tag:theconversation.com,2011:/global/topics/comparative-education-9134/articlesComparative education – The Conversation2019-05-21T22:57:54Ztag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1169452019-05-21T22:57:54Z2019-05-21T22:57:54ZCanadian schools spend more as enrolment and test scores fall<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/275211/original/file-20190517-69182-gos14q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=51%2C8%2C5760%2C3819&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The big spending provinces in Canada did not necessarily get the best Program for International Student Assessment (PISA) standardized test results. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Shutterstock)</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>The question of value for money is central to any public policy consideration. Given its scale, coupled with its critical social and economic impact, education ranks as one of the most important and challenging policies for analysis.</p>
<p>Canada’s school boards spent a total of <a href="https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/t1/tbl1/en/tv.action?pid=3710006501">$53.2 billion — about $11,300 per student — educating students in kindergarten to Grade 12 public systems in 2015</a> and that amount has been growing by more than $1 billion every year for several years.</p>
<p>Economists <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/09645292.2010.511840">have recently analyzed the efficiency</a> of <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/09645292.2011.595580">education sectors</a> in various countries. But despite the importance of schooling and school policy, policy-makers and economists in Canada have done little to analyze how well the public school system funded by provincial governments is working in terms of students’ academic achievement. </p>
<p>In our recent study, we examined how much money each province spends and how this stands up compared to how students achieve in the <a href="http://www.oecd.org/pisa/">Program for Student Assessment (PISA)</a> — a global standardized test that assesses reading, math and science. We learned that the <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/00036846.2019.1584380">provinces varied widely in their ability to produce academic results for the money they spent</a>. </p>
<h2>Converting money into performance</h2>
<p>We looked at data from three different sources to try to analyze outcomes: first, Statistics Canada data on <a href="https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/t1/tbl1/en/tv.action?pid=3710006501">spending levels by school boards across Canada on a province-by-province basis</a>; second, Statistics Canada data on the <a href="https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/t1/tbl1/en/cv.action?pid=3710010901">number of students in the public K-12 system in each of the provinces in Canada</a>; third, data from the <a href="http://www.oecd.org/">Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD)</a>, which collects data in the <a href="http://www.oecd.org/pisa/">PISA</a> program which it administers. </p>
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<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/275213/original/file-20190517-69186-1t1c9y3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/275213/original/file-20190517-69186-1t1c9y3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/275213/original/file-20190517-69186-1t1c9y3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/275213/original/file-20190517-69186-1t1c9y3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/275213/original/file-20190517-69186-1t1c9y3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/275213/original/file-20190517-69186-1t1c9y3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/275213/original/file-20190517-69186-1t1c9y3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">The Program for Student Assessment surveys how students perform in reading, math and science.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Shutterstock)</span></span>
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<p>These PISA tests are conducted every three years, so we had data on Canadian student performance, by province, on the tests from six different surveys between 2000 and 2015 (the 2018 PISA result was not available when we conducted the research).</p>
<p>These three sets of data allowed us to construct an index of school outputs comprised of two factors: the number of students served by the public schools in each province and their performance on PISA tests.</p>
<p>Then we compared those output indices with the amount that school boards spent in each jurisdiction to see how the boards were doing at converting money into student performance, and how they compared among provinces.</p>
<p>Research suggests <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/2725865?seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents">socio-economic status</a> and other factors may be important determinants of what economists would term “outputs” — in this case, the number of students served and test results. Such factors considered environmental are not identical across the provinces and are not controlled by school boards. </p>
<p>For this reason, we wanted to allow for cost-efficiency comparisons based on a more level playing field. So, after examining provincial costs against PISA scores, we conducted a second-stage analysis of the data and we corrected for the effects of the cross-province differences in socio-economic conditions.</p>
<h2>Student expenditures growing</h2>
<p>If you look at PISA performance, you will see that there is <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/00036846.2019.1584380">substantial variation among provinces</a>. </p>
<p>Alberta students scored an average of 542 on science tests in 2015, while students in Saskatchewan and Manitoba on average scored only 496. Alberta students also did very well on reading tests (scoring 536), while Saskatchewan and Manitoba lagged far behind at 496 and 495, respectively. Québec led the country in math, with an average score of 531, while Saskatchewan, Manitoba and Newfoundland and Labrador lagged far behind with scores in the 480s.</p>
<p>The provinces also vary widely in their spending on public education. Québec spent more than $12,400 per student in 2015, while British Columbia spent 26 per cent less at $9,200 per student.</p>
<p>Our index revealed some startling things: from 2000 to 2015, <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/00036846.2019.1584380">per student expenditures (adjusted for inflation) grew by 41 per cent in the 10 provinces</a>. During the same time, enrolments fell by seven per cent across the provinces. But student performance on PISA tests also fell during this period by 11 points in reading (about two per cent), 23 points in math (about 4.5 per cent), and four points in science (about one per cent).</p>
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<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/275214/original/file-20190517-69178-186x636.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/275214/original/file-20190517-69178-186x636.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/275214/original/file-20190517-69178-186x636.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/275214/original/file-20190517-69178-186x636.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/275214/original/file-20190517-69178-186x636.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/275214/original/file-20190517-69178-186x636.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/275214/original/file-20190517-69178-186x636.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Student performance on PISA tests in Canada fell from 2000 to 2015.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Shutterstock)</span></span>
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<p>Because they served fewer students and achieved worse PISA outcomes, even though they spent more (in total and per student), the school boards became, on average, 20 per cent less efficient in turning their budgets into measurable student outcomes in the 15 years under review.</p>
<h2>P.E.I. most cost-effective</h2>
<p>The provinces also varied widely in their ability to produce results for money they spent. The big spending provinces did not necessarily get the best PISA results. And the provinces that spent the least did not necessarily get the worst. </p>
<p>Overall, Prince Edward Island was the most efficient province (set at 100 per cent on the scale of cost-efficiency scores), while Saskatchewan and Manitoba were the least efficient, at 33.9 per cent and 38.5 per cent, respectively, below P.E.I. </p>
<p>In between, the other provinces also fared badly. Big-spending Québec, for example, was 31.8 per cent less efficient than P.E.I., while low-spending B.C. was only 7.2 per cent behind P.E.I.</p>
<h2>Equity measures and efficiency</h2>
<p>To gauge the extent to which performance measures, such as PISA scores, factored into budgeting decisions, we also interviewed 28 budget managers in 10 Canadian provinces and two territories (12 from the department of finance or treasury board of governments, and 16 from the budget offices or equivalents of departments of education). We did this to probe what criteria budget officers use to allocate education resources. </p>
<p>We found that the preponderant pattern of budgeting used by these managers is an “increments-based-on-formula” approach — meaning that new expenditures are based on the previous expenditures, and the adjustment is mainly according to changes in student numbers and/or salary costs.</p>
<p>We argue that this formula often takes account of equity imperatives (such as allocating adequate resources to schools with more students with special needs), but is not particularly responsive to efficiency concerns. </p>
<p>It is unclear how the fact that more money is being spent may relate to particular, new or emerging needs in schools. What is known is that increased spending does not seem to be raising student achievement on PISA tests.</p>
<p>The Fraser Institute finds that compensation <a href="https://www.fraserinstitute.org/studies/education-spending-in-public-schools-in-canada-2019">(salaries, wages, pensions and fringe benefits) “accounts for most of the increase in spending” in education in Canada</a>. But their research does not parse what exactly this compensation covers: for example, whether it relates to additional positions or roles to meet student needs.</p>
<p>The results of our study leave several unanswered questions.<br>
There may be many factors impacting some provinces’ cost-to-achievement performance such as
<a href="https://theconversation.com/every-child-matters-what-principals-need-to-effectively-lead-inclusive-schools-114249">challenges related to inclusive classrooms</a>, geography and socio-economic conditions, but more money has not led to better measurable academic results. </p>
