary schools are inspected by primary education inspectors who work under the provincial head of primary school inspectors. In each district there are directors of national education. Annex 2 Primary Education 2.1 Primary education reform Since the early 1970s, Turkey tried to extend the amount of compulsory education from five years to eight years. However, there were difficulties to reach the 11-13 years old children and Turkish parliament approved in 1997 a new Basic Education Law (Law 4306) which extended the duration of compulsory schooling from five years to eight years. The objective of primary education is to ensure that every Turkish child acquires the necessary knowledge, skills, behavior and habits to become a good citizen and is raised in accordance with the concept of national morals and that he/she is prepared for life and for the next level of education in accordance with his/her interests, talents and capabilities. Secularism is a principal in Turkish national education. Religious culture and moral teachings are among the compulsory lessons in primary schools. 2.2 "Big Bang" implementation of the Law 4306 In order to get the new law implement the Government established Rapid Coverage for Compulsory Education Program that was called as "big bang" approach. The specific objectives of the Rapid Coverage for Compulsory Education Program included: 1) To make the eight-year compulsory education level in Turkey universal 2) To develop basic education schools as social learning centers 3) To enhance the quality of the physical infrastructure in primary education by: a) Constructing new school building with the required facilities b) Renovating old school buildings c) Increasing the number of classrooms in old and new buildings d) Increasing the capacity of activity rooms and public areas in every school e) Increasing the capacity of extension facilities in boarding school f) Meeting the equipment and tool shortages of buildings and facilities In the first four years of the program, the government spent US$2 billion more than envisioned in its development plan to accelerate the program. School buildings were 57 constructed and renovated, new educational materials and equipment provided, and more teachers recruited. In the beginning the program was successful the main factor for success being governments commitment. Soon it was learned however, that quantity does not guarantee quality. It had been necessary to work with the stakeholders, to share responsibility and authority at the school level, and to discuss with the public to get sustainable results. Reorganization should have done at all levels of the system. Less democratic, more authoritarian education systems lead to fewer pathways to successful lives and careers and cause public dissatisfaction. The closing of village schools due to bussing system had a negative effect on education and society. There is now a consensus that primary education restructuring and community needs in villages must be addressed together. During the 2003-2004 school year, 1200 village schools are being reopened. Failure to revise the curriculum reduced the program's effectiveness. As a result, the primary education curriculum is being taken up for review and upgrading in 2004 (Dulger 2004). 2.3 Different types of primary schools Due to the primary education enlargement to 8 years, fast population growth, migration from rural to urban areas and from abroad to metropolises cause problems how to make school buildings and students to meet each other. The normal day schools often work in two shifts in crowded areas. There are several strategies to overcome difficulties to serve scattered rural areas. · Multigrade classrooms are used in small village schools and Turkey has long experience in using them. · Children are transported daily by buss to bussing schools (TIOs). These are schools often in the central village and local children go to them, too. State pays lunch for bussing students. · YIBOs are eight-year, free boarding schools to poor children living in villages or small settlements without schools. YIBOs locate on single campuses in under- populated areas and board students full-time. The government supervise and manage the construction of YIBOs and pays the costs of schooling. · PIOs are built with financing from private benefactors and with the support of citizens' donations to provide education, room, and board for poor children from rural areas. PIOs enroll both boarding students and normal day students who go home after school hours. PIOs are built in central settlements, making it possible for the schools to serve day students. 