International instructional systems: How England measures up.

Although England was not included in the International Instructional Systems Study because it was not a high-performing jurisdiction by the Study's definition, contributors largely were England-based. Analysing the Study's nine overall aspects of instructional systems, this paper finds that England is out of step with many of the high-performing jurisdictions, largely deliberately and at the behest of recent and current governments. It is at the deep end of centralisation, its curriculum is not much integrated, and its accountability system is high-stakes test and examinations based coupled by an exacting inspection system. Many of the changes are recent and therefore have not had a chance to bed down, so whether they will result in improvements in international tests such as PISA, TIMSS and PIRLS remains to be seen. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]