<p>It may be time to find out why.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/116945/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>JIm Marshall received funding from Social Sciences and Humanities research Council to complete this study. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Haizhen Mou receives funding from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) of Canada, grant #430-2014-00466. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Michael M. Atkinson receives funding from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council to complete this study. </span></em></p>Research shows that the provinces vary widely in their ability to produce academic results for money they spend, and PEI shows the most efficient results.Jim Marshall, Lecturer, Johnson Shoyama Graduate School of Public Policy, University of ReginaHaizhen Mou, Associate Professor, Johnson Shoyama Graduate School of Public Policy, University of SaskatchewanMichael M. Atkinson, Public Policy Professor Emeritus, University of SaskatchewanLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/652522016-09-15T10:44:37Z2016-09-15T10:44:37ZDoes selective schooling work anywhere in the world?<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/137563/original/image-20160913-4958-sivofq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Hands up for better education policy.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">michaeljung/www.shutterstock.com</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>After Prime Minister Theresa May announced that more schools in England would be allowed to start selecting pupils based on their ability, the government has <a href="https://consult.education.gov.uk/school-frameworks/schools-that-work-for-everyone/supporting_documents/SCHOOLS%20THAT%20WORK%20FOR%20EVERYONE%20%20FINAL.pdf">launched a consultation</a> on its plans to make “schools work for everyone”. </p>
<p>But the national evidence, based on comparing the 163 existing grammar schools with all other state-funded schools in England, is clear. Grammar schools <a href="http://eer.sagepub.com/content/14/3-4/257.abstract">take in</a> very few disadvantaged or low-income pupils, and are associated with local segregation between families of different social and economic types, of a kind that reduces aspiration and damages futures. In order to get in, pupils have to be older within their year group (which is no indicator of talent or merit), and the few pupils who are eligible for free school meals in grammar schools <a href="http://gtr.rcuk.ac.uk/projects?ref=ES%2FN012046%2F1">have been eligible</a> for fewer of their school years than average. </p>
<p>The higher examination outcomes for pupils attending grammar schools are explained by looking at who these pupils are – their prior attainment, family poverty, age-in-year and so on – and not by the kind of school they went to. It is not clear why these schools have survived as a remnant in the comprehensive era since 1966, nor why anyone aware of the evidence, both at home and abroad, would wish to expand them. </p>
<h2>Selection in Anglophone countries</h2>
<p>One of the biggest problems with comparing education policy in one country with that of another is that the economic, political and other contextual factors differ. A developing country may have selective schools and fund education poorly, leading to worse test outcomes than a richer country that does not have selection. This would be no test of the impact of selection.</p>
<p>None of the world’s major English-speaking countries such as the US, Canada, Australia and New Zealand have a national system of selecting children for entry to state-funded schools at around age 11, even though they may – like England – have specific school types <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-lesson-from-canada-why-australia-should-have-fewer-selective-schools-35534">that are selective</a>. To slightly differing extents, they have <a href="http://www.oecd-ilibrary.org/docserver/download/9810131ec035.pdf?expires=1473761934&id=id&accname=guest&checksum=70597FB2A18EBB05BF24C56E17A413A7">what the OECD terms</a> “low levels of horizontal differentiation at the system level”, meaning that their school systems are more comprehensive than selective. </p>
<p>These countries are, in many respects, the most similar to the UK. Many of the remaining countries with strong historical links to the UK are at different stages of development, such as Pakistan, which like several developing countries, does not yet have universal secondary schooling.</p>
<h2>Selection in the Pacific Rim</h2>
<p>The picture is less clear for non-European countries which are regularly deemed to perform well in international comparisons such as the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development’s <a href="https://www.oecd.org/pisa/">Programme for International Student Assessment</a> (PISA) tests. China is represented only by a few coastal urban areas. Japan and South Korea do not operate a national policy of selection – Japan has traditionally allocated places by the proximity of a child’s home to the school but is increasingly offering parents a “choice” of school. </p>
<p>Singapore on the other hand is more selective, and many of its most popular schools do use selection based on prior performance to handle over-subscription. Overall, however, there is no evidence from PISA or elsewhere that nationally selective systems and better test outcomes are positively linked. </p>
<h2>In the EU, selection does not produce equity</h2>
<p>Probably the clearest comparisons with the most evidence come from the European Union’s 28 countries. Even here, the level of development varies between countries. The <a href="http://hdr.undp.org/en/data-explorer">UN Human Development Index</a> is 92 for the Netherlands, but 78 for Bulgaria. In general, the countries that have low educational equity (<a href="https://www.oecd.org/edu/Education-at-a-Glance-2014.pdf">assessed by</a> a high correlation between social background and educational outcomes) are also less developed. Those with the highest Human Development Index, such as the Netherlands, Sweden, Denmark, Finland and England, tend to have high equity, better test outcomes, and are not nationally selective in their schooling.</p>
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<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/137911/original/image-20160915-30611-hbxvay.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/137911/original/image-20160915-30611-hbxvay.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/137911/original/image-20160915-30611-hbxvay.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/137911/original/image-20160915-30611-hbxvay.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/137911/original/image-20160915-30611-hbxvay.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/137911/original/image-20160915-30611-hbxvay.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/137911/original/image-20160915-30611-hbxvay.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Big moments for small children.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Catalin Petolea/www.shutterstock.co</span></span>
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<p>The European countries that have relatively low equity for their level of development and expenditure on education (such as Austria and Germany) are the most obvious examples of systems with early selection of pupils, known as tracking. Others, such as Belgium or Ireland, traditionally operate on a strong sectarian faith-basis, which is linked then to clustering by ethnicity and immigrant status as well as social class. Such countries portray a stronger than expected link between a pupil’s individual attainment and the background of their parents – presumably because selection is on the basis of prior attainment, which is strongly correlated with socio-economic status and family background. </p>
<p>Levels of trust and civic participation among adults in such lower equity countries are among the lowest in the EU. This can be shown by the <a href="http://www.palgraveconnect.com/pc/doifinder/view/10.1057/9780230277335">link between experiences</a> at school, who a child goes to school with, and their wider outcomes such as preparation for citizenship. </p>
<p>It is quite hard to find a suitable comparison from around the world that the government in England could “borrow” its new selective education policy from in the 21st century. Most developed countries do not operate a formal, national selective system and the most successful countries (rather than cities) in PISA do not operate a formal selective system. </p>
<p>So the best evidence for England is still the evidence from England, both from when the grammar school system <a href="https://books.google.co.uk/books/about/Origins_and_destinations.html?id=p00PAQAAIAAJ&redir_esc=y">was widespread</a> and more recently. Both show that the gains are minimal if any, while the dangers for social cohesion are daunting.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/65252/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Stephen Gorard receives funding from the ESRC (grant number ES/N012046/1) to investigate the different kinds of poverty and their impact on education. </span></em></p>Grammar schools are back on the agenda in England, but they are not a go-to education policy for the 21st century.Stephen Gorard, Professor of Education and Public Policy, Durham UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/512242015-11-27T05:55:42Z2015-11-27T05:55:42ZThe world is more educated than it’s ever been – how?<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/103341/original/image-20151126-28295-1eidu32.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">aliaksei kruhlenia/www.shutterstock.com</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>More people are going to school and university than ever before. That’s the <a href="http://www.oecd.org/education/education-at-a-glance-19991487.htm">largely positive picture </a> of the state of education across the world published recently by the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD). </p>
<p>The OECD’s Education at a Glance report doesn’t explain all the reasons for the changes taking place, but it does show some remarkable trends.</p>
