Equity and Quality in Education: Supporting Disadvantaged Students
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This document discusses supporting disadvantaged students and schools through equitable education policies. It finds that investing in equity pays off by limiting education failure and its social costs. High-performing education systems combine quality with equity. The relationship between socioeconomic background and performance varies across countries and locations within countries. Strategies to promote equity include early childhood education, reducing grade repetition, limiting school choice stratification, funding schools equitably based on student needs, and supporting low-performing disadvantaged schools and teachers.
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Equity and Quality in Education: Supporting Disadvantaged Students
- 1. Equity and Quality in Education: Supporting Disadvantaged Students and Schools Investing in equity in education pays off Hong Kong, May 10th 2012
- 2. High education performers combine quality with equity Strength of the relationship between performance and socio-economic background above the OECD average impact Strength of the relationship between performance and socio-economic background not statistically significantly different from the OECD average impact Mean Strength of the relationship between performance and socio-economic background below the OECD average impact score 560 Above-average reading performance Above-average reading performance Above-average impact of socio-economic Shanghai-China Below-average impact of socio-economic 540 background Korea background Switzerland Finland Singapore Sweden Canada Hong Kong-China 520 New Zealand Australia Japan Denmark Netherlands Norway Belgium Poland Estonia United States Ireland 500 Hungary Iceland Germany France Chinese Taipei Portugal Greece United Kingdom OECD average Italy 480 Slovenia Macao-China Slovak Republic Spain Czech Republic Luxembourg Israel Turkey Austria 460 Russian Federation Chile 440 Mexico 420 Below-average reading performance Below-average reading performance average OECD Above-average impact of socio-economic Brazil Below-average impact of socio-economic background background 400 30 25 20 15 10 5 0 Percentage of variance in performance explained by the PISA index of economic, social and cultural status (r-squared x 100)
- 3. % 0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 Shanghai-China Hong Kong-China Korea Macao-China Singapore Finland Japan Turkey Canada Portugal Chinese Taipei Poland New Zealand Spain Liechtenstein Estonia Netherlands among disadvantaged students More than 30% resilient students Italy Switzerland Latvia Australia OECD average France Belgium Ireland Iceland Mexico United States Greece Thailand Croatia Tunisia Norway social background) Hungary Sweden Slovenia Indonesia Denmark Chile United Kingdom Israel disadvantaged students Colombia Resilient student: Comes from the bottom quarter of the Germany top quarter of students internationally (after accounting for Brazil socially most disadvantaged students but performs among the Czech Republic Slovak Republic Luxembourg Between 15%-30% of resilient students among Lithuania Austria Russian Federation among disadvantaged students Trinidad and Tobago Percentage of resilient students Uruguay Serbia Jordan Albania Argentina Dubai (UAE) Romania Bulgaria Panama Montenegro Kazakhstan Peru students among Azerbaijan Less than 15% resilient Qatar disadvantaged students Kyrgyzstan
- 4. 400 550 600 350 500 450 300 Shanghai-China Korea Hong Kong-China Singapore Canada New Zealand Japan Australia Belgium Poland United States Germany Ireland Chinese Taipei Denmark United Kingdom Hungary Student performance in large cities Portugal Student performance (PISA reading) Italy Slovenia Greece Spain Czech Republic Israel Austria Turkey Dubai (UAE) Russian Federation Chile Mexico Colombia Brazil The world looks very different… Indonesia Argentina Student performance in large cities after accounting for social background Kazakhstan Qatar
