Documents educational policy 253 results

"We investigate the effects of the specialist schools policy, introduced in 1994 in England, on test scores and truancy for pupils during compulsory schooling. We also assess the effects on labour market status and post-secondary test score performance. We use matching models and data from the Youth Cohort Surveys for pupils who left school in either 2002 or 2004. We find that the policy did raise test scores, as well as increase the probability of employment. The evidence on post-secondary test scores is mixed insofar as the policy increased the number of A levels studied but reduced average points scores."

"In this paper, we address two empirical puzzles: Why are cross-country differences in the division of labour between public and private education funding so large and why are they politically sustainable in the long term? We argue that electoral institutions play a crucial role in shaping politico-economic distributive coalitions that affected the original division of labour in education financing. In proportional representation systems, the lower and middle classes formed a coalition supporting the establishment of a system with a large share of public funding. In majoritarian systems, in contrast, the middle class voters aligned with the upper income class and supported private education spending instead. Once established, institutional arrangements create feedback effects on the micro-level of attitudes, reinforcing political support even among upper middle classes in public systems. These hypotheses are tested empirically both on the micro level of preferences as well as on the macro level with aggregate data and survey data from the ISSP for 20 Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development countries."

"The significant upsurge in economics of education research that has occurred over the last 10 to 15 years is discussed, together with reasons as to why. Education impacting more on economic outcomes, methodological innovations, access to rich new data sources and an increased demand for evidence based education policy are highlighted. The paper concludes that because these are the factors that have driven the increased volume of research, the increased interest is not a research fad, nor a transitory blip, but an area producing work often of high relevance to education policy and seems likely to be sustained for some time to come."

"The expansion of higher education throughout the OECD—and beyond—is both necessary and desirable. But it is costly, and faces competing imperatives for public spending. Higher education finance is therefore salient to an extent that is not yet fully appreciated in all countries, and is also immensely sensitive politically. This paper sets out the core lessons for financing higher education deriving from economic theory and puts them alongside lessons from country experience. The UK reforms announced in 2004 are assessed against the backdrop of those two elements. A concluding section briefly maps out unfinished business."