<p>A third of adults in OECD countries held a tertiary-level qualification in 2014. Over the past 30 years there has been a “significant increase” in the educational attainment of populations in almost all OECD countries. The graph below shows this by comparing the education levels of young people and their parents. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/103334/original/image-20151126-28306-1hihb19.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/103334/original/image-20151126-28306-1hihb19.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/103334/original/image-20151126-28306-1hihb19.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=374&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/103334/original/image-20151126-28306-1hihb19.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=374&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/103334/original/image-20151126-28306-1hihb19.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=374&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/103334/original/image-20151126-28306-1hihb19.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=470&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/103334/original/image-20151126-28306-1hihb19.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=470&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/103334/original/image-20151126-28306-1hihb19.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=470&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">Intergenerational mobility in education (2012)</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.keepeek.com/Digital-Asset-Management/oecd/education/education-at-a-glance-2015_eag-2015-en#page1">Chart A4.1. Education at a Glance 2015: OECD Indicators, OECD Publishing</a></span>
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<p>South Korea has also raised enrolment in higher education – demonstrating a considerable increase in upward mobility as measure by the number of young people going to university whose parents had not. In some other other countries – notably Austria, Germany and the US – there has been more limited upward mobility.</p>
<p>Other data shows that in the space of one decade between 2000 and 2010, China increased the number of young people completing secondary education by 30%. This almost certainly reflects both the country’s massive economic growth over this period as well as the increasing urbanisation of the population. Over recent years, China has also moved rapidly up the OECD’s <a href="http://www.oecd.org/pisa/">Programme for International Student Assessment</a> (PISA) tables of pupil performance and has hugely expanded its university population both at home and <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/world/2007/jun/02/internationaleducationnews.highereducation">abroad</a>.</p>
<p>Of course, quantity does not equal quality – and even in some countries that perform highly on the PISA tests there are questions remaining about the <a href="https://theconversation.com/copying-the-long-chinese-school-day-could-have-unintended-consequences-23398">versatility and creativity of otherwise</a> highly literate and numerate students.</p>
<p>It is always dangerous to conclude too much from such international comparisons: each nation has its own particular historical and present-day social, cultural and <a href="https://theconversation.com/which-countries-punch-above-their-weight-in-education-rankings-49698">economic contexts</a> which strongly influence education. There are also “gaps” in the data from certain countries, so the OECD report does not provide a comprehensive account of every system in the world.</p>
<p>Still, those countries whose enrolment rates in higher education remain static ought to be concerned. The report clearly highlights the benefits of a university education, both for the individual and wider society. The higher your level of education, the more likely you are to feel healthy, to earn more, to take part in volunteering and to be politically engaged. </p>
<p>It is widely accepted that higher levels of education at all levels contribute to a wider range of other positive social, political and economic outcomes. Better education can even have an effect on reducing the <a href="http://www.globalpartnership.org/multimedia/infographic/education-and-global-goals">likelihood of conflict and war</a>.</p>
<h2>More women than men with a degree</h2>
<p>The education of women and girls has very positive effects. UNICEF <a href="http://www.unicef.org/sowc04/files/Chapter2.pdf">states</a> that: “each extra year of maternal education reduces the rate of mortality for children under the age of five by between 5% and 10%.” The evidence noted in both the OECD report and other available data sources suggests that historic gender inequalities in education are being flipped on their heads. </p>
<p>More women around the world are accessing education at all levels, from primary level to university. While their enrolment rates remain lower in some parts of the world – notably in poorer countries – in the OECD group of countries women have overtaken men in completion of higher education: around 11% more women graduate from university than men. And according to the OECD Report: “young men are significantly more likely than young women to have low skills and poor academic achievement.”</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/103338/original/image-20151126-28295-1hr3nn0.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/103338/original/image-20151126-28295-1hr3nn0.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/103338/original/image-20151126-28295-1hr3nn0.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=355&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/103338/original/image-20151126-28295-1hr3nn0.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=355&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/103338/original/image-20151126-28295-1hr3nn0.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=355&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/103338/original/image-20151126-28295-1hr3nn0.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=446&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/103338/original/image-20151126-28295-1hr3nn0.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=446&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/103338/original/image-20151126-28295-1hr3nn0.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=446&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">% of 25-34 year-olds who have attained tertiary education, by gender (2014)</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.keepeek.com/Digital-Asset-Management/oecd/education/education-at-a-glance-2015_eag-2015-en#page1">Table A1.4b. Education at a Glance 2015: OECD Indicators, OECD Publishing</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Yet despite overtaking men in educational attainment, women remain under-represented in certain areas of study, such as engineering and manufacturing. And having a better education has not closed the <a href="https://theconversation.com/uk/topics/gender-pay-gap">pay gap</a> between women and men. University-educated women tend to earn only around three-quarters of the pay of men with the same level of education, according to the OECD.</p>
<p>Education, globally, is improving. But this has happened mainly during an era of considerable investment in education systems both in the developed and the developing world. More recently, the global financial crisis has led to cutbacks in state spending on education in some nations. The OECD <a href="http://www.oecd.org/education/education-at-a-glance-19991487.htm">said</a> that the annual growth in education spending between 2008 and 2012 decreased continually and there was no growth in investment in 2011-12.</p>
<p>Across the OECD, figures suggests there is significant net public return on investment in tertiary education – 1.2 times the cost of a woman’s education and 2.5 times the cost of a man’s education, when all related costs and benefits are taken into account. Cutting back on education expenditure would appear to be a false economy if our ambition is for better education worldwide.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/51224/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Alan Britton does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>A third of adults in the OECD now have a university degree.Alan Britton, Senior University Teacher, Social Justice Place and Lifelong Education, University of GlasgowLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/496982015-11-23T15:49:34Z2015-11-23T15:49:34ZWhich countries punch above their weight in education rankings?<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/102815/original/image-20151123-18227-1xcbdhz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Thinking differently about comparing education systems. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Areipa.lt/www.shutterstock.com</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Rankings of countries based on how well their students perform in the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) always receive a great deal of attention from the media and <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/education/2013/dec/03/michael-gove-pisa-education-oecd-league-tables">politicians</a>. But <a href="http://www.oecd.org/pisa/keyfindings/pisa-2012-results.htm">PISA rankings</a>, produced by the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development, are limited when it comes to evaluating the quality of education systems and their efforts to improve children’s lives.</p>
<p>The <a href="http://www.oecd.org/pisa/keyfindings/pisa-2012-results.htm">rankings tell us</a>, for example, that 15-year-olds in Germany and the US perform better in mathematics than students in Peru or Indonesia. Yet we also know that <a href="http://data.worldbank.org/indicator/NY.GDP.PCAP.CD">income per capita</a> in Peru and Indonesia is way less than that in Germany and the US.</p>
<p>So is it fair to compare education systems operating in such different socio-economic conditions? How would these education systems perform if they served students and operated in countries with more or less similar socio-economic characteristics?</p>
<p>In studies of how well individual children do and the “effectiveness” of individual schools, pupils’ socio-economic characteristics are now ritually taken into account. The same reasoning can be extended when comparing countries’ education systems. </p>
<p>Our <a href="http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/13803611.2014.891462">research</a> has measured the effectiveness of education systems by adjusting the performance of students who take the PISA tests for the socio-economic context. The effectiveness measure is obtained by calculating the difference between how well students in the education systems ranked by the OECD actually perform, and how they should be expected to perform due to the socio-economic characteristics of students, schools, and countries.</p>