2.4 Statistics on the primary education schools Classrooms and students The total number of classrooms has increased every year while the total number of students fell down for the first time in 2002. In rural areas the number of students has increased every year. 58 Years Number of Classrooms Number of Students Total Urban Rural Total Urban Rural 1997-1998 210.905 110.385 100.520 9.102.074 6.771.355 2.330.719 1998-1999 213.243 116.677 96.566 9.512.044 7.031.341 2.480.703 1999-2000 244.958 137.020 107.938 9.915.280 7.287.909 2.627.371 2000-2001 253.892 147.821 106.071 10.288.456 7.486.314 2.802.142 2001-2002 265.602 155.871 109.731 10.342.730 7.523.432 2.819.298 2002-2003 280.257 158.973 121.284 10.111.890 7.197.207 2.914.683 Table 2.1 The number of classrooms and students from 1997 to 2003 Number of the schools The total number of the schools decreased 20 % during 1997 - 2002 from 45649 to 35043. There was a slight increase from 2002 to 2003. Due to the expansion of the bussing system the number of rural schools fell down from 33121 to 25834 in 2000, which means closing down 33 % of the village schools. The number of YIBOs and PIOs has increased every year. Years Number of Schools Total Urban Rural YIBO PIO 1997-1998 45.649 10.709 34.940 153 0 1998-1999 44.525 10.753 33.772 171 90 1999-2000 43.323 10.202 33.121 203 141 2000-2001 36.064 10.230 25.834 247 205 2001-2002 35.043 9.860 25.183 275 239 2002-2003 35.167 9.909 25.258 285 253 Table 2.2 The number of the schools from 1997 to 2003 Rural/Urban Of the Turkish schools 72 % are rural but Area Schools % Classes % Students % only 29 % of students (Table 4.3). This urban 28 57 71 reflects the smaller number of students in rural 72 43 29 rural classrooms compared with urban total 100 100 100 schools. Table 4.3 Division of schools, classes and students in 2003 students/class In urban schools classes are crowded in Years Students per Classroom 2002-2003 the average class size being Total Urban Rural 45 students. Every year class sizes have 1997-1998 43 61 23 reduced towards the average of 30, which 1998-1999 45 60 26 is the official goal. In rural schools 1999-2000 40 53 24 average class size was 24 students in 2000-2001 41 51 26 2002-2003. 2001-2002 39 48 26 2002-2003 36 45 24 59 Table 2.4 The development of the number of Students per classroom Dual time schools In urban areas about half of the schools School type Urban % Rural % work in two shifts, in rural areas only 13 Full time schools 49 87 % (Table 4.5). Dual time schools 51 13 Total 100 100 Table 2.5 Dual time schools in 2003 60 Annex 3 Analysis for Turkish schools based on the PIRLS 2001 data 3.1 Tables derived from PIRLS 2001 data The following tables are formed by extracting data from the original PIRLS tables and the data of Turkey are presented together with the international average data. Numbering of the indices is according to the original PIRLS 2001 study. Sometimes the number of cases in a category for Turkey is so small that statistical errors are too big for drawing any reliable conclusions. In these cases categories have combined to reduce the error. If more information is needed the original report should be consulted. http://isc.bc.edu/pirls2001.html. No. 4.1 Index of Early Home Literacy Activities (EHLA) Parents were asked how often they engaged in the following activities with their child before the child began primary school: Read books, Tell stories, Sing songs, Play with alphabet toys (e.g., blocks with letters of the alphabet), Play word games, Read aloud signs and labels. Responses about each activity were on a three-point scale: Often=3, Sometimes = 2, and Never or Almost Never=1. To construct the index, parents' responses were averaged across the six activities and then students were assigned to one of three categories High level indicates an average between 2.33 - 3. Medium level indicates an average between 1.67 - 2.33. Low level indicates an average between 1 - 1.67. High EHLA Medium EHLA Low EHLA % of Average % of Average % of Average students Achiev. students Achiev. students Achiev. Turkey 26 474 39 450 35 435 International Avg. 52 520 35 499 13 481 Turkey's ranking in the High EHLA category is 30th among 35 participants. No. 4.2 Parents Read Books with Their