School and student’s socioeconomic status effect on academic achievement: analysis based on PISA 2009, 2012, 2015 in Kazakhstan

In the last decade Kazakhstan participated in four cycles of OECD’s Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA). In PISA 2012 Kazakhstani mathematics performance was among the lowest: 432 score points compared to the OECD average of 494 score points. In 2009 and 2012, mathematics and science performance improved, while performance in reading remained unchanged.

Kazakhstan has made considerable efforts in improving the education outcomes. Since 2004 the profound education reforms in progress show the commitment of Kazakhstan to change and improve its education
system. Main educational policies were presented in the State program for education and science development for 2016-2019 years (SPESD).

The goal of this paper is to assess the effectiveness of education strategies in Kazakhstan by means of PISA data from 2009, 2012, 2015 and 2018. This is achieved through calculating regression models. Effects of school resources in Kazakhstan are not stable over the PISA cycles, for example school resources explained 6.2% in math and 4.5% in reading in 2009, and 2.4% in math and 6.1% in reading in 2018. By analyzing the models, the variables of teacher qualification and certification, as well as shortage of teaching staff do not work well in explaining the student performance. The high student-computer ratio (10 to 1) has a high effect on the student performance in Kazakhstan.

Connection to Internet is also an important variable that explains student performance. Analysis also showed that Kazakh schools are vulnerable; the school resources have almost twice much effect on math
performance than in overall schools. Effectiveness of school system is uncertain, the resources are channeled unevenly, and disadvantaged and poor performing schools need support.