<p>In the graph below, those countries with values higher than zero – towards the right-hand side – have 15-year-olds who perform above expectations in mathematics, meaning the education system is effective. Those below zero, to the left, indicate ineffective performance. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/102642/original/image-20151120-416-18p5lbv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/102642/original/image-20151120-416-18p5lbv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=570&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/102642/original/image-20151120-416-18p5lbv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=570&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/102642/original/image-20151120-416-18p5lbv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=570&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/102642/original/image-20151120-416-18p5lbv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=717&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/102642/original/image-20151120-416-18p5lbv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=717&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/102642/original/image-20151120-416-18p5lbv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=717&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">PISA 2012, effectiveness of education systems in mathematics performance. Note: Albania and Lichtenstein were removed for missing data in the economic, social and cultural status index and sample size restrictions.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The results show a different configuration of countries’ performance once the socio-economic context is considered. For example, Turkey, Thailand, and Indonesia are effective systems, once results are adjusted in this way, although their absolute performance in the PISA tests is below average. Conversely, the US, Sweden, and Norway are among the least effective systems if socio-economic context is taken into account, but exhibit higher absolute performance scores. </p>
<p>There are also systems that perform highly according to both absolute scores and for effectiveness once their performance is adjusted for socio-economic context – such as Hong Kong, Korea, and Chinese Taipei. Others have both low absolute performance scores and effectiveness measures, such as Argentina, Jordan, and Qatar. And there are also systems which perform within their expected range, such as Mexico, Spain, Finland, and New Zealand.</p>
<h2>Taking wealth into account</h2>
<p>The second graph below shows the relationship between absolute mathematics scores in PISA 2012 and effectiveness measures, adjusted for socio-economic context. Those education systems that perform well in absolute terms do also tend to be more effective, but the relationship is not perfect and there are considerable differences between the two. </p>
<p>For example, absolute mathematics performance in Norway and the US is similar to performance in Portugal – but Portugal is effective and Norway and the US are not. For their socio-economic context, Norway and the US perform below what can be expected, whereas Portugal exceeds its expected performance. You could argue that for their advantaged socio-economic conditions, the US and Norway could perform considerably higher than they do.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/102805/original/image-20151123-18255-13tmpjv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/102805/original/image-20151123-18255-13tmpjv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=430&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/102805/original/image-20151123-18255-13tmpjv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=430&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/102805/original/image-20151123-18255-13tmpjv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=430&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/102805/original/image-20151123-18255-13tmpjv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=541&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/102805/original/image-20151123-18255-13tmpjv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=541&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/102805/original/image-20151123-18255-13tmpjv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=541&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Which countries are most effective? PISA 2012, math absolute scores versus effectiveness scores, adjusted for socio-economic context. The horizontal line at 0 separates effective from ineffective systems and the vertical line at 500 score points indicates the OECD average. Albania and Lichtenstein removed for missing data.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/13803611.2014.891462">PISA 2012 data.</a>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>It’s clear that some countries perform very differently when their socio-economic situation is taken into account, whereas others perform more or less the same. For example, performance in Mexico, Spain, Finland, and New Zealand practically does not change after the socio-economic context is considered. </p>
<h2>Better than expected</h2>
<p>But performance is much higher than expected in Thailand, Turkey, and Portugal. Put differently, these systems would score higher in PISA rankings if it took into account the socio-economic context of the countries.</p>
<p>There are, on the other hand, systems such as Norway, Sweden, the US, Israel, Greece, Jordan, and Qatar that perform worse than expected. It seems that comparatively, these countries could perform better considering the available economic resources and the socio-economic characteristics of the student populations they serve. </p>
<p>But there might be other cultural and economic factors, such as the distribution of economic resources, that condition the results of effectiveness and are difficult to change through reforms to education policy. </p>
<p>The PISA results tell us how countries perform in absolute terms. But
looking at how effective education systems are according to their socio-economic context offers a complementary perspective. </p>
<p>Viewed this way, it is possible for an education system operating in relatively disadvantaged conditions, such as Indonesia, Thailand, Turkey, and Vietnam, to perform better than one with higher performance according to PISA rankings but operating under more favourable socioeconomic conditions, such as Iceland, Norway, the UK, the US, and Sweden.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/49698/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Daniel Caro received funding from the OECD Thomas J. Alexander fellowship program for carrying out this work. The work should not be reported as representing the official views of the OECD or of its member countries. The opinions expressed and arguments employed herein are those of the authors. The authors are very grateful to Pablo Zoido and Noémie Le Donne for their valuable feedback and support.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jenny Lenkeit does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>An alternative way to look at who comes where in PISA tests – and the results are surprising.Daniel Caro, Research Fellow, University of OxfordJenny Lenkeit, Research Fellow, Oxford University Centre for Educational Assessment, University of OxfordLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/320522014-09-26T12:41:52Z2014-09-26T12:41:52ZHow China teaches children maths so well<p>There has been much publicity in recent years about China and its teachers. After the most recent <a href="http://www.oecd.org/pisa/keyfindings/pisa-2012-results.htm">results from the Program for International Student Assessment</a> (PISA) were published in 2013, considerable discussion has focused on the reasons why Chinese students’ test results are more than 100 points above the PISA average. </p>
<p>Despite <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/answer-sheet/wp/2014/03/20/so-how-overblown-were-no-1-shanghais-pisa-results/">some controversy</a> over the results in Shanghai, it is still not clear why China has done so well. We have been undertaking a small-scale study to look at possible explanations. We recently presented our initial findings at the <a href="http://www.bera.ac.uk/event/bera-conference-2014">British Educational Research Association</a> conference.</p>
<h2>Nanjing’s high fliers</h2>
<p>First, we tested 562 nine and ten year-olds in classrooms in Southampton in England and Nanjing in China, cities that are of medium to high socioeconomic status among major cities in each country. The Chinese pupils scored 83% in the first of two tests, compared to 56% among the English children. The test used was the same used in the 2003 <a href="http://timss.bc.edu/timss2003.html">Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study</a>. </p>
<p>In a second test, given to the pupils ten weeks later, the English pupils improved to score 66% on average, but this was still well short of the figure for the Chinese children of 87%.</p>
<p>We also used video analysis of what was going on in lessons in both countries’ classrooms to investigate the types of teaching being used. We found that in the Chinese classrooms whole-class interactive teaching was being used 72% of the time, compared to only 24% in England. By contrast, the classes in England spent nearly half – 47% – of their time in individual or group work, compared to 28% in China.</p>
<p>It could be of course that it is cultural factors in China which explain the high test scores. But if you pool all the English classes and the Chinese classes, and then analyse the data across both countries, those lessons with a lot of whole-class interaction were associated with higher test scores, while those with a high proportion of individual and group work were associated with lower scores.</p>
<h2>Whole class learning together</h2>
<p>Our findings are in line with <a href="http://www.uk.sagepub.com/textbooks/Book234100">decades of research</a> which has concluded that whole-class interactive teaching with the teacher exploring pupils’ knowledge through questioning and demonstration is more effective than seat work where children work through exercises themselves. </p>
<p>The importance of this whole-class interactive teaching is probably particularly marked in mathematics, because of the hierarchical nature of the subject. If children work on their own, they may become stuck and have to wait a considerable time for the teacher to provide the knowledge that they need. </p>
<p>In the whole-class setting, using techniques such as number cards, where the whole class are asked to hold up a card with the answer to a mathematical sum, can help teachers to identify immediately which pupils need help. This could be provided to both them and the whole class quickly and effectively without delay.</p>
<h2>English focus on individual child</h2>
<p>Given the fact that existing research and our new findings point in the same direction, it does seem rather surprising that about half the pupil experience in English maths lessons in our study is still individual or group work. This figure does still seem remarkably high.</p>
<p>What are the reasons for it? Many primary teachers have rather low levels of mathematical subject knowledge and confidence. Given this, it is not surprising that they prefer the burden of learning to be placed in the hands of pupils rather than having it in their own. </p>
