New book by ACER CEO uncovers how to build a world-class learning system
ACER news 10 Aug 2023 4 minute readA new book by ACER Chief Executive, Professor Geoff Masters AO, explores how 5 high-performing school systems around the world have been rethinking and reforming aspects of schooling arrangements.
Commissioned by the United States’ National Center on Education and the Economy (NCEE), Building World Class Learning Systems: Insights from Top-Performing School Systems is the result of a multi-year study of the learning systems of a small set of jurisdictions that have long performed well on the OECD Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) – British Columbia, Estonia, Finland, Hong Kong and South Korea.
Professor Masters’ study of these school systems reveals that they have all been on trajectories of reform, in most cases for several decades, and their reform trajectories are continuing.
His book provides a framework for looking at learning systems comprehensively, with chapters focused on system aspirations; curriculum and assessment; student, teacher, and leader support; and the ecosystem that supports learning. It provides rich detail about the 5 systems in each area, pulling out key examples of how and why systems chose particular strategies and dilemmas they faced and still face.
In the book’s foreword, NCEE CEO, Dr Vicki Phillips and Director, Policy Analysis and Development, Jackie Kraemer, say education system leaders across the globe are grappling with how best to equip the next generation of students for a world facing unprecedented environmental, political and economic challenges.
‘Masters’ study of the 5 jurisdictions – Building World Class Learning Systems: Insights from Top-Performing School Systems – reveals key alignment across the goals that have shaped their learning systems to date. But these systems are not standing still. While the systems these jurisdictions have built over the last 50 years have yielded strong outcomes for students, they are concerned their current systems may not be adequate going forward,’ Dr Phillips and Ms Kraemer write.
‘[The book] describes how these systems are designing their school curriculum to be more inclusive, more focused on deeper learning, more applied and to incorporate more choice for students to make learning more engaging, relevant and self-directed.’
Building World Class Learning Systems: Insights from Top-Performing School Systems is available as a free download on the NCEE website.