This issue of Snapshots explores how student effort may vary depending on the perceived stakes of the assessment. We revisit the self-reported levels of effort that students invested in the PISA test and compare them with the effort they indicated they would have made if the results counted towards their school marks. Australia's results are…

From acting in an award-winning film to producing a number one album, getting to the top of the creative industries is a dream for many young people. But access to such careers, both behind the scenes and in front of an audience, is currently far from equal. For young people from lower socio-economic backgrounds in particular, there are major…

The COVID Social Mobility & Opportunities (COSMO) study is a new national cohort study generating high-quality evidence about how the COVID-19 pandemic has affected socio-economic inequalities in life chances, both in terms of short- and long-term effects on education, wellbeing, and career outcomes. A representative sample of young people in…

Opportunity is not evenly spread across the country. A young person's socio-economic background -- including the income level of their family, their parents' educational qualifications, and their family's wealth -- all play a critical role in shaping their future. But as well as variations between families and across socio-economic groups, Britain…

This report presents key statistics and trends for teenage mothers and their babies in Australia. Teenage mothers and their babies are more likely to experience broader disadvantage, have antenatal risk factors and have poorer maternal and baby outcomes during and after birth, than older mothers and their babies. In Australia, the rate of teenage…

In the wake of the technological revolution that began in the last decades of the 20th century, labour market demand for information-processing and other high-level cognitive and interpersonal skills is growing substantially. The "Survey of Adult Skills," a product of the OECD Programme for the International Assessment of Adult…

This report supplements Jerrim (2012) where John Jerrim investigated the link between family background and children's reading tests across a series of Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) countries. Previous studies for the Sutton Trust (Smithers 2012) have suggested that policy and provision for the highly able in…

This report outlines findings that relate to writing, taken from the third annual literacy survey, which was conducted in November/December 2012. 34,910 young people aged 8 to 16 participated. Key findings include: (1) 44.1% of children and young people enjoy writing either "very much" or "quite a lot"; 14.8% of children and…

Access to universities across the United Kingdom remains a challenge despite improvements in recent years. Those challenges are still more marked in Scotland than in the other nations, as this report shows. This report lays bare the extent of the challenge. Scotland has a different approach to higher education. It no longer charges tuition fees,…

This report outlines findings about children's and young people's reading from our fourth annual literacy survey conducted in November/December 2013. 29,422 young people aged eight to 16 participated. Some of the key findings for 2013 include: (1) Levels of reading enjoyment have improved for the first time since 2005 (see Figure 2, p. 9); (2)…

This paper presents additional information from the 2009 survey of young people's reading and writing. The authors conducted an online survey of 17,089 pupils aged 8 to 16 from 112 schools, conducted in November-December 2009, which consisted of 32 questions exploring young people's background, reading and writing behaviour, perceived ability and…

This report reveals that children and young people are reading less and more are embarrassed to be seen reading, while many also believe that their parents don't care if they spend time reading. However, not only are children and young people reading less and developing more negative attitudes towards reading, but there is also a clear correlation…

This report presents second year information about the degree to which children and young people in Middlesbrough enjoy reading and writing, how often then engage in reading and writing, what types of materials they read and write and how they feel about reading and writing. It also outlines information about their confidence in their own…

Whether in flight from conflict, with the hope of building a better life, or to seize a social or economic opportunity, people have been crossing borders for as long as there have been borders to cross. Modern means of transportation and communication, the globalisation of the labour market, and the ageing of populations in OECD (Organisation for…

This first "OECD Skills Outlook" presents the initial results of the Survey of Adult Skills (PIAAC), which evaluates the skills of adults in 22 OECD member countries and two partner countries. The PIAAC survey was designed to provide insights into the availability of some key skills and how they are used at work and at home through the…