Placement of students to high schools in Turkey: Factors affecting student achievement in placement tests

Abstract

The objective of the research is to identify factors that affect the degree the most successful and the most unsuccessful ten students get at their class levels and in their dwelling units in "Level Determination Examination" which is a form of placement test held at provincial levels in allocation of students from elementary to secondary education.   The research was conducted in Sakarya Province.  The sample of the research comprised of 420 6th, 7th and 8th grade students in total who ranked among the first and the last 10 groups in dwelling units in the examination held at provincial level.  It was ascertained that 82% (Nagelkerke R2 = 0.82) of student's ranking among the first most successful or the last most unsuccessful group of ten people in their own dwelling unit and at their own class level in the Placement Test could be predicted by TE, PA, BÇG, BY, SİD and Ç factors according to Stepwise logistic regression analysis.  AKD, AİFK and AO are the variables which were not found to be meaningful in the last regression equation.