Implications of between-school tracking for Turkish students

Previous multilevel analyses for Turkey show that performance differences of students vary more between schools than within schools. These school-disparities might be associated with Turkey's tracking system and related differences in student body and learning environments of school tracks. Since it is not known how Turkey's low-performing vocational, low-performing academic, and high-performing academic school tracks differ regarding students' family background, motivational and behavioral engagement of students, and schools' learning environments, we analyzed the PISA 2012 data to examine these differences. Results indicate that Turkish students which attend high-performing academic schools are more likely to have higher socio-economic status, display higher confidence in their math ability, are less engaged during class and are exposed to a richer learning environment than students attending low-performing academic schools. Policy implications of each finding are discussed in detail.