Research Blog

The merits, or otherwise, of school voucher programmes have been the subject of (often heated) debate for many years. The issues are complex, and comprehensive, balanced and fair appraisals of the evidence of their effectiveness, potential adverse effects, and trade-offs, are rare.

Over the past decade, international comparisons of education have assumed an increasingly important role in domestic policymaking. The big international surveys – principally PISA and TIMSS – have come to dominate thinking, not least through league tables that rank countries based on their pupils’ performances.

Randomised controlled trials (RCTs) are a growing phenomenon in education research. And the debate now appears to have moved beyond the question of whether or not such trials are desirable to one about whether or not it is possible to run robust trials in practice.

Differences in the quality of education are large, both within and between countries. A recently published study by Nicholas Bloom, Renata Lemos, Raffaella Sadun, and John Van Reenen (free working paper version here) suggests that those differences can partly be explained by management quality.

‘Character education’ is one of the current hot topics in the education policy world. Personality characteristics such as resilience, conscientiousness, and sociability are thought to have an impact on educational attainment and career success.