The main objective of this paper is to evaluate the changes in returns to schooling during the past ten years in Turkey. While doing this, particular attention is paid to the use of comparable data sets over time and application of the same methodology to these data sets. This approach enables an assessment of the changes in private returns to schooling over time recently by different levels of education, for men and women. The results indicate four points. First, OLS and the Heckman two-step estimates are about the same for men. While for women the Heckman two-steps estimates are larger than the OLS estimates. Second, the returns to education estimates for women are higher than that of men throughout the period considered by about two to five percentage points. Third, returns to education declined significantly from 1994 to the 2002. Fourth, the returns to education for men did not change much throughout the period 2002-2005 while that for women declined by five percent from 2002 to 2003 and one percent from 2004 to 2005. The labor market changes responsible for the declines in returns to education over time were first, the increase in compulsory level of schooling from five to eight years in 1997 and second, the severe economic crisis experienced in 2001.