This monograph reports on South Africa's performance in TIMMS 2003 relative to 50 other countries; describes the performance of different groups of learners in South Africa; and provides contextual information about teachers, schools and the curriculum. The report concludes with recommendations for strategic interventions to improve South African learners' performance in mathematics and science. The findings contained in this report offer valuable insights to academics, policymakers, curriculum-planners and teachers and those involved in the development of education in South Africa.

This volume brings together many of South Africa’s leading scholars of education and covers the full range of South African schooling: from financing and policy reform to in-depth discussions of literacy, numeracy, teacher development and curriculum change. The book moves beyond a historical analysis and provides an inside view of the questions South African scholars are now grappling with: Are there different and preferential equilibria we have not yet thought of or explored, and if so what are they? In practical terms, how does one get to a more equitable distribution of teachers, resources and learning outcomes? While decidedly local, these questions resonate throughout the developing world. South Africa today is the most unequal country in the world. The richest 10% of South Africans lay claim to 65% of national income and 90% of national wealth. This is the largest 90-10 gap in the world, and one that is reflected in the schooling system. Two decades after apartheid it is still the case that the life chances of most South African children are determined not by their ability or the result of hard-work and determination, but instead by the colour of their skin, the province of their birth, and the wealth of their parents. Looking back on almost three decades of democracy in South Africa, it is this stubbornness of inequality and its patterns of persistence that demands explanation, justification and analysis. "This is a landmark book on basic education in South Africa, an essential volume for those interested in learning outcomes and their inequality in South Africa. The various chapters present conceptually and empirically sophisticated analyses of learning outcomes across divisions of race, class, and place. The book brings together the wealth of decades of research output from top quality researchers to explore what has improved, what has not, and why." Prof Lant Pritchett, Harvard University “There is much wisdom in this collection from many of the best education analysts in South Africa. No surprise that they conclude that without a large and sustained expansion in well-trained teachers, early childhood education, and adequate school resources, South Africa will continue to sacrifice its people’s future to maintaining the privileges of the few.” Prof Martin Carnoy, Stanford University "Altogether, one can derive from this very valuable volume, if not an exact blueprint for the future, then certainly at least a crucial and evidence-based itinerary for the next few steps.” Dr Luis Crouch, RTI

In a changing world that demands new skills, a vital concern of public education is the gap in academic performance between low- and high-achieving students. There is no excuse for the achievement gaps that persist among poor and minority students in schools today. All students can succeed at high levels, regardless of race, ethnicity and economic background. Several countries have successfully confronted inequities in achievement, demonstrating that any school can close achievement gaps regardless of the community they serve, and that all students can achieve at high levels when they are provided with the right opportunities. This book is about understanding what factors selected countries have applied to promote progress and what factors contribute to progress in the closing of achievement gaps. It is about creating opportunities for all students. Closing the Achievement Gap from an International Perspective: Transforming STEM for Effective Education is written in response to rising concern for the improvement of quality education – especially in mathematics and science – provided to all students. The contributors take a systematic view of the subject, beginning with a cross-national analysis of teacher qualifications and the achievement gap that spans 50 countries. The content of the book is organized in sections describing education around the globe: North and South America, Europe, Asia, Africa and Australia. Individual chapters offer close-up analysis of efforts to close achievement gaps in the U.S. and Canada, Mexico, England, Turkey, China, South Africa and Australia among many others. The contributors provide information on the achievement gap in mathematics and science, review current research, and present strategies for fostering improvement and raising performance with a focus on school-related variables that adversely affect educational outcomes among poor and minority students. The authors of the various chapters looked at how students’ data correlated with classroom practices, teacher instruction and academic programming, as part of their efforts to measure student growth. Qualitative and quantitative data are provided to provide evidence not only of the problem, but also for the solution. The book concludes with a chapter on promoting equality and equity to shrink the achievement gap worldwide.

In recent years, funding agencies like the Institute of Educational Sciences and the National Science Foundation have increasingly emphasized large-scale studies with experimental and quasi-experimental designs looking for 'objective truths'. Educational researchers have recently begun to use large-scale studies to understand what really works, from developing interventions, to validation studies of the intervention, and then to efficacy studies and the final "scale-up" for large implementation of an intervention. Moreover, modeling student learning developmentally, taking into account cohort factors, issues of socioeconomics, local political context and the presence or absence of interventions requires the use of large data sets, wherein these variables can be sampled adequately and inferences made. Inroads in quantitative methods have been made in the psychometric and sociometric literatures, but these methods are not yet common knowledge in the mathematics education community. In fact, currently there is no volume devoted to discussion of issues related to large-scale studies and to report findings from them. This volume is unique as it directly discusses methodological issue in large-scale studies and reports empirical data from large-scale studies.

Twenty Years of Education Transformation in Gauteng 1994 to 2014: An Independent Review presents a collection of 15 important essays on different aspects of education in Gauteng since the advent of democracy in 1994. These essays talk to what a provincial education department does and how and why it does these things - whether it be about policy, resourcing or implementing projects. Each essay is written by one or more specialist in the relevant focus area. The book is written to be accessible to the general reader as well as being informative and an essential resource for the specialist reader. It sheds light on aspects of how a provincial department operates and why and with what consequences certain decisions have been made in education over the last 20 turbulent years, both nationally and provincially. There has been no attempt to fit the book's chapters into a particular ideological or educational paradigm, and as a result the reader will find differing views on various aspects of the Gauteng Department of Education's present and past. We leave the reader to decide to what extent the GDE has fulfilled its educational mandate over the last 20 years.

Discusses the uses of international achievement study results as a tool for national progress as well as an obstacle. This title provides recommendations for ways that international achievement data can be used in real-world policymaking situations. It also discusses what the future of international achievement studies holds.

The world is not an equal place. There are high- and low-income countries and high- and low-income households. For each group, there are differential educational opportunities, leading to differential educational outcomes and differential labor market opportunities. This pattern often reproduces the privileges and inequalities of groups in a society. This book explores this differentiation in education from a social justice lens. Comparing the United States and South Africa, this book analyzes each country’s developmental thinking on education, from human capital and human rights approaches, in both primary and higher education. The enclosed contributions draw from different disciplines including legal studies, sociology, psychology, computer science and public policy.

The International Guide to Student Achievement brings together and critically examines the major influences shaping student achievement today. There are many, often competing, claims about how to enhance student achievement, raising the questions of "What works?" and "What works best?" World-renowned bestselling authors, John Hattie and Eric M. Anderman have invited an international group of scholars to write brief, empirically-supported articles that examine predictors of academic achievement across a variety of topics and domains. Rather than telling people what to do in their schools and classrooms, this guide simply provides the first-ever compendium of research that summarizes what is known about the major influences shaping students’ academic achievement around the world. Readers can apply this knowledge base to their own school and classroom settings. The 150+ entries serve as intellectual building blocks to creatively mix into new or existing educational arrangements and aim for quick, easy reference. Chapter authors follow a common format that allows readers to more seamlessly compare and contrast information across entries, guiding readers to apply this knowledge to their own classrooms, their curriculums and teaching strategies, and their teacher training programs.

It argues that the main purpose of educational research is to improve student learning, and that international comparative studies are no exception.

The National Assessments of Educational Achievement Series introduces readers to key concepts and issues related to assessments of student achievement levels. The first volume focuses on policy issues which should be addressed when designing and carrying out a national assessment. It features country case studies, and descriptions of major international and regional assessment programs. The remaining books in the series cover test development, sampling, data cleaning, statistics, report writing and using national assessment results to improve educational quality.