This is the third and final publication developed by the OECD’s Strengthening the Impact of Education Research project team: Nóra Révai (project leader and author of Chapters 1 and 3 and co-author of Chapter 7), Melissa Mouthaan (co-author of Chapters 2, 4 and 6), José Manuel Torres (lead data analyst and co-author of Chapter 4) and Jordan Hill (author of Chapter 5 and co-author of Chapters 6 and 7).
This project and its team have benefited immensely from the unwavering support, insightful guidance and thoughtful feedback of Tia Loukkola, Head of Division. Tia’s commitment and leadership were a cornerstone of the project’s success, and her contributions will be remembered with deep gratitude and admiration. For this, and so much more, we are forever indebted to her.
This publication would not have been possible without the invaluable contributions of renowned experts who have supported the project throughout its development in various ways. Chapter 2 was co-authored with Kathryn Oliver (Professor at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine) who led the systematic review described in the chapter. We extend our heartfelt gratitude to all those who contributed to the case studies featured in the chapters – whether through giving their time and insights through interviews with the OECD team or by reviewing draft versions of the case studies. In order of their chapters, we thank Rien Rouw and colleagues (Chapter 3), Gemma Moss, Louise Yorke, David Lundie, Rebecca Eynon, Mike Collins, Elizabeth Hudson and Rachel France (Chapter 3), Makito Yurita (Chapter 4), Matthew Soldner, Elizabeth Eisner and Danielle Smith (Chapter 4), Viktors Kravčenko, Edvards Kuks, Sigita Kirse, Dace Kalsone and Ilze Saleniece (Chapter 5), Ingrid Olea, Consuelo Iturrieta and Josefina Aurtenechea (Chapter 5), Jonathan Kay (Chapter 6), and Peter Brandt and colleagues (Chapter 6).
We also express our sincere appreciation to the project’s “critical friends”: Tal Malkin, Lawrence Houldsworth, Sean Grant, Marc Fuster-Rabella, Rien Rouw, Elisabeth Buk-Berge, Christa Rawkins, Makito Yurita, Miquel Ángel Alegre, Lou Aisenberg, Tracey Burns, Margarita Kalamova, Gillian Golden, Jonathan Kay, Mark Rickinson, Annika Wilmers and Javier González. Their thoughtful feedback on various chapter drafts and their contributions in the form of expert quotes have been invaluable to this publication.
As with the previous two publications, we remain deeply grateful to the education systems that participated in the first survey, and to the Centre for Educational Research and Innovation (CERI) Governing Board for their ongoing encouragement and support in the development of the project, for their help in encouraging responses from intermediaries in their systems for the second survey, and their review of this final report. We are deeply grateful to the hundreds of organisations that completed the second survey and in doing so gave us their time and valuable insights.
We would also like to acknowledge our colleagues within the Directorate. In particular, we extend our gratitude to Andreas Schleicher, Director for Education and Skills, for his continued support. Gábor Fülöp, Viktória Kis and Tomoya Okubo provided essential advice on methodological aspects of interpreting the survey data, which significantly strengthened the analysis. Additionally, we are thankful to Rachel Linden and Anna Wahlberg for their assistance in the publication process. We are especially grateful to Federico Bolognesi for his dedicated work in preparing this report for publication.
Finally, our thanks to Cassandra Morley who edited the publication, ensuring its coherence and readability.