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In 2015, for the first time in its history, PISA (the Programme for International Student Assessment) asked teachers to describe the various aspects of their working environment and teaching practices. This paper examines how teacher, student, and school characteristics are related to science teachers' satisfaction in 19 PISA-participating countries and economies. The findings show that the most satisfied science teachers tend to be those who are initially motivated to become teachers. The results also highlight the positive relationship between science teachers' satisfaction and teacher collaboration, good disciplinary climate in science classes, availability of school resources, and the opportunity to participate in professional-development activities.

This paper assesses progress made in elementary education in Latin America from 1990-2000. Besides examining completion rates, it looks at four critical indicators: the extent to which repetition rates have declined over the decade; the extent of timely access and on-time ages of elementary school students; the level or elementary school students' learning achievement; and changes in expenditures and other inputs into elementary education. The paper focuses on four countries (Brazil, Chile, Costa Rica, and Honduras), which represent a wide spectrum of education conditions in the region. It uses data collected from a variety of sources, with the main criterion being reliable observations from 1999-2000. Results indicate that overall, the region has made progress in elementary education. More children complete their elementary schooling. They are also more likely to begin their schooling at appropriate ages, and they are less likely to repeat a grade. Most countries have increased their investments in education. However, 18 percent of children in the region do not complete 6 years of elementary education, and 16 percent repeat a grade. Progress in terms of learning has been slow or nonexistent. (Contains 29 bibliographic references.) (SM)

The Education Working Paper Series is produced by the Education Unit at the World Bank (HDNED). It provides an avenue for World Bank staff to publish and disseminate preliminary education findings to encourage discussion and exchange ideas within the World Bank and among the broader development community. Throughout the 1990s and into the present decade, Chile's educational system has undergone major changes. After a prolonged seventeen year authoritarian military regime, three successive democratic governments and the country's economic and political elites identified education as strategic for achieving economic development and a more just and integrated society. Public and private educational expenditure increased in the context of economic growth, political stability, and consensual policies--by as much as threefold. Between 1990 and 2003, major programs for both educational quality and equity improvement were agreed upon and implemented, based on a set of reforms to the curriculum, school hours, and institutional regulations (e.g. the teaching profession). This case study examines secondary educational reform in a favorable social and political context--one of consensus and continuity and in which education received high political priority and resources--by examining its policy process, contents, implementation, and results. The viewpoint is that of the government, in terms of: diagnosing needs and designing and implementing policies and programs, reforming institutions, interpreting results, building agreements, and negotiating conflict. (Contains 70 footnotes, 34 tables, 17 figures, and 2 boxes.) [An initial draft of this paper was developed as part of the collective effort that led to the publication of "Expanding Opportunities and Building Competencies for Young People: A New Agenda for Secondary Education" (World Bank 2005). For Number 2 in the Education Working Paper Series, see ED493641.]

The Education Working Paper Series is produced by the Education Unit at the World Bank (HDNED). It provides an avenue for World Bank staff to publish and disseminate preliminary education findings to encourage discussion and exchange ideas within the World Bank and among the broader development community. This Guide seeks to help those who design and manage innovation funds to do a better job. It strives to capture practical lessons and good practice associated with half a dozen World Bank financed innovation funds for higher education in Africa, Asia and Latin America. Staff who manage these innovation funds were brought together for this purpose in a workshop organized by the World Bank and hosted by the Ministry of Education and Culture of Mozambique in October 2005. For readers interested in more extensive exploration of worldwide experience with innovation funds, a list of additional references is provided at the end of this publication. Attached are: (1) World Bank Funded Higher Education Projects Containing Innovation Funds; and (2) Broad Impact Indicators for Innovation Funds. (Contains 5 tables.) [This publication was produced in conjunction with the World Bank's Africa Region Human Development Department (AFTHD) as part of the Africa Region Human Development Working Paper Series (Number 107).]

This paper estimates the impact of private education on the academic achievement of low-income students in Chile. To deal with selection bias, we use propensity score matching to compare the test scores of reduced-fee paying, low-income students in private voucher schools to those of similar students in public schools and free private voucher schools. Our results reveal that students in fee-charging private voucher schools score slightly higher than students in public schools. The difference in standardized test scores is approximately 10 points, a test score gain of 0.2 standard deviations. We find no difference in the academic achievement of students in the private voucher-fee charging treatment group relative to their counterparts in free private voucher schools. Variables used in the analysis are appended. (Contains 13 tables and 31 footnotes.) [Funding for this research was provided by Fondecyt, the Fulbright Commission, and PBCT-CONICYT Project CIE-05.]

