Education Comparisons

Students in some countries perform much better on international achievement tests than students in other countries. Is this all due to socioeconomic and cultural differences, or do school systems make a difference? Our research based on the micro data of international student tests such as PISA and TIMSS suggests that school systems are indeed very important. In particular, the institutional structures such as external exams, school autonomy, competition, and tracking play a significant role in the international differences in student achievement - and thus in the efficiency and equity of school systems. Institutional structures define whether the stakeholders in the system have incentives to focus on improving student outcomes. In contrast to institutional structures, differences in expenditures, class size, and computer facilities play hardly a role in explaining cross-country achievement differences.