Students’ Science Achievement in Eighth Grade in Public and Private Schools in Riyadh : A Comparative Study

Abstract

The purpose of the study was to compare eighth grade students’ science achievement in public schools with their counterparts in private sector schools in Saudi Arabia with respect to international criteria represented by students’ achievement in third international math and science study (TIMSS) .Besides that, the study aimed also at exploring variables that explain the variance in students’ achievement. A science test, composed of items that are taken from 8th grade Saudi science curriculum and from TIMSS released items, was developed, and two questionnaires were devised to collect data related to students’ background, school variables and some teacher’s characteristics. The study uncovered unexpected results. Public school students outperformed their counterparts in private schools in terms of knowledge application and investigation skills. At the recall level, the two groups were equal. In terms of international comparison, only on six questions from the 62 questions which comprise the test, students in the two sectors exceeded the international norm. The study also showed that students’ nationality, age and doing experiments are the most important predictors of achievement.