- 5. 400 550 600 350 500 450 300 Shanghai-China Canada Korea Japan Poland Hong Kong-China Australia Israel Singapore Portugal Czech Republic Spain New Zealand Hungary Chinese Taipei Germany Russian Federation Student performance in large cities Italy Greece Ireland Dubai (UAE) Denmark United Kingdom United States Belgium Slovenia Turkey Mexico Austria Qatar Chile Colombia The world looks very different… Argentina Kazakhstan Student performance in large cities after accounting for social background Brazil Indonesia
- 6. Reducing school failure pays off It limits capacity of Education economies to grow and failure innovate imposes high costs to individuals Damages social cohesion and and to mobility and is expensive: Higher public health expenditures society Higher welfare, increased criminality .. and the current crisis has brought equity to the forefront
- 7. Increased likelihood of postsecondary participation at age 19/21 associated with PISA reading proficiency at age 15 (Canada) After accounting for school engagement, gender, mother tongue, place of residence, parental, education and family income (reference group PISA Level 1) Odds ratio higher 20 education entry 18 16 14 12 10 8 6 4 2 Age 19 0 Age 21 Level 5 Age 21 Level 4 Level 3 Level 2
- 8. bn$ 4000 6000 8000 2000 10000 12000 14000 0 United States Mexico Turkey Germany Italy Japan France Spain United Kingdom Poland Canada Greece Korea Australia Portugal Belgium Netherlands Norway Sweden Austria Czech Republic Switzerland Hungary Denmark scored a minimum of 400 PISA points Ireland Slovak Republic New Zealand Potential increase in economic output if everyone Luxembourg Finland Iceland
- 9. Policies to achieve more equitable education systems and reduce dropout Invest early and through upper secondary Eliminate Support low system level performing obstacles to disadvantaged equity schools
- 10. R R E Policies and practices Policies System School Equity Learning climate Discipline Teacher behaviour Parental pressure Teacher-student relationships Policy Dealing with heterogeneity Grade repetition influences Prevalence of tracking measured Expulsions Ability grouping through PISA (all subjects) Standards /accountability Nat. examination Standardised tests Posting results Governing schools School autonomy (content) Choice and competition Private schools Managing resources Prioritising pay Student-staff ratios Length of pre-school
- 11. Manage school choice Choice Opt for higher quality schools, and might foster efficiency, spur innovation and raise quality overall. Choice can result in a greater sorting and segregation of students by ability, income and ethnic background. Equity
- 12. Percentage of students 100 0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 Turkey Russian Federation Iceland New Zealand Slovenia Poland United Kingdom United States Brazil Greece Norway Czech Republic Bottom quarter Estonia Mexico Germany Finland OECD average Canada Second quarter Switzerland Italy Sweden Austria Shanghai-China Third quarter Slovak Republic Hungary Portugal Israel Denmark Top quarter Spain Luxembourg Japan Percentage of students attending privately managed schools by ESCS Australia Korea Chile Ireland Netherlands Hong Kong-China Stratification between public and private schools Macao-China
- 13. Policy options to manage school choice Introduce controlled choice programmes balancing choice with equity • In Cambridge (United States) a choice programme ranks the preferred schools and reviews and allocates students centrally, taking diversity criteria into consideration. Ensure that disadvantaged students are attractive to high quality schools • Providing financial incentives to schools to enrol low performing and disadvantaged students. • Limiting the selection mechanisms that schools can employ (criteria for admission, time of registration, additional fees). • Providing vouchers or tax credits to make high quality schools affordable. Level the playing field for disadvantaged students • Raising awareness, improving disadvantaged families’ access to information about schools and supporting them to make better-informed choices. • Milwaukee (United States) set up an extensive programme to inform parents and help them in the choice process. As a result of all these actions, 95% of families filled in their school choice forms.