<p>It may be that English teachers are wedded to a focus on an individual child rather than the whole class. Whatever the reason, it does seem rather unlikely that – to adapt the Chinese proverb – children will learn when the teachers don’t teach.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/32052/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>There has been much publicity in recent years about China and its teachers. After the most recent results from the Program for International Student Assessment (PISA) were published in 2013, considerable…Zhenzhen Miao, PhD candidate, University of SouthamptonDavid Reynolds, Professor in Education , University of SouthamptonLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/312032014-09-05T10:02:01Z2014-09-05T10:02:01ZDebate education efficiency, but don’t rank countries on it<p>There has been a recent explosion of interest in the effectiveness of education systems around the world, largely driven by international studies that compare the performance of large samples of students from a wide range of countries. </p>
<p>Such comparisons made in these studies such as the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development’s <a href="http://www.oecd.org/pisa/">Programme for International Student Assessment</a> (PISA) or other international <a href="http://timssandpirls.bc.edu/">reading and maths tests</a>, have become a key factor in educational policymaking across the world. </p>
<p>Of course, how well children perform in maths and reading tests is not the only important aspect of an education system. In a resource-constrained environment, the costs of a good education cannot be ignored. In that sense, <a href="https://theconversation.com/why-finland-korea-and-czech-republic-get-the-most-bang-for-their-educational-buck-31264">a new report</a> by GEMS Education Solutions, the London-based consultancy wing of Dubai-based company GEMS Education which runs schools around the world, is certainly likely to spark debate around both the efficiency and effectiveness of education systems. But such a ranking is very problematic. </p>
<p>The authors of the <a href="http://www.edefficiencyindex.com/">Efficiency Index</a> have used scores on the PISA tests and related these to (financial) inputs into the education system, of which they find two – teacher salaries and class size – to be significant. </p>
<p>The index is therefore a measure of how good a country’s pupils score on the PISA test, given how much (or little) a country spends on its teachers. Using these variables, the authors calculate an index for each of the 30 countries they studied, and rank them according to the efficiency index. </p>
<p>Finland, Korea, the Czech Republic, Hungary and Japan do particularly well, and the UK ends up in the top half of the table.</p>
<h2>The misuse of league tables</h2>
<p>So far, so acceptable, as a starting point for debate. But there are a range of problems with how the data is presented. The authors make three tempting but serious errors that bedevil a lot of the writing on PISA. The first is “<a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-25187997">league table-itis</a>”. The authors rank countries in an efficiency league table, and there is little doubt that this is one of the main things readers and the press will pick up on. </p>
<p>But there are problems with the rankings. Like all tests, PISA (though technically very well designed) is <a href="http://www.tes.co.uk/article.aspx?storycode=6344672">not perfect</a>. The test score contains what is known as “<a href="http://www.socialresearchmethods.net/kb/measerr.php">measurement error</a>”, and so do estimates of things like pupil and teacher ratios. </p>
<p>This means that every point score, like the efficiency index scores, come with a margin of error. As a result, small and even medium-sized differences between countries in rankings like this one are unreliable. In the Efficiency Index, for example, the UK is ranked 11, and France 12. The difference between the two countries is 0.02 on the ranking – this is essentially meaningless. We can possibly distinguish groups of countries, but we can’t actually accurately rank them from one to 30 as is done here (and, to be fair, in many league tables like it).</p>
<h2>Not comparing like with like</h2>
<p>The second issue is that of comparing like with like. Of course, countries as varied as Brazil and Finland differ on many factors other than their spending on teachers. So we have to be very careful when we compare them. </p>
<p>The authors of the report acknowledge that this is an issue, and write, for example, that cultural differences which may be important could not be accounted for in the data. But then they nevertheless continue to make comparisons as if in fact only the two things they are looking at (class size and salaries) matter.</p>
<p>For example, that Finland is able to attract high quality teachers at relatively low salaries may well have something to do with <a href="https://edpolicy.stanford.edu/sites/default/files/publications/secret-finland%E2%80%99s-success-educating-teachers.pdf">the esteem</a> in which the profession is held, which may make this model hard to replicate in countries where this is not the case.</p>
<h2>Cause, effect and educational policy</h2>
<p>The third, and most problematic, error is the way the report plays fast and loose with causal attribution. As is well known, the fact that two things are correlated with one another doesn’t mean one causes the other. Again, the authors acknowledge this problem, but then proceed to ignore it. </p>
<p>This is done most egregiously in the tables in which the authors show what countries should do to reach the same level of efficiency as Finland. In the case of the UK, this means either reducing teacher salaries by 10%, or increasing class sizes by 24%. Other countries, such as Chile or Indonesia for example, would need to reduce class sizes by over 90% to reach Finland’s level or increase teacher salaries by over 200%. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/58235/original/xyrxqpd6-1409822711.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/58235/original/xyrxqpd6-1409822711.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/58235/original/xyrxqpd6-1409822711.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=164&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/58235/original/xyrxqpd6-1409822711.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=164&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/58235/original/xyrxqpd6-1409822711.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=164&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/58235/original/xyrxqpd6-1409822711.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=206&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/58235/original/xyrxqpd6-1409822711.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=206&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/58235/original/xyrxqpd6-1409822711.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=206&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="attribution"><a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/">CC BY-ND</a></span>
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<p>This simplistic conclusion, based on a rather limited set of analyses, seems a particularly dangerous policy recommendation if we want to attract high quality people to the profession. </p>
<p>Efficiency in education is important, and is something both those making policy and researchers should pay more heed to. There is therefore room for high-quality research on this topic. Unfortunately, this isn’t it.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/31203/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Daniel Muijs does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>There has been a recent explosion of interest in the effectiveness of education systems around the world, largely driven by international studies that compare the performance of large samples of students…Daniel Muijs, Director of Research and Deputy Head of Southampton Education School, University of SouthamptonLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/252512014-04-04T12:38:01Z2014-04-04T12:38:01ZReforms based on PISA tests alone won’t fix GCSE standards<p>With the creeping rise of <a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/education/educationnews/10248072/GCSEs-devalued-by-grade-inflation-over-last-decade.html">exam results over the past few decades</a>, many have questioned whether standards are really as high as they were in the past. </p>
<p>More worrying still is whether pupils in the UK can maintain pace in educational standards compared with other countries. After all, we operate in a global knowledge economy, in which the competition is tough in terms of supply of workers for top-end companies. And so it is in this climate that <a href="http://www.bbc.com/news/education-22841266">Michael Gove has announced changes to GCSEs</a> that will toughen the standards to reflect that of high-performing countries. </p>
<p>International tests like the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA), run by the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) are used to compare the performance of students. PISA mainly tests reading, mathematics and science, but it has <a href="https://theconversation.com/why-21st-century-children-need-to-excel-at-problem-solving-24996">recently also tested problem solving</a>. </p>
<p>In fact, the <a href="http://timssandpirls.bc.edu">International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement</a> (IEA) run other tests in mathematics, science and literacy, but Gove rarely quotes their findings because we have done rather better on those tests than on the PISA tests and this does not suit his political narrative.</p>
<p>Ofqual, the examinations regulator, has <a href="http://comment.ofqual.gov.uk/setting-the-grade-standards-of-new-gcses-april-2014/">indicated that the new, tougher GCSEs</a> will have a numbered scale instead of letter grades and that grade 5 will be internationally benchmarked. Grade 4 will be equivalent to the old grade C at GCSE, with grade 9 being the highest grade. </p>
<p>We can look at examination standards in a couple of ways – in terms of what people have to do to get the grades (content standards) or how many attain the grades. </p>
<p>Ofqual <a href="http://ofqual.gov.uk/standards/research/international-comparability/">conducted some research</a> comparing the content standards of A-level equivalents across countries and A-levels came out pretty well, but the same exercise has not yet been carried out for GCSEs. In any case, we can safely assume that <a href="http://ofqual.gov.uk/news/ofqual-starts-conversation-standards-set-new-gcses/">a new Ofqual consultation</a> on its proposals means that fewer students are expected to get grade 5 or above in the toughened GCSEs of the future. </p>
<p>So who are these high performers that we need to benchmark with? Taking <a href="http://www.oecd.org/pisa/keyfindings/pisa-2012-results-volume-I.pdf">the PISA 2012 results</a>, the top five performing jurisdictions in mathematics were Shanghai-China, Singapore, Hong Kong-China, Chinese Taipei and Korea. </p>
