This book investigates the diversity of educational provision within the various parts of the United Kingdom. Building on the expertise of David Raffe and colleagues at the University of Edinburgh, who have been researching what they call ‘home internationals’ in education and who contribute two chapters, the volume includes studies of Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland. The aim is to encourage reflection on the essential differences and the binding similarities of the systems which make up educational provision in the United Kingdom.

Volumes have been written about the value of more and better education. But is there sufficient evidence to support the commonly held belief that we, as individuals and as a community, should be investing more in education? This book explores that question in unprecedented detail, drawing on empirical evidence from an impressive array of sources. While much of the focus is on the educational system in the United Kingdom, the book offers lessons of international applicability. A state-of-the-art compendium on education policy and its impact on educational attainment, the book examines numerous large-scale data sources on individual pupils and schools. The questions the book considers are far-ranging: How much do teachers matter for children's educational attainment? What payoff do people get from acquiring more education when they enter the labor market? How well do education systems function to provide employers with the skills they want? The book concludes by issuing some strong policy recommendations and offering an evaluation of what does and does not work in improving educational attainment. The recommendations address such issues as school effectiveness, education financing, individual investment in education, government education initiatives, higher education, labor market rewards, and lifelong learning.

"Explores the development of education, key issues and contemporary debates in England, Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland, the Crown Dependencies and British Overseas Territories"--

An academy is a new type of school that is publicly funded, supported by one or more sponsors and operates independently of the local authority. Their aim is to raise achievement standards in deprived areas by replacing poorly performing schools. By 2006 46 were operating and there are plans for 200 academies to be opened by 2010. This report looks at the capital and running costs, new academy buildings, academic performance, their contribution to tackling social depravation, and the management of the programme. The value for money assessment is that academic progress means that the Academy programme is on track to deliver good value for money. However to achieve this goal it needs to pay attention both to managing the capital costs and the sustainability of funding and performance.

Nicholas Barr is the main expert in the funding of higher education in Britain, and has been active both in commentating on the process and in its implementation.

This book examines the impact of devolution on Scottish and UK higher education systems, including institutional governance, approaches to tuition fees and student support, cross-border student flows, widening access, internationalisation and research policy.

The growth of education systems and the construction of the state have always been connected. The processes of governing education systems always utilized data through a range of administrative records, pupil testing, efficiency surveys and international projects. By the late twentieth century, quantitative data had gained enormous influence in education systems through the work of the OECD, the European Commission and national system agencies. The creation and flow of data has become a powerful governing tool in education. Comparison between pupils, costs, regions and states has grown ever more important. The visualization of this data, and its range of techniques, has changed over time, especially in its movement from an expert to a public act. Data began to be explained to a widening audience to shape its behaviours and its institutions. The use of data in education systems and the procedures by which the data are constructed has not been a major part of the study of education, nor of the histories of education systems. This volume of contributions, drawn from different times and spaces in education, will be a useful contribution to comparative historical studies.