- 14. Make funding more responsive to needs Provide sufficient resources to improve the quality Take into of early childhood consideration that education and the instructional care and promote costs of access, in disadvantaged particular for students may be disadvantaged higher families In Ontario (Canada), low- In the United States, only 45% income families, recent of 3-to-5-year-olds from low- immigration, students with income families are enrolled in low educated parents, and pre-school single parent groups are programmes, compared to taken into account in the almost 75% from high-income distribution of funds to families school boards
- 15. Score point difference 20 40 60 80 100 120 0 Israel Singapore Belgium Macao-China Italy France Hong Kong-China Switzerland Denmark United Kingdom Greece Shanghai-China Germany Spain New Zealand socio-economic factors Australia Slovak Republic Observed performance advantage Sweden Brazil Hungary Performance advantage after accounting for Luxembourg Mexico Canada OECD average Chinese Taipei Poland Iceland Czech Republic Japan Austria Norway Russian Federation Portugal Chile United States Turkey Netherlands pre-primary school for more than one year and those who did not Ireland Slovenia Performance difference in PISA 2009 between students who had attended Finland Korea Estonia
- 16. Percentage of students 0 10 20 30 50 70 80 40 60 Korea Japan Shanghai-China Singapore Russian Federation Greece Estonia Chinese Taipei Israel Mexico Hong Kong-China Brazil Macao-China Turkey Italy Poland Portugal Spain Four hours a week or more France Norway OECD average Slovenia Czech Republic Hungary United Kingdom Chile by hours per week Denmark Luxembourg Slovak Republic Germany Less than 4 hours a week Belgium Switzerland Iceland United States Ireland Australia Canada Netherlands Austria New Zealand Percentage of students attending after-school lessons, Sweden Finland
- 17. Upper secondary pathways: promote more work-oriented skills More skilled and better labour-market outcomes Provide a mix of academic and technical skills for those struggling with school and more academic learning. Design high quality and relevant VET programmes
- 18. Upper secondary pathways: promote more work-oriented skills Academic and vocational tracks Guidance and should be counselling services need to equivalent engage more to ensure fully with the transferability and avoid dead ends VET should world of provide high level work generic skills in addition to professional ones
- 19. The relationship between school average socio-economic background and school resources Belgium Italy Ireland Spain Estonia Iceland Portugal Japan Netherlands Korea Russian Federation Germany Luxembourg Denmark Greece Socio-economically Norway Macao-China advantaged schools OECD average (benchmark) Sweden have more favourable student- New Zealand teacher ratios Canada Finland Czech Republic Switzerland Mexico Hong Kong-China Hungary Poland Slovak Republic Chile Austria Chinese Taipei Socio-economically Australia United Kingdom disadvantaged schools Shanghai-China Singapore have more favourable United States Brazil student-teacher ratios Israel Slovenia Turkey -0.50 -0.30 -0.10 0.10 0.30 0.50 0.70
- 20. Support low performing disadvantaged schools • Initial school leadership training; attractive working School leadership conditions to attract and retain competent leaders • Restructure schools when needed • School plans to prioritise school climate and positive relationships, discipline alone not effective School climate • Monitoring and data for intervention • Alternative organisation of distribution of learning time • Provide specialised initial teacher education Quality teaching • Ensure incentives and working conditions, time for planning, working together, mentoring • Support culture of high expectations • Provide teacher support on how to tailor Classroom strategies instruction, assessment and curricular practices to needs of disadvantaged schools and students Parental and • Need to prioritise with select communication strategies community • Provide guidelines to parents on their role engagement • Foster closer links with communities and mentors
- 21. Examples of systemic support to schools Québec “Act Ontario Focused Shanghai-China differently”: Intervention Program Converting “weaker • Database of effective (OFIP, 2006/07-): schools” into stronger practices for intervention • Targeted support to ones: to develop schools’ primary schools with • systematically upgrading expertise (189 schools in improvement difficulties. the infrastructure 2007/08). • Funds for PD, additional • more resources • School boards, through learning disadvantaged resources and resources, literacy and schools, including high- coordination, support the numeracy coaches, and school leadership team. teacher release time for performing teachers collaboration and training. • pairing high and low • Results 2002/03- 2010/11: performing districts and schools with fewer 1/3 low schools achievers went from 19% • commissioning “strong” to 6%. public schools to take over “weak” ones PRT CAN
- 22. Disadvantaged schools difficulties in attracting and retaining teachers • Teachers in schools • Rural schools with • School leaders report with higher higher proportions of that it is difficult to proportions of low- aboriginal students recruit and retain SES or minority are seen as less teachers to work in students have higher desirable, making it schools with children propensity to leave. harder to recruit and born abroad. retain teachers. United Australia Japan States FN • Teachers in schools • Schools with higher • Better qualified with higher levels of minority teachers are less proportions of low students harder to likely to teach in socio-economic staff and teachers schools containing status students have are significantly more minority and higher propensity to likely to leave. disadvantaged leave. children. New Norway France Zealand
- 23. Attract, support and retain high quality teachers Align teacher education Adequate High Mentoring financial and career quality for novice teachers teachers incentives SIN Supportive working conditions
- 24. For more information For further information at OECD Education: POL Andreas Schleicher, Deputy Director: Andreas.schleicher@oecd.org Beatriz Pont, beatriz.pont@oecd.org
Notes de l'éditeur
- Within the Asia-Pacific region, for example, Korea, Shanghai-China and Japan are examples of Asian education systems that have climbed the ladder to the top in both quality and equity indicators. In North America, Canada is among such countries as well. The United States is above the OECD mean in reading performance but below the mean with regard to equity.
