Based on the results of PISA 2000, this report looks how the schools that students attend make a difference in performance; the impact of school climate, school policies and school resources on quality and equity and the relationship between the structure of systems and quality and equity.

The OECD Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) examines what students know in reading, mathematics and science, and what they can do with what they know. his is one of six volumes that present the results of the PISA 2018 survey, the seventh round of the triennial assessment. Volume V, Effective Policies, Successful Schools, analyses schools and school systems and their relationship with education outcomes more generally.

This wrap-up volume of the PISA 2000 project presents the key findings, including fascinating findings on reading performance, characteristics of successful students, differences between the interests and study habits of boys and girls, the effect of school climate and resources on student performance, and the effect of school autonomy on performance. The book includes country-by-country profiles that provide information on student performance, socio-economic status, student characteristics, school characteristics, and system characteristics.

This report examines several aspects of student engagement at school. The results indicate that the prevalence of disaffected students varies considerably both within and among schools in most countries, and that this variation is not attributable solely to students’ family backgrounds.

The report links the results from the OECD PISA 2000 survey to qualitative evidence on important public policy measures in six countries that performed well in PISA. It supports the ongoing shift in policy focus from educational inputs to learning outcomes.

Inequality limits young people's chances in life. Yet equality is the basis of democracy and Article 14 of the European Convention on Human Rights secures the rights and freedoms of the young "without discrimination on any ground". Research shows that inequality - in opportunities, wealth or health, for example - is widespread in Europe and that the citizens of richer countries do not necessarily have healthier profiles than those of poorer countries. The citizens of egalitarian countries, on the other hand, have the highest life expectancy. This book examines many aspects of inequality and opportunity for young people including schooling, employment, social exclusion, labour migration, trafficking, disability, cultural and religious discrimination, youth work, and opposition and resistance.

This book is a critical assessment of the knowledge base on educational effectiveness, covering a period of five decades of research. It formulates a “lean” theory of good schooling, and identifies and explains instances of “ineffectiveness”, such as low effect sizes of malleable conditions, for which expectations are highly strung. The book presents a systemic outlook on educational effectiveness and improvement, as it starts out from an integrated multi-level model that comprises system level, school level and instructional conditions. It offers a classification of school improvement strategies and scenarios for system level educational improvement. Above all, the analysis is very systematic, comprehensive and strongly grounded in theory. The book includes a case study analysis of various strands of improvement-oriented educational policy in the Netherlands as an illustration of some of the arguments used.