The question of quality has become one of the most important framing factors in education and has been of growing interest to international organisations and national policymakers for decades. "Politics of Quality in Education" focuses on Brazil, China, and Russia, part of the so-called emerging nations' BRICS block, and draws on a…

Although International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement-pioneered international large-scale assessment (ILSA) of education is now a well-established science, non-practitioners and many users often substantially misunderstand how large-scale assessments are conducted, what questions and challenges they are designed to…

Taking the students' perspective, Education Policy Outlook 2018: Putting Student Learning at the Centre analyses the evolution of key education priorities and key education policies in 43 education systems. It compares more recent developments in education policy ecosystems (mainly between 2015 and 2017) with various education policies adopted…

This comprehensive volume offers a snapshot profile of every public school district in the United States serving 1,500 or more students and provides pertinent evaluative and demographic statistics necessary to evaluate educational programs nationwide. This edition includes profiles on 5,797 school districts in the United States, representing 90%…

The "ETF Yearbook 2012" continues the tradition of highlighting a thematic field of particular importance to the work of the European Training Foundation (ETF). The theme of this yearbook is evaluation and monitoring of vocational education and training (VET) systems and the role of evidence-based policy in VET reforms in ETF partner…

Ensuring quality in and through teaching and learning has become a fundamental global concern. Emanating from a colloquium on "Quality Assurance and Teacher Education" hosted by University College Dublin in 2010 and funded by the European Educational Research Association, this book interrogates how quality cultures can be fostered in the…

"PISA 2009 at a Glance" is a companion publication to "PISA 2009 Results", the six-volume report on the 2009 survey conducted by the OECD's Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA). PISA assesses the extent to which students near the end of compulsory education have acquired some of the knowledge and skills that…

Research evidence indicates that formative assessment is one of the most effective ways of enhancing student learning. It is, however, difficult to implement successfully, principally because what is tested through summative assessment has such a powerful influence on teacher and student actions. This book scrutinizes the relationship between…

This comprehensive "Handbook" focuses on the most used polytomous item response theory (IRT) models. These models help us understand the interaction between examinees and test questions where the questions have various response categories. The book reviews all of the major models and includes discussions about how and where the models…

Computer-Assisted Foreign Language Teaching and Learning: Technological Advances highlights new research and an original framework that brings together foreign language teaching, experiments and testing practices that utilize the most recent and widely used e-learning resources. This comprehensive collection of research will offer linguistic…

For decades Japan has remained at or near the top of international assessments of student learning; and in the past decade, students in Japan have become more engaged in learning. However, the government aspires to improve learning outcomes even further. "Strong Performers and Successful Reformers in Education: Lessons from PISA for…

Teacher and trainer training is one of the most important determinants of the success of reforms in technical and vocational education and training (TVET) systems in recent years in the Mediterranean region. This is based upon the assumption that the role of teachers and trainers in the reform of TVET is a dual one; that of stakeholder and…

This book provides an internationally comparable set of indicators on educational provision for students with disabilities, learning difficulties and disadvantages (DDD). It highlights the number of students involved, where they are educated--special schools, special classes or regular classes--and in what phases of education--pre-primary,…

A discussion of factors associated with evaluation of proposed alternative educational systems is presented in brief form. Emphasis is given to enumeration of critical characteristics serving as the basis of comparison, examination of alternative systems in terms of each characteristic, and determination based on the comparison as to whether the…

The purpose of this book is to describe in nontechnical language the objectives, methods and findings of the six subject study conducted by the International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement during the years 1966-1973. The six subjects covered in the study were Science, Reading Comprehension, Literature, English as a…