- East-Asian countries are at the top in terms of the percentage of resilient students among disadvantaged students.
- All OECD member countries face the problem of school failure and dropout, its most visible manifestation: students who exit the school system before finishing secondary school or with lower quality qualifications, resulting in high costs not only for them, but for the society and the country as a whole. This phenomenon can be caused by a multitude of different factors: student-based, such as learning difficulties, heterogeneous educational needs; socio-cultural, related to students’ family and socio-economic background and institutional: school-based, such as inadequate resources, incoherent curriculum, inappropriate teaching methods. The social and economic costs of school failure are extremely high, and take many different forms: increased criminality, lower rates of economic growth, lower intergenerational effects on children and parents, higher public health spending, higher unemployment, lower social cohesion and even lower participation in civic and political activities. Early school leavers have lower income jobs than secondary school graduates and pay fewer taxes. Since only half of high school dropouts have regular jobs (compared to 74 % for graduates), they are also more likely to rely on public assistance – in the case of unemployment, and on public health systems, and this require countries to make greater public expenditures.Reducing early school leaving is costly as it involves measures throughout the basic education system as well as areas outside education, such as social services and health. However, investments in strategies to prevent drop out represent money well spent as the benefits largely outweigh the long term costs for societies and individuals (Lyche, 2010).Accurate information systems are fundamental to respond to students drop out. When designing a strategy to reduce dropouts, a country needs systematic diagnoses proving relevant information: which students are dropping out? At which stage? Where? This is fundamental, as what cannot be seen, cannot be fixed. It requires information on student and school outcomes and background information. Early investments pay off. It is much better to focus on preventive measures, by investing in a) early childhood education and care (ECEC) and b) getting all students to secure basic skills in primary education than to invest in recuperative measures in upper secondary education and beyond as these are not only more costly but require much more individualised attention and coordinated responses from different social services. System-wide measures, such as making vocational education and training both more relevant and attractive, raise the quality of all students at the same time as it reduces the probability of dropping out. Together with the implementation of system-wide measures, student-centred measures that aim to provide individual support to at-risk students should lead to a reduction of dropouts.
- Let me briefly summarise the influences that we have measured in PISA.
- Grade repetition is practised in many OECD countries: 13% of 15-year-olds are reported to have repeated at least one year either in primary or secondary school. This proportion is particularly high in the partner economy Macao-China, where it affects over 40% of students. School systems that extensively use repetition are associated with low levels of educational performance, while strategies to support each individual prevail in countries with higher performance levels.
