Intro -- About the Authors -- Preface -- 1. The Functions and Role of Modern Education Systems: A Brief Summary -- 1.1 The Origins of Modern Education -- 1.2 The Social Function of Modern Education -- 1.3 To What Extent Do People Care about Education? -- 1.4 The Goals of Education in the Knowledge Society -- 1.5 Digitalisation: A Game Changer -- 1.6 COVID-19: An Unexpected Disruption and an Accelerator of Change -- 1.7 Why Are Reforms So Difficult? -- 2. Education and Ideology (Or Is It the Other Way Around?) -- 2.1. Ideology and Education: What Do We Mean? -- 2.2 The Role of the State as an Education Provider -- 2.3 Equity and the Function of Education: Equaliser or Enabler? -- 2.4 The Shape of Education: Architecture, Teachers, Curricula and Assessments -- 2.5 Funding of Education and Ideology -- 2.6 Conclusions -- 3. The Governance of Education Systems: How They Constrain or Facilitate the Implementation of Reforms -- 3.1 Why Governance Matters -- 3.2 The Power of Governments -- 3.3 The Dilemmas of Multi-Level States: When Power Is Shared between Different Levels of Government -- 3.4 The Process of Decentralisation: A Bumpy Road -- 3.5 Funding. Who Raises the Money and Who Spends it? -- 3.6 The Role of Stakeholders -- 3.7 A Special Case: Governance of VET Systems -- 3.8. Conclusions -- 4. ILSAs: Do They Count? -- 4.1 What Do International Metrics Measure? -- 4.2. ILSAs: What Do They Tell Us? -- Differences between and within Countries -- 4.3. ILSAs: Trends Over Time -- 4.4. Evidence from ILSAs on Effective Policies -- 4.5. Conclusions -- 5. Does the Evidence Count? -- 5.1. What Can We Learn from Top-Performing Countries? -- 5.2. What Can We Learn from Low Performers? The Latin American Story -- 5.3. What Have Countries Learned from the PISA Shock? -- 5.4. What Can We Learn from Countries that Improve in Europe?.

5.5. What Can We Learn from Countries where PISA Has a Huge Media Impact but No Policy Reactions? -- 5.6 Conclusions -- 6. Spain: An Inside Story -- 6.1. A Rough Start -- 6.2. Laws, Laws, Laws …. Are They Any Good? -- 6.3. An Education Reform in the Middle of a Storm -- 6.4. Aims, Policies and Impact of the Education Reform -- 6.5. Back to the Future -- 6.6. What Has Been the Role of PISA? -- 7. Education Reforms: The Interaction between Ideology, Governance, Conflicts of Interest and Evidence -- 7.1. Who Cares about Education and Why? -- 7.2. Ideological Battles: What Are They About? -- 7.3. Reform: Who Decides What, Who Funds, Who Has a Say, Who Has the Power to Block -- 7.4. International Evidence versus Conflicts of Interest: Who is David and Who is Goliath? -- 7.5. The Geography of Education Success -- 7.6. Is the World a Better Place with Data? -- References -- Index.

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Electronic reproduction. Ann Arbor, Michigan : ProQuest Ebook Central, 2023. Available via World Wide Web. Access may be limited to ProQuest Ebook Central affiliated libraries.