Alignment between Turkish Middle School Science Curriculum Standards and High School Entrance Examination

Abstract

The standards-based approach to science education has been implemented worldwide. The standardsbased approach requires developing content standards and examinations to measure students’ mastery of the content standards. Alignment between curriculum standards and examinations is crucial for providing accurate information about achievement of students, teachers, schools and educational reforms. The aim of this study is to examine the alignment between Middle School Science Curriculum Standards and High School Entrance Examination in Turkey. In this study Porters’ alignment model was used. It was found that there was a moderate alignment between the examination and science curriculum standards. This study indicated that both curriculum standards and examination mostly emphasizes understanding at cognitive level. The examinations generally require higher level cognitive skills such as applying, analysing, and evaluating than curriculum standards. The findings of this study can provide some quantitative evidence and instructive information for Turkish standards based education. Also they can be used to compare curriculum standards and assessment systems in different countries.