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School inspections are a common feature of many education systems. These may be informed by quantitative background data about schools. It is recognised that there are pros and cons of using such quantitative information as part of the inspection process, though these have rarely been succinctly set out. This paper seeks to fill this gap by presenting arguments both for and against the use of quantitative data in informing school inspections. We argue that while quantitative data provide objective information about important outcomes, their usefulness is limited somewhat by a range of factors including missing data, small sample sizes, the creation of perverse incentives, and the fact that most readily available measures capture aspects other than school quality. We conclude by discussing how the Office for Standards in Education, Children's Services and Skills (Ofsted) – the school inspectorate in England – currently makes the trade-off between these pros and cons. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Previous research has found school working conditions—particularly school leadership—to be linked to teacher retention. At the same time, evidence from the management literature has suggested that obtaining 'buy‐in' from staff is critical to employee performance and instigating change. This paper brings these two literatures together, being the first study to explore the relationship between buy‐in and teachers' plans to continue working at their current school. The analysis illustrates how teachers who buy into the leadership team's strategy are much more likely to intend to continue working at the school, over and above their views on workload, pay and the quality of their relationships with their colleagues. We conclude by considering what school leaders might do to improve buy‐in amongst their staff, while also highlighting areas where further research is needed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

High-stakes assessments are a common feature of many education systems. One argument often made against their use, however, is that they have a negative impact on wellbeing across the education sector, including teachers. We present new evidence on this matter by examining how the Statutory Assessment Tests (SATs) conducted in England's primary schools are linked to how anxious teachers feel about work. Drawing on unique panel data from around 1,000 primary school teachers, we illustrate how the SATs are associated with a short increase in teachers' anxiety levels during the week the tests take place. Yet there is little evidence that those most exposed to the pressures of SATs suffer from especially prolonged periods of high anxiety. We thus conclude that, although there may be other reasons to lower the stakes attached to primary school assessments, the benefits for teachers' anxiety levels are likely to be marginal. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

International large-scale assessments have gained much attention since the beginning of the twenty-first century, influencing education legislation in many countries. This includes Spain, where they have been used by successive governments to justify education policy change. Unfortunately, there was a problem with the PISA 2018 reading scores for this country, meaning the OECD refused to initially release the results. Therefore, in this paper we attempt to estimate the likely PISA 2018 reading scores for Spain, and for each region within. The figure finally published by the OECD for Spain – in terms of reading scores – was 476.5 points, which is between the lower and upper bound of the interval we find (475 to 483 test points in 2018). Additionally, we report some robustness checks for the OCED countries participating in PISA 2018, which show that the difference between the actual scores and the ones we found with the imputation methods are quite close. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Previous research has suggested that pupils may benefit from retaining the same teacher for more than one academic year, leading to better relationships, lower levels of absence and higher test scores. This has led some to suggest that leaders should consider so-called ‘looping’ when devising their school timetable. We provide new evidence on how looping relates to an array of pupil, teacher and class outcomes. Using rich international data from the TALIS video study, we typically find small associations, particularly when ‘looping’ is considered at the class-level. We thus conclude that looping is probably not something that school leaders should either purposefully avoid or dogmatically pursue. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Large‐scale international achievement studies such as PISA have been widely used to study how educational inequality compares across countries. Yet the various different biases that may affect these estimates are often not considered or are poorly understood. In this paper we draw upon the total survey error framework to provide a case study of the potential biases affecting estimates of the socio‐economic achievement gaps using PISA data from Germany. The results illustrate how procedural and measurement errors have a substantial impact upon estimates of socio‐economic achievement gradients in Germany, including how it compares with other countries. This leads us to conclude that estimates of socio‐economic achievement gaps using the PISA data for Germany do not seem to be particularly robust. More generally, we argue that better articulation and reporting of such challenges with comparing socio‐economic achievement gaps using large‐scale international assessment data such as PISA are needed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores teachers’ anxiety about work at 75 timepoints between October 2019 and July 2022, covering the period before, during and towards the end of the COVID-19 pandemic in England. We find the work-related anxiety of headteachers increased substantially throughout the pandemic – much more so than amongst more junior staff. Female teachers experienced a greater impact than men, particularly amongst those with young children. Differences were also observed in work-related anxiety between independent and state schoolteachers, though only during the first lockdown. We illustrate how providing onsite instruction, live online lessons and working longer hours were all associated with raised levels of work-related anxiety. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

School inspections are a common feature of education systems across the world. These involve trained professionals visiting schools and reaching judgements about the quality of education they provide. Yet there is currently little academic research investigating the consistency of school inspections, including how judgements vary across inspectors with different characteristics. We present new empirical evidence on this matter, drawing upon data from more than 30,000 school inspections conducted in England between 2011 and 2019. Male inspectors are found to award slightly more lenient judgements to primary schools than their female counterparts, while permanent Office for Standards in Education, Children's Services and Skills (Ofsted) employees (Her Majesty's Inspectors) are found to be harsher than those who inspect schools on a freelance basis (Ofsted Inspectors). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Should teachers have complete autonomy over teaching methods and practices, or should some aspects of their practice be determined by school or government policy? We address this question using repeated (value‐added) maths test scores linked to rich survey data from the TALIS video study. With the possible exception of inexperienced teachers, we generally find no relationship between teacher autonomy and pupil outcomes (test scores, maths self‐efficacy or interest in maths). In partial contrast with our findings for pupil outcomes, teachers with very low levels of autonomy are more likely to report reduced job satisfaction. It may hence be that some level of restriction on teacher autonomy is justified, especially among inexperienced teachers, particularly when it represents only partial control of teachers' approaches in the classroom and is done to introduce evidence‐based methods. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Young people are facing an ever-increasing array of online dangers. One of the most common is receipt of a phishing email. This paper presents new evidence on the characteristics of young people most likely to respond to such emails. I find approximately one-in-seven 15-year-olds are at risk of responding to a phishing email, rising to one-in-five amongst those from disadvantaged socio-economic backgrounds. Such risks are particularly high amongst young people with low levels of cognitive skill. Unfortunately, students who are taught about the dangers posed by phishing emails at school are just as likely to take inappropriate actions following their receipt as their peers who have not. I thus conclude that greater emphasis and higher quality instruction needs to be provided to young people about the online risks they face, particularly to those from disadvantaged socio-economic backgrounds and low academic achievers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Previous research has shown that the UK has low levels of financial literacy by international standards, particularly among those in lower socio-economic groups. This may have an impact upon young people, with social inequalities in financial attitudes, behaviours and skills perpetuating across generations. Using parent-child linked survey data from 3,745 UK families, we find sizeable socio-economic inequalities in young people's financial capabilities, aspects of their mindset, and their financial behaviours. Sizeable differences are also observed in the financial education that socio-economically advantaged and disadvantaged children receive at school, and how they interact with their parents about money. Parental interactions can account for part of the socio-economic gap in money confidence, money management, financial connections, and financial behaviours, but less so in boosting financial abilities. However, we find no evidence of differences in financial education in schools driving differences in young people's financial capabilities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates the phenomena of overclaiming – the propensity for individuals to claim more knowledge about an issue or topic than they really (or could possibly) do. Using Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) data from nