“We do things differently here”: evaluation and assessment in New Zealand schools

by Deborah NuschePolicy Analyst,  Early Childhood and Schools Division, Directorate for EducationNew Zealand’s consistent high performance in the OECD’s Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) has sparked international curiosity about the ingredients of its success.New Zealand’s education system is unique in many ways. It has probably gone furthest among OECD countries in allowing schools to run themselves....

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Increasing higher education access: one goal, many approaches

by J.D. LaRockSenior Analyst, Innovation and Measuring Progress Division, Directorate for EducationFew would dispute that having a higher education is more important than ever to help people build positive economic futures and strengthen the knowledge economies of countries. Yet as the second issue of the OECD’s new brief series Education Indicators in Focus explains, OECD countries have adopted dramatically different strategies for increasing higher...

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Cooking up success: why Finns learn better

by Hannah von AhlefeldAnalyst, OECD Centre for Effective Learning EnvironmentsHas well-known Finnish cartoonist B. Virtanen hit on the recipe for success in Finland’s exemplary education system? The OECD / CELE conference in Finland this week will reveal all.Consistently, Finnish students have earned top marks from the OECD’s landmark PISA study, which tests the skills and knowledge of 15-year-old students in more than 70 countries. Finland...

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The Future of the Teaching Profession

by Kristen WeatherbySenior Analyst, Teaching and Learning International Survey (TALIS)Teachers are the focus of media attention in many countries these days. Governments want to see increases in the achievement levels of their students, so naturally the discussion turns to the quality of the teaching and learning in schools and with that, the effectiveness of teachers.What does all of this focused attention–and the accompanying reforms to teacher...

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All that money can’t buy

by Marilyn AchironEditor, Directorate for Education                                                     We can now add something else to the growing list of things money alone can’t buy: love, happiness–and strong performance in PISA. Results from PISA 2009 show that there is a threshold beyond which a country’s wealth is unrelated to its overall score in PISA.Among moderately wealthy economies...

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Tackling inequity

by Barbara IschingerDirector for EducationWhat struck me most about the international roundtable on early childhood education and care that I attended late last month in Oslo was the simple fact that this topic attracted such intense interest. It probably wouldn’t have happened a decade ago. The fact that it’s happening now, even as most of the countries represented at the meeting are in the midst of an economic crisis, is an encouraging sign. It...

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