Curriculum Corportation Conference 2005

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International Trends in Education
Barry McGawDirector for EducationOrganisation
for Economic Co-operation and Development
OSI International Conference 2005Education and
Open SocietyA Critical Look at New
Perspectives and Demands
Budapest, Hungary1-3 July 2005
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Education systems becoming more open

• Defining expectations and monitoring performance
• Establishing efficacy of policies and practices
• Shifting from supply to demand-driven provision
• Taking a long-term perspective

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Defining expectations andmonitoring performance
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Defining expectations monitoring performance

• Monitoring performance with light samples
• www.ed.gov/nationsreportcard/
• www.eddept.wa.edu.au/mse/
• www.pisa.oecd.org
• www.pirls.org
• Monitoring by assessing the whole cohort
• Disaggregate by ethnicity

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Ethnicity, disadvantage education
achievement(Key Stage 3 - England)
Source Barber (2005).
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Defining expectations monitoring performance

• Monitoring performance with light samples
• www.ed.gov/nationsreportcard/
• www.eddept.wa.edu.au/mse/
• www.pisa.oecd.org
• www.pirls.org
• Monitoring by assessing the whole cohort
• Disaggregate by ethnicity
• Disaggregate by administrative authority

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Lowest-performing Local Education
Authorities(Key Stage 3 - England)
Source Barber (2005)
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Defining expectations monitoring performance

• Monitoring performance with light samples
• www.ed.gov/nationsreportcard/
• www.eddept.wa.edu.au/mse/
• www.pisa.oecd.org
• www.pirls.org
• Monitoring by assessing the whole cohort
• Disaggregating by ethnicity
• Disaggregating by administrative authority
• Disaggregating by school (or teacher within
  school)
• www.oecd.edumin2004/chairsummary/

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Identifying sources of best practice

• Websites offering comparisons
• Just for the Kids
• www.just4kids.org
• Standard and Poors
• www.schoolmatters.com
• French government
• indicateurs/education/gouv.fr/brochure.html
• UK government
• www.dfes.gov.uk/performancetables
• Using quality and equity as criteria
• PISA has shown both can be achieved together

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Mathematics vs social background - Korea
High
Overall regression
Regression based on school means
Mathematical literacy
Regression based on students within schools
Low
Disadvantage
Advantage
PISA Index of social background
OECD (2004), Learning for tomorrows world,
Figure 4.13, pp.199-203.
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Mathematics vs social background - Japan
High
Student performance and SES - overall
School performance and SES
Student performance and SES - within schools
School point proportional to size
Mathematical literacy
Low
Disadvantage
Advantage
PISA Index of social background
OECD (2004), Learning for tomorrows world,
Figure 4.13, pp.199-203.
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Mathematics vs social background - Canada
High
Student performance and SES - overall
School performance and SES
Student performance and SES - within schools
School point proportional to size
Mathematical literacy
Low
Disadvantage
Advantage
PISA Index of social background
OECD (2004), Learning for tomorrows world,
Figure 4.13, pp.199-203.
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Establishing efficacy of policiesand practices
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Establishing efficacy of policies practices

• Research reviews to identify what will work
• www.cochrane.org
• www.campbellcollaboration.org
• www.w-w-c.org
• eppi.ioe.ac.uk
• www.aera.net
• Establishing whether it does work/did work

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Shifting from supply-driven todemand-driven
provision
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Upper secondary education attainment
Source OECD (2004) Education at Glance, Table
A2.2, p.58.
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Shifting from supply to demand-driven provision

• Schooling
• institutional differentiation
• specialist schools (UK)
• faith and pedagogically differentiated, publicly
  funded (Netherlands)
• privatisation
• importance of joint criteria of quality and
  equity
• Higher education
• private provision or private contribution
• recognition and accreditation of skills acquired
  elsewhere
• Adult learning
• on-the-job or in other accessible ways
• problem of more for those who already have more

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Taking a longer-term perspective
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The promise of futures thinking

• Education decision-making largely short-term
• Education is fundamental to long-term future
• Without long-term perspective
• desirable long-term developments may be
  unachievable
• undesirable long-term developments may be
  unavoidable
• Building visions of possibilities
• build consensus
• enhance strategic policy formulation and
  implementation
• develop leadership and innovation capacity at all
  levels

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OECD scenarios

• Attempted maintenance of the status quo
• Bureaucratic school systems continued
• Root-and-branch reform to produce diverse,
  dynamic schools (re-schooling)
• Schools as focused learning organisations
• Schools as core social centres
• Pursuit of alternatives to schools systems
  disband or disintegrate (de-schooling)
• Radical extension of the market model
• Learning networks and the network society
• Teacher exodus and system meltdown

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Attempted maintenance of the status quo

• Scenario 1a Bureaucratic school systems continue
• Learning and organisation
• focus on curriculum, qualifications, assessment,
  accountability
• individual classroom and teacher models remain
  dominant
• Management and governance
• priority to administration, accountability,
  efficiency
• systems but decentralisation and some role for
  markets
• Resources and infrastructure
• no major increase in overall funding
• continual extension of schools' remits -
  stretches resources
• ICT use grows with no change in school
  organisational structures
• Teachers
• distinct teacher corps, craft model remains
  strong
• strong unions but problematic professional status
  and rewards
• Strategy to deal with problems
• Attempts to raise status, marginal within
  resources

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Re-schooling

• Scenario 2a School focused learning
  organisation
• Learning and organisation
• demanding expectations for all for teaching and
  learning
• specialisation and diversity of organisational
  forms
• use of evidence in changes of practice
• Management and governance
• flat structures - teams, networks, local
  decision-making
• quality norms replace regulatory and punitive
  accountability
• Resources and infrastructure
• partnerships expand resources, special support
  for disadvantaged
• flexible, state-of-the-art facilities, extensive
  use of ICT
• Teachers
• highly motivated enjoying favourable conditions
• strong emphasis on RD, professional development,
  networking
• Strategies for getting there
• Reconfiguring teachers work, fewer teachers
  others

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De-schooling

• Scenario 3a Radical extension of market model
• Learning and organisation
• value determined by choices and demands of
  students/employers
• strong focus on non-cognitive outcomes and values
  likely
• wide organisational diversity more in secondary
  than primary
• Management and governance
• public authorities regulating not providing, but
  monitoring
• entrepreneurial management, increased
  privatisation
• quality criterion might dominate equity criterion
  
• Resources and infrastructure
• market-driven changes ownership and management
  (incl. failure)
• extensive and imaginative exploitation of ICT
• Teachers
• new learning professionals public, private
  full-time, part-time
• market forces may produce poorly distributed
  supply

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Teachers perceptions of scenarios

• Believe systems nearest to bureaucratic model
• Overwhelmingly support re-schooling.
• Generally reject de-schooling
• undesirable
• unlikely - especially market models.
• Is this an unhealthy preference
• for reassuring visions
• over uncomfortable possibilities?

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Thank-you.