- Policy options to eliminate grade repetitionPreventive measures: ensure continuous assessment and support strategies. The most successful alternatives are focused on prevention to make repetition unnecessary, providing the needed support to those falling behind before the end of the school year and putting them back on track on time, before the learning gaps widen, as done in Finland and Japan (see below). Continuous assessment of students’ needs can facilitate the design and implementation of tailored support programmes as early as possible. These include improving teachers’ skills to teach in classrooms with more diverse attainment levels, extending learning opportunities as well as diversifying the strategies to support learning, and strengthening students’ meta-cognitive skills.Promotion with support. Repetition rates can be reduced by restricting the criteria that determine whether a student is to be held back and by establishing further opportunities to move forward. However, promotion should be combined with a structured and engaging plan of support to correct educational deficits and meet the educational standards. Also, repetition can be limited to the subjects or modules failed instead of year-repetition. For example, in Canada, New Zealand and the United States, retention is usually restricted to the specific classes that the student failed. A student can be, for instance, promoted in a math class but retained in a language class.Reversing the culture of grade repetition in schools. Educational authorities should raise teacher awareness of its consequences, offer support and resources, and also include teachers and school leaders in searching for alternatives to help students with learning difficulties. In addition, financial incentives and targets for reduction of repetition can be introduced into accountability systems. For example, in France repetition levels have substantially decreased since specific targets to hold schools accountable for grade repetition rates were established in parallel with individualised support and catch up opportunities.Country practices:In Finland, retention was widely used before a policy of automatic promotion combined with early intervention was implemented in the 1970s. Today, fewer than 2% of students who leave the compulsory nine-grade comprehensive school at the age of 16 have repeated a grade. Every child has the right to individualised support provided by trained professionals as part of normal schooling. Also, in upper secondary school a student may repeat only those courses that were not passed satisfactorily rather than an entire grade.In Japan students are not held back if they are having difficulty. Teachers are responsible for ensuring that all students keep up with the curriculum and they meet frequently with one another to discuss students who are having difficulty in order to provide them with more individual attention within the regular school day. Also, students who are not doing well in certain subjects usually receive extra instruction after school.
- School choice advocates often argue that the introduction of market mechanisms in education allows equal access to high quality schooling for all. Expanding school choice opportunities, it is said, would allow all students – including disadvantaged ones and the ones attending low performing schools – to opt for higher quality schools, as the introduction of choice in education can foster efficiency, spur innovation and raise quality overall.School choice schemes that do not take into account equity considerations can result in a greater sorting and segregation of students by ability, income and ethnic background. Evidence shows that oversubscribed schools tend to select students who are easier to teach and more able to learn. Also,more disadvantaged parents tend to exercise choice less. They may face more difficulties gauging the information required to make informed school choice decisions.
- In some countries, as Korea or Finland, there are little or no differences by socio-economic background in attendance to private schools. However, in other countries, such as Australia, very different patterns are observed between advantaged and disadvantaged students, contributing to further segregation.
- Some countries have opted for a targeted approach by promoting access for disadvantaged groups. This is the case in the United States, where only 45% of 3-to-5-year-olds from low-income families are enrolled in pre-school programmes, compared to almost 75% from high-income families (Fuller et al., 2002). Also, funding support to schools that cater to low-income students is provided in Singapore. There are risks however: targeted programmes segregate, may stigmatise and may fail to provide ECEC for many of the children eligible or for a large group of more moderate income families that are also unable to afford the private costs (OECD, 2006). Among the different existing funding strategies for schools, formula funding using a needs-based group of variables is most conducive to equity. In this approach students are typically the unit of measure and money follows the student if she/he moves to another school. This funding strategy allows an additional component to account for students’ supplementary educational needs relating to socio-economic disadvantage and learning difficulties (Ross and Levacic, 1999). The additional resources are meant to provide further help for pupils such as additional teaching time, specialised learning material and in some cases smaller classes. In Ontario (Canada), for example, low-income families, recent immigration, students with low educated parents, and single parent groups are taken into account in the distribution of funds to school boards.
- Figure II.5.9
- In many Asian countries the number of students who attend after-school lessons is very high, and these are often private. In Korea, private tutoring, also known as shadow education, is a common practise and the government offers additional financial support to schools and parents.Box 2.4. Making after-school lessons available to all students in KoreaIn Korea, a government survey found that 77% of students in primary and secondary schools have private tutors, which is known as hagwon, for an average of about 10 hours a week. Private tutoring reinforces inequities as it represents a considerable financial burden for low income families. Its costs are estimated to represent 8% of the monthly average income, which adds up to the already high level of private spending in education. In Korea, additional resources enable schools to offer extra instruction after school and financial support is provided to poor parents to make private tutors more affordable.
