Health education (HE) curricula across Canada are developed by individual provinces/territories, enabling curriculum documents to be responsive to regional needs. However, this autonomy prevents Canadian teachers (and students) from having access to a consistent collection of curriculum competencies/outcomes. Without national HE curriculum…

This paper examines assessment policies for K-12 education in Ontario, Canada. We begin with a discussion of Ontario's education system, and then turn our focus to Ontario's K-12 assessment policies serving multiple purposes for accountability and classroom learning. We first examine the Educational Quality and Accountability Office (EQAO), which…

The International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement's (IEA) mission is to enhance knowledge about education systems worldwide, and to provide high-quality data that will support education reform and lead to better teaching and learning in schools. In pursuit of this aim, it conducts, and reports on, major studies of student…

British Columbia (BC) has experienced a significant teacher shortage for years. While every region of the province is impacted, rural and remote communities have experienced a worsening shortage especially during the pandemic. Additionally, there is a critical shortage of specialist teachers across the province. This Education Brief outlines five…

The performance measures included in the 2014/15-2016/17 Service Plan have been reviewed, resulting in the replacement of some measures and the introduction of new measures to more accurately reflect the Ministry's mandate and strategic directions. These changes are discussed in relation to each relevant performance measure. In keeping with the…

The Service Plan outlines the work the Ministry of Education will continue to undertake to modernize education in British Columbia (B.C.) and achieve its vision. The Ministry's work on that transformation focuses on two broad priority areas: (1) Transforming how they support and enable better learning outcomes for B.C. children; and (2)…

This report illustrates how four high-performing systems--British Columbia (Canada), Hong Kong, Shanghai (China) and Singapore--developed their teacher professional learning. The report and accompanying materials are designed as a resource for teachers, school leaders and policymakers wanting to improve teacher professional learning in their…

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…

We interviewed 45 district-level staff, principals, and trustees in two high-performing and one rapidly improving Alberta school districts. We asked interviewees to detail the what and the how of key leadership practices to promote and sustain student achievement and how they had changed over the last five to ten years. The cross-case findings are…

Romania's education system has made impressive strides over the past two decades, with an increasing share of students mastering the basic competencies that they need for life and work. But these average improvements mask significant disparities in learning outcomes and attainment, with an increasing share of students leaving education early…

British Columbia's Government, through its Jobs Plan and International Education Strategy, has recognized the increasing importance of international education to the province's education system and economy. The Ministry of Education also recognized the expertise that school districts and schools have developed in this sector and the excellent work…

With a view to bridging the gap between elementary (primary) and secondary school second language teachers and researchers, the study reported in this paper identified differences in language register, educators' lack of access to research articles and lack of shared space for researchers and educators to communicate as causes of the gap. There is…

Assessment has long been at the center of education policy debates, and for good reason. The goal of schooling is to maximize student learning, and assessments provide a picture of what students know and are able to do. Assessments also have a strong influence on what goes on in classrooms. The United States is now poised to make the most dramatic…