<p>Japan and Finland are also regular top performers in these league tables. In comparison, the UK generally performs very averagely in PISA, although we typically do better than average in science and did <a href="http://www.oecd.org/pisa/keyfindings/PISA-2012-results-volume-V.pdf">well in problem solving</a>. As we invest an average amount in education compared with the other countries included in these studies, our average results are a typical return on investment. </p>
<p>One issue for the government will be just which of these high performers we want to set our new standards by. For the sake of argument, let’s choose Shanghai-China and see where that takes us.</p>
<p>The difference between our average score in mathematics and Shanghai-China’s was 119 points for the 2012 PISA test. In a <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/181601/DFE-RR149.pdf">little-known 2011 department for education (DfE) report</a>, a DfE researcher had a go at translating that into what would need to change in terms of GCSE point scores. </p>
<p>To match Shanghai-China’s outcomes, a student with 8 grade C GCSEs would need to pull her socks up to 3 A* and 5 grade As; an improvement of 19 grades overall. One could quibble with the methodology of that paper, but however we look at the outcomes, it looks like we would have to raise the bar quite a lot to match the maths performances of 15-year-olds in Shanghai.</p>
<p>Or would we? Can we rely on PISA to tell us this? It turns out that comparing educational outcomes across nations is not as easy as pie. There are <a href="https://theconversation.com/pisa-education-rankings-are-a-problem-that-cant-be-solved-24933">many controversies about the tests</a> and how they are conducted, including the effects of test translation, how motivated the students are and how well the tests match the curriculum. </p>
<p>To make the comparisons you have to be pretty sure that you have a representative sample of students from each country. OECD’s Andreas Schleicher has <a href="http://www.parliamentlive.tv/Main/Player.aspx?meetingId=15019andst=09:36:40">recently admitted</a> to Parliament’s Education Select Committee that the PISA coverage of 15 year-olds in Shanghai was only 73%, whilst the figure is more like 90% in other countries.</p>
<p>Tom Loveless at the Brookings Institute in the US has <a href="http://www.brookings.edu/research/reports/2014/03/18-pisa-shanghai-loveless">explained</a> how poor, migrant workers originating from rural China have trouble getting their children into school in Shanghai. So it is highly likely that the missing 27% are children from economic groups that we know do worst at school, statistically speaking.</p>
<p>So what should we make of this? Do we want higher standards in our education system? Of course. It is worth looking to these international tests for the information they provide, but they should not be the only measure Ofqual uses to set its new standards.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/25251/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jo-Anne Baird gives assessment consultancy advice to, and receives research funding from, governments and commercial organisations, including Ofqual and Pearson.</span></em></p>With the creeping rise of exam results over the past few decades, many have questioned whether standards are really as high as they were in the past. More worrying still is whether pupils in the UK can…Jo-Anne Baird, Director of the Oxford University Centre for Educational Assessment, University of OxfordLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/249962014-04-01T10:03:21Z2014-04-01T10:03:21ZWhy 21st century children need to excel at problem solving<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/45180/original/5nrbsx4x-1396273144.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Can I be a puzzle-maker when I grow up?</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.shutterstock.com/pic-3224198/stock-photo-child-with-puzzle.html?src=yI5o6tMmyve51habGQQdUw-3-45">Child with puzzle via Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>It’s no longer enough for children just to be able to read, count or multiply. With computers now doing many mundane repetitive tasks for us, many jobs in today’s world require analytical skills and the ability to solve unexpected problems. </p>
<p>For the first time, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) has <a href="http://www.oecd.org/pisa/keyfindings/pisa-2012-results-volume-V.htm?utm_content=bufferad8c0&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter.com&utm_campaign=buffer">attempted to measure</a> countries’ progress at teaching children how to do this. </p>
<p>The OECD hosts one of the major large-scale assessments of student competencies in the world, the <a href="http://www.oecd.org/pisa/">Programme for International Student Assessment</a> (PISA). More than half a million 15-year-old students from across the globe are evaluated every three years on their performance in classical domains of education, such as reading, mathematics, and science literacy. </p>
<p>In 2012, the OECD extended its <a href="http://www.oecd.org/pisa/keyfindings/pisa-2012-results.htm">PISA test</a> to include a section on creative problem-solving. Students across the globe were asked to apply their skills to problems not found within their everyday textbooks. You can have a go at <a href="http://cbasq.acer.edu.au/index.php?cmd=toProblemSolving">the sample questions</a> on the OECD site.</p>
<h2>Brain in gear</h2>
<p>The OECD creative problem solving test used a range of so-called <a href="http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/brain-candy/201306/study-is-complex-problem-solving-distinct-iq">“microproblems”</a>: small computer simulations of problems that require the active exploration of the situation and the application of knowledge gained that way. Compared to the multiple-choice tests commonly used in large-scale assessments, they require the active acquisition of knowledge within a new situation and the subsequent application of that knowledge to a complex problem.</p>
<p>For example, in one of the problems, students have to find out how several controls of an air conditioner influence humidity and temperature. To do so, they have to systematically manipulate the controls of the air conditioner and then observe the changes that result from their manipulations.</p>
<p>There are several levels of proficiency students can achieve, rated from 1 (lowest) to 6 (highest). Whereas students rated in the lowest proficiency level have problems in dealing with all but the most straightforward problems, higher levels indicate an increasing level of competency to deal with ill-defined and more complex problems. The <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1787/9789264208070-en">PISA report on problem solving</a> found that across all OECD countries, 11.4% of the 15-year-olds tested got above level five. Singapore, Korea and Japan scored highest. </p>
<p>These high-performing students can be expected to be better prepared for the challenges awaiting them in our modern world. Ultimately we would expect educational policy to strive for a focus on these kinds of outcomes. </p>
<p>One of the <a href="http://www.oecd.org/pisa/keyfindings/pisa-2012-results-overview.pdf">key findings of PISA 2012</a> is that the highest-performing school systems allocate their resources more equitably across schools and offer autonomy to schools. When it comes to strengthening the problem-solving skills of students, the way teachers and students reflect different solutions or strategies to problems instead of teaching rules has been proven to be an important factor. </p>
<p>Based on the problem-solving results, citizens in the UK can be quite content with their students, teachers, and educators. UK-based 15-year-olds surpassed their performance in the PISA tests of reading, mathematics, and science. They also ranked favourably in a group with students from other high-performing Western economies, such as Estonia, Germany, and Finland, who showed above average problem solving performance. </p>
<p>These problem-solving tests also show children’s potential much more clearly. The impact of socio-economic status on a child’s ability to solve problems has been found to be weaker than it is on their ability to read, or perform maths or science tasks across the participating countries. </p>
<p>In the UK, the weaker relation between socio-economic status and performance in problem solving compared to the other subjects was even more pronounced. Disadvantaged students seem better able to show their cognitive potential when being evaluated on their problem-solving skills compared to the classical dimensions of reading, math, and science focused on by previous PISA rankings.</p>
<h2>Outside the box</h2>
<p>Inevitably, comparing the reading skills and schooling systems in countries as diverse as Kazakhstan, Korea and Qatar has its difficulties. Still, the PISA studies have had a tremendous impact on education, <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1787/5k9fdfqffr28-en">leading to efforts to reorganise education</a> in several countries including Japan, Denmark, and Germany.</p>
<p>In today’s world, the routine operation of checking an essay for spelling mistakes are becoming increasingly automated. But handling new problems without pre-specified training or knowledge has become a <a href="http://www.nber.org/papers/w8337">major part of our working life</a>. The daily work of an average employee nowadays includes more and more non-routine tasks that require novel solutions or at least some thinking outside of manuals and orders. </p>
<p>The question arises whether our education systems are keeping pace with these developments. Now the positive findings of the creative problem-solving tests give hope for generations of capable problem solvers coming out of our schools in the years to come. </p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/24996/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Samuel Greiff receives funding from BMBF (Germany), European Union, FNR (Luxembourg), and OECD. He has been involved in the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) as an external advisor to the PISA 2012 and 2015 Expert and Subject Matter Expert Groups.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jonas Müller does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>It’s no longer enough for children just to be able to read, count or multiply. With computers now doing many mundane repetitive tasks for us, many jobs in today’s world require analytical skills and the…Samuel Greiff, Research group leader, principal investigator, and ATTRACT-fellow, University of LuxembourgJonas Müller, Research associate and doctoral candidate, University of LuxembourgLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/245482014-03-24T06:06:45Z2014-03-24T06:06:45ZNew childcare accounts help those who already afford quality<p>The coalition has <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/news/millions-of-parents-to-get-help-with-childcare-costs">placed a series of new plans</a> on the table with regard to childcare and early years education. Most eye-catching is the new “tax-free childcare” scheme: from September 2015, for every 80 pence parents pay into a special childcare account, government will add 20 pence, up to a maximum annual government contribution of £2,000 per child. </p>
