education system editorial article

Transforming education systems: Why, what, and how

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Rebecca winthrop and rebecca winthrop director - center for universal education , senior fellow - global economy and development the hon. minister david sengeh the hon. minister david sengeh minister of education and chief innovation officer - government of sierra leone, chief innovation officer - directorate of science, technology and innovation in sierra leone.

June 23, 2022

Today, the topic of education system transformation is front of mind for many leaders. Ministers of education around the world are seeking to build back better as they emerge from COVID-19-school closures to a new normal of living with a pandemic. The U.N. secretary general is convening the Transforming Education Summit (TES) at this year’s general assembly meeting (United Nations, n.d.). Students around the world continue to demand transformation on climate and not finding voice to do this through their schools are regularly leaving class to test out their civic action skills.

It is with this moment in mind that we have developed this shared vision of education system transformation. Collectively we offer insights on transformation from the perspective of a global think tank and a national government: the Center for Universal Education (CUE) at Brookings brings years of global research on education change and transformation, and the Ministry of Education of Sierra Leone brings on-the-ground lessons from designing and implementing system-wide educational rebuilding.

This brief is for any education leader or stakeholder who is interested in charting a transformation journey in their country or education jurisdiction such as a state or district. It is also for civil society organizations, funders, researchers, and anyone interested in the topic of national development through education. In it, we answer the following three questions and argue for a participatory approach to transformation:

Why is education system transformation urgent now? We argue that the world is at an inflection point. Climate change, the changing nature of work, increasing conflict and authoritarianism together with the urgency of COVID recovery has made the transformation agenda more critical than ever.
What is education system transformation? We argue that education system transformation must entail a fresh review of the goals of your system – are they meeting the moment that we are in, are they tackling inequality and building resilience for a changing world, are they fully context aware, are they owned broadly across society – and then fundamentally positioning all components of your education system to coherently contribute to this shared purpose.
How can education system transformation advance in your country or jurisdiction? We argue that three steps are crucial: Purpose (developing a broadly shared vision and purpose), Pedagogy (redesigning the pedagogical core), and Position (positioning and aligning all components of the system to support the pedagogical core and purpose). Deep engagement of educators, families, communities, students, ministry staff, and partners is essential across each of these “3 P” steps.

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What Changes to the U.S. Education System Are Needed to Support Long-Term Success for All Americans?

With the pandemic deepening inequities that threaten students’ prospects, the vice president of the Corporation’s National Program provides a vision for transforming our education system from one characterized by uneven and unjust results to one that puts all students on a path to bright futures

At no point in our nation’s history have we asked so much of our education system as we do today. We ask that our primary and secondary schools prepare all students, regardless of background, for a lifetime of learning. We ask that teachers guide every child toward deeper understanding while simultaneously attending to their social-emotional development. And we ask that our institutions of higher learning serve students with a far broader range of life circumstances than ever before.

We ask these things of education because the future we aspire to requires it. The nature of work and civic participation is evolving at an unprecedented rate. Advances in automation, artificial intelligence, and social media are driving rapid changes in how we interact with each other and what skills hold value. In the world our children will inherit, their ability to adapt, think critically, and work effectively with others will be essential for both their own success and the well-being of society.

At Carnegie Corporation of New York, we focus on supporting people who are in a position to meet this challenge. That includes the full spectrum of educators, administrators, family members, and others who shape young people’s learning experiences as they progress toward and into adulthood. Our mission is to empower all students with the tools, systems, knowledge, and mindsets to prepare them to fully participate in the global economy and in a robust democracy.

All of our work is geared toward transforming student learning. The knowledge, skills, and dispositions required for success today call for a vastly different set of learning experiences than may have sufficed in the past. Students must play a more active role in their own learning, and that learning must encompass more than subject-matter knowledge. Preparing all children for success requires greater attention to inclusiveness in the classroom, differentiation in teaching and learning, and universal high expectations.

This transformation needs to happen in higher education as well. A high school education is no longer enough to ensure financial security. We need more high-quality postsecondary options, better guidance for students as they transition beyond high school, and sufficient supports to enable all students to complete their postsecondary programs. Preparing students for lifelong success requires stronger connections between K–12, higher education, and work.

The need for such transformation has become all the more urgent in the face of COVID-19. As with past economic crises, the downturn resulting from the pandemic is likely to accelerate the erosion of opportunities for low-skilled workers with only a high school education. Investments in innovative learning models and student supports are critical to preventing further inequities in learning outcomes.

An Urgent Call for Advancing Equity

The 2020–21 school year may prove to be the most consequential in American history. With unfathomable speed, COVID-19 has forced more change in how schools operate than in the previous half century.

What is most concerning in all of this is the impact on the most underserved and historically marginalized in our society: low-income children and students of color. Even before the current crisis, the future prospects of a young person today looked very different depending on the color of her skin and the zip code in which she grew up, but the pandemic exposed and exacerbated long-standing racial and economic inequities. And the same families who are faring worst in terms of disrupted schooling are bearing the brunt of the economic downturn and disproportionately getting sick, being hospitalized, and dying.

Our mission is to empower all students with the tools, systems, knowledge, and mindsets to prepare them to fully participate in the global economy and in a robust democracy.

Every organization that is committed to educational improvement needs to ask itself what it can do differently to further advance the cause of educational equity during this continuing crisis so that we can make lasting improvements. As we know from past experience, if the goal of equity is not kept front and center, those who are already behind through no fault of their own will benefit the least. If ever there were a time to heed this caution, it is now.

We hope that our nation will approach education with a new sense of purpose and a shared commitment to ensuring that our schools truly work for every child. Whether or not that happens will depend on our resolve and our actions in the coming months. We have the proof points and know-how to transform learning, bolster instruction, and meet the needs of our most disadvantaged students. What has changed is the urgency for doing so at scale.

