The EU has embraced the use of indicators as policy instruments for achieving common aims. One of the indicators, 'early school leaver' (ESL), depicts the proportion of young people leaving education and training prematurely. Initially defined as an education policy indicator, it has been transformed into a performance indicator measuring the…

For nearly 35 year's Burton Clark's triangle has been used as a paradigm for describing, assessing, and comparing systems of postsecondary education (Clark, 1998, 2004). Two major developments in the fiscal management of post-secondary education occurred more or less contemporaneously: incentive or performance funding on the part of the state and…

Massive population shift is a current global reality--especially given some of the latest development on European shores; some are calling it a humanitarian crisis. Although the United States (US) receives a large number of immigrants (documented and not) and about 70,000 refugees each year, it is certainly not the only nation to do so.…

Human beings are social in nature and need acquisition and possession of knowledge for self-actualisation. This need can only be fulfilled in educational institutions. Turkish educational system is composed of pre-school, elementary, secondary and higher education. It is now evident that governments alone cannot meet the high demand of information…

Turnaround Arts is a public-private partnership that aims to test the hypothesis that strategically implementing high-quality and integrated arts education programming in high-poverty, chronically underperforming schools adds significant value to school-wide reform. In 2014, the Turnaround Arts initiative completed an evaluation report covering…

In 2002/03, the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools initiated a broad program of accelerating entry into algebra coursework. The proportion of moderately-performing students taking 8th grade algebra increased from less than half to nearly 90%, then reverted to baseline levels, in the span of just six age cohorts. We use this policy-induced variation to…

Secretary of Education Duncan (2010) lamented the state of U.S. education in 2010 after the release of the results from the 2009 Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA). He wrote: "Unfortunately, the 2009 PISA results show that American students are poorly prepared to compete in today's knowledge economy. President Obama has…

We provide an overview of research in sustainability education. We argue that the interconnectedness of environmental sustainability programs at K-12 schools is one metric by which sustainability education can be conceptualized. We present a new measure of whole-school sustainability, or "interconnectedness," and then use it to compare…

The 2013-2014 North Carolina Pre-Kindergarten (NC Pre-K) Evaluation study was designed to examine the longitudinal outcomes through kindergarten for children who attended the Pre-K program, along with comparisons to previous cohorts of program attendees. A sample of 561 children was included in the study, with data gathered at the beginning and…

Based on current research and seminal theories on learning, quality, and academic persistence, this study sought to establish the core components of academic quality in higher education and to determine if these components can be used to predict students' intention to persist. This study also looked at differences between traditionally aged…

The 2014 Michigan Public High School Context and Performance Report Card is the Mackinac Center's second effort to measure high school performance. The first high school assessment was published in 2012, followed by the Center's 2013 elementary and middle school report card, which used a similar methodology to evaluate school performance. The…

Market reforms in education are part of the educational policy landscape in many countries. Central to arguments for market reforms is the idea that competition and choice will spur changes in schools to be more innovative, which in turn will lead to better student outcomes. We define innovation in terms of a practice's relative prevalence in a…

The Council of the Great City Schools prepared this thirteenth edition of "Beating the Odds" to give the nation an in-depth look at how big-city schools are performing on the academic goals and standards set by the states. This analysis examines student achievement in mathematics and reading from spring 2010 through spring 2013; measures…

This paper provides evidence on the sources of differences in inequality in educational scores and their evolution over time in four European countries. Using Programme for International Student Assessment data from the 2000 and the 2006 waves, the paper shows that inequality decreased in Germany and Spain (two "decentralised" schooling…

The four "home countries" of the United Kingdom are becoming increasingly different with regard to education policy. Nevertheless, they are still highly comparable as compared to education systems elsewhere. Over time, they have had a similar legislative framework (particularly in England, Wales and Northern Ireland) and, in a broader…