Recent research from high-income countries and dated research from middle-income countries suggest that home computers and Internet (HCI) may cause more harm than good on students' academic and psychological outcomes. We consider the Program for International Student Assessment 2018 data for 15-year-old students in five middle-income countries…

Education spending mandates are popular around the world, especially among central governments in large, decentralized nations, who find that they may be useful in influencing varied local fiscal behavior. I evaluate Indonesia's education spending mandate policy, which insists that district governments allocate at least 20 percent of their budgets…

The COVID-19 pandemic has deepened the effects of socioeconomic status (SES) and wellbeing (WB) on students' academic achievement, particularly in developing countries; thus, it becomes necessary to understand the nature of these concurrent relationships. This study aimed to explore the relationships between SES, WB and academic achievement, based…

Drawing on Kane's argument-based approach to validity and Toulmin's later work on cosmopolitanism and diversity, this paper asks whose validity arguments and evidence are being presented in International Large-Scale Assessments (ILSAs), where and when. With a case study of the OECD's PISA for Development, we demonstrate that validity arguments are…

This study explored the mathematics achievement profiles of the countries participating in TIMSS 2015 based on the TIMSS assessment framework categories. More specifically, observed and expected performances of countries in the framework categories were compared to determine the relative strengths and weaknesses of countries in the respective item…

The OECD is extending the participation of low- and middle-income nations in its Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA). To explore how PISA can be made more relevant to these contexts, a pilot study, PISA for Development (PISA-D), was launched. Translating PISA into PISA-D required the development of instruments that had relevance…

Since education is a major step toward long-term human capital development, it is assumed that facility in the use of information and communication technology (ICT), which can help complement, enrich, and transform education, should be promoted among students. However, does a higher level of ICT familiarity always help promote learning skills and…

Countries across the world have seen a growing gap in mathematics performance between low-SES children and those from wealthier backgrounds. The issue of inequality not only relates to student performance, but also to schooling--as defined by the mathematics curriculum and its distribution of the related opportunities to learn. Whether…

A sizeable literature -- spanning education, sociology and economics -- has investigated the issue of parental school preferences and school choice. A notable gap in the existing evidence base is an exploration of how such preferences differ between mothers and fathers. We present new cross-national findings on this matter, drawing on survey data…

Background/Context: Impact evaluations of schooling reforms in developing countries typically focus on tests of student achievement that are designed and implemented by researchers. Are these tests any good? What practical and principled guidance should researchers in the field follow? We aim to answer these questions. Test scores have, of course,…

The innovative-based economies such as Finland and other developed countries, offer a viable cohesive, and sustainable curriculum centralized around Project-Based Learning (PBL) and built on the Rigorous Curriculum Design (RCD). Such curriculum is developed by schools and warrants examination in developing countries such as the United Arab…

Modern international studies of educational achievement have grown in terms of participating educational systems. Accompanying this development is an increase in heterogeneity, as more and different kinds of educational systems take part. This growth has been particularly pronounced among low-performing, less economically developed systems.…

The present study aims to determine the relative efficiency of 28 countries participated in PISA 2015 and TALIS 2013 based on student performance and teacher quality, and to sort the countries according to their efficiency scores by using a super efficiency model. Moreover, this study attempts to reveal important improvements countries must make…

Unequal access to qualified teachers for children of different socioeconomic status--also known as inequitable teacher sorting--has been increasingly put forth as one potential factor contributing to the socioeconomic achievement gap. Despite this, few studies have investigated cross-national differences in teacher sorting, and none have examined…

New evidence presented in this paper shows that existing accounts of Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) in developing countries underestimate both progress and inequality because they do not take into account the large proportion of 15-16-year olds who are ineligible for the PISA sampling frame, primarily due to dropout or…