School Accountability, Autonomy and Choice around the World

Accountability, autonomy, and choice are now the watchwords of education reformers around the globe. This book provides new evidence from the international PISA test on whether students perform better in school systems with such institutional measures in place. It also provides a theoretical framework for considering such reforms and summarizes previous international evidence. The results confirm that various policies promoting accountability, autonomy, and choice are strongly associated with higher achievement for students from both disadvantaged and advantaged backgrounds. In particular, choice through public funding for private schools is associated with both higher performance overall and higher equality of opportunity.