Children Before the Children Began Primary School This index provides more information on how often parents read books to their child before the child began school. Often Sometimes Never or Almost Never % of Average % of Average % of Average students Achiev. students Achiev. students Achiev. Turkey 22 452 53 456 25 437 Internat. Avg. 51 522 42 491 7 461 Internationally there is a clear trend: the more parents read books to their child before the child began school the better the child achieves in reading. In Turkey this trend is not so clear. Internationally there is a difference of 61 points, in Turkey only 19 points, between the average achievements of students in categories with highest and lowest average. 61 No. 4.7: Parents' Reports of Books in the Home (Table modified from the original table) Books in the Home More than100 11-100 0-10 % of Average % of Average % of Average students Achievement students Achievement students Achievement Turkey 10 501 50 460 40 426 Internat. Avg. 35 535 49 500 16 469 Students from homes with more than 100 children's books had an average score of 501 points, whereas those from homes with 10 books or less had an average of 426 score points ­ a difference of 75 points. No. 4.10: Educational Resources in the Home Computer Study Desk/Table yes no yes no % of Aver. % of Aver. % of Aver. % of Aver. studs Achiev studs Achiev studs Achiev studs Achiev Turkey 22 467 78 445 57 465 43 431 Internat. Avg. 57 509 43 488 78 507 22 478 Whether students have computer in the home or not makes less difference (22) than whether they have study desk or not (34). Books of Your Very Own Daily Newspaper yes no yes no % of Aver. % of Aver. % of Aver. % of Aver. studs Achiev studs Achiev studs Achiev studs Achiev Turkey 71 465 29 414 44 461 56 442 Internat. Avg. 86 508 14 454 58 510 42 487 Whether students have books of their own or not makes bigger difference (54) than whether they have daily newspaper in home or not (19). No. 4.11: Highest Level of Education of Either Parent Finished Finished Finished Finished Finished University Post- Upper- Lower- Some Primary or Higher Secondary Secondary Secondary or Lower- School, Not School School Secondary or University Did Not Go to School % of Aver. % of Aver. % of Aver. % of Aver. % of Aver. studs Achv studs Achv studs Achv studs Achv studs Achv Turkey 12 512 23 474 0 - 65 437 0 - Internat 23 549 15 531 36 511 17 480 9 452 62 In Turkey the average reading achievement difference between students whose parents finished university and those in the second lowest educational category was 75 score points (in the lowest category there were no students) Internationally the difference was almost 100 points. No. 4.12: Parents' Employment Situations Both Working One, but Not Both Working Other Full-Time for Both, Working Less than Full- Situations Pay Full-Time for Pay Time for Pay % of Aver. % of Aver. % of Aver. % of Aver. studs Achiev studs Achie. studs Achiev studs Achie. Turkey 8 487 52 459 4 435 36 451 International Avg 34 523 49 513 7 474 10 495 Average student reading achievement was highest among students from homes where both parents were working full-time for pay, and lowest where both were working less than full-time (difference 52). No. 4.13: Fathers' Occupation This index is based on parents' responses to the following: What kind of work does the child's father/stepfather/male guardian do for their main job? a) Has never worked outside the home for pay; b) Small business owner; c) Clerk; d) Service or sales worker; e) Skilled agricultural or fishery worker; f) Craft or trade worker; g) Plant or machine operator; h) General laborer; i) Corporate manager or senior official; j) Professional; k) Technician or associate professional; l) not applicable. Some categories were combined so that Professional includes options i through k, Clerical includes options c and d, and Skilled includes options e through g. Professional Small Clerical Skilled Business Owner % of Aver. % of Aver. % of Aver. % of Aver. studs Achiev studs Achie. studs Achiev studs Achie. Turkey 10 505 17 463 15 468 27 445 Internat. Avg. 25 542 11 519 12 517 34 501 No. 7.1: Principals' Reports on Their Schools' Locations Urban Suburban Rural % of Average % of Average % of Average students Achiev. students Achiev. students Achiev. Turkey 36 464 39 455 25 423 International Avg. 36 507 25 502 29 485 Difference between urban and rural schools average achievements was 41 points. The difference between urban and suburban schools was 9 points. There is not big difference whether school is urban or suburban, they both achieve better than rural schools. 