It is so much easier to educate students for our past, than for their future. As parents, we feel anxious when our children learn things we do not understand, or when they no longer study things that were so important for us. Teachers are more comfortable to teach how they were taught, than how they were taught to teach. Furthermore, politicians can lose an election over education issues, but can rarely win one, because it takes so much more than an election cycle to translate good intentions into better results. But improving education is not simply a question of putting more money into it; big budgets do not always translate into quality education.

The report is divided into three parts:

This report analyses education policies related to school improvement, evaluation and assessment, governance and funding. Itanalyses 24 education policy priorities and over 460 education policy developments (with evidence of progress or impact for over 200 of them) in 43 education systems, from 2008 to 2019. It looks into “what is being done”, as well as “why and how it works” to help education systems gain better understanding of how policies can have greater opportunities of success in their specific contexts.

Better decisions on education policy can help prepare future generations for the way the world is changing and the challenges facing societies today. This chapter begins by examining some of the global trends affecting education systems, exploring the opportunities and challenges that these trends bring and identifying overarching themes emerging from the analysis of the subsequent chapters of this report. It then provides an overview of the key policy priorities and trends identified later in this report across OECD countries from 2008-19 within the areas of school improvement, evaluation and assessment, governance and funding. It also introduces readers to the main policy responses to the common challenges seen in those policy areas during the same period. As such, it prepares the ground for the more detailed analysis of policy priorities, responses and impact found in the body of this report.

This chapter identifies developments in policy priorities related to school improvement between 2008 and 2019, both from the perspective of education systems across participating education systems in OECD member countries and non-member economies, and previous OECD country-based work. Such policy priorities include improving learning conditions to support all students; supporting and improving the competencies of school support staff; attracting and retaining teachers; improving teacher qualifications, skills and training; as well as improving teachers’ working conditions, among others. Taking a comparative approach, this chapter also analyses policy trends identified for school improvement between 2008 and 2019, providing evidence of progress or impact for a selection of policies

This chapter identifies developments in policy priorities related to education evaluation and assessment between 2008 and 2019, both from the perspective of participating education systems in OECD member countries and non-member economies, and previous OECD country-based work. Such policy priorities, often shared by different education systems, include enhancing the quality and reliability of student assessments; developing a coherent evaluation and assessment framework; and addressing underbalanced or underdevelopment of system evaluation components, among others. Taking a comparative approach, this chapter also analyses policy trends identified for evaluation and assessment between 2008 and 2019, providing evidence of progress or impact for a selection of policies.

This chapter identifies developments in policy priorities related to education governance between 2008 and 2019, both from the perspective of participating education systems in OECD member countries and non-member economies, and previous OECD country-based work. Such policy priorities, often shared by different education systems, include tackling unclear or unbalanced division of responsibility between national and local authorities and school; defining national education priorities and goals; putting in place quality assurance mechanisms; and engaging stakeholders in decision-making processes, among others.Taking a comparative approach, this chapter also analyses policy trends identified for education governance between 2008 and 2019, providing evidence of progress or impact for a selection of policies.

This chapter identifies developments in policy priorities related to education funding between 2008 and 2019, both from the perspective of participating education systems in OECD member countries and non-member economies, and previous OECD country-based work. Such policy priorities, often shared by different education systems, include: increasing or maintaining educational expenditure; improving efficiency in the use of resources; refining criteria and mechanisms used to allocate funding; and revising funding sources. Taking a comparative approach, this chapter also analyses policy trends identified for education governance between 2008 and 2019, providing evidence of progress or impact for a selection of policies.

This chapter presents recent research that has shaped an analytical framework on effective education policy implementation. Following an introduction presenting this framework, it presents two case studies of education systems to which the OECD has provided tailored support: Norway and the United Kingdom (Wales).

This chapter was prepared by the Trade Union Advisory Committee to the OECD. It presents teacher unions’ views on collaboration between themselves and governments. Drawing on three main sources of evidence, it aims to provide readers with an update of how governments and unions are collaborating in different areas of education improvement, drawing on the precedent of the 2015 report, Education Policy Outlook 2015: Making Reforms Happen. It also aims to help readers identify examples of positive collaboration processes in education policy between governments and unions. This chapter discusses, among other things, that even though pay and conditions can be a contested area, there is more perceived progress among survey respondents in their collaboration with governments in the area of teachers’ pay and conditions, and less perceived progress on teacher policies. Given the centrality of teacher policy to the profession, the chapter calls for greater coherence in these areas of policy. As part of its analysis, this chapter discusses achievements and possible new milestones of collaboration between governments and unions via the example of the International Summits of the Teaching Profession.