A World of Worries

In return for getting to the Capitol Hill Club by 9am on Tuesday, I got an excellent breakfast (there was salmon) and a snappy mini-disk that held OECD’s 421-page 2006 Education at “Glance”. While this tome of international education information might not have gotten a ton of press in the United States, (perhaps because there’s not much new in it – we’re still treading water while other countries move up in the charts), it has gotten some interesting international coverage, showing that we’re not the only country with worries.

Britain and Canada’s concerns sounds familiar, while the talk in Ireland is about class size. The Czech Republic is concerned about low college spending, and, on the other hemisphere, Australia and Korea are talking about their high college fees (though they are still lower than the U.S.). Finally, Germany and Israel are looking for all-around change.

Evidence that around the world, the OECD data will be used (wisely, and probably also unwisely) to pursue a variety of education reform agendas.