- The attractiveness and relevance of the pathways offered to students in upper secondary are essential to motivate them to stay in education. In the United States, a recent study called Pathways to Prosperity (Symonds, Schwartz and Ferguson, 2011) highlights the important value of VET for the development of well balanced young people, who acquire a combination of work oriented and academic skills to support their transition from school to work.Although almost half of the students in upper secondary education are enrolled in vocational education and training (VET) programmes (OECD, 2011d), this average masks significant differences between countries. A group of countries has more than two thirds of their students enrolled in VET (among them: Austria, Belgium, Czech Republic, Finland, the Netherlands and Slovak Republic), while in another group, less than one third of students are enrolled in VET (Canada, Estonia, Greece, Hungary, Japan, Korea, Mexico, United Kingdom) (Figure 2.4). In many countries upper secondary vocational programmes are school-based, while in countries such as Austria, Czech Republic and Iceland, more than 40% of vocational and technical programmes have a combination of school and work based elements; in Denmark, Germany, Hungary, Ireland and Switzerland this figure surpasses 75% (OECD, 2011d). VET programmes have tended to suffer from a poor reputation in many countries, as these seemed to be of limited relevance for the labour market and a weak option in upper secondary education (OECD, 2010g). For instance vocational tracks tend to concentrate students with lower socio-economic backgrounds, and to have higher dropout rates (OECD, 2007). Students enrolled in VET at age 15 in most OECD countries do not tend to perform as well according to PISA 2009 as those attending non-vocational tracks, after controlling for gender and a number of family characteristics (OECD, 2011d). The differences in performance are the largest in the Netherlands, Greece and Belgium although there is a group of countries, including Sweden, Luxembourg, Portugal, Switzerland and Mexico, with a positive difference in favour of students in vocational streams (OECD, 2010e). This can imply that students’ skills when they begin VET are lower, or that VET is not preparing students with basic skills in literacy, numeracy and science.
- Box 2.5. Revamping technical education in SingaporeOne of the main sources of Singapore’s competitive advantage is the ability of the government to manage supply and demand of education and skills. In 1992, Singapore reviewed its vocational education and decided to transform and reposition it so that it was not seen as a place of last resort. They created of the Institute for Technical Education (ITE), which transformed the content, quality and image of vocational education. ITE’s founders brought in leaders with a broad vision and staff committed to caring for students. They revamped the curriculum and workforce certification system, developed courses in new industries and consolidated existing technical campuses into three mega campuses with a sophisticated technology base and close ties to international corporations. To combat the societal prejudice against less academically-inclined students, ITE promoted and rebranded its kind of “hands-on, minds-on, hearts-on” applied learning. The result has been a doubling of enrolment since 1995, and ITE students now constitute about 25% of the post-secondary cohort. More than 82% of students in 2009 completed their training and are placed in jobs. Pay levels for ITE graduates have also been strong, and the ITE track is now seen by students as a relevant pathway. Part of the reason for the success of the technical education at ITE is that students get a strong academic foundation early in their academic careers so they can acquire the more sophisticated skills required by leading edge employers.Equivalence between pathways would ensure that students can choose between a range of choices in upper secondary and that VET is not perceived as a second best option. As an example, between the mid-1980s and mid-1990s, Nordic countries implemented a number of educational reforms focusing largely on expanding vocational education options and making them equivalent to more academic options, as a means of encouraging students to remain in school (Bäckmanet al., 2011).Greater equivalence also means ensuring transferability between programmes to avoid dead ends and pathways which lock individuals out of further learning options. As more young people continue their studies or change their target occupations, it is necessary to give VET students the opportunity to enter some form of relevant post secondary education, including in another field of study or work. As an example, 17% of Dutch upper secondary vocational students continue into tertiary education (Akkerman et al, 2011). To ensure equivalence with more academic programmes, VET students need to develop similar generic skills, as those usually delivered in more academic upper secondary programmes. Literacy, numeracy and scientific knowledge and skills are as important as the professional ones that VET graduates acquire for their life-course employment, learning and socialisation (OECD, 2010g). For this purpose, students should be systematically assessed upon entering VET to ensure a basic minimum and provide targeted support if needed. VET programmes should prepare their students with high level generic skills (Symonds, Schwartz and Ferguson, 2011).Existing guidance tends to be more focused on academic choices than on occupational ones and this may not be useful for students who are considering vocational education and training. Guidance and counselling services need to engage more fully with the world of work in order to ensure their advice is accurate and appropriate, and specifically to give students the opportunity to try out future professions. Practical options include visits and meetings with representatives of local industries, community agencies, work simulation and work placements (OECD, 2004).
