IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/injoed/v60y2018icp60-79.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

How international tests fail to inform policy: The unsolved mystery of Australia’s steady decline in PISA scores

Author

Listed:
  • Morsy, Leila
  • Khavenson, Tatiana
  • Carnoy, Martin

Abstract

•Argues that explaining national declines in test scores is as important as explaining increases.•Interviews with Australian experts on reasons for Australia’s large decline in PISA scores.•Uses microdata from PISA and TIMSS scores to test expert explanations for decline.•Finds that decline is pervasive across Australian states and social class groups.•Finds that there is no clear explanation for the large decrease in Australia’s PISA scores.

Suggested Citation

  • Morsy, Leila & Khavenson, Tatiana & Carnoy, Martin, 2018. "How international tests fail to inform policy: The unsolved mystery of Australia’s steady decline in PISA scores," International Journal of Educational Development, Elsevier, vol. 60(C), pages 60-79.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:injoed:v:60:y:2018:i:c:p:60-79
    DOI: 10.1016/j.ijedudev.2017.10.018
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0738059317302778
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.ijedudev.2017.10.018?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Gonzalo Castex & Evgenia Kogan Dechter, 2014. "The Changing Roles of Education and Ability in Wage Determination," Journal of Labor Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 32(4), pages 685-710.
    2. Steven G. Rivkin & Jeffrey C. Schiman, 2015. "Instruction Time, Classroom Quality, and Academic Achievement," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 125(588), pages 425-448, November.
    3. Oecd, 2011. "Private schools: Who Benefits?," PISA in Focus 7, OECD Publishing.
    4. Victor Lavy, 2015. "Do Differences in Schools' Instruction Time Explain International Achievement Gaps? Evidence from Developed and Developing Countries," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 125(588), pages 397-424, November.
    5. Steven G. Rivkin & Jeffrey C. Schiman, 2015. "Instruction Time, Classroom Quality, and Academic Achievement," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 0(588), pages 425-448, November.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Pierre Lefebvre & Philip Merrigan, 2022. "Why Subsidize Independent Schools? Estimating the Effect of a Unique Canadian Schooling Model on Educational Attainment," Mathematics, MDPI, vol. 10(4), pages 1-22, February.
    2. Tommaso Agasisti & Aleksei Egorov & Daria Zinchenko & Oleg Leshukov, 2018. "Universities’ Efficiency And Regional Economic Short-Run Growth: Empirical Evidence From Russia," HSE Working papers WP BRP 203/EC/2018, National Research University Higher School of Economics.
    3. Gigi Foster, 2018. "Education Policy Reforms to Boost Productivity in Australia," Australian Economic Review, The University of Melbourne, Melbourne Institute of Applied Economic and Social Research, vol. 51(2), pages 253-261, June.
    4. Liu, Ji & Steiner-Khamsi, Gita, 2020. "Human Capital Index and the hidden penalty for non-participation in ILSAs," International Journal of Educational Development, Elsevier, vol. 73(C).

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Nicola Fuchs-Schündeln & Dirk Krueger & André Kurmann & Etienne Lalé & Alexander Ludwig & Irina Popova, 2023. "The Fiscal and Welfare Effects of Policy Responses to the Covid-19 School Closures," IMF Economic Review, Palgrave Macmillan;International Monetary Fund, vol. 71(1), pages 35-98, March.
    2. Thompson, Paul N., 2021. "Is four less than five? Effects of four-day school weeks on student achievement in Oregon," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 193(C).
    3. Huebener, Mathias & Kuger, Susanne & Marcus, Jan, 2017. "Increased instruction hours and the widening gap in student performance," EconStor Open Access Articles and Book Chapters, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, vol. 47, pages 15-34.
    4. Zakharov, Andrey & Carnoy, Martin, 2021. "Does teaching to the test improve student learning?," International Journal of Educational Development, Elsevier, vol. 84(C).
    5. Barrios-Fernández, Andrés & Bovini, Giulia, 2021. "It’s time to learn: School institutions and returns to instruction time," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 80(C).
    6. Niki, Minae, 2024. "Does the reduction in instruction time affect student achievement and motivation? Evidence from Japan," Japan and the World Economy, Elsevier, vol. 70(C).
    7. Heller-Sahlgren, Gabriel, 2018. "Smart but unhappy: Independent-school competition and the wellbeing-efficiency trade-off in education," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 62(C), pages 66-81.
    8. Maria A. Cattaneo & Chantal Oggenfuss & Stefan C. Wolter, 2017. "The more, the better? The impact of instructional time on student performance," Education Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 25(5), pages 433-445, September.
    9. Nicola Fuchs-Schünde & Dirk Krueger & Alexander Ludwig & Irina Popova, 2022. "The Long-Term Distributional and Welfare Effects of Covid-19 School Closures," The Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 132(645), pages 1647-1683.
    10. Ludger Woessmann, 2016. "The Importance of School Systems: Evidence from International Differences in Student Achievement," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 30(3), pages 3-32, Summer.
    11. Goulas, Sofoklis & Griselda, Silvia & Megalokonomou, Rigissa, 2023. "Compulsory class attendance versus autonomy," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 212(C), pages 935-981.
    12. Ryu, Hanbyul & Helfand, Steven M. & Moreira, Roni Barbosa, 2020. "Starting early and staying longer: The effects of a Brazilian primary schooling reform on student performance," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 130(C).
    13. Simon Briole, 2019. "From Teacher Quality to Teaching Quality: Instructional Productivity and Teaching Practices in the US," Working Papers halshs-01993616, HAL.
    14. Ana B. Ruiz & Mariano Luque & Oscar D. Marcenaro-Gutierrez, 2022. "On the use of Synthetic Indexes Based on Multi-Criteria Decision Making to Study the Efficiency of Teachers," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 163(3), pages 1269-1300, October.
    15. Lee Elliot Major & Andrew Eyles & Stephen Machin, 2021. "Learning loss since lockdown: variation across the home nations," CEP Covid-19 Analyses cepcovid-19-023, Centre for Economic Performance, LSE.
    16. Major, Lee Elliott & Eyles, Andrew & Machin, Stephen, 2021. "Unequal learning and labour market losses in the crisis: consequences for social mobility," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 114413, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    17. Del Boca Daniela & Monfardini Chiara & See Sarah Grace, 2023. "Early Childhood Education Attendance and Students’ Later Outcomes in Europe," The B.E. Journal of Economic Analysis & Policy, De Gruyter, vol. 23(4), pages 1081-1136, October.
    18. Ismael Sanz & J .D. Tenaa, 2020. "A Natural Experiment on the Effect of Instruction Time and Quality: Lessons for the Covid-19 Outbreak," Working Papers 202032, University of Liverpool, Department of Economics.
    19. Jorge M. Agüero & Marta Favara & Catherine Porter & Alan Sánchez, 2021. "Do More School Resources Increase Learning Outcomes? Evidence from an extended school-day reform," Working papers 2021-06, University of Connecticut, Department of Economics.
    20. Bingley, Paul & Heinesen, Eskil & Krassel, Karl Fritjof & Kristensen, Nicolai, 2018. "The Timing of Instruction Time: Accumulated Hours, Timing and Pupil Achievement," IZA Discussion Papers 11807, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:injoed:v:60:y:2018:i:c:p:60-79. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.journals.elsevier.com/international-journal-of-educational-development .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.