American high school graduates' readiness for higher education or employment in the global economy may depend on the state where they live. Since the 10th Amendment to the United States Constitution makes education a state function, the 50 states and the District of Columbia vary significantly in their policies and practices for (a) preschool…

In Finland, teachers' have extensive autonomy, that is freedom from control by others over their professional actions in the classroom, and it is considered a strength of Finnish education. At the same time, national assessment of learning outcomes has been constructed to examine the learner's progress and achievements in relation to the criteria…

The quality of education is a priority for every nation any educational institution or organization and their beneficiaries. This paper is concerned with methods and theories recently used in Quality Education research in Pakistan. It begins by looking at policies, practices and procedures implemented and their impact on quality of education in…

The purpose of the study was to investigate how grading of students in primary school affected achievement measured by grades one year later, and how the effect varied as a function of cognitive ability, gender and socio-economic status. The data derive from The Evaluation Through Follow Up longitudinal project. Through a national curriculum…

Incremental predictive value of 5 broad and 13 narrow personality traits for academic achievement over and beyond age, gender, parental education, and country was examined in Russian and Slovene 8- to 15-year-olds. Personality data were collected from mothers (Russia: N = 994, Slovenia: N = 624) and adolescents (Russia: N = 481, Slovenia: N = 310)…

Despite the accumulated evidence that retention is an ineffective and potentially harmful remedial strategy, several countries struggle with high levels of retention in compulsory schooling. This article provides evidence of the impact of the Portuguese national educational policy "Programa Mais Sucesso Escolar" (PMSE) using class size,…

The aim is to describe the development of achievement in compulsory school in the Nordic countries from the 1960s. The study relies on published results concerning literacy and numeracy from the international large-scale assessments between 1964 and 2012. Among others, the following conclusions are drawn: (1) for most countries, a small but…

The present article has as its aim to illustrate and discuss the impacts of individualization strategies on equity educational policies through the analysis of individualized teaching strategies applied within the framework of educational priority policies in Sweden. The methodology used in our research work includes: (a) the study of research…

Background: Many students leave compulsory school without being qualified to apply for national upper secondary school programmes. Despite efforts, the number of unqualified students in Sweden has increased. Grades from compulsory school have direct implications for students' educational futures and the requirement to qualify for an upper…

Introduction: Academic performance is usually generally explained by student's intelligence, although other factors such as personality and motivation also account for it. Factors associated with a more complex thought process in adolescence are also beginning to gain importance in the prediction of academic performance. Among these forms of…

The purpose of this article is to review the models of sustainable leadership which are currently available in the compulsory sector to establish whether the models are appropriate for post-compulsory education, and in particular for general further education colleges. Due to the complexities of the environment in which further education colleges…

In this paper, I examine ethnic inequalities in educational attainment in England and Wales. I focus on the two main educational transitions in England and Wales: the transition at age 16, from compulsory to post-compulsory education, and the transition at age 18, from school to university. I take into account the distinction made by Boudon (1974)…

Less is understood about the relationship between ADHD symptoms and academic performance in adolescents than the relationship in younger children. As such, the aim of the present study was to investigate the prospective relationship between ADHD symptoms and academic performance in a community adolescent sample. Three hundred and twenty-four…

News media often publish comparative studies that report U.S. student performance in a global context. The school quality concern seems so simplistic that anyone who had compulsory education can chime into the discussion. In this article, the condition of U.S. education is further disentangled across the boundary of K-12 and higher education. Core…

The study investigated the predictive value of robust and specific personality traits in adolescents (M[subscript age]?=?14.7 years), in explaining their academic achievement at the end of basic compulsory schooling. Personality data were obtained through self, maternal, and peer reports using the Inventory of Child/Adolescent Individual…