The authors examined the state of United States student academic readiness for higher education from a global perspective utilizing data from the Organization of Economic and Co-operation and Development (OECD) and Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA), which tests over a half a million 15 year old student's skills and knowledge.…

International student assessments have become the "lifeblood" of the accountability movement in educational policy contexts. Drawing upon Stuart Hall's concept of representation, I critically examined who comprises epistemic communities responsible for developing the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development's Assessment of…

The aim of this study was to improve the criterion-related test score interpretation of a text-based assessment of scientific reasoning competencies in higher education by evaluating factors which systematically affect item difficulty. To provide evidence about the specific demands which test items of various difficulty make on pre-service…

Widening access to higher education is clearly part of the European policy agenda. Higher education ministers in the Bologna countries, as well as the European Commission, have all expressed a wish to make higher education more representative of national populations. This policy objective has been echoed at national level. One approach to widening…

Key Data on Education in Europe 2012 is a Eurydice flagship publication tracing the main developments of European education systems over the last decade. The report combines statistical data with qualitative information to describe the organisation, management and functioning of 37 European education systems from pre-primary to higher education.…

Data from international comparisons of educational performance provided by the PISA study show Russia is among those countries that are not highly ranked on students' basic skills, and is poorly ranked on ability to apply knowledge to problem solving. Data also show large regional differences within Russia. (Contains 29 notes, 2 tables, and 6…

Since the 1960s, the United States has participated actively in international projects that are designed to provide key information about the performance of the U.S. education system compared to other countries. These projects include the Indicators of National Education Systems (INES) at the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development…

The 2012 edition of the "Digest of Education Statistics" is the 48th in a series of publications initiated in 1962. The "Digest" has been issued annually except for combined editions for the years 1977-78, 1983-84, and 1985-86. Its primary purpose is to provide a compilation of statistical information covering the broad field…

The 2011 edition of the "Digest of Education Statistics" is the 47th in a series of publications initiated in 1962. The "Digest" has been issued annually except for combined editions for the years 1977-78, 1983-84, and 1985-86. Its primary purpose is to provide a compilation of statistical information covering the broad field…