Improving a Country's Education

This open access book compares and contrasts the results of international studentassessments in ten countries. The OECD's Programme for International StudentAssessment (PISA) released the results of its 2018 assessment in December 2019. Thisbook reflects the debates that typically follow the release of these results and focuses onthe causes of differences between countries. Such causes include continuous decline inone country, improvement combined with increasing internal inequalities in anothercountry, or rapid improvement in spite of an outdated curriculum in yet another. In addition, the book discusses a number of general questions: Is knowledge outdated?Are computers taking over and replacing teachers? Are schools killing creativity? Arewe adequately preparing the next generation? Are schools failing to educate our kids?The book starts out with a summary of PISA's evolution and PISA results, and anexplanation of the major factors that play a role in changes in countries' results. Thenext ten chapters are devoted to ten specific countries, offering a summary of dataand an explanation of the major drives for changes in education results for each one.Each chapter includes a short description of the country's educational system as wellas the impact of PISA and other ILSA studies on the country's educational policies.The chapters also include a timeline of policy measures and main hallmarks of thecountry's educational evolution, discussing the impact of these measures on its PISAresults. A final reference chapter explains what PISA is, what it measures and how.While highlighting the 2018 results, the book also takes into consideration previousresults, as well as long-term initiatives. This book gathers the contribution of well-known and respected experts in thefield. Specialists such as Eric Hanushek, for the US, Tim Oates, for England, MontseGomendio, for Spain, Gunda Tire, for Estonia, and all other contributors draw on theirvast experience and statistical analysis expertise to draw a set of rich country lessonsand recommendations that are invaluable for all of those who care about improving acountry's education system.