This paper reviews studies from twelve less-industrialized countries on the relationship between textbook availability and academic achievement. The studies included a variety of measures, methodologies, and reporting procedures and focused on different achievement indicators, for example, math, science, reading, and language. The paper points out the differences in the way these studies were designed and the way the data were analyzed. It concludes that the availability of books appears to be the most consistent school factor in predicting academic achievement. It is positive in 15 of the 18 statistics (83 percent). The paper suggests four areas for future research and evaluation: (1) analysis of existing sets of survey information, (2) collection of new data from intervention experiments, (3) studies of book production and use in classrooms, and (4) exploration of questions on distribution, equity, and costs. (Author/LD)

The Teacher Education Study in Mathematics or TEDS-M is a study conducted under the aegis of the International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement (IEA). The lead research center for the study is the International Study Center at Michigan State University (ISC/MSU). The ISC/MSU worked from 2006 to 2011 with the International Study Center at the Australian Council for Educational Research (ACER) and the National Research Coordinators (NRCs) in 17 countries to produce this study. TEDS-M received funding from IEA, the United States of America National Science Foundation, and the collaborating countries. TEDS-M focused on how teachers are prepared to teach mathematics in primary and lower-secondary school, and studied the variation in the nature and impact of teacher education programs within and across countries. TEDS-M is the first cross-national study to provide data on the knowledge that future primary and lower-secondary school teachers have acquired in their mathematics teacher education. The key research questions for the study focused on the relationships between teacher education policies, institutional practices, and future teacher mathematics and pedagogy knowledge. Individual chapters contain figure, tables, footnotes and references. [For related reports, see "TEDS-M 2008 User Guide for the International Database. Supplement 1: International Version of the TEDS-M Questionnaires" (ED542382), "TEDS-M 2008 User Guide for the International Database. Supplement 2: National Adaptations of the TEDS-M Questionnaires" (ED542381), "TEDS-M 2008 User Guide for the International Database. Supplement 3: Variables Derived from the Educator and Future Teacher Data" (ED542385), and "TEDS-M 2008 User Guide for the International Database. Supplement 4: TEDS-M Released Mathematics and Mathematics Pedagogy Knowledge Assessment Items" (ED542384).] [This paper was edited with Maria Teresa Tatto. Contributors include Alena Becker, Ralph Carstens, Jean Dumais, Sabine Meinck, Plamen Mirazchiyski.]

This supplement contains all adaptations made by countries to the international version of the TEDS-M questionnaires under careful supervision of and approval by the TEDS-M International Study Center at Michigan State University. This information provides users of the TEDS-M International Database with a guide to evaluate the availability of internationally comparable data for use in secondary analyses. The adaptations to questionnaires are presented in four sections: Section 1: Institutional Program Questionnaire; Section 2: Educator Questionnaire; Section 3: Future Teacher Questionnaire (Parts A, B, and D); and Section 4: Adaptations to questions about education levels (ISCED classification). Each section contains adaptations specific to individual education systems followed by general or common cultural adaptations and variables. The listed adaptations include questions that countries were required to adapt, questions that were not administered, and questions that countries modified to suit their national context. [For the main report, "TEDS-M 2008 User Guide for the International Database," see ED542383. For related reports, see "TEDS-M 2008 User Guide for the International Database. Supplement 1: International Version of the TEDS-M Questionnaires" (ED542382), "TEDS-M 2008 User Guide for the International Database. Supplement 3: Variables Derived from the Educator and Future Teacher Data" (ED542385), and "TEDS-M 2008 User Guide for the International Database. Supplement 4: TEDS-M Released Mathematics and Mathematics Pedagogy Knowledge Assessment Items" (ED542384).] [This paper was edited with Maria Teresa Tatto.]

This paper presents the development and initial validation of new measures of critical thinking and noncognitive attributes that were designed to supplement existing standardized tests used in the admissions system for higher education in Chile. The importance of various facets of this process, including the establishment of technical rigor and political support of instrument development, piloting, and implementation is also emphasized because the results from this pilot study could affect the admissions process for some of the most prestigious and competitive universities in the country. The new instruments were pilot tested on a group of high school seniors (n = 1,568) and first-year college students (n = 1,443) during 2008. The sample included students from 20 secondary schools and 4 universities. Initial results were promising and showed that the measures were effectively assessing attributes not currently considered in the Chilean higher education admissions process. In addition, performance on the new instruments was found to be less correlated with students' sociodemographic characteristics than were measures currently used for undergraduate admissions. Appended are: (1) Factor Analysis of Critical Thinking Essay; (2) Factor Analysis of the Personal Reflection Instrument; (3) Pearson Partial Correlation Coefficients Among Standardized Questionnaires Controlling for Social Desirability; (4) Factor Analysis of All Likert Scale Self-Ratings' Items Combined; and (5) Factor Analysis of Teacher Survey. (Contains 19 tables, 4 figures and 20 notes.)

