The aim of this paper is to propose a new database allowing for a comparative evaluation of the relative performance of schooling systems around the world. We measure this performance through pupils achievement in standardized tests. We merge all existing regional and international student achievement tests by using a specific methodology. Compared to other existing databases, our approach innovates on several ways, especially by including regional student achievement tests and intertemporal comparable indicators. We provide a dataset of indicators of quality of student achievement (IQSA) for 103 countries/areas in primary education and 111 countries/areas in secondary education between 1965 and 2010. 

The impact of class size on student achievement remains a thorny question for educational decision makers. Meta-analyses of empirical studies emphasise the absence of class-size effects but detractors have argued against such pessimistic conclusions because many of the underlying studies have not paid attention to the endogeneity of class-size. This paper uses a stringent method to address the endogeneity problem using TIMSS data on 47 countries. We measure the class size effect by relating the difference in a student’s achievement across subjects to the difference in his/her class-size across subjects. This (subject-differenced) within-pupil achievement production function avoids the problem of the non-random matching of children to specific schools, and to classes within schools.  The results show a statistically significant negative effect of class size in 14 countries, but the effect size is small in most cases. Several robustness tests are carried out, including control for students’ subject-specific ability and subject-specific teacher characteristics, and correction for possible measurement error. Thus, our approach to addressing the endogeneity problem confirms the findings of meta-analyses that find little support for class size effects. Additionally, we find that class size effects are smaller in countries with higher teacher quality.

The aim of this paper is to verify whether school resource factors have an impact on the quality of education. This latter is measured with the help of a unique database on student scores in international skills tests. The general difficulties inherent in this type of study are the possibility of endogeneity bias and measurement errors. After estimation bias correction, we show that improvement in the quality of educational systems does not necessarily require an increase in school resources. When an alternative indicator of the performance of educational systems is used, our results are confirmed. Consequently, one should remain cautious about recommending purely financial measures to improve quality of education.

In this research work, we have used a methodology which enables us to obtain qualitative indicators of  human capital (QIHC) for 105 countries. This methodology relies on the potential to reconsider survey results comparatively by analysing the results of countries which took part in at least two different surveys. This allowed us to build indicators of comparable data concerning the quality of human capital in numerous countries and between 1964-2005: our results represent a valuable comparison to what has been done so far.