Does International Education Policy Benchmarking Work?

• In Event: Power and Innovation in International Education Policies, Practices, and Pedagogies

Abstract

This study examines international education benchmarking between the Eastern and Western nations, including test-driven school accountability policies in the West (U.S. and England) and ranking-driven world-class university policies in the East (Korea, Japan, and China). National profiles of strengths and weaknesses in K-12 vs. higher education, as measured by increasingly competitive international testing and ranking results, are related to their benchmarking efforts in different areas of education systems. The study tracks changes in observed policy outcomes through HLM trend analyses of key performance indicators: 2000-2012 Program for International Student Assessment (PISA) data and 2003-13 Academic Ranking of World Universities (ARWU) data. The results show volatile and heterogeneous policy outcomes among the nations.

Authors

• Jaekyung Lee, University at Buffalo - SUNY

• Keqiao Liu, University at Buffalo - SUNY