The majority of OECD countries now implement one form or another of standards-based assessment and evaluation. The core logic of standards-based systems rests upon the alignment of three key elements: standards defining the knowledge and skills – or competences – students are expected to...

Many schools around the world are struggling in the face of reduced funding and fluctuating enrolments. Often, the solution to this unhappy equation is quite simply to shut down facilities. But when all the costs of closing a school are considered – financial, material and human –...

A long-held ambition for many educators and assessment experts has been to integrate summative and formative assessments so that data from external assessments used for system monitoring may also be used to shape teaching and learning in classrooms. In turn, classroom-based assessments may...

PEB and the Ministry of Education of Portugal brought together 67 library and resource centre professionals, policy makers, educators and information technology specialists from 21 countries around the theme “Designing Schools for the Information Society: Libraries and Resource Centres”. The...

Do some forms of student (and school) assessment hinder the introduction of innovative educational practices and the development of innovation skills in education systems? This report focuses on the impact of high-stake summative assessment on innovation and argues that it is possible to...

Les quatre articles ci-dessous concernent les infrastructures pour les sciences et la technologie dans les établissements secondaires et tertiaires. Le premier article présente une vision de l’enseignement des sciences à l’école et illustre l’espace idéal pour une zone des sciences...

Le PEB et le ministère portugais de l’Éducation ont réuni 67 professionnels des bibliothèques et des centres de documentation, des décideurs, des éducateurs et des spécialistes des technologies de l’information, représentant 21 pays, autour du thème « Concevoir les écoles dans une...

Dans le cadre de son mécanisme de planification de l’équipement, le San Diego Unified School District (Californie, États-Unis) a établi une analyse systématique de la qualité fonctionnelle dans chacun de ses établissements scolaires. La qualité fonctionnelle représente un critère...

Capital planning for schools should include both qualitative and quantitative dimensions. And while building condition remains an important and necessary factor in short- and long-range facility planning, by itself it is not sufficient to reveal the full range of building performance issues or...

These four articles relate to science and technology infrastructure for secondary and tertiary institutions. The first article presents a view on approaches to teaching science in school and illustrates ideal science facilities for secondary education. The second piece reports on work underway...