63 No. 7.2: Principals' Reports on Their Primary-Grade Students Coming from Economically Disadvantaged Homes 0-10% 11-25 % 26-50 % More than 50% Economically Economically Economically Economically Disadvantaged Disadvantaged Disadvantaged Disadvantaged % of Aver. % of Aver. % of Aver. % of Aver. studs Achiev studs Achie. studs Achiev studs Achie. Turkey 5 508 14 495 21 448 60 434 Internat. Avg. 33 518 24 505 20 493 23 478 Internationally, average achievement for students in schools with few students from economically disadvantaged homes was 40 scale-score points greater than that for students attending schools with more than half their student populations from disadvantaged homes. In Turkey the difference was 74 points. (Less than 10 points in Kuwait, Moldova, Romania, the Russian Federation, and Singapore; greater than 70 points in Colombia, Israel, New Zealand, and the United States.) No. 7.4: Principals' Time Spent on Various School-Related Activities Developing Managing Admin- Parent and Teach- Others Curriculum Staff/ Staff istrative Community ing and Develop- Duties Relations Pedagogy ment Turkey 12 17 18 18 28 7 Internat. Avg. 17 20 23 15 16 9 Principals of Turkish schools participate in teaching. It takes about ¼ of their time. No. 7.6: Teachers Meet to Discuss Instruction Percentage of Students Whose Teachers Meet to Discuss Instruction More than Once a Week Once a Less than Once a Week Month Once a Month % of Aver. % of Aver. % of Aver. % of Aver. studs Achiev studs Achiev studs Achiev studs Achiev Turkey 1 - 5 474 40 445 54 450 International Avg. 23 505 31 503 29 500 18 498 Turkish teachers meet to discuss instruction less often than their colleagues internationally. Internationally it doesn't make much difference in students achievement whether teachers meet or not. Turkish students whose teachers meet once a week achieve 24 points better than students, whose teachers meet once a month or less than that. 64 No. 7.7: Teachers Meet to Plan Reading Curriculum or Teaching Approaches Percentage of Students Whose Teachers Reported Meeting to Plan Reading Curriculum or Teaching Approaches At least Once a Once a Month or Once or Twice a Never Week Every Other Year Month % of Aver. % of Aver. % of Aver. % of Aver. studs Achiev studs Achie. studs Achiev studs Achie. Turkey 37 456 40 448 18 443 4 431 International Avg. 34 498 35 499 23 505 9 488 Turkish teachers meet to plan reading curriculum and teaching approaches more often than their colleagues internationally. Indexes 7.6 and 7.7 give similar results on the effects of teachers' meetings. Internationally it doesn't make much difference in students achievement if teachers meet or not. Turkish students whose teachers meet at least once a week achieve 25 points better than students whose teachers meet never. No. 7.8: Teachers' Recent Participation in Workshops or Seminars Percentage of Students Whose Teachers Participated in Workshops or Seminars During the Past Two Years More than 35 16-35 Hours 6-15 Hours Less than 6 No time Hours Hours % of Aver. % of Aver. % of Aver. % of Aver. % of Aver. studs Achv studs Achv. studs Achv studs Achv studs Achv Turkey 12 435 16 446 20 445 13 472 39 450 Internat. 13 498 12 501 24 500 23 501 28 498 Avg Internationally it doesn't make any difference with students' average achievements whether teachers participate in workshops or not. In Turkey students whose teachers participated more than 35 hours achieved 15 points less than teachers who did not participate at all and 37 points less than students whose teachers participated some but less than 6 hours! This surprising result can be partly explained through standard errors. Standard error in the student achievements in column "More than 35 Hours" is 11,5 points and in the column "Less than 6 Hours" is 10,9 points (see original table). In the table 2 below two first categories and categories 3 and 4 of the previous table are combined to get more information. More than 16 Hours 1- 15 hours No time % of Average % of Average % of Average students Achiev. students Achiev. students Achiev. Turkey 28 441 33 456 39 450 Internat. Avg. 25 499 47 500 28 498 Students in the school where teachers go to seminars achieve less than students in school where teachers use no time for seminars. 