Against the backdrop of global transformations in university admission systems, the quest for an enrolment paradigm that efficiently identifies and selects high-quality students has gained paramount significance. With the help of propensity score matching (PSM), this study controlled students' backgrounds and compared the performance of students…

Although scholars have examined the effects of global tests on national and regional educational governance, few researchers have studied their impact on education in the Arabian Gulf. This research fills the knowledge gap by studying the international spectacle of PISA, TIMSS and PIRLS results in Qatar and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) -- two…

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…

The purpose of this study was to examine learning strategies accounted for mathematics achievement across Turkey and neighboring countries. Turkey, Bulgaria, Greece, Azerbaijan, Russian Federation, Israel, Serbia, Romania and Jordan were involved in Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA 2009) study. Since other neighbors of Turkey…

The aim of the study is to determine the status of Turkey among OECD (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development) members and candidate countries through cluster and discriminant analyses according to PISA (Programme for International Student Assessment) 2009 results. The study includes 475460 fifteen year-old students from 65…

In this paper, we investigate the effects of competition on the performance of Italian secondary schools as measured by maths achievement scores (PISA 2006 dataset). Competition is measured by an indicator of "perceived" competition (generated from an answer provided by the schools' principals). The methodology employed is a propensity…

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…

In this article the authors analyze the effect of private voucher education on student academic performance using new data on Chilean students and a novel identification strategy. Most schools in Chile provide either primary or secondary education. The authors analyze the effect of private voucher education on students who are forced to enroll at…

This paper builds upon an earlier analysis presented in this journal. Using official figures for school compositions and for outcomes at KS4 from 1997 to 2007, this paper considers each of the annual cohorts of new Academies in England, from 2002 to 2006. It shows that their level of success in comparison to their predecessors, national averages,…

Many articles and reports have reviewed, researched, and commented on international assessments from the perspective of exploring what is relevant for the United States' education systems. Researchers make claims about whether the top-performing systems have transferable practices or policies that could be applied to the United States. However,…

Europe's higher education system is currently undergoing a process of change and convergence in order to guarantee equal conditions for labour mobility within its borders. Spain, like any other European country, must adapt its legislation, homogenize its studies, and raise awareness among its educational institutions (beginning with their teaching…

Empirical evidence shows that the quality of learning in public schools is very low in India. There is also a robust belief that private schools offer better-quality learning at a lower cost and are a cost-effective alternative to public schools. Most of the evidence on which this latter claim is based does not correct for selection bias--students…

In most developed countries, research studies that investigate the effects of special education on student outcomes have become conventional practice. However, in developing countries such as the twin-island Republic of Trinidad and Tobago, there are no studies about the progress and outcomes of students and youths with disabilities. This…

Because of student characteristics in the middle years, several types of assessment are needed. The national monitoring system being developed by the Assessment of Performance Unit (APU) may prove a useful assessment framework for individual schools, providing developmental data for program comparisons and student movement between schools. (SJL)

The effect of multiple-choice (MC) or open-ended (OE) response format on diagnostic assessment of algebra test performance was investigated with 231 eighth and ninth graders in Tel Aviv (Israel) using bug or rule space analysis. Both analyses indicated closer similarity between parallel OE subsets than between stem-equivalent OE and MC subsets.…