Despite its non-elitist goals, there is growing concern over the potentially elitist nature of content and language integrated learning (CLIL) programmes in English. Previous European studies have reported more advantaged pupils' profiles in these programmes compared to regular programmes. It is unclear from the literature however which pupils…

Prepared for a Centre for Educational Research and Innovation (CERI) Strategic Education Governance Learning Seminar, this working paper analyses the functioning of accountability mechanisms in the Flemish school system from a complexity perspective, particularly accountability of equity funding in primary and secondary education. The paper shows…

The United States is widely characterized as having liberal (limited state) ideology and institutions, while Belgium is relatively statist. Yet the United States relies primarily on local public monopolies to provide elementary and secondary education, while Belgium provides schooling through robust education free markets including and in some…

Prepared for a Strategic Education Governance learning seminar, this working paper analyses the ways in which the Dutch government tried to reach overarching goals in education, in a system characterised by a high degree of distributed autonomy of education institutions and the participation of multiple actors, and consequently a government highly…

This literature review on school choice analyses the impact of choice schemes on students and on school systems focusing on equity. Reviewing the evidence can be difficult, as the literature is often fragmented and inconclusive, and the political importance of this research often results in high-profile attention given to individual studies rather…

Many arguments in favour of school voucher programs are based upon libertarian free agency principles. Viewed at the organizational level, allowing persons to exercise choice in education would seem to offer incentives for all educational organizations within that framework to improve overall product quality and thus more effectively obtain the…

This research provides policy-makers, researchers, and educators at all levels with a glimpse of the contextual influence on effective school improvement (ESI) in 8 European countries. What are the factors at the contextual level, particularly at the national level, which influence ESI? Are there any similarities or differences between the…