Countless policy makers and researchers have flocked to observe the education systems of Hong Kong, Shanghai and Singapore, which are among the top five performers in the PISA (Programme for International Student Assessment) 2009 reading assessment. Many visitors have been particularly impressed by the fact that these education systems succeed in embracing the social heterogeneity in their student populations that is intrinsic to large urban environments--something that many other education systems struggle to achieve. But large cities do not just pose social challenges to educators; they also offer important advantages for schools, such as a richer cultural environment, a more attractive workplace for teachers, more school choice, and better job prospects that can help to motivate students. New analyses from PISA highlight these advantages, showing that, in several countries, students from urban areas (defined here as cities with over a million inhabitants) do as well as students in PISA's top performing city-states, even if the different push and pull factors of urban environments play out very differently across countries. This paper reports that: (1) Large cities are generally educational assets: in most countries, performance improves dramatically when only the scores of students in urban areas are considered, although this is not the case in some countries, such as Belgium, Slovenia, the United Kingdom and the United States; and (2) When comparing the performance of students in large cities, students in Portugal and Israel perform as well as those in Singapore, and students in Poland perform as well as those in Hong Kong.

This paper reports that between 2008 and 2009, unemployment rates across OECD countries increased among people at all educational levels, but rose to especially troubling heights among people without an upper secondary education. In 2009, the average employment rate across OECD countries was much higher for individuals with a tertiary (i.e. higher) education--indicating a better match between the skills these people have and the skills the labour market required. Between 2008 and 2009, the earnings advantage for people with a tertiary education remained strong in OECD countries. In some countries, earnings inequality between people with a tertiary education and those without an upper secondary education widened even further.

Chile has an outstanding record in reducing poverty, having cut the poverty rate in half in the 11 years ended 1998. Poverty is a multi-dimensional concept, including both income and access to social services and education, as well as such intangibles as empowerment and social capital. This study presents a quantitative assessment of "deficits" in education, health, and housing during 1990 and 1998, by comparing access to these services with thresholds based on widely accepted standards. Government spending on education increased substantially during this period, resulting in lower dropout rates and a decline in the percentage of students below their expected grade level. Housing deficits also declined significantly. Combining deficits in the three social sectors with a measure of income poverty reveals that while only 1.5 percent of households had deficits in all dimensions, 49 percent had at least one deficit. Income inequality in Chile remains high by international standards, but social programs help transfer resources from richer to poorer parts of the population. Analysis of such transfers indicates that subsidies to education were the main contributors to reducing equality (60 percent of total), followed by health care (26 percent). Unemployment is a severe problem for younger and poorer workers. Chile's extensive system of job training has been relatively effective in providing secure employment but may not be reaching the poorest groups. Chileans of indigenous origin are a special concern, with chronic high rates of poverty, lower income, lower levels of schooling, and tensions with the government over rural land and water rights. The main report contains 25 references and 24 data tables and figures. A second section contains seven background papers: "Updated Income Distribution and Poverty Measures for Chile: 1987-98" (Julie Litchfield); "The Distributional Impact of Social Expenditure: Chile 1990-98" (David Bravo, Dante Contreras, Isabel Millan); "Incorporating Social Services in the Measurement of Poverty" (Osvaldo Larranaga); "The Targeting of Government Programs in Chile: A Quantitative and Qualitative Assessment" (Carine Clert, Quentin Wodon); "Government Programs for the Insertion of Youth and Women in Chile's Labor Market: A Discussion" (Rodrigo Castro-Fernandez, Carine Clert, Quentin Wodon); "Protecting the Unemployed in Chile: From State Assistance to Individual Insurance?" (Rodrigo Castro-Fernandez, Quentin Wodon); and "Indigenous Peoples in Chile: Current Situation and Policy Issues" (Estanislao Gacitua-Mario). (SV)

Reviews the problems and strengths of an English for Science and Technology teacher-training course at the University of Chile (Santiago). Since most students come to the course with a humanities background, coupled with a "traditional" or "general" English background, they have the following types of problems: attitudinal, conceptual, linguistic, methodological, and organizational. (SL)