65 No. 7.9: Index of Home-School Involvement (HSI) Based on principals' responses to how often and what percentage of students' parents participate in the following provided by the school: teacher-parent conferences; letters, calendars, newsletters, etc., sent home to provide information about school; written reports (report cards) of child's performance sent home; and events at school to which parents are invited. High level indicates that 4 or more times a year schools hold teacher-parent conferences and events at school attended by more than half of the parents; send home letters, calendars, newsletters, etc., with information about the school 7 or more times a year; and send written reports (report cards) of child's performance 4 or more times a year. Low level indicates schools never hold teacher-parent conferences, or if they do, only 0-25% of parents attend; schools never hold events, or do so only yearly, attended by 0-25% of parents; send home letters, calendars, newsletters, etc., no more than 3 times a year; and send home written reports of children's performance never or only once a year. Medium level indicates all other combinations. High HSI Medium HSI Low HSI % of Average % of Average % of Average students Achiev. students Achiev. students Achiev. Turkey 8 446 11 444 81 451 International Avg. 41 508 28 499 31 490 International percentage of Students at High Level of HSI is 41 while for Turkey it is 8. With this figure Turkey gets 33th place among the 35 participating countries In Turkey students from the school where HSI index is low achieve more than students from the schools with high or medium HSI index! (This may indicate that parents-school communication takes place more often if there are troubles to be reported). Internationally students from schools of High H S I achieve 18 points betters than students from schools with low H S I. No. 7.13: Seriousness of Absenteeism in Schools Principals' reports on the seriousness of absenteeism in their schools are detailed in Exhibit 7.13 Percentage of Students Whose Teachers Reported Meeting to Plan Reading Curriculum or Teaching Approaches Not a Problem Minor Problem Moderate Serious Problem Problem % of Aver. % of Aver. % of Aver. % of Aver. studs Achv studs Achv. studs Achv studs Achv Turkey 20 482 38 454 23 429 19 430 Internat. Avg. 35 505 43 497 14 483 7 445 Absenteeism did not appear to be prevalent among fourth graders. On average, internationally 21 % of students attended schools where absenteeism was reported to be either a moderate or serious problem. In Turkey 42 % of students attended schools where absenteeism was moderate or serious problem. These students achieved more than 50 points less than students in schools where the problem was minor or it did not exist. 66 No. 7.14: Index of Principals' Perceptions of School Climate (PPSC) The school environment establishes the climate for learning. To measure the extent to which schools offer a positive school climate, PIRLS created an Index of Principals' Perceptions of School Climate, on a 5-point scale: Very high = 1, High = 2, Medium = 3, Low = 4, and Very low = 5 of the following: teachers' job satisfaction, teachers' expectations for student achievement, parental support for student achievement, students'regard for school property, and students' desire to do well in school. High level indicates an average of 1 to less than 2.33. Medium level indicatesan average of 2.33 through 3.67. Low level indicates an average of greater than 3.67 through 5. High PPSC Medium PPSC Low PPSC % of Average % of Average % of Average students Achiev. students Achiev. students Achiev. Turkey 18 477 68 447 13 425 International Avg. 36 511 62 491 2 -- Difference between students' average achievements in High PPSC and Low PPC schools is 52 points in Turkey. Turkey has less students in High category schools than Internationally in average. No. 7.18: Index of Availability of School Resources (ASR) Availability of school resources contributes to the overall school climate as well as to the academic rigor in the school. PIRLS created an Index of Availability of School Resources, which is based on the principals' responses to how much the school's capacity to provide instruction is affected by a shortage or inadequacy of the following: instructional staff; teachers qualified to teach reading; instructional materials; supplies (e.g., paper, pencils); school buildings and grounds; heating/cooling