<p>For universal credit recipients, government has pledged to meet 85% of childcare costs, rather than 70% under existing plans. Finally, an early years pupil premium will be introduced, with £50m of extra funding set aside for schools and nurseries to use on helping disadvantaged three and four-year-olds. </p>
<p>Additional investment in the childcare sector is certainly welcome. Funding on services for very young children in the UK has risen dramatically in recent decades, <a href="http://www.casedata.org.uk/under_fives">rising nearly four-fold</a> during Labour’s time in office. </p>
<p>But we still lag behind countries doing the most effective job in providing affordable and high-quality childcare which is accessible to all, such as Norway and France. In <a href="http://www.policypress.co.uk/display.asp?ISB=9781447310518&">recent international comparative work</a>, my colleagues Ludovica Gambaro, Jane Waldfogel and I have argued that funding must continue to rise to deliver further progress. But has the government chosen the right way to invest the extra money?</p>
<h2>Boost prices, not quality?</h2>
<p>The bulk of the new money – an estimated £750m a year – will be spent on the new childcare accounts. These have a certain attraction: they are clear and transparent, allow other adults to pay in, and will reach considerably more people than under the existing <a href="http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/calcs/ccin.htm">employer childcare voucher scheme</a>. </p>
<p>The lack of affordable childcare is an area where the UK stands out poorly in international comparisons – even the highest earners in the Netherlands pay just 66% of costs. At least now British parents will pay a maximum of 80% of childcare costs, rather than 100% at present. </p>
<p>And yet there are at least two reasons that this new system seems poorly designed and ill-thought out. First, <a href="http://www.policypress.co.uk/display.asp?ISB=9781447310518&">in many other countries</a>, fees are income-related, which means that government subsidies are higher the lower a person’s pay. </p>
<p>Instead, this new flat-rate 20% system sees a higher subsidy for parents who can afford to spend more – on more hours or on higher quality – which appears regressive and counter-intuitive. </p>
<p>Second, in a context in which a strong for-profit sector is in operation, there must be concerns that additional government resources will simply boost prices and profits, rather than increase either affordability or quality. </p>
<p>A strong recommendation <a href="http://www.policypress.co.uk/display.asp?ISB=9781447310518&">from our international work</a> is that government funding needs to come with clear strings attached. In Norway, public funding to privately-owned kindergartens is conditional not only on strict quality criteria, such as graduate staff qualifications, but also on profits being “reasonable” and the share of the company’s income spent on staff being comparable to that in kindergartens run by the local authority. It is a major worry that in the UK, this new funding has no such strings.</p>
<p>There is <a href="http://www.suttontrust.com/our-work/research/item/sound-foundations/">good evidence</a> that graduate qualifications for early-years staff are key in delivering high-quality provision, with the greatest impact on poorer children. Spending so much additional money on subsidising childcare for even the wealthiest families in society, and nothing on investing in more qualified staff, particularly <a href="http://www.nurseryworld.co.uk/nursery-world/news/1141681/shortage-quality-childcare-scheme-risk">as free places are expanded to reach more disadvantaged two-year-olds</a>, seems a terribly wasted opportunity.</p>
<h2>Still lagging internationally</h2>
<p>Raising the share of childcare costs covered for universal credit recipients from 70% to 85% certainly makes every sense. The <a href="http://www.resolutionfoundation.org/media/media/downloads/All_work_and_no_pay_1.pdf">Resolution Foundation has pointed out</a> that under the previous 70% rule, second earners in low-income households faced very low or even negative incentives to go to work. </p>
<p>The <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-11621984">reduction of the share of childcare costs</a> met under Working Tax Credit from 80% to 70% in April 2011 was one of the coalition government’s least logical moves, hitting just those families it professed to support. This decision repairs that damage; though it is worth noting that low-income working households in the UK will still pay a higher share of childcare costs than in many of our European neighbours. <a href="http://sticerd.lse.ac.uk/dps/case/cb/CASEbrief32.pdf">In the Netherlands low-earners pay just 3.5%</a>, for example.</p>
<h2>Little funding for pupil premium</h2>
<p>What of the early years pupil premium, which will give nurseries and schools that look after disadvantaged three and four-year-olds an additional funding boost? Exactly how this will operate is unclear, but the basic principle is sound.</p>
<p>Currently, nurseries and schools effectively receive a flat-rate payment per child, regardless of their background. Although local authorities can provide additional supplements for disadvantage, few do so because they receive no additional funds from central government. </p>
<p>Children with fewer resources at home are likely to need additional support in school and nursery, a principle that is well-established in relation to compulsory schooling. For many years, <a href="http://sticerd.lse.ac.uk/dps/case/spcc/wp03.pdf">more resources have been channelled</a> to poorer areas and schools with a more disadvantaged intake, most recently in the form of the pupil premium. Extending this principle down into early education is in the best interests of children who have <a href="https://theconversation.com/early-years-education-is-a-class-leveller-not-an-optional-extra-24379">most to gain from high-quality early education</a>.</p>
<p>Nevertheless, while the move is a step in the right direction, we should keep an eye on the scale of the proposed investment: £50m is not very high in the context of <a href="http://sticerd.lse.ac.uk/dps/case/spcc/wp04.pdf">around £4.4 billion</a> spent on free nursery places for three and four-year-olds. There are around 1.2m children accessing these places, so if the money is targeted on the poorest 20%, these children will receive an extra £200 each on top of current spending of around £3,500 each. Not negligible, and certainly welcome, but unlikely to transform children’s experience. </p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/24548/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Kitty Stewart has received funding for her work on early education, childcare and children's life chances from The Nuffield Foundation, the Joseph Rowntree Foundation and the Trust for London. </span></em></p>The coalition has placed a series of new plans on the table with regard to childcare and early years education. Most eye-catching is the new “tax-free childcare” scheme: from September 2015, for every…Kitty Stewart, Associate professor, Department of Social Policy, London School of Economics and Political ScienceLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/241802014-03-12T07:48:38Z2014-03-12T07:48:38ZExplainer: how does the UK rank on child well-being?<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/43611/original/g59ckcwt-1394555021.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Racing back up. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Lynne Cameron/PA</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>The well-being of children in the UK has seen significant improvement over the past decade or so. This is supported by evidence from the latest comparative study on child well-being published by <a href="http://www.unicef.org.uk/Latest/Publications/Report-Card-11-Child-well-being-in-rich-countries/">UNICEF</a> in 2013. </p>
<p>UNICEF’s Report Card 11 ranked the well-being of UK children 16th out of 29 developed countries overall. This result is a significant improvement compared to a <a href="http://www.unicef-irc.org/publications/pdf/rc7_eng.pdf">similar exercise</a> in 2007, which put the UK at the bottom of the league table based on data from 2000 and 2003. The Netherlands topped the latest ranking, followed by Norway and Iceland. </p>
<p><a href="http://www.emeraldinsight.com/journals.htm?articleid=1932682&show=abstract">Analysis of subjective well-being time trends</a> based on data from the Youth Questionnaire of the British Household Panel and Understanding Society Survey also shows an increase in child well-being. </p>
<h2>Evidence on child well-being</h2>
<p>The UNICEF report card, which is <a href="http://www.parliament.uk/business/committees/committees-a-z/commons-select/education-committee/news/child-well-being-one-off/">being discussed</a> by MPs on the Education Select Committee, drew on the most recent available international comparative data from 2009-2010. It looked at how well children were doing in various aspects of their lives based on some objective indicators, as well as taking into account how children rated their own life satisfaction. </p>
<p>UNICEF assessed five areas of children’s lives: material well-being, health, behaviour and risks, education, housing and environmental safety. Comparing these five areas across the 29 countries, children in the UK fared particularly well in the aspect of housing and environmental safety (ranked 10th), followed by material well-being (ranked 14th), behaviour and risks (ranked 15th), and health (ranked 16th). Education was the aspect with the worst ranking – 24th.</p>
<h2>Room for improvement</h2>
<p>All these rankings suggest that there is still a lot of room for the UK government to improve in order to bring the standard of child well-being closer to our competitive European peers. Improvement is particularly needed in the domain of education, through increasing the participation rate of 15-19 year-olds in further education, currently at 74%. The introduction of <a href="http://www.education.gov.uk/childrenandyoungpeople/youngpeople/participation/rpa">compulsory education for 16-18 year olds from 2015</a>, may go some way to improving this. The UK also needs to reduce the <a href="https://theconversation.com/small-drop-in-neets-but-who-counts-the-cost-of-the-missing-23746">rate of NEETS</a>, young people not in education, employment or training. A recent research finding suggest that failure to tackle the problem of young people NEET over the life-time could <a href="http://www.york.ac.uk/spsw/research/neet/">cost the public finance at the lowest estimate, around £12 billion</a>. </p>
<p>Specific attention must also be paid to the relatively high rate of teenage pregnancy in the UK (30 births per 1,000 girls aged 15-19) and alcohol abuse by nearly 20% of school children aged between 11 and 15. </p>