Our starting place must be a vision of equal opportunity, and from there we must create the conditions that can actually ensure it — irrespective of how different they may look from the ones we now have. We need to reimagine the systems that shape student learning and put the communities whose circumstances we most need to elevate at the center of that process. We need to recognize that we will not improve student outcomes without building the capacity of the adults who work with them, supporting them with high-quality resources and meaningful opportunities for collaboration and professional growth. We need to promote stronger connections between K–12, higher education, and employment so that all students are prepared for lifelong success.

The pandemic has deepened inequities that threaten students’ prospects. But if we seize this moment and learn from it, if we marshal the necessary resources, we have the potential to transform our education system from one characterized by uneven and unjust results to one that puts all students on a path to bright futures.

In a pandemic-induced moment when the American education system has been blown into 25 million homes across the country, where do we go from here?

We Must Learn to Act in New Ways

These are not controversial ideas. In fact, they constitute the general consensus about where American education needs to go. But they also represent a tall order for the people who influence the system. Practically everyone who plays a part in education must learn to act in new ways.

That we have made progress in such areas as high school completion, college-going rates, and the adoption of college- and career-ready standards is a testament to the commitment of those working in the field. But it will take more than commitment to achieve the changes in student learning that our times demand. We can’t expect individuals to figure out what they need to do on their own, nor should we be surprised if they struggle to do so when working in institutional structures designed to produce different outcomes. The transformation we seek calls for much greater coordination and a broader set of allies than would suffice for more incremental changes.

Our best hope for achieving equity and the transformation of student learning is to enhance adults’ ability to contribute to that learning. That means building their capacity while supporting their authentic engagement in promoting a high-quality education for every child. It also means ensuring that people operate within systems that are optimized to support their effectiveness and that a growing body of knowledge informs their efforts.

These notions comprise our overarching strategy for promoting the systems change needed to transform student learning experiences on a large scale. We seek to enhance adult capacity and stakeholder engagement in the service of ensuring that all students are prepared to meet the demands of the 21st century. We also support knowledge development and organizational improvement to the extent that investments in these areas enhance adult capacity, stakeholder engagement, and student experiences.

Five Ways We Invest in the Future of Students

These views on how best to promote systems change in education guide our philanthropic work. The strategic areas of change we focus on are major themes throughout our five investment portfolios. Although they are managed separately and support different types of initiatives, each seeks to address its area of focus from multiple angles. A single portfolio may include grants that build adult capacity, enhance stakeholder engagement, and generate new knowledge.

New Designs to Advance Learning

Preparing all students for success requires that we fundamentally reimagine our nation’s schools and classrooms. Our public education system needs to catch up with how the world is evolving and with what we’ve come to understand about how people learn. That means attending to a broader diversity of learning styles and bringing what happens in school into greater alignment with what happens in the worlds of work and civic life. We make investments to increase the number of innovative learning models that support personalized experiences, academic mastery, and positive youth development. We also make investments that build the capacity of districts and intermediaries to improve learning experiences for all students as well as grants to investigate relevant issues of policy and practice.

Pathways to Postsecondary Success

Lifelong success in the United States has never been more dependent on educational attainment than it is today. Completing some education beyond the 12th grade has virtually become a necessity for financial security and meaningful work. But for that possibility to exist for everyone, we need to address the historical barriers that keep many students from pursuing and completing a postsecondary program, and we must strengthen the options available to all students for education after high school. Through our investments, we seek to increase the number of young people able to access and complete a postsecondary program, with a major focus on removing historical barriers for students who are first-generation college-goers, low-income, or from underrepresented groups. We also look to expand the range of high-quality postsecondary options and to strengthen alignment between K–12, higher education, and the world of work.

Leadership and Teaching to Advance Learning

At its core, learning is about the interplay between teachers, students, and content. How teachers and students engage with each other and with their curriculum plays a predominant role in determining what students learn and how well they learn it. That’s not to say that factors outside of school don’t also greatly impact student learning. But the research is clear that among the factors a school might control, nothing outweighs the teaching that students experience. We focus on supporting educators in implementing rigorous college- and career-ready standards in math, science, and English language arts. We make investments to increase the supply of and demand for high-quality curricular materials and professional learning experiences for teachers and administrators.

Public Understanding

As central as they are to the education process, school professionals are hardly the only people with a critical role to play in student learning. Students spend far more time with family and other community members than they do at school. And numerous stakeholders outside of the education system have the potential to strengthen and shape what happens within it. The success of our nation’s schools depends on far more individuals than are employed by them.

We invest in efforts to engage families and other stakeholders as active partners in supporting equitable access to high-quality student learning. We also support media organizations and policy research groups in building awareness about key issues related to educational equity and improvement.

Integration, Learning, and Innovation

Those of us who work for change in education need a new set of habits to achieve our vision of 21st-century learning. It will take more than a factory-model mindset to transform our education system into one that prepares all learners for an increasingly complex world. We must approach this task with flexibility, empathy for the people involved, and an understanding of how to learn from what’s working and what’s not. We work to reduce the fragmentation, inefficiencies, and missteps that often result when educational improvement strategies are pursued in isolation and without an understanding of the contexts in which they are implemented. Through grants and other activities, we build the capacity of people working in educational organizations to change how they work by emphasizing systems and design thinking, iteration, and knowledge sharing within and across organizations.

Two recent surveys by Carnegie Corporation of New York and Gallup offer insights into how our education system can better help all Americans navigate job and career choices

Join Us in This Ambitious Endeavor

Our approach of supporting multiple stakeholders by pulling multiple levers is informed by our deep understanding of the system we’re trying to move. American education is a massive, diverse, and highly decentralized enterprise. There is no mechanism by which we might affect more than superficial change in many thousands of communities. The type of change that is needed cannot come from compliance alone. It requires that everyone grapple with new ideas.

