Constructing and Utilizing the World Education Reform Database

• In Event: Education System Worldwide: Innovations in Education Policy Research

Abstract

Systematic education reforms are widespread and common; virtually every nation articulates and embarks on a path of education reform. This research aims to understand how education policies, priorities, and strategies have evolved in the last 45 years, guided by three research questions. 1) How has the extent and substantive foci of education reforms worldwide changed over time? 2) What are the political, economic and socio-cultural conditions under which education reforms are likely to emerge? 3) What are the intended and unintended consequences of education reforms? Drawing data from national education reports produced by international organizations, we have built the World Education Reform Database (WERD) that consists over 10,000 education reforms from 183 countries that span a period from 1960 to 2021, yielding a globally comprehensive list of education reforms. Then, we coded these education reform measures and converted them to quantitative data in order analyze number of reforms by thematic area and/or subsector of education, such as: 1) sub-levels (e.g. early childhood, primary, secondary, vocational and technical education, tertiary, adult education, and non-formal education); 2) content area or subjects (e.g. language education, mathematics, sciences, technology/computers, social sciences, and skills and competency); 3) policy areas (e.g. assessments, accreditation, monitoring and evaluation, research, structure, financing, etc.); 4) thematic areas (e.g. expansion, quality, human rights, economic productivity); and 5) target population or areas (e.g. teachers, marginalized populations, general policy, references to external standards, etc.) Each reform measure is associated with multiple codes that can be easily manipulated for statistical analysis. In this presentation, we present key preliminary findings, explain the procedure for constructing WERD, and discuss the implications of research on education policy.

Authors

• Rie Kijima, University of Toronto

• Patricia Bromley, Stanford University