Foreword

Turkey has made remarkable progress in expanding access to education and improving quality over the past two decades. Yet, as the country’s young people near the end of schooling, nearly half lack basic competencies for life and work. Aware of the need to ensure that all children have a fair chance to do well, the Ministry of National Education is reforming education to better meet the individual needs of each student.

This review was undertaken as a partnership between the OECD and UNICEF. The co-operation between our two organisations has meant that the review has benefitted from our complementary experience and expertise of Turkey’s education system, and international research and best practice.

The review was commissioned by and developed in close partnership with the Ministry of National Education. The ministry asked for advice on how student assessment – including teachers’ classroom assessments, national examinations and the national assessment – can best support learning. To support the country’s ambition that all students develop the complex, transversal competencies that are important in the 21^st century, the report recommends:

• Developing national learning standards that help teachers clearly understand what the curriculum expects students to know and be able to do.

• Creating more assessment tools and more practical, hands-on professional development to help teachers use assessment practices more effectively in the classroom.

• Assessing a broader range of skills in the national examinations and adapting the examination in Grade 12 to certify achievement at the end of compulsory education.

• Using the new national assessment to provide formative information for students and teachers during schooling.

• Using the wider evaluation system – of teacher appraisal, school evaluation and system evaluation – to promote better assessment and learning.

This review comes at a time of major change in Turkey’s education system. During the review, important reforms to the national examinations, teacher appraisal and school evaluation were underway. A new national strategy for education – Vision 2023 – was published. The ambition of these reforms is significant and it has not been possible to fully analyse or integrate all the planned changes. However, the review discusses many of the policy options that now face Turkey, providing recommendations to create a system where a broader range of assessments is used to meet individual learners’ needs.

We hope that the review will be a useful reference and guide for Turkey as it reforms assessment and education to promote excellence for all.

Foreword