We know from our history of promoting large-scale improvements in American education that advancements won’t happen overnight or as the result of one kind of initiative. Our vision for 21st-century education will require more than quick wins and isolated successes. Innovation is essential, and a major thrust of our work involves the incubation and dissemination of new models, resources, and exemplars. But we must also learn to move forward with the empathy, flexibility, and systems thinking needed to support people in making the transition. Novel solutions only help if they can be successfully implemented in different contexts.

Only a sustained and concerted effort will shift the center of gravity of a social enterprise that involves millions of adults and many tens of millions of young people. The challenge of philanthropy is to effect widespread social change with limited resources and without formal authority. This takes more than grantmaking. At the Corporation, we convene, communicate, and form coalitions. We provide thought leadership, issue challenges, and launch new initiatives. Through these multifaceted activities, we maximize our ability to forge, share, and put into practice powerful new ideas that build a foundation for more substantial changes in the future.

We encourage everyone who plays a role in education to join us in this work. Our strategy represents more than our priorities as a grantmaker. It conveys our strong beliefs about how to get American education to where it needs to be. The more organizations and individuals we have supporting those who are working to provide students with what they need, the more likely we are to succeed in this ambitious endeavor.

LaVerne Evans Srinivasan is the vice president of Carnegie Corporation of New York’s National Program and the program director for Education.

TOP: Due to the COVID-19 outbreak, a lower-school substitute teacher works from her home in Arlington, Virginia, on April 1, 2020. Her role in the school changed significantly due to the pandemic. Whereas she previously worked part-time to support teachers when they needed to be absent from the classroom, amid COVID-19 she now helps teachers to build skills with new digital platforms so they can continue to teach in the best way for their students and their families. (Credit: Olivier Douliery/AFP via Getty Images)

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Editorial: How can kids learn without homework and rigid deadlines? Quite well, it turns out

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The usual system for grading students is, bit by bit, going by the wayside in favor of one that emphasizes learning over traditional measures. It’s a healthy shift, though traditionalists no doubt are raising their eyebrows and muttering darkly about lowered standards and kids skating through school. The skepticism is especially likely now that the changes are being hastened by the realization that the current system puts students of color and those from lower-income households at a distinct disadvantage.

So-called mastery-based grading and a very similar method known as specs (for specifications) grading have been written about in academic circles for decades. But schools have stuck to an outdated system that relies heavily on students’ compliance — completing homework, behaving in class, meeting deadlines and correctly answering questions on a one-time test — as a proxy for learning, rather than measuring the learning itself.

That’s been a disservice to all students, whether they are academically gifted or struggling. It rewards students for grade-grubbing and has them feeling like failures when conditions at home — such as crowding, the need to work a part-time job to help the family finances or caring for younger siblings — make it especially hard to meet all the course requirements on a rigid deadline.

If there were a valid reason for this, that would be one thing. But obeying arbitrary and sometimes unfair rules doesn’t translate into better learning. The goal should be assessing the skills and knowledge students gained and how well they think. Mastery-based education and specs grading, and some of the elements that go with them, put the emphasis back on learning. Imagine that.

It shouldn’t matter, for example, whether students get a sterling grade on the first chapter test on human anatomy, or if they learn from their mistakes and go on to ace a second test. Students who redo an essay, even two or three times, in ways that show they’ve grasped concepts of research and critical thinking, and can write cogent and well-organized sentences, are showing that they’re gaining important skills. That willingness to try and try again until a skill is mastered is something to celebrate, not penalize with points off for multiple efforts.

It sounds vague and perhaps airy-fairy, but education experts point out that, in some ways, this kind of grading is more rigorous. Under the specs model, students are graded pass/fail on their tests, but they don’t pass unless they do well — usually at a minimum level of 80%, or a low B. There’s no passing with a C or D. It’s the opposite of skating by; students don’t move to the next level of skills with minimal grasp of the material.

Rather than being given a grade or a comment that they failed to meet a couple of deadlines, students receive specific information about their progress and what they need to do to move forward. This system transfers more of the responsibility for learning to the student.

Several states, including Vermont and Maine, already have adopted this model for their public schools. A middle school in Brooklyn, N.Y., witnessed phenomenal improvement in students’ scores on standardized tests after a few years of mastery-based learning, even though it is in ways the antithesis of a one-time, standardized test. And in case this seems like just the latest instance of touchy-feely liberal thinking limited to the Northeast, Idaho adopted mastery-based education in 2015.

The concept’s roots lie in the 1960s work of Benjamin Bloom , an education psychologist at the University of Chicago who said that given the right conditions, almost any student could achieve at high levels. Now the Black Lives Matter movement has raised awareness that traditional schools are assessing the learning of students — especially Black and Latino children — in ways that both discourage them and fail to hold them to high expectations. In addition, more than a year of remote learning has familiarized students with how to use technological tools to learn; in the classroom, those can be used to individualize instruction so that teachers have a chance to work with small groups.

The Los Angeles Unified School District is shifting toward this new model of grading this year by encouraging teachers to give kids a chance to redo tests or reports and to base grades on what students have learned, not on their work habits. It’s off to a slow start, but that’s the better way to go when introducing an era of assessment so radically different from how it’s been for the last century.

Teachers need time to understand, embrace and start incorporating these practices. And they’ll need training, administrative help and aides to help instruct small groups and track progress.

In other words, careful implementation is as important as the reform. This is where new education initiatives tend to fall apart. Too often, L.A. Unified has used changes in course and grading requirements to lower its standards. Kids can’t infinitely skip school and miss deadlines; that’s not how college or the work world operate. Students should be given extra time to learn, but the schools can’t keep a student in middle school indefinitely, while he or she builds crucial skills.

Mastery-based learning gets students to think about their own progress and encourages them to take their skills as far as they can. If done right — and not as an excuse for lack of progress — it could reinvigorate classrooms and give students a sense of control over their own educational destiny.

