The Effects of school culture on student achievement (a case study of Elazığ)

Recent studies show that the socio-cultural characteristics of schools haveimportant effects on student achievement and these characteristics createdifferences on students. This study, that aimed to determine the effects of schoolculture on student achievement and whether there is a culture to provide the studentachievement or not, according to the teachers? and the students? thoughts, has adescriptive quality. In this study, a survey was administered on 255 teachers who stillworks at high schools and 1020 students who educates in the high schools in Elazığcity center in 2004-2005 academic year to determine whether there is a motivationculture in their schools and the school principals, the teachers and the schoolatmosphere are efficient or not and the following results were found;The students adopted the thought that a motivation culture exists at schoolwith the degree of ?partly agree? and the teachers adopted the same thought with thedegree of ?I agree?. The students, whose fathers and mothers graduated fromuniversity and have the topmost revenue level, think more positive than the studentsin other groups about the motivation culture. It is found out, the thoughts of theteachers about the same subject, haven?t any significant differences according to thevariables of gender and branch.The students adopted the thought that a positive atmosphere affects thestudent achievement positively at school with the degree of ?partly agree? and theteachers adopted the same thought with the degree of ?I agree?. The students,whose fathers and mothers graduated from university and have the topmost revenuelevel, think more positively than the students in other groups about the atmosphere atschools. No significant difference was determined in terms of genders, branch andexperience on the administration according to the thoughts of the teachers about thesame subject.It is found out that, the students adopted the thought that positive teachercharacteristics affect the student achievement positively at school with the degree of?partly agree? and the teachers adopted the same thought with the degree of ?Iagree?. The students, who are girls, and whose fathers graduated from university,and mothers graduated from high school and university, and who have the topmostrevenue level, think more positively than the students in other groups about thepositive teacher characteristics. On the other hand, it is found out that, the thoughtsof the teachers about the same subject, haven?t any significant differences accordingto the variables.It is found out that, the students adopted the thought that negative teachercharacteristics affect the student achievement negatively at school with the degree of?partly agree? and the teachers adopted the same thought with the degree of ?Iagree?. It is determined that, the thoughts between the students and of the teachersabout the same subject, haven?t any significant differences according to thevariables.It is determined that, the students and the teachers don?t think that the schoolis efficient to provide the student achievement. On the other hand, the students,whose parents graduated from university and have the topmost revenue level, thinkmore positively than the students in other groups about the efficiency of schools. It isfound out that, the thoughts of the teachers about the same subject, haven?t anysignificant differences according to the variables.The students think that, the principal is partly efficient and the teachers thinkthat the principal is efficient. The schoolgirls rather than the boys and the studentswhose families have the topmost revenue level think more positively than thestudents in other groups about the efficiency of the principal. It is remarkable that, theteachers who don?t have the experience on the administration think more positivelythan the teachers who have the experience on administration about the efficiency ofthe principal.KEY WORDS: School Culture, Student Achievement, The Hidden Curriculum.