international exams seriously as these assessments don’t count towards their school diploma.

During discussion with stakeholders in Amman, many also pointed out that low performance in

PISA and TIMSS is because of the low-stake nature of the assessments i.e. students and teachers

do not take these assessments seriously.

Qualitative evidence based on interviews of various

stakeholders (students, teachers and schools) in Jordan also suggests that PISA and TIMSS are

viewed as low-stake assessments in Jordan (Ababneh, Imad, Lebdih, and Tweissi 2014).

However, the performance of Jordanian student is also unsatisfactory in high-stake examination

such as

Tawjihi

. Therefore evidence based on performance in low-stake assessments such as

EGRA, EGMA, TIMSS and PISA should be taken seriously.

Research on school accountability measures (e.g. pedagogical autonomy, school competition,

freedom to hire and fire teachers, publicly posting data, and parent involvement in school

affairs) does not suggest that autonomy per se leads to better performance. Analysis using PISA

data on the performance of 15-year-old Jordanian students inmathematics, science, and reading

skills suggest that students in schools with accountability measures do not have higher skills

compared to those in school without the measures (Shafiq, 2011). Therefore accountability-

based reform does not provide an answer to Jordan’s education challenges.

Neither there is clear evidence in support of the hypothesis that schools are underperforming

simply because of a lack of resources. One study used TIMSS 2007 round data to examine the

effects of selected classroom factors (e.g. student-centred approach, the shortage of

instructional resources and homework) on the science and mathematics performance of

Jordanian 8th graders (Sabah and Hammouri 2010). While the shortage of instructional

resources negatively affected the mathematics achievement, it was found to have no effect on

science test scores.

There is some indication that low performance in secondary education is partly related to over

ambitious curriculum for two reasons. First, even when children have failed to acquire

foundational skills (e.g. ability to recognize letter sounds and read unfamiliar words) and in

grade 2, they are being taught reading comprehension and oral reading (Brombacher, Collins,

Cummiskey, Kochetkova, Mulcahy-Dunn, 2012). There is a similar mismatch between the

curriculum and student’s ability. In grade 2, the mathematics curriculum assumes knowledge of

addition and subtraction involving three- and four-digit numbers while the survey evidence

shows that children in grade 2 are struggling to add and subtract with two-digit numbers.

It may be noted that student’s SES does not significantly impact school readiness in Jordan. In

terms of foundational cognitive skills, the difference between the wealthiest and the poorest

students is not very large in grade 2. However, a significant SES gap opens up by grade 3.

Students from the wealthiest families gain much more from an additional year of schooling

compared to those from low SES families (Brombacher, Collins, Cummiskey, Kochetkova,

Mulcahy-Dunn, 2012).

In other words, reasons for unsatisfactory performance at the secondary school level are likely

to be systematic. Learning gaps emerge in the early grades, in foundational skills. A recent

evaluation of learning levels in early grades EGRA found that the majority of students lack

strength in the foundational (i.e. grade 1 standard) literacy skills (Brombacher, Collins,