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The Education System of the United States of America: Overview and Foundations

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Part of the book series: Global Education Systems ((GES))

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Prevailing discourse in the USA about the country’s teachers, educational institutions, and instructional approaches is a conversation that is national in character. Yet the structures and the administrative and governance apparatuses themselves are strikingly local in character across the USA. Public understanding and debate about education can be distorted in light of divergence between the country’s educational aspirations and the vehicles in place for pursuing those aims. In addressing its purpose as a survey of US education, the following chapter interrogates this apparent contradiction, first discussing historical and social factors that help account for a social construction of the USA as singular and national system. Discussion then moves to a descriptive analysis of education in the USA as institutionalized at the numerous levels – aspects that often reflect local prerogative and difference more so than a uniform national character. The chapter concludes with summary points regarding US federalism as embodied in the country’s oversight and conduct of formal education.

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Fossum, P.R. (2021). The Education System of the United States of America: Overview and Foundations. In: Jornitz, S., Parreira do Amaral, M. (eds) The Education Systems of the Americas. Global Education Systems. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-41651-5_14

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The burnout is real, and it’s not just from the pandemic

Dr. Bishop, whose career in education spans more than 25 years, says he’s never seen such universal levels of exhaustion—and never dreamed he would. “For almost two full years now, administrators have been caught in the crosshairs of political, social, emotional, ethical and academic battles that were brought to their doorstep,” he says.

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So just how bad is it? In January Dr. Bishop asked his supervisory and administrative staff to rate their current level of social-emotional need from 1 (low) to 5 (high). The survey found:

61% of teaching staff rated their personal need as 4 or 5
100% of administrative staff (principals and supervisors) rated their personal need as 4 or 5
Nearly all of the administrative staff said they can’t sleep at night and at least occasionally take medication to help
100% of administrative staff said their spouse has commented that their job is interfering with their relationships at home

Unfortunately, the issues raised by the pandemic are just the tip of the iceberg. “The pandemic was a catalyst that increased the rate and intensity of enormously important and often controversial issues in our communities,” Dr. Bishop says. “Because our schools are a direct reflection of the communities they serve, these topics were very literally brought into our offices, halls, school boardrooms and classrooms.

“School administrators are expected to ‘make everyone happy,’ and at the same time make sure all needs are met so learning can take place for all regardless of belief. They are expected to sew together all these various groups, with their variety of stances, into a cohesive student body and a cohesive staff. They must do all of that while being public figureheads who are directly in the public eye.”

It’s little wonder that so many of them are quitting. But stress isn’t the only reason.

Is it worth it anymore?

Most educators chose their profession because they wanted to make a positive difference in the world. It’s what drives them to give so much, every day, even when they don’t see an immediate return. But the past two years are taking their toll.

The long hours. The mental and physical exhaustion. The enormous scrutiny and public criticism. Teachers and administrators alike are starting to wonder if it’s all worth it.

It wasn’t that way when the pandemic started. “At the beginning, the thought was ‘you don’t leave your children/community when the storm starts,’” says Dr. Bishop. “I for one felt the very real obligation to stay and not abandon my kids.”

But the pandemic has dragged on for longer than anyone expected and now, says Dr. Bishop, there is a very real feeling that fulfilling a higher purpose through education is no longer worth the fight. “Like the dogs in the 1960s Martin Seligman experiment, they’ve reached a level of ‘learned helplessness,’” he says.

And then, there’s the constant barrage of communication. “The expectation that as a school leader you should be accessible 24 hours a day every day adds to the pressure and inability to pause to regroup or re-energize,” says Dr. Bishop, who’s taken just two vacation days during the past two years. “I personally receive phone calls, texts, instant messages and emails from 4am to midnight during holiday breaks and weekends.

“The expectation is that you answer and respond. And if you don’t, there’ll be communication to those who hold your job security in their hands.”

The trickle-up effect

As school leaders exit the profession, there’s concern about a “trickle-up” effect on those replacing them. “There is strong data to support less quantity and less quality of candidates moving into teaching,” Dr. Bishop says. “Thus, from a much smaller and potentially less qualified pool, schools attempt to draw their next leaders.

“Teachers see firsthand the pressure, hours and lack of positive feedback their leaders experience. As a result, these potential school leaders see low resources and high levels of critique and wonder if a change to school leadership is worth it.”

What’s the trickle-up result of all this? “Well-intended people will be taking positions that they are not qualified or experienced enough to hold,” explains Dr. Bishop. “When that happens, the organization can no longer move forward. Visionary, forward-thinking projects and programs cannot form under leaders that don’t possess the skills to rally people, resources and energy.

“Progress becomes a thing of the past, and survival of the moment is what’s left.”

Strengthening internal partnerships

In some organizations, the constantly changing demands of the pandemic have shattered trust among the different departments. When I asked Dr. Bishop how administrators, counselors and teachers could rebuild it, he gently pushed back against the assumption that all such partnerships are lacking trust. “As with any agency/business, some run with more conflict and some with great trust and cohesiveness,” he says.

But where trust has been compromised, Dr. Bishop believes the first thing needed is time to recover. “Teachers, school leaders, counselors, custodians, secretaries, bus drivers, food service workers and others—we all need time to regroup and recenter,” he says. “Nothing in my past has been to the same level as we have now, however it’s been my experience that working with what we have in common is the place to begin.”

Dr. Bishop believes that the keys to future success are founded in four critical attitudes:

1. Hope: “We must believe there is hope for achieving success and hope that we can make a difference in the world through our kids.”

2. Forgiveness: “We must also forgive ourselves and those around us for any mistakes, bad days and missteps of the past. We can’t hold mistakes of the past close to our heart but instead must leave space for kindness, progress and even laughter to make its way in.”

3. Focus on a common good. “Our efforts now must be toward stripping away differences and focusing on the bigger picture commonalities,” he says. “The basic reasons we became educators is a good place to start—as an example, the belief that through our children we can change the future for the better. The vast majority of teachers and school leaders would say they have this central calling inside. So from that common point we begin building.”