- Box 3.4. Systemic support for sustainable improvement In Québec, the Ministry of Education’s intervention “Agirautrement (Act differently)”aims at fostering large scale transformation in the province’s most disadvantaged schools, to improve both student success and equity. The ministry gives these schools (189 in the year 2007-2008) access to a large database of effective practices for intervention so they can develop their expertise. School boards, through resources and especially through coordination, support the school leadership team in the implementation of practices that are adapted to their students’ socio-economic characteristics In Ontario, the Focused Intervention Program (OFIP, since 2006/07) provides targeted support to primary schools that have “experienced particular difficulties in achieving continuous improvement”, measured through results on provincial assessments of reading, writing, and mathematics (grades 3 and 6). OFIP funds are used for professional development, additional student and professional learning resources, literacy and numeracy coaches, and teacher release time for collaboration and additional training. In 2006/07, schools qualified for OFIP support if less than 34% of students reached provincial standard in grade 3 reading. In addition, since 2009/10, resources from the OFIP programme were extended to over 1100 schools in which less than 75% of students met provincial standard in the grades 3 and 6 assessments (Schools in the Middle [SIM]). OFIP and SIM aim at pooling and enhancing professional resources within a school so that under-achievement becomes a shared issue. It is tackled, for example, by a school improvement team supported by literacy and numeracy coaches. Schools selected for participation in OFIP tend to be those serving disadvantaged communities, with a relatively high percentage of students with special education needs or an above-average range of educational challenges. From 2002/03 to 2010/11, the number of schools with fewer than 34% of students achieving at provincial standard in grade 3 reading was reduced by two thirds (from 19% to 6%), showing significant success in reducing the number of primary schools in which students fail.In spite of the considerable social and economic inequalities, Shanghai-China has managed to obtain high average scores and low variability in school performance in PISA with efforts to improve the school system by converting “weaker schools” into stronger schools. Measures included i) systematically upgrading the infrastructure of all schools to similar levels, ii) establishing a system of financial transfer payments to schools serving disadvantaged students and transferring high-performing teachers from advantaged to disadvantaged schools, either temporarily or permanently, iii) pairing high-performing districts and schools with low-performing districts and schools, where the authorities in each exchange, discuss their educational development plans with each other work together to deal with problems and share their curricula, teaching materials and good practices, iv) commissioning “strong” public schools to take over the administration of “weak” ones and sending a team of experienced teachers to lead in teaching. These arrangements not only benefit weak schools but also strong schools, for example providing the latter with more opportunities to promote their teachers.
- High absenteeism, behavioural problems and course failure (MacIver, 2009) are strong predictors of both student disengagement and school failure, and they can be used to identify students very early on (Kieffer, Marinell and Stephenson, 2011). The creation of a positive learning environment needs to be backed up by precise diagnosis, reliable information systems and accurate data to inform strategic and day-to-day decision making (Faubert, 2012). Box 3.6. The use of data for school and student improvement in the NetherlandsAn important source for research and monitoring is the Personal Identification Number (PGN), which has been issued to every child in the country over the age of 3½. Commonly referred to as the education number, it is the same as the tax and social insurance number. Schools pass on the PGN together with certain other data on pupils to other schools, as the child progresses through education. These data are increasingly used for purposes such as monitoring pupils’ school careers, school attendance or dropout. The PGN is very useful in the action plan against dropout, because it offers complete and reliable figures on rates nationally, regionally and at municipal and district levels. All schools in secondary education are expected to register absenteeism, disengagement and dropout, and a monthly report is available to municipalities and schools to allow them to give priority to those at risk. Also, these data are linked to socio-economic data (including demographics, native Dutch citizens, ethnic minorities, unemployment, people entitled to benefits, etc.) by region, city and district, which provides a wealth of information for implementing and adjusting policy. This monitoring of results enables the authorities to assess what works and what doesn’t, and therefore to disseminate good practices.
