The Republic of Ireland has a history of high reading scores in the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA). Analysis from PISA 2018 shows that although the country has many cultural similarities to the four UK nations (England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland), 15-year-old pupils in the Republic of Ireland achieved…

The study examined the impact of students' absolute age-position at the time of testing by grade level and gender on their achieved level of mathematics, reading and science performance. An analysis was conducted based on a sample of 11,500 15-year-old pupils in the United Arab Emirates who participated in the OECD's Programme for International…

This article contrasts policy intent and policy implementation in school autonomy and accountability. The analysis uses a conceptual framework based on the interaction between school autonomy, student assessment, and accountability as elements of a closed system. The article analyzes the implementation of school autonomy and accountability policy,…

Standardized tests have a long history of being the go-to measure of student reading achievement, teacher accomplishment, and school accountability. Given this habit of history, it is predictable that a single standardized reading test score is often considered the indicator of student reading growth and achievement. Yet standardized reading tests…

Many arguments have been advanced in the context of the predictive correlation between learning strategies and reading achievement. There is insufficient understanding, however, of the subtle ways in which different types of learning strategies (i.e. memorisation, elaboration and control strategies) function in facilitating students' reading…

Finnish students have been among the world's strongest performers on standardized assessments throughout the past decade. Consequently, educators and scholars are interested in how to explain such results. A common explanation, as seen on social media, is that Finnish educators do not regularly assess their students. This study explores educators'…

This study investigates whether a common set of student attitudes and behavioral tendencies can account for academic achievement across different, especially high-performing, countries via analysis of the PISA 2009 international data set. The 13 countries examined are 5 of the top-performing Eastern countries/systems, namely Shanghai China, South…

In 2009, some Spanish regions implemented the Program School 2.0 with the purpose of introducing digital methodologies at schools. The aim of this paper is to analyse which part of the variation in reading scores is due to this program. For this purpose, we use data from the Program for International Student Assessment (PISA 2009 and 2012) for…

Building on the experience of working with middle-income countries in PISA since 2000, and in an effort to respond to the emerging demand for PISA to cater to a wider range of countries, the OECD launched the PISA for Development (PISA-D) initiative in 2014. This one-off pilot project, spanning six years, aims to make the assessment more…

Delaying tracking, extending students' exposure to a general academic education and increasing their time on task on basic competences (reading, mathematics) could improve academic outcomes. To test the hypothesis that delayed vocational streaming improves academic outcomes, this paper analyzes Poland's significant improvements in international…

The Afterschool Alliance, in partnership with MetLife Foundation, is proud to present the first in their latest series of four issue briefs examining critical issues facing middle school youth and the vital role afterschool programs play in addressing these issues. This series explores afterschool and: the Common Core State Standards, students…

The Council of the European Union has set the goal of reducing low achievement in reading, mathematics and science among 15-year-olds to less than 15 % by 2020. How are European countries going to achieve this? One of the key elements in the learning process is the instruction time available to students. In fact, not only the quality of…

This report examines the recommended minimum instruction time in full-time compulsory general education in 2016/17 in 42 European education systems. It includes national diagrams illustrating the data by country and by subject. The comparative overview examines the policy changes that have taken place over the last year regarding the recommended…

The primary claim of this Harvard Program on Education Policy and Governance report and the abridged Education Next version is that nations "that pay teachers on their performance score higher on PISA tests." After statistically controlling for several variables, the author concludes that nations with some form of merit pay system have,…

IES is the primary research, evaluation, and statistics arm of the U.S. Department of Education. Established through the Education Sciences Reform Act of 2002 (ESRA), the Institute's mission is to expand fundamental knowledge and understanding of education and to provide education leaders and practitioners, parents and students, researchers, and…