4. Assumption of positive intent. One example of when to assume positive intent is when a leader falls back on giving self-care advice to their staff. “There is no course, master’s program, webinar, or book you can reference that indicates how to motivate, inspire and provide therapy for adults who have gone through prolonged deep levels of trauma,” says Dr. Bishop. “That doesn’t completely excuse things, but perhaps giving leaders a little space for their intent and recognizing that they want to know better and do better.

“If the person on the receiving end can assume positive intent, then they could step back and realize the administrator bringing up self-care is truly trying to help,” he continues. “Most school leaders want all the best things for their staff and the students they work with each day. Perhaps at the moment they are just trying to survive. Many leaders gladly follow the Maya Angelou saying: ‘ Do the best you can until you know better. Then when you know better, do better .’”

What we can do

In light of all these challenges, I wanted to know what communities and individuals can do to support their schools and educational leadership. Dr. Bishop shared four phrases that everyone, from every side of the education system, can implement to start moving forward together.

1. Part of the problem or part of the solution? “We must remember to stay positive and rally people around the concept that we can be part of the problem or part of the solution.”

2. Assume positive intent (again): “We must dig deeper and model in every way possible that we assume each person has positive intent when they come to us,” he says. “We need to model this way of thinking and talk about this way of thinking to others.”

3. Treat others as you’d like to be treated: “Leaders need to look inward first and ask ourselves if we are treating others as we’d like to be treated,” says Dr. Bishop. “The pressures on others are real; treat them as such.”

4. Seek to understand before being understood: “Before leaders try to provide advice, examples and reasoning, they must step back and truly listen,” urges Dr. Bishop. “They must block the inner voice thinking about what to say next, and block the inner desire to solve things for people, and instead truly be in the moment and listen.”

What else do superintendents need right now? Time, training and funding—and for funding, not another round of competitive grants, notes Dr. Bishop. “There simply isn’t time for this in a day already overloaded.”

Moving forward together

As the stresses of the past two years bleed into yet another school year, visionary leadership in our education system has never been more critical. And yet, such leaders have never been so embattled. As communities and individuals, we need to rally around the counselors, superintendents, principals and administrators who remain at their post even when things seem darkest.

Let’s be part of the solution, not the problem. Let’s assume positive intent, treat others as we’d like to be treated and seek to understand what the education community is facing. For everyone with a stake in the future of education in America, there’s common ground to find and build on—if we look for it.

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Professor of Education and Public Policy, Durham University

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School Education Program Director, Grattan Institute

Honorary Senior Fellow, The University of Melbourne

Associate Professor of Education Policy and the Future of Schooling, The University of Melbourne

Director of Research and Deputy Head of Southampton Education School, University of Southampton

Professor of Educational Leadership and Policy Studies, School of Education, University of Nottingham

Executive Director, Public Policy Institute, Australian Catholic University

Associate Professor in Language, Literacy and TESL, University of Canberra

Management Consultant & Occasional Lecturer in Management & Economics, CQUniversity Australia

Vice-Chancellor, Australian National University

Senior Lecturer, Murdoch University

Dean of Education, School of Education and Institute for Education, Bath Spa University

Professor of Social Impact, University of Technology Sydney

Emeritus Professor of Education, University of Derby

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Does the American education system really lag behind other countries?

Hand with pencil filling out standardized test form.

Headlines often paint a grim picture of the American education system compared to peer nations. However, broad strokes about underperforming American students don’t capture key details of the story. The U.S. education system and student achievement are varied and complex.

To be sure, American education has room for improvement. Standardized reading and math exam scores remained relatively unchanged since the 1970s before falling slightly between 2020 and 2022. Although COVID-19 pandemic-related lockdowns are in the rearview mirror, their lasting impact is apparent in high student disengagement rates and chronic absenteeism. In 2023, the average state-level rate of students missing at least 10% of classes was 26%, a significant increase from 16% in 2019, according to data from FutureEd.

Globally, the primary tool for measuring the effectiveness of education systems is the Programme for International Student Assessment test. Administered by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development every three years, PISA measures a 15-year-old’s mathematics, science, and reading proficiency.

Numerade analyzed data from the OECD to see how the U.S. compares with the rest of the world in its academic performance.

On the most recent PISA test in 2022, the U.S. ranked 20th out of 81 countries and territories, which comprise 90% of the world’s economies. Rankings were based on average scores across all three main PISA subjects.

Because America is one of the wealthiest countries in the world, there’s an expectation that it should rank higher among countries like Japan, South Korea, and Finland, ranked third, fifth, and 12th, respectively, known for their outstanding education systems. However, a closer look at the data reveals a more nuanced story. While the U.S. does lag behind other developed nations, and some studies show a correlation between economic growth and academic achievement, the exact relationship between economic resources and test scores is complex. And that’s especially true in a country as expansive and diverse as America.

For one thing, the U.S. had the largest population out of any country the OECD tracked in 2022. It also has a decentralized education system, where what students learn varies tremendously depending on their state or even their county. Many other countries have only a single national curriculum.

As one of the most diverse OECD nations, America’s cultural and ethnic makeup also plays a role. American educators must adapt to students from a wide range of cultural and socioeconomic backgrounds. Critics of the PISA in the U.S. also note that the higher percentage of disadvantaged students compared to other OECD countries impacts the nation’s overall test performance.

Factors such as these make it hard to draw lessons about the country’s education system as a whole.

Wealth and education

Scatterplot showing that countries with higher gross domestic product per capita report higher scores on the program for international student assessment. The United States still lags behind some wealthier countries.

Plotting countries’ average scores on the PISA exam against gross domestic product per capita tells a compelling story. The latter measure, which represents the total economic output of a country divided by its population, is often used as a measure of economic prosperity. GDP is, in theory, indicative of citizens’ economic well-being and the nation’s resources to spend on education.

Wealthier nations tend to have better educational outcomes, perhaps because they invest more in their school systems. The U.S. has an average PISA test score in line with nations that have a similar per capita GDP. America’s scores are just below peer countries such as Denmark and the United Kingdom, but are slightly above those of Germany and France.