- The key to the success of some countries – such as Finland and Korea – which combine equity and high performance, resides in ensuring excellent teachers for all students (OECD, 2011c). Singapore is notable for its comprehensive approach to selecting, training, compensating and developing teachers and principals (OECD, 2011c). Also, the best teachers work with the students who are having the greatest difficulty reaching Singapore’s high standards. Similarly, in Japan, officials in the prefectural offices allocate good teachers to schools with weak faculties to make sure that all students have equally capable faculties.Align teacher education with disadvantaged schools’ needs, to ensuring that teachers receive the skills and knowledge they need for working in these schools. Provide mentoring for novice teachers working in these schools: well structured programmes may improve teacher effectiveness and increase retention in disadvantaged schools. Provide supportive working conditions to retain effective teachers in disadvantaged schools. Teachers are more likely to stay in those schools where they can work effectively and see the results of their effort. Without these, teachers may feel ineffective and may move schools or quit teaching altogether.Design adequate financial and career incentives to attract and retain high quality teachers in disadvantaged schools. Box 3.2. Selected examples of mentoring and induction programmesJapan: Induction centres provide all new teachers with in-service training; in schools, teachers regularly observe other teachers and receive feedback on their own demonstration lessons. Teachers also complete an action research project investigating a classroom lesson. New Zealand: All teachers receive 20% released time during their first two years teaching to participate in the Advice and Guidance programme, in which an experienced teacher leads a peer support group of new teachers, and novices regularly observe other teachers. Shanghai (China): All new teachers participate in workshops, mentoring, peer observation; they also, analyse lessons in groups with experienced teachers, join teaching research groups with more experienced teachers to discuss teaching techniques, and can be recognised for excellent teaching as novices through district-organised competitions. Box 3.3. Incentives for teachers in North Carolina (United States) and KoreaNorth Carolina: In the United States, North Carolina offered between 2001 and 2004 a retention bonus ($1 800 US) for certified mathematics, science and special education teachers in high-poverty and low-performing schools. Overall, the bonus programme reduced teacher turnover by 17%, a cost saving of approximately USD 36 000 for each teacher who chose not to or delayed leaving or moving schools.Korea: All teachers are held to high standards, which contribute to the country’s high levels of performance and equitable distribution of teachers. Other contributing elements are the highly respected status of teachers, job stability, high pay, and positive working conditions, including high levels of teacher collaboration (Kang and Hong, 2008). Low socio-economic status students in Korea are more likely than high socio-economic status’ students to be taught by high quality mathematics teachers. Multiple incentives are offered to candidates who work in high need schools, including additional salary, smaller class size, less instructional time, additional credit towards future promotion to administrative positions, and the ability to choose the next school where to work in.
- Targets are a powerful catalyst for improvement. However, its success depends on the capacity to align efforts towards the goals, which requires carefully setting them to ensure their effectiveness. For example, successful systems are careful to avoid an overemphasis on standardisation, narrowing the curriculum and other distortions of teaching practices.Ontario (Canada) has set targets in both basic skills and dropout, as it aims at increasing the provincial passing rate in literacy and numeracy from 55% to 75%, and at raising upper secondary graduation rates from 68% to 85% (OECD, 2011c). Targets can also be focused on specific groups. For example, halving the gap for indigenous students in reading, writing and numeracy is one of the targets of the Australian education system (Santiago et al., 2011). However, students’ assessments, including examinations, can provide a more accurate measure of learning outcomes and teaching performance. To this end, two-thirds of OECD countries have introduced student assessments at lower secondary education. Establishing clear boundaries on the extent to which the results can inform decision-making is crucial to prevent a flawed implementation and effectively align the incentives of all actors. Many education systems use value added measures, contextualize results with measures of socio-economic conditions and do not use results to provide sanctions or rewards. A controversial issue is whether school-level examination results should be published.
- The project Overcoming School Failure: Policies that Work provide assessment and assistance to countries in improving their policies and practices, so as to achieve real improvement in reducing educational failure and dropout rates. To do so, it will assess progress in education policies leading to reduced failure, using the Ten Steps to Equity in Education as a basis, analysing their implementation and impact when possible. The impact of the Ten Steps framework will be gauged when possible, and the obstacles with which countries have been confronted in school failure reduction will also be assessed.