and lighting systems; instructional space (e.g., classrooms); special equipment for physically disabled students; computers for instructional purposes; computer software for instructional purposes; computer support staff; library books; and audiovisual resources. High ASR Medium ASR Low ASR % of Average % of Average % of Average students Achiev. students Achiev. students Achiev. Turkey 4 477 32 459 65 444 International Avg. 43 504 39 496 18 490 Internationally 82 % of students attend schools with High or Medium ASR while in Turkey the percentage is 36 %. Difference between students' average achievements in High ASR and low ASR schools is 33 points in Turkey. No. 7.19: Availability of Computers for Instructional Purposes Table is modified from the original. In the original there were categories 5-10, 11-20, >20 but due to small number of cases in each statistical errors were big and categories were combined into one, >5 students. 67 Schools' Reports of Number of Fourth-Grade Students per Computer Less than 5 More than 5 School Without Any students students Computers % of Average % of Average % of Average students Achiev. students Achiev. students Achiev. Turkey 9 484 32 469 58 439 International Avg 29 523 37 520 33 491 Difference in students' average achievements between two extreme category schools is 45 points in Turkey. Internationally the difference is 32 points. No. 8.1: Index of Students' Attitudes Toward Reading (SATR) Based on students' agreement with the following: I read only if I have to; I like talking about books with other people; I would be happy if someone gave me a book as a present; I think reading is boring; and I enjoy reading. 4. Responses for negative statement were reverse-coded. High Medium Low % of Average % of Average % of Average students Achiev. students Achiev. students Achiev. Turkey 59 478 40 410 1 -- International Avg 51 524 43 479 6 478 Turkey's position in international comparison (according to High-category) among 35 participants is 7. Better than Turkey scores Iran, Moldova, Macedonia, Greece, Romania and Bulgaria. No. 8.3: Index of Students' Reading Self Concept (SRSC) Based on students' agreement with the following: reading is very easy for me; I do not read as well as other students in my class; and reading aloud is very hard for me. Responses for negative statement were reverse-coded. High Medium Low % of Average % of Average % of Average students Achiev. students Achiev. students Achiev. Turkey 40 484 58 429 3 393 International Avg 40 530 55 485 5 457 Poor achievement is strongly interrelated with poor reading self concept. This index made the biggest difference among all 26 indecies in this analysis between high and low achievers in Turkey. Turkey's position among high achievers in international comparison is 18 among 35 participants. 68 8.6: Students Read Stories or Novels Outside of School Every Day or Once or Twice Once or Twice a Never or Almost Almost Every Day a Week Month Never % of Aver. % of Aver. % of Aver. % of Aver. studs Achv studs Achv. studs Achv studs Achv Turkey 35 459 41 454 17 441 7 403 International Avg 32 512 31 501 18 500 19 478 Turkish 4th graders read more stories and novels outside of school than children internationally in average. In the two first categories there are 76 % of students in Turkey, international average in those two categories is 63 % of students. No. 8.8: Students Read for Information Outside of School* Based on students' responses on how often they read to find out about things and how often they read the following things outside of school: books that explain things; magazines; newspapers; directions or instructions. Every Day or Almost Once or Twice Once or Twice Never or Every Day a Week a Month Almost Never % of Aver. % of Aver. % of Aver. % of Aver. studs Achv studs Achv. studs Achv studs Achv Turkey 29 465 44 454 22 438 5 385 Internat. Avg. 18 494 43 504 31 504 9 490 Turkish 4th graders read for information outside of school more than children internationally in average. In the two first categories there are 73 % of students in Turkey, international average in those two categories is 61 % of students. No. 8.10: Parents Talk with Their Child About What the Child is Reading Every Day or Almost Once or Twice a Once or Twice a Never or Almost Every Day Week Month Never % of Aver. % of Aver. % of Aver. % of Aver. studs Achv studs Achv. studs Achv studs Achv Turkey 38 464 35 451 14 443 13 422 