However, using GDP per capita as a guide for student performance has its limitations. Take Ireland, for example, which ranked ninth on the PISA. Its GDP figures are inflated due to its status as a tax haven for multinational corporations, making its economic output seem disproportionately high compared to actual living standards.

Similarly, oil-rich Gulf nations like Saudi Arabia may have high GDP per capita numbers that don’t accurately reflect the median household’s resources or living standards. Economists blame this on the “resource curse,” where countries that rely heavily on exporting commodities tend to have worse public services than countries with similar income levels but more balanced economies.

Students from Saudi Arabia and Ireland score below expectations based on GDP per capita. This discrepancy is less because their education systems are faring exceptionally poorly and more because the typical resident is not doing as well as the economic measure suggests. In other words, a country’s aggregate economic numbers can sometimes be an unreliable measure of its overall development.

Lessons from high-performing nations

Overhead view of large room of students taking exam.

Several countries that ranked high on the PISA are worth studying. Despite coming from one of the world’s poorest countries, Vietnamese students perform well on the PISA exam. A 2021 study by researchers at the World Bank and the University of Minnesota found that even after controlling for many observable factors, such as parents’ education, teachers’ qualifications, and access to books and computers, Vietnam still outperformed many other developing countries. Unable to find a definitive answer to why the Southeast Asian country’s students score so highly, they speculated that Vietnam’s education system is more efficient.

Singapore offers another interesting case study. Singaporean ranked first on the 2022 test. Singapore is extremely rich as a global financial center; few nations match its wealth. According to the IMF, after adjusting for purchasing power, Singapore had a GDP per capita of $129,000 in 2022, compared to the United States’ $77,000. But, the country also has a notoriously rigorous education system, and it is common for parents to hire private tutors for their children. The country is also a city-state, making its government highly centralized.

Estonia, another high-performing country, provides clues about how to improve education systems. The Baltic country is not exceptionally wealthy, but it beat out every other non-Asian country on the PISA exam. It has a highly egalitarian education system, where all children start kindergarten at age 3. School lunches and transportation are free for all students. Estonian teachers have high amounts of autonomy, allowing them to tailor their teaching methods to individual students’ needs. All parents enjoy one-and-a-half years of parental leave, which means they can spend more time with their children when they are still young—a critical period for brain development. And the country, which bills itself as a “digital republic,” has been keen on embracing technology in education , gathering data about how students learn.

It’s worth noting that the COVID-19 pandemic caused a massive disruption in schooling worldwide. Average scores on the PISA exam fell across the world. In OECD countries, average math scores dropped by around 15 points compared with 2018. That works out to be roughly three-quarters of a school year. Reading scores fell by 10 points, while science scores did not change. Although not all of the drop can be attributed to the pandemic, this fall in test scores was the largest on record.

Countries that want to improve their education systems may have to find clever solutions. Investing more in education, experimenting with new approaches to schooling, valuing teachers, and giving parents more flexibility, as the Estonian government has done, could make a meaningful difference.

Story editing by Alizah Salario. Additional editing by Kelly Glass. Copy editing by Kristen Wegrzyn.

This story originally appeared on Numerade and was produced and distributed in partnership with Stacker Studio.

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What it takes to help First Nations children thrive at school

A woman stands next to a man who is holding a child. The woman and man are smiling.

Liam Reid and Nicole Kunoth Hampton have lived with their five kids in a two-bedroom apartment for four years.

It's a squeeze, but like so many families, they make do.

When they moved to Mparntwe Alice Springs from the remote Aboriginal community of Mimili so their children could go to school in town, they hoped their kids would have an experience they never got growing up.

It's a move that many Aboriginal families like theirs make.

"No preschool for me, I just lived out bush when I was younger," Ms Kunoth Hampton said.

"And then my first school … that was built out of gum tree and some material to put over for a roof, so that was my first little school."

As a former teaching assistant, now cultural tourism operator, Arrernte Kaytetye man Mr Reid has seen the transformative power that quality childcare services can bring to a child's life, and the way it can set them up for a different life trajectory.

But he's also seen how poverty and entrenched disadvantage can make it harder to get kids to school or preschool, in ways most people can't imagine.

Severely overcrowded homes, lack of shoes, or even access to day-to-day things like a washing machine can be a barrier.

"Sometimes people can't send their kids to school because they've got no food, or sometimes … they've got dirty clothes because they can't do washing and that because of an unstable home," Mr Reid told 7.30.

A woman and three kids in a lounge room.

Their youngest, three-year-old Kasey, attends a childcare program run by the community-controlled Central Australian Aboriginal Congress, that hires Aboriginal staff and incorporates culture and language through "two-way" learning, an experience that neither of her parents had as youngsters.

"Every day she is just blowing our minds with something new," Mr Reid said.

"She's learning how to speak in language and that's something I missed out on."

'Closing the Gap starts with our children'

A child playing in an outdoor playground.

Research shows that ages zero to five are crucial for a child's brain development.

Nationally in 2021, only 34.3 per cent of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children commencing school were assessed as being developmentally on track – emotionally, physically and socially — compared to 56.2 per cent of non-Indigenous children.

Under the National Closing the Gap Agreement, governments have committed to having First Nations children on par with the rest of the population by 2031.

"Closing the Gap starts with our children," said Arrernte and Luritja woman Catherine Liddle, the CEO of the peak body representing First Nations children, SNAICC.

"We've always understood that if you look after your children, you have a strong community. If you have strong communities and strong families, then pretty much everyone's doing OK."

Ms Liddle said investing in accessible, affordable and culturally safe early education is so important because of the profound impacts on children's life outcomes down the line.

Getting the early years right impacts the gross rates of Indigenous children going into child protection, into youth justice, and then as adults ending up in jail.

"There is a direct correlation," she said.

"If you have access to preschool you're more likely to finish year 12, to have better access to health, jobs, you're going to have better life trajectories."

