The US Department of Education‘s National Center for Education Statistics (NCES), partly inspired by French Ministry of Education practices, has been producing a regular report titled Comparative Indicators of Education in the United States and Other G-8 Countries. This year’s title, released a couple of weeks ago, is Comparative Indicators of Education in the United States and Other G-8 Countries: 2006. The 92 pp. report:
[D]escribes how the education system in the United States compares with education systems in the other G-8 countries–Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the Russian Federation, and the United Kingdom. Twenty indicators are organized in five sections: (1) population and school enrollment; (2) academic performance; (3) context for learning; (4) expenditure for education; and (5) education returns: educational attainment and income.
International comparison is, of course, very helpful when generating informed comparative insights on national education systems. It is also required to magnify the legitimacy of recommended policy changes.
GlobalHigherEd 