Cross-Nationally Comparative, Evidence-based Educational Policymaking and Reform (32) (International Perspectives on Education and Society)

As the stakes for education have risen, so has the call for more and improved use of scientific evidence as a basis for educational policy making, both in the Gulf and worldwide (Luke, 2003; Slavin, 2002). Evidence-based decision-making has become a staple of educational reform and funding requirements worldwide. Significant multinational organizations such as the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) and the World Bank have made evidence-based policy making a priority both in their own work as influential research and policy organizations as well as for their member or client nations (OECD, 2007). Given the importance of evidence-based educational policy making and reform in the GCC, and the contribution that large-scale datasets make to evidence-based decisions worldwide, this volume's goal is to definitively describe, synthesize and forecast how large-scale data is used for evidence-based policy making in national education systems.