Comparative Education Policy

Jingjie “Alva” Dai In bad times, people blame immigrants: in this case, it is over the declining education outcomes in Sweden. While the accusation does not stand, migrant children do face certain difficulties in most OECD countries. So how should governments and schools tackle this issue? A multi-cultural classroom in USA “The large influx of immigrants to Swedish schools has been cited as a significant part of the reason why Sweden has dropped more than any other European country in the international PISA rankings.” goes the English Wikipedia page of Education in Sweden with four references from online media sources. In fact, you can find a number of similar articles on the Internet that claim a major correlation - even causality - between the increase in immigrant population and the rapid fall of Sweden’s education performance. Such a myth not only impedes Sweden from identifying the real problems in its school system, but also adds fuel to already rising anti-immigran...

Fangzhou Liang Growing inequality is nowadays a global concern, to which education is seen as a key solution. But how well are today’s education systems responding to such a call, and what are the challenges faced? Are today’s education systems equitable? There is increasing research evidence that achieving equity and quality in an education system at the same time is actually possible. For example, according to PISA 2012 results, countries like Korea, Japan, the Netherlands, Canada, Estonia and Australia succeed in combining high performance and high levels of equity. Failure in reaching equity not only limits economic growth and innovation, hampers social cohesion and mobility, but also generates higher public expenditures, for instance in health and public welfare or security. As this has been proved by more and more research (See note 1) , policy makers are more aware of the need to invest in equity in education. However, education systems around the world still face...

Stephanie Hagen Is education policy-making a science or an art? If you work for your national education ministry, how would you attempt to create reforms in your country's school system? It would be tempting to take a scientific approach by analyzing the various policy-approaches used around the world, eliminating those deemed ineffective enough until one “end all be all” approach stands which can be applied to your national school system. However, a policy-maker who neglects to consider context will be as fruitful as a painter without a brush. Professor Pont called education policy-making an   “art of the possible,” it is what one can do in a constrained environment with the data, evidence and actors available to him or her. It is diverse, dynamic, messy and very much embedded in its context. According the PISA 2015 Education Policy Outlook there are five primary governance approaches which are summed up in the table below. Each approach has its advantages and disadvan...

Amélie Reichmuth Over the last years, policy makers throughout OECD countries undertook numerous reforms (over 450 in 7 years!) aiming at improving their respective education systems in order to ensure both the equity and quality of education for all students. These reforms have taken various forms going from teacher training reforms (France and Nordics) to defining national priorities for education (Japan). More generally, what these reforms have in common is the fact that they focus on broad areas such as governance and funding (focusing on systems), school improvement and evaluation (focusing on schools), as well as the preparation of students for the future (focusing on students).  The core of the efforts so far has been concentrated around three pillars: 1. Preparing students for the future by investing in vocational education and training (VET, 29% of the reforms, see relevant reforms in Denmark, Belgium, Sweden, Hungary). 2. Improving schools by focusin...