<p>Focus should be put on narrowing the poverty gap, defined as the distance between the child poverty line and the median income of those below the line. The UNICEF study showed that 23% of our materially deprived children fell into this gap. Immediate attention is needed if their life chances are not to be adversely affected. Improvement could also be made to raise the standards of housing in the UK by addressing some common housing problems reported, such as leaking roofs, damp walls, and rotten windows.</p>
<h2>Influence on later life</h2>
<p>Happiness and life satisfaction, known as subjective well-being, also increased among children. According to data from the British Household Panel and the Understanding Society survey, children in the UK experienced a rise in subjective well-being between 1994 and 2008. But there are some early indications that these improvements <a href="http://www.childrenssociety.org.uk/well-being">have stalled</a> and may have begun to reverse in the recent years. The economic recession and the austerity measures that followed could perhaps explain this.</p>
<p>There is some evidence which suggests a potential link between subjective well-being during adolescence and later success. Based on data from the British Household Panel, researchers at the University of York’s Social Policy Research Unit <a href="http://www.york.ac.uk/inst/spru/research/pdf/riskSocialExclusion.pdf">found higher self-esteem</a> during early adolescence was associated with an increase in the likelihood of educational attainment (achieving at least A-level qualification). It was also linked to participation in either further education or employment and training for both boys and girls.</p>
<p>The well-being league tables published by UNICEF clearly suggest child well-being can be improved and the British case provides a good example. The marked improvement in UK children’s well-being over the decade could be attributed to the huge policy and financial commitment of the previous Labour government in improving children’s lives and well-being. Perhaps without this, the well-being of our children would not have seen such a huge improvement and may still lag behind many of our European counterparts. </p>
<p>However, this progress is at risk of being reversed under the current climate of austerity. Poor families with children are the hardest hit. There is already <a href="http://www.cpag.org.uk/sites/default/files/CPAG-Ending-child-poverty-by-2020-progress-made-lessons-learned-0612_0.pdf">research evidence</a>] which show real incomes have fallen and absolute poverty is increasing. It is predicted that all the gains in reduced child poverty since 1999 will be swept away by 2020. Sensible policy must be in place if children’s well-being and their futures are to be preserved and protected. </p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/24180/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Antonia Keung does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The well-being of children in the UK has seen significant improvement over the past decade or so. This is supported by evidence from the latest comparative study on child well-being published by UNICEF…Antonia Keung, Researcher, Department of Social Policy & Social Work, University of YorkLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/235452014-02-25T06:00:53Z2014-02-25T06:00:53ZWe’re letting down maths and students who need a better grasp of the subject<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/42374/original/q86vc9wp-1393242056.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Not as easy as 1,2,3. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Kolett/Shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Education minister Elizabeth Truss has <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-26228234">travelled to Shanghai</a> to find out the secrets behind Chinese pupils’ mathematics success. I suspect she will find that it’s a cultural phenomenon, impossible to import to British ways of being, doing and thinking.</p>
<p>In 1982, the government of the day published a report into the teaching of mathematics in schools, <a href="http://www.educationengland.org.uk/documents/cockcroft/cockcroft1982.html">The Cockcroft Report</a>. It drew on a range of research, including an exploration by a TV team at Yorkshire Television who went out onto the streets and asked passers-by “How many 7p stamps can you buy for £1?” One of the replies was “Yer wot?” Another asked “Are you serious?” Most of those asked could not work out an acceptable answer.</p>
<p>To quote <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/feb/18/maths-more-pointless-than-latin-british-pupils-china">a recent column by the Guardian’s</a> Simon Jenkins, “It damns alike those who boast ‘I was never any good at maths’, and those who teach it so badly that millions loathe it.” And it appears not a lot has changed between 1982 and 2014.</p>
<h2>Not just for scientists</h2>
<p>Students in many subjects are arriving at university without the basic mathematical skills they need for their course. Loughborough University <a href="http://www.lboro.ac.uk/departments/mec/">Mathematics Education Centre</a> (MEC) runs two drop-in support centres to which any student in the university, any day in the week, can bring a mathematical problem or difficulty and get one-to-one help from a mathematician in the centre. </p>
<p>The students who afford themselves of this help come from mathematics, science and engineering studies, of course, but, perhaps more surprisingly from arts, humanities and social science programmes as well. </p>
<p>Students who are highly qualified (they have been accepted for an academic degree programme) and believe that they left mathematics behind after GCSE – breathing a big sigh of relief in many cases – find themselves needing number, symbolic and representational skills for use in their own subject areas. For many it is a shock.</p>
<p>These highly qualified students have been let down by a school system that has allowed them to escape with a paucity of mathematical expertise. For students who also have some kind of learning difference, such as dyslexia, dyscalculia or Asperger’s syndrome, it is a serious concern.</p>
<h2>Creativity in the classroom</h2>
<p>In his column, Jenkins wrote, “For Britain’s pupils, maths is even more pointless than Latin.” For these undergraduates it is certainly not pointless -– its lack is a severe deficiency. Jenkins continues, “Of course children need to be taught the rudiments of number, proportion and probability, as they do to read and write.” </p>
<p>He is right, but what a way of putting it. Better to say children need to know and understand and be able to use and apply number, proportion and probability as well as algebraic and spatial reasoning. I would add that all children have the right to enjoy learning number, proportion and probability, while they develop understanding of these concepts, and that the teaching should be skillful, knowledgeable and creative. </p>
<p>The words “need to be taught”, assume that such teaching is straightforward and unproblematic. It is not.</p>
<p>For teaching to be of the quality that pupils deserve, we have to fund the skillful, knowledgeable and creative education of teachers, not only prior to their work with pupils, but during their entire teaching career. </p>
<p>Loughborough is currently extending its mathematical work to offer a Postgraduate Certificate of Education in mathematics. This is at the same time <a href="https://theconversation.com/counting-the-costs-of-moving-teacher-training-out-of-universities-23157">as our government is running down many such programmes</a>, expecting that schools will take on this provision. </p>
<p>But schools in general are not qualified to teach teachers, they do not have the time, expertise or funding. A consequence of such moves is that over-stretched and underfunded schools will be blamed for yet more of the deficiencies of the British educational system.</p>
<p>Jenkins writes: “Schools should turn their attention to creativity and social and emotional capacities”. I agree. These aspects of education are just as important in mathematics as in any other subject area. But his argument that maths “is easy to test, and thus to measure, unlike vague, slippery humanities” is just plain wrong. </p>
<p>One of the problems that schools face in teaching mathematics effectively is that it is tested in a system that reduces it to what can be tallied and measured. It is such reductionism that turns pupils into rote handle-turners and teachers into “mind-trainers”. GH Hardy (quoted by Jenkins) is <a href="http://www.math.ualberta.ca/mss/misc/A%20Mathematician's%20Apology.pdf">famous for the words</a>: “A mathematician, like a painter or a poet, is a master of pattern”. In our educational system we need more of the likenesses to painters and poets to produce students confident in mathematics.</p>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/42373/original/5svnp5jp-1393241507.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/42373/original/5svnp5jp-1393241507.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/42373/original/5svnp5jp-1393241507.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/42373/original/5svnp5jp-1393241507.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/42373/original/5svnp5jp-1393241507.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/42373/original/5svnp5jp-1393241507.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/42373/original/5svnp5jp-1393241507.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">France is going faster.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/kouks/889330876/sizes/o/"> KouK's</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/">CC BY-NC-ND</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>As an addendum, the next generation of high speed trains in France will travel at more 300 miles per hour. The French network is being expanded into the rest of mainland Europe. Thousands of engineers – mechanical, civil, electrical, materials, computer – will be involved in the design, development and production. There are massive technological challenges they are trying to overcome. All these engineers need much more than a very rudimentary knowledge of number, proportion and probability. </p>
<p>At Loughborough, we are highly skilled in the mathematics education of engineers. Elizabeth Truss and her colleagues could learn more about British culture and its educational mores related to mathematics by coming to talk to us, rather than taking a trip to China.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/23545/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Barbara Jaworski does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Education minister Elizabeth Truss has travelled to Shanghai to find out the secrets behind Chinese pupils’ mathematics success. I suspect she will find that it’s a cultural phenomenon, impossible to import…Barbara Jaworski, Head of Department, Mathematics Education Centre, Loughborough UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.