A potentially 'scary' experience

On latest count, 16.4 per cent of First Nations children in the Northern Territory were developmentally ready for school, about half that of other states and territories.

But services like Congress are working to change that.

Southern Arrernte and Pitjantatjara woman Samara Swan is the family engagement officer at Congress, where she builds relationships with the community to encourage them to send their kids to preschool.

"For a lot of our kids English is a second language, so going straight into preschool can be quite a scary experience," Ms Swan said.

"I support them [parents] with filling out enrolment forms, because even walking through the doors of a preschool can be quite scary for family, especially if they've been living out bush."

Ms Swan also works with parents to assess whether their children need a little extra help.

A woman smiles at a small child who has paint on their hand.

"Doing that screening helps us identify areas of strength … and the areas where we can best support them and then we can refer them on if we need to."

The centre offers a range of healthcare services to help with things like hearing, speech or learning disabilities.

The Productivity Commission's Closing the Gap dashboard states that 30 per cent of First Nations kids in their first year of school in the NT were "identified by teachers as requiring further assessment to determine if they have a developmental difficulty that affects their ability to do schoolwork".

Liam Reid said it's crucial these services are available when they're needed.

"We do need more programs that will target these kids with health conditions that are going to affect them later in life," he said.

Who is responsible?

Ms Liddle said children can't thrive if the critical infrastructure in the communities isn't there.

"If you are a parent, it is your responsibility to be able to invest in your children to get them access to health care," Ms Liddle told 7.30

"But in actual fact those services and systems don't exist, or they are not able to connect with them in the way they need to."

Ms Liddle says consistent government funding for early education and children's health over election cycles has been an issue.

The National Indigenous Australians Agency (NIAA) said that Closing the Gap is a shared responsibility of all tiers of government and First Nations peak representative bodies.

The NIAA said since the Closing the Gap target came in 2020 the agency has invested about $160 million in a range of early childhood development and enabling activities.

"At this moment in time, the biggest investments into early education and care in Australia are not in the Aboriginal community-controlled sector, they're actually in the mainstream," Ms Liddle said.

"That is a failure by governments to invest in the right set of criteria into the right type of service delivery, and to move at the speed that it needs to move at."

Earlier this year, a review by the Productivity Commission of the Closing the Gap Agreement found governments at all levels "do not face timely or appropriate consequences for failure to meet the commitments they made".

Shadow Minister for Early Education Angie Bell told the ABC blame could not be squarely placed on the former Morrison government, as the gap widened during a "once in a century pandemic" and that "Closing the Gap is a joint initiative".

Minister for Early Education Anne Aly admitted "more needs to be done" and that "most progress" is being seen "where governments are working in partnership with First Nations organisations and communities".

How do we know if kids are developmentally ready?

Every three years, right across Australia, all children in their first year of school are assessed on whether they are developmentally ready using something called the Australian Early Development Census (AEDC).

It assesses things like whether a child can count from one to 20, turn the pages of a book, or listen to a teacher. It's this data that is used to assess whether we're on track to close the gap in early childhood development.

Over the past decade standards have been improving, but in the last survey in 2021, during the COVID pandemic, levels dropped across the board.

Ms Liddle said it's important to note the survey is not always "fit for purpose" for Aboriginal communities.

"It misses those unique strengths that Aboriginal children have," she said.

Ngunnawal woman and Jervis Bay School principal Lana Read explained that when they're conducting their survey, they involve an Aboriginal education officer from the local community.

Despite work from the AEDC developers to flag cultural bias and make the test "universal", some academics and educators say the test can still be subjective.

"It's an individual or a small group of people who are answering the questions about the children, so I guess there is always room for interpretation or perhaps hidden biases to come through," Ms Read said.

Young children sit on the floor drawing in a class room.

Ms Read said she is proud of her school's achievements.

"There's no children who we have seen come out as being developmentally vulnerable, or at risk in two or more areas," she said.

"And for a community like ours that makes my heart sing."

But there's more work to be done to ensure all kids have the same chances of success.

"I think we've got a long way to go before every child in Australia walks in at the same level when they come into their early years of learning," she said.

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‘How Can Northern Ireland’s Education System Still Be Divided Across Religious and Community Lines?

The next generation cannot take forward the peace process if they continue to be subject to segregation and reinforced division that defined previous generations, argues Emma DeSouza

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But there was nothing in law to compel Northern Ireland’s devolved government to support integrated education initiatives.

What followed was decades of inertia and backsliding.

By 2010, the concept of integrated education was replaced with the notion of ‘shared education’ – a watered-down idea that maintains separation but encourages the occasional shared learning experience. In 2012, a Ministerial Advisory Group on Advancing Shared Education was established, but it made no reference to integrated education in its mandate.

As a result, progress on integrated education has been painstakingly slow and has relied almost entirely on the initiative of motivated parents.

There are only 71 integrated schools across Northern Ireland. According to the school census of 2022/23 , out of the 355,156 total pupils enrolled in schools throughout Northern Ireland, only 8% attend an integrated school. In 2001, this figure stood at 4.2%. Integrated education provision has increased by just 4% in 23 years – should this be allowed to continue, further generations of young people could continue to be moulded by this socio-political climate of apathy toward segregation.

The current system of division designates a community affiliation on children, and their individual school unforms provide a marker so as to make clear to other young people which community they supposedly belong to.

Once in this divided education system, young people are then taught different versions of Northern Ireland’s shared history – with UK-based charity Parallel Histories reporting a bias between controlled and Catholic schools, with the majority of Catholic schools teaching the entirety of Northern Ireland’s conflict, while four out of 10 controlled state schools excluding it.

Political support for the reimagining of Northern Ireland’s conflicted education system has been lukewarm at best.

Parties, prioritising their electoral bases, have often neglected or opposed mechanisms to increase integrated provision, which led Alliance MLA Kellie Armstrong to table legislation that would create a statutory duty on the Department for Education to do more in 2022.

