1 Building human capital and social cohesion through schools Cape Town, South Africa July 2005 Barry McGaw Director for Education Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development Ubuntu – Humanity, Community, Responsibility International Convention of Principals

2 Schools as intellectual institutions: Building human capital

3 Increasing proportion of population stays to end of secondary education.

4 Upper secondary education attainment (%) Source: OECD (2004) Education at Glance, Table A2.2, p st 10 th 11 th 3 rd 13 th 22 nd 1 st 24 th OECD Other

5 Many countries spend a great deal on education.

6 % GDP spent on educational institutions Source: OECD (2004) Education at Glance, Table B2.1a, p.229. OECD Other

7 Countries differ in educational quality: Mathematics performance (PISA 2003)

8 Key features of PISA 2003 assessment r Information collected l Subject matter coverage –Mathematics, Science, Reading, Cross-curricular competencies l Volume of questions –3½ hours of mathematics assessment –1 hour for each of reading, science and problem solving l From each student –2 hours on paper-and-pencil tasks (subset of all questions) –½ hour for questionnaire on background, learning habits, learning environment, engagement and motivation l From school principals –questionnaire (school demography, learning environment quality) r Geographic coverage l 275, year-old students randomly sampled l 43 countries in 2000/2000+, 41 in 2003, 59 in 2006

9 % at mathematics proficiency levels (OECD) Level 3 Level 1 Below Level 1 Level 6 Level 5 Level 4 Level 2 OECD (2004), Learning for tomorrow’s world, Table 2.5a, p.354. USA: 2% at Level 6 26% below Level 2 10% below Level 1 Finland: 7% at Level 6 7% below Level 2 1.5% below Level 1 Korea: 8% at Level 6 10% below Level 2 2.5% below Level 1

10 OECD (2004), Learning for tomorrow’s world, Table 2.5a, p.354. % at mathematics proficiency levels (All) Level 4 Level 3 Level 2 Level 5 Non OECD shaded. Below Level 1 Level 1 Level 6

11 Countries differ in educational quality: Problem solving (PISA 2003)

12 % at problem solving proficiency levels (OECD) Level 1 Level 3 Level 2 OECD (2004), Problem solving for tomorrow’s world, Table 2.1, p.144. Below Level 1

13 % at problem solving proficiency levels (All) Level 1 Level 3 Level 2 Non-OECD shaded Below Level 1 OECD (2004), Problem solving for tomorrow’s world, Table 2.1, p.144.

14 Countries differ in educational equity: Reading (PISA 2000)

15 Equity in reading literacy (PISA 2000) Social Advantage PISA Index of social background Each dot in this diagram represents 20,000 students in the OECD area. High Reading literacy Low Source: OECD (2001) Knowledge and skills for life, Appendix B1, Table 8.1, p.308 Social background has a strong relationship with student performance (Parental occupation, wealth, cultural resources, parental education, family structure, immigrant status) But disadvantaged background is not necessarily associated with poor performance. Nor advantaged with good performance.

16 Equity in reading literacy (PISA 2000) Source: OECD (2001) Knowledge and skills for life, Appendix B1, Table 8.1, p.308 Social Advantage PISA Index of social background Low Reading literacy High Finland Germany United States United Kingdom Korea This gap is in the order of 3 years of schooling. Steeper slope = less equitable results

17 Equity in reading literacy (PISA 2000) Social equity (OECD regression slope – country regression slope) Reading literacy Source: OECD (2001) Knowledge and skills for life, Table 2.3a, p.253. High quality Low equity High quality High equity Low quality Low equity Low quality High equity

18 Reading literacy vs social equity: All Source: OECD, UNESCO (2003) Literacy skills for the world of tomorrow, Table 6.1a, pp Social equity (OECD regression slope – country regression slope) Reading literacy

19 Countries differ in extent and source of variation among students: Mathematics (PISA 2003)

20 Variation in mathematics performance OECD (2004), Learning for tomorrow’s world, Table 4.1a, p.383. Variation in OECD as a whole = 100