Professional Learning in Top Performing Systems, part 2

The National Center on Education and the Economy’s (NCEE) Center on International Education Benchmarking has released two reports on professional learning environments in top performing systems: Beyond PD: Teacher Professional Learning in High-Performing Systems and Developing Shanghai’s Teachers. To explore and share the findings of these reports, the NCEE held a conference last week featuring presentations and panel conversations with the leading voices…

Professional Learning in Top Performing Systems, part I

The National Center on Education and the Economy’s (NCEE) Center on International Education Benchmarking has released two reports on professional learning environments in top performing systems: Beyond PD: Teacher Professional Learning in High-Performing Systems and Developing Shanghai’s Teachers. To explore and share the findings of these reports, the NCEE held a conference last week featuring presentations and panel…

Educating a new population of refugees in Europe

Originally published by International Ed News. Our review of education news this week focuses on European countries adapting to a surging refugee population, mostly from Syria. As The Guardian reported, Germany expects the number of refugees entering the country to surpass the million mark. About 196,000 children will enter the German school system this year,…

Learning from successful education reforms in Ontario: Part II

In 2003, the Ontario government began to focus on issues of educational improvement. The government instituted a series of reforms that have proven incredibly successful, with elementary achievement results rising from 54% in 2003 to 72% in 2014, and high school graduation rates rising from 68% to 84% in the same amount of time. This…

Learning from successful education reform in Ontario

This post was originally published on International Ed News. In 2003, the Ontario government began to focus on issues of educational improvement. The government instituted a series of reforms that have proven incredibly successful, with elementary achievement results rising from 54% in 2003 to 72% of elementary students performing at or above the provincial standard…

Curriculum and assessment in African countries

This post was originally published on International Ed News This week, we conducted a scan of education news published in the past month from countries in Africa. These articles highlight efforts to increase access and quality of education through the implementation of national curricula and assessments and through initiatives focused on teacher recruitment, salaries, and…

The uncertain future of school funding in Australia

In order to keep up with the education news in Australia, I check in periodically with Glenn Savage, Researcher and Lecturer in Education Policy, Melbourne Graduate School of Education at University of Melbourne. “The past few weeks have seen some wild twists and turns in the politics of Australian school funding,” Savage stated in a…

#Vietnam: Can one assessment meet the needs of all stakeholders?

Vietnamese students surprised the world recently when it was revealed that they outperformed many other advanced countries on the PISA exam. According to a recent BBC article, “the country’s 15-year-olds scored higher in reading, maths and science than many developed countries, including the United States and the United Kingdom.” News of this achievement has received…