Internat. Avg. 34 507 42 510 17 509 7 490 Turkish percentages are bigger than international average in the two extreme categories. In Turkey students achievement correlates directly with the parents' participation. Internationally the trend is not so clear. No. 8.12: Students Spend Time Watching Television or Videos on a Normal School Day Less than 1 From 1 Hour From 3 Hour 5 Hours or Average Hour up to 3 Hours up to 5 Hours More Number % of Aver. % of Aver. % of Aver. % of Aver. of Hours per Day studs Achv studs Achv. studs Achv studs Achv Turkey 60 450 25 455 8 445 6 430 1,4 Internat Avg 43 497 33 511 12 500 12 482 2,0 Turkish 5th graders watch TV less often than 5th graders internationally in average. 69 3.2 Indices sorted by the first category First Last Diffe- Index Cate- Cate- rence gory gory. 1 4.11: Highest Level of Education of Either Parent 512 437 75 2 7.2: Students Coming from Economically Disadvantaged Homes 508 434 74 3 4.13: Fathers' Occupation 505 445 60 4 4.7: Parents' Reports of Books in the Home 501 426 75 5 4.12: Parents' Employment Situations 487 435 52 6 8.3: Index of Students' Reading Self Concept (SRSC) 484 393 91 7 7.19: Availability of Computers for Instructional Purposes 484 439 45 8 7.13: Seriousness of Absenteeism in Schools 482 430 52 9 8.1: Index of Students' Attitudes Toward Reading (SATR) 478 410 68 10 7.18: Index of Availability of School Resources (ASR) 477 444 33 11 7.14: Index of Principals' Perceptions of School Climate (PPSC) 477 447 30 12 4.1: Index of Early Home Literacy Activities (EHLA) 474 435 39 13 7.6: Teachers Meet to Discuss Instruction 474 450 24 14 4.10: Educational Resources in the Home,computer 467 445 22 15 8.8: Students Read for Information Outside of School 465 385 80 16 4.10: Educational Resources in the Home,own books 465 414 51 17 4.10: Educational Resources in the Home,study desk, table 465 431 34 18 8.10: Parents Talk with Their Child About What the Child is 464 422 42 Reading 19 7.1: Principals' Reports on Their Schools' Locations 464 423 41 20 4.10: Educational Resources in the Home,daily newspaper 461 442 19 21 8.6: Students Read Stories or Novels Outside of School 459 403 56 22 7.7: Teachers Meet to Plan Reading Curriculum or Teaching 456 421 35 Approaches 23 4.2: Parents Read Books with Their Children Before the Children 456 461 -5 Began Primary School 24 8.12: Students Spend Time Watching Television or Videos on a 450 430 20 Normal School Day 25 7.9: Index of Home-School Involvement (HSI) 446 451 -5 26 7.8: Teachers' Recent Participation in Workshops or Seminars 441 450 -9 70 3.3 Indices sorted by the last category First Last Diffe- Index Cate- Cate- rence gory gory. 26 8.8: Students Read for Information Outside of School 465 385 80 25 8.3: Index of Students' Reading Self Concept (SRSC) 484 393 91 24 8.6: Students Read Stories or Novels Outside of School 459 403 56 23 8.1: Index of Students' Attitudes Toward Reading (SATR) 478 410 68 22 4.10: Educational Resources in the Home,own books 465 414 51 21 7.7: Teachers Meet to Plan Reading Curriculum or Teaching 456 421 35 Approaches 20 8.10: Parents Talk with Their Child About What the Child is 464 422 42 Reading 19 7.1: Principals' Reports on Their Schools' Locations 464 423 41 18 4.7: Parents' Reports of Books in the Home 501 426 75 16 7.13: Seriousness of Absenteeism in Schools 482 430 52 17 8.12: Students Spend Time Watching Television or Videos on a 450 430 20 Normal School Day 15 4.10: Educational Resources in the Home,study desk, table 465 431 34 14 7.2: Students Coming from Economically Disadvantaged Homes 508 434 74 12 4.12: Parents' Employment Situations 487 435 52 13 4.1: Index of Early Home Literacy Activities (EHLA) 474 435 39 11 4.11: Highest Level of Education of Either Parent 512 437 75 10 7.19: Availability of Computers for Instructional Purposes 484 439 45 9 4.10: Educational Resources in the Home,daily newspaper 461 442 19 8 7.18: Index of Availability of School Resources (ASR) 477 444 33 6 4.13: Fathers' Occupation 505 445 60 7 4.10: Educational Resources in the Home,computer 467 445 22 5 7.14: Index of Principals' Perceptions of School Climate (PPSC) 477 447 30 3 7.6: Teachers Meet to Discuss Instruction 474 450 24 4 7.8: Teachers' Recent Participation in Workshops or Seminars 441 450 -9 (Table 2) 2 7.9: Index of Home-School Involvement (HSI) 446 451 -5 1 4.2: Parents Read Books with Their Children Before the Children 456 461 -5 Began Primary School 71 72