Examining of reading skills of Turkish students according to PISA 2015 and 2018 in terms of some variables: A secondary data analysis

The aim of this study was to examine whether there are significant differences between reading skills test scores of 15-year-old students and starting age for preschool and socioeconomic status according to the results from PISA 2015 and 2018. Therewithal, another purpose of this study was to determine whether socioeconomic variables and cultural influences significantly predict the reading skills test scores of Turkish middle school students in PISA 2015/2018 and discuss the results by comparing them over the years. In the present quantitative study secondary data has been used to analyze data sets represented 15‐year‐old students who participated in PISA 2015 (n=5895) and PISA 2018 (n=6890) in Turkey. Thus, One-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) was used to determine whether there was a significant difference in the reading scores of the students who participated in the PISA 2015 and PISA 2018, according to the variables starting age for preschool education, the educational status of parents and the number of books at home. The results show that there is a clear and statistically significant separation between reading test scores of Turkish middle school students in PISA 2015 and in PISA 2018 according to the variables starting age for preschool education, highest parental educational attainment and the number of books at home. The multiple linear regression method was used to determine whether reading skills scores from PISA 2015 and 2018 were significantly predicted by the indexes of highest parental occupation status, highest parental educational attainment, tangible assets, economic and cultural resources in the home, information and communication technology. The findings reveal that reading skills scores from PISA 2015 were significantly predicted by the indexes (variables) of highest parental occupation status, cultural resources in the home and information and communication technology. Unlike PISA 2015, it was determined that the reading skills scores in PISA 2018 significantly predicted by tangible assets of parents. It was concluded that the variable of Home educational resources to students did not significantly affect reading skills scores in both years of the PISA. Analyses have shown that the most important predictor variable was the information and communication technologies resources in both years.