Comparative Education Policy

K. Thiam, U. Kummer, C. Coutelle-Rebut, M. Sels & J. Steves Greece's public education system faces serious challenges but an emerging national dialogue is raising awareness and pushing for reform When it comes to public education, Greece is facing serious challenges. With underachievement and early leaving levels higher than the European Union average, it is no surprise that Greek students rank lower in performance than their OECD peers. Greek students are not receiving the education they deserve. On the one hand, there is a need for serious reform, while on the other, the country remains constrained by its difficult financial situation. There is, however, a national dialogue on education emerging in Greece that is beginning to shed light on and raise awareness of some of these education challenges. This presentation gives an overview of the Greek education situation, examines some key improvement areas, and gives recommendations for policy improvements. Gr...

Lara Gruben Myth 1 : A large proportion of immigrant students affects student performance Data from the 2012 PISA study show that in the majority of cases a larger proportion of immigrant students is not related to lower student performance. The average increase in foreign-born students is much lower than popular debate suggests. According to PISA evidence, the share of 15-year-old students who are first-generation immigrants only grew by 0.4 percentage points on average across the OECD countries between 2003 and 2012. Socio-economic background has a stronger influence on school performance than immigration. However, this is often overlooked, because if socio-economic background is not controlled for, PISA data show that 15-year-olds, who attend schools where the concentration of immigrants is high, tend to do worse in school than students who attend schools without immigrant students. What might lead to believe that the share of immigrant students has an effect on schoo...