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The Democratic Unionist Party opposed Armstrong’s legislation and attempted to use the Petition of Concern – a mechanism in the Good Friday Agreement designed in good faith to protect minority rights – in a plot to block the proposals.

The legislation passed into law with 49 votes in favour and 38 in opposition – a monument to the inertia, apathy, and hostility toward a more secular and inclusive education system. Why? Due to the nature of Northern Ireland’s consociational system, political parties are still divided down community lines – unionist, nationalist, or other. A divided political system benefits from a divided society.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, both the Presbyterian and Catholic Church have opposed efforts to advance integrated education, each vying to maintain their own relevance and ethos.

It is often purported by opponents of integrated education that the current systems are already ‘unofficially’ integrated. While there are some examples of schools that are not formally designated as integrated hosting a mix of pupils from different community backgrounds, statistics from NISRA in 2021 confirm that 7.6% of pupils in controlled schools come from a Catholic background, while only 1.2% of pupils in Catholic maintained schools come from a Catholic background. By comparison, integrated schools boast a more even representation from the two main communities: on average 35.5% Protestant and 34.7% Catholic pupils in 2021/22.

A divided education system deprives young people of the opportunity to build a broader understanding of the complex post-conflict society to which they belong, and stymies wider reconciliation across communities.

A 2023 survey by think tank Pivotal demonstrated that 77% of the 250 young people surveyed believed that more integration in education would help build greater understanding between young people from different backgrounds, while 67% believed that a new integrated school system would help move Northern Ireland forward.

And it isn’t just young people that prefer integration. A 2023 Lucid Talk poll revealed that 66% of respondents “support integrated education or believe it should be the main model”.

All the while, segregation in the North endures. A recent publication by the Ulster University – titled ‘The Cost of Division in Northern Ireland’ – has estimated the additional cost of maintaining a “divided education system at £226 million each year, or over £600,000 every day of the year”.

It is reasonable to conclude that Northern Ireland’s divided education system is less about giving young people the best start in life, and more about the self-interest of two opposing traditions.

‘The Northern Ireland Troubles Legacy Act is the Most Callous Form of Politicking by the UK Government’

The Government has looked for political gain at the expense of victims and survivors of Northern Ireland’s 30-year conflict who have spent decades in pursuit of truth and justice, argues Emma DeSouza

The 2022 Integrated Education Act represents a step change, but integrated education is still at a disadvantage. Demand outstrips supply, integrated schools remain reliant on charitable funding from organisations such as the Integrated Education Fund, and changing to integrated status requires a grassroots campaign from local parents.

Since 2019, there have been 26 parental ballots in schools seeking to pivot to integrated status wherein parents returned a ‘yes’ response. The average ‘yes’ response percentage is 91%. Yet, opponents claim that there is not sufficient evidence of demand.

Education continues to be an under-utilised tool in peace and reconciliation. It is no panacea to all the ills and traumas that foment in a post-conflict society, but it is a foundation from which community cohesion may grow. With a new Labour Government comes a new opportunity to make good on the myriad unfulfilled promises of the Good Friday Agreement – a deal Labour helped broker.

Advancing integrated education should be a core objective of the new Secretary of State, in tandem with commitments to increase shared housing. Rather than have young people divided into opposing educational sectors that are dominated by religious and political identities, Northern Ireland should have one primary education system that is integrated as the norm.

How can we expect the next generation to take forward the peace process if they continue to be subject to the segregation and reinforced division that defined the experiences of their parents and grandparents? Rather than pitting opposing education sectors against one another, young people in Northern Ireland deserve the opportunity to navigate their formative years in the care of an inclusive system everyone can share.

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Article 24 - Education

1. States Parties recognize the right of persons with disabilities to education. With a view to realizing this right without discrimination and on the basis of equal opportunity, States Parties shall ensure an inclusive education system at all levels and lifelong learning directed to:

a. The full development of human potential and sense of dignity and self-worth, and the strengthening of respect for human rights, fundamental freedoms and human diversity;

b. The development by persons with disabilities of their personality, talents and creativity, as well as their mental and physical abilities, to their fullest potential;

c. Enabling persons with disabilities to participate effectively in a free society.

2. In realizing this right, States Parties shall ensure that:

a) Persons with disabilities are not excluded from the general education system on the basis of disability, and that children with disabilities are not excluded from free and compulsory primary education, or from secondary education, on the basis of disability;

b) Persons with disabilities can access an inclusive, quality and free primary education and secondary education on an equal basis with others in the communities in which they live;

c) Reasonable accommodation of the individual's requirements is provided;

d) Persons with disabilities receive the support required, within the general education system, to facilitate their effective education;

e) Effective individualized support measures are provided in environments that maximize academic and social development, consistent with the goal of full inclusion.

3. States Parties shall enable persons with disabilities to learn life and social development skills to facilitate their full and equal participation in education and as members of the community. To this end, States Parties shall take appropriate measures, including:

a) Facilitating the learning of Braille, alternative script, augmentative and alternative modes, means and formats of communication and orientation and mobility skills, and facilitating peer support and mentoring;

b) Facilitating the learning of sign language and the promotion of the linguistic identity of the deaf community;

c) Ensuring that the education of persons, and in particular children, who are blind, deaf or deafblind, is delivered in the most appropriate languages and modes and means of communication for the individual, and in environments which maximize academic and social development.

4. In order to help ensure the realization of this right, States Parties shall take appropriate measures to employ teachers, including teachers with disabilities, who are qualified in sign language and/or Braille, and to train professionals and staff who work at all levels of education. Such training shall incorporate disability awareness and the use of appropriate augmentative and alternative modes, means and formats of communication, educational techniques and materials to support persons with disabilities.

5. States Parties shall ensure that persons with disabilities are able to access general tertiary education, vocational training, adult education and lifelong learning without discrimination and on an equal basis with others. To this end, States Parties shall ensure that reasonable accommodation is provided to persons with disabilities.

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