Cummiskey, Kochetkova, Mulcahy-Dunn, 2012). The majority of students were found not to

have acquired sufficient foundational skills to read fluently with comprehension in Arabic by the

end of grade 3. This suggests a weak relationship between the curriculum and student learning

outcomes. Similar patterns were noted in EGMA test scores.

In this connection, preschool/kindergarten attendance has been found to be positively

associated with strong foundational cognitive skills such as decoding skills and oral reading

fluency (Brombacher, Collins, Cummiskey, Kochetkova, Mulcahy-Dunn, 2012). Children from

better SES background do better because, among other factors, they have a learning friendly

atmosphere at home. For instance, access to reading materials outside of school is found to

positively correlate with students’ reading development in Jordan (Brombacher, Collins,

Cummiskey, Kochetkova, Mulcahy-Dunn, 2012). Students who attended preschool had EGMA

and EGRA scores 10-13 percentile ranks above those who had not (Fink et al 2017). According

to one estimate, providing children with 3 years of ECCE in Jordan would increase the average

secondary and tertiary educational attainment by 0.7 years. (Fink et al 2017).

Another system-related factor is the student’s health status which has been identified as another

channel through which student’s cognitive development is affected in Jordan. In early grade

assessment surveys, nearly 3 out of every 10 students reported absent on one or more days

during the week prior to the assessment. In the majority of cases, the reason for absence was

physical illness (Brombacher, Collins, Cummiskey, Kochetkova, Mulcahy-Dunn, 2012). Data also

shows a negative correlation between observed absenteeism rate and student performance (at

class level).

Cross-country comparative research on student performance in TIMSS emphasizes cultural

factors. One study examines the effects of student-related variables on mathematics

achievement using data on 3736 13-year-old Jordanian 8th-graders who participated in the

TIMSS (Hammouri 2004). Four attitudinal and motivational variables were reported to have

positive and direct effectswhile two variables had negative effects onmathematics achievement.

Some studies have also focused on the assent of Jordan in international assessments during the

2000s. The country’s performance in education has not always been unsatisfactory. Between

1999 and 2007, no other country participating in TIMSS improved as much in science as did

Jordan. A significant proportion at two-thirds of the increase in Jordan’s TIMSS scores over time

is unexplained by changes in observed SES characteristics (Abdul-Hamid, Abu-Lebdeh and

Patrinos 2011). Instead 16 percent of the total difference was due to the following

improvements: (a) higher teacher confidence; (b) higher student self-confidence; and (c) more

emphasis on problem-solving in classroom instruction. This suggests that the attention that the

government gave to empowering teachers with training and material to focus on tackling

problem-solving increased teachers’ confidence and effectiveness. While the student: teacher

ratio increased slightly over time, the effectiveness of teachers to handle a large class improved;

that is, the system became much more efficient, thus being able to educate more children, and

to improve their test scores at the same time. All these contributed to improvement in student

performance (Abdul-Hamid, Abu-Lebdeh and Patrinos (2011). The other reasons identified for

improved performance include the closure of rural- urban gap in student performance and the

doubling of female advantage over a short period of time (Abdul-Hamid, Abu-Lebdeh and

Patrinos (2011).