Investigation of academic achievement in transition to secondary education and ninth grade according to various variables

The current structure of secondary education and the academic-based placement of students in different types of schools create 'elite schools'. In this respect, students are labelled and ranked as a result of the central exam; the system reproduces social and class position by placing the student in an appropriate school according to this ranking. Some of the problems in the transition to secondary education in Turkey are that there are gaps between the socioeconomic levels of families, the current high school transition system is constantly changing and cannot respond to the needs of the day. The aim of this study is to examine the relationship between ninth grade students' academic achievement (LGS score and ninth grade year-end grade point average) and variables related to the child's personal (gender and age), family (household population, number of siblings, mother's education, father's education, mother's occupation, father's occupation, mother's occupation, father's occupation, family income and settlement type) and school (high school type, graduated secondary school and settlement type). The research was designed with the relational survey model, one of the quantitative research methods. The sample of the study consists of 507 ninth grade students studying in five high schools of different types in Tokat city centre in the academic year 2022-2023. The data of the study were obtained from e-school application and student information forms kept by the schools. The data were analysed with descriptive (frequency, percentage, etc.) and correlational (One Way ANOVA, t-test, chi-square, Kruskall Wallis H test, Mann Whitney U test and Tukey test) techniques. As a result of the research, significant differences were found between the ninth grade year-end grade point averages and LGS scores of the students according to gender, age, household population, number of siblings, mother's education, father's education, mother's occupation, father's occupation, family income and family settlement, high school type, graduated secondary school and settlement type. The most striking result is that the academic achievement of ninth grade students decreases as their age decreases. Although it is known that students graduating from private secondary schools are more successful than those graduating from other schools, another important result of this study is that students graduating from general secondary schools are more successful than those graduating from imam hatip secondary schools. Based on the results of this study, it is recommended that the opportunities between schools should be equalised in order to prevent the socioeconomic level of the family from negatively affecting the success of the student. In addition, education should be provided entirely by the state, and interest and skill-based high schools should be established instead of exam-oriented high schools in order to prevent the central exam from deepening disadvantages. Finally, in order to eliminate the disadvantage between different age groups created by the 4+4+4 system, it is suggested that the age of enrolment in the first grade should be set at seventy-two months.