Seminar:
Title: Predicting high school students’ academic achievement in international and national programs based on admission examination: A case study from Turkey
Presenter: Dinçer Akiş; Bilkent Erzurum Laboratory School Vice Principal/IBDP Coordinator
Date: March 4th, 2020
Time: 16:40-17:30
Place: G-Building G-160
Below is the extended abstract:
Predicting future academic performance is an important topic in education. One of the overall aims of assessing students’ academic achievement is to make informed decisions regrading students’ future academic journey (Sanders & Horn, 1998). For example, school administrators use such information to set criteria and/or select students to their programs. In this study, the relationships between student’s admission and exit performance were examined in an private (laboratory) high school context. The laboratory school concept was brought to Turkey in 2007 by Bilkent University. Currently, there are only 2 laboratory schools in Turkey: Bilkent Laboratory and International School (BLIS) and Bilkent Erzurum Laboratory School (BELS).
In this study, the predictive validity of the high school admission system at BELS was examined.The teachers of the school consists of both Turkish and international staff members from different parts of the world such as Belgium, Canada, France, Germany, India, Slovakia, United Kingdom, the United States, South Africa.
Students at BELS are required to study an international program in grades 9 and 10 decided by the Bilkent university senate. Students must successfully complete this program to continue grade 11. The students in grade 11 and 12 are required to study and graduate from the IBDP, which also a prerequisite to obtain the Turkish high school diploma.
The High school admission exams of BELS involve two stages. The first stage is composed of written tests of Turkish, mathematics, science, English, and a non-verbal reasoning questionnaire test, whereas the second stage includes an essay writing task in Turkish, and interviews on art, music, English and Turkish. Students’ exit performance is defined by following criteria:
(i) IGCSE results in Turkish, English language, English literature, physics, chemistry, biology, and mathematics,
(ii) IBDP component results in Turkish, English, physics, chemistry, biology, and mathematics,
(iii) national university admission exam results, and
(iv) high school cumulative grade point average.
The talk will focus on the initial findings of the possible relationships on students achievements on predictive validity.