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International Benchmarking in Education

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International benchmarking is an important measuring tool for improving education systems among the member economies of APEC as it provides for a comparison of successful education methods and prepares students for succes in the global marketplace.  International benchmarking is a means for economies to analyze internal performance compared to that of other economies, identify processes and approaches of high performing education systems, and collaborate with other member economies in order to learn about successful school improvement measures.  An example of this collaboration is APEC's analysis of math and science standards throughout its member economies.

Contents

Why is international benchmarking a critical tool for studying education among economies?

  • Allows for one economy to benefit from the experience of another economy.
  • Creates an opportunity for schools and educators across the globe to share best practices and learn from the successes of others.
  • Greatly expands opportunities for cross-cultural communication and the collaboration of ideas through the Internet.
  • Provides models of high performing, as well as rapidly improving, economies to others who may not possess access to such models in a local school system or economy.
  • Creates a world laboratory for new ideas and collaboration.
  • In recent years globalization has reminded us that being better today than we were yesterday, or being better than our neighbor, is not good enough.  We must have a measureable way to compete with one another on a global scale.

Purpose

To ultimately improve the economic security and social well-being of member economies by benchmarking educational practices against those of high performers in order to identify and replicate a set of promising policies to achieve a turnaround in the performance of consistently low-performing schools, school systems, and/or new schools.

Process

The benchmarking process includes, but is not limited to, the following sequence of steps:

1. Form an expert school turnaround group, such as APEC, to provide technical assistance to identify criteria for selecting benchmark sites; develop benchmarking protocols; and review benchmarking site write-ups.

2. Examine the international literature on effective strategies for schools.  Check with industrialized countries to determine whether they have conducted their own evaluations.

3. Using the following criteria, identify high performing economies with promising education policies for addressing persistently low-performing schools:

  • History of internationally high educational performance;
  • A comprehensive set of standards or intended curriculums;
  • Method for systematically identifying consistently low-performing schools;
  • Explicit procedures for reform and improvement of low performers;
  • Provision of added resources and technical support;
  • Excellent teacher preparation and development; and
  • The monitoring of the school's improvement including the availability of formative evaluations or onsite inspection/assistance teams.

4. Specify country protocols for describing and solving the identified problems.

5. Identify an expert in the benchmark country, like Achieve in the United States, and contract them to conduct a case study.

6. Hold conferences bringing experts to discuss country benchmarking findings and to seek to generalize to identify superior practices.

Options for International Benchmarking

Using PISA for International Benchmarking

One of the main advantages of using the Program for International Student Assessment (PISA) for international benchmarking is that the assessment includes all 30 countries and economies that make up the OECD (the survey also includes about an equal number of non-OECD participants).  These OECD members are some of the most advanced economies in the world and therefore important trading partners and competitors.

PISA is a literacy assessment and not a curriculum-based assessment.  PISA measures how well students apply mathematics to real-world situations.  It measures the cumulative "yield" of the student's total lifelong educational experience.  In addition to covering what is learned in school, it also reflects what students learn from families, society, and popular culture.

Using TIMSS for International Benchmarking

The Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) is a curriculum-based assessment.  It is intended to measure, internationally, the mathematics that should be learned in school.  Although TIMSS collects data about societal goals, student attitudes, and values, the assessment does not commingle these literacy constructs with its definition of mathematical proficiency.  In addition, TIMSS uses grade-based sampling (Grade 4 and Grade 8) so the sample is more relevant to how the American educational system is structured (i.e., by grade). Also, various APEC economies participate in the TIMSS allowing for an international comparison of their results.

Examples of International Benchmarking

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Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC)