Literature Review Blog #2

Lit Review #2

'Who are the Most Disadvantaged? Factors Associated with the Achievement of Students with Low SocioEconomic Backgrounds'

Mehmet Sukru Bellibas, Adiyaman University 

http://eds.b.ebscohost.com/eds/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?sid=405c5967-82fb-4860-a7b2-cd075a0837d2%40sessionmgr104&vid=1&hid=120

Citation:

Bellibas, Mehmet Sükrü. "Who Are the Most Disadvantaged? Factors Associated with the Achievement of Students with Low Socio-Economic Backgrounds." Educational Sciences: Theory and Practice, vol. 16, no. 2, 01 Apr. 2016, pp. 691-710. EBSCOhost,login.proxy.libraries.rutgers.edu/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login

.aspx?direct=true&db=eric&AN=EJ1101216&site=eds-live.

Adiyaman University, where Mehmet Sukru Bellibas conducted this study, pictured above. Source: http://memim.com/adyaman-university.html

The purpose of this study is to investigate the individual SES factors that contribute to achievement or lack thereof, something that most studies do not pay as close attention to. This study, however, focuses on students in Turkey rather than the United States. The study asks the question of which student, school, and household factors are more important for low-SES than high-SES students. The study found that several factors, including mother's education, perseverance, home educational resources, quality of school educational resources, class size, and total school enrollment, were significant predictors of student achievement in math, reading, and science. The study also found that home educational resources, reduced class size, and ICT availability at home are the three most critical factors that provide the greatest contribution to the achievement of low-SES students in all subject areas. 

There is no info on author Mehmet Sukru Bellibas online, and any that there is is scattered and seemingly inaccurate. What I can say about Bellibas for certain is that he was a researcher at Adiyaman University in Turkey. 

Key terms: 

Disadvantaged students: students who do not have or have access to the certain resources, whether they be social, intellectual, financial, etc., which help other students to succeed 

PISA: Program for International Student Assessment, a worldwide study by the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) of member and non-member nations of 15-year old school students' scholastic performance on mathematics, science, and reading. 

Quotes relating to my topic:

- "....several variables—including home educational resources, class size, and ICT availability at home—seemed to be more important for the achievement of low-SES students. According to the study results, a one point increase in low-SES students’ home educational resources was associated with a 12.02 point increase in their reading scores (p < .001). An additional unit increase in home educational resources did not make much difference among highSES students, however" (703)

- "The results indicated that home educational resources, reduced class size, and ICT availability at home are three the most critical factors that have substantial contribution to the 705 Bellibaş / Who are the Most Disadvantaged? Factors Associated with the Achievement of Students with Low... achievement of low-SES students in all subject areas, compared with high-SES students" (704)

- "The reason why more home educational resources do not help high-SES students significantly improve scores can be explained through the fact that those students have already acquired a sufficient amount of resources that can prepare them for school, and the amount of resources beyond what they possess has no power for additional academic gain. However, even a small increase in the availability of home educational resources might produce considerable benefits for low-SES students, who often suffer from lack of minimum educational resources at home." (705) 

This study is important to my topic because, although it was not performed in the United States, it takes a look into the specific FACTORS that inhibit low-SES students or help them to succeed. I believe being able to hone in on certain factors will help me to provide a solution in my research paper and to dissect the root causes of lower achievement for lower-SES students. The more easily and concretely that I am able to identify WHY low-SES students struggle so much more, on average, than high-SES students, the more solid my paper can become.