By Marc Tucker I just finished reading a recent book from Routledge, Teacher Education Around the World, edited by Linda Darling-Hammond and Ann Lieberman.  It is a very rewarding read, full of new information and fresh, insightful analysis.  The editors asked an impressive team of re

OECD Education Working Papers. (2012), “Immigrant Status and Secondary School Performance as Determinants of Post-Secondary Participation: A Comparison of Canada and Switzerland.” Here’s a puzzle:  First- and second-generation students in Canada are both 18 percent more likely than st

Many of us think that we learn all we need to know about reading in school but a new report from the OECD provides a rare glimpse at the way many young people continue to improve their reading proficiency after graduation.  Some of this unfolds pretty much as you would expect, but som

On March 9, 2012, Vivien Stewart, Senior Advisor for Education at the Asia Society, conducted a roundtable discussion on teacher quality issues with Lee Sing Kong, Director of the National Institute of Education in Singapore and Pasi Sahlberg, Director General of the National Centre f

What guarantees a high-quality teaching force?  We have examined this question from several angles in this issue, with Marc Tucker’s reflections on the second International Summit on the Teaching Profession, our review of the World Bank SABER findings on teacher policies in top-perfor

Vivien Stewart, Senior Advisor for Education at Asia Society, a member of the Center on International Education Benchmarking Advisory Board, and author of A World-Class Education: Learning from International Models of Excellence and Innovation, spoke with Top of the Class about her la

The relationship between socio-economic status and performance is complex.  It has been tackled by education researchers over the years in an attempt to explain why some countries are more able than others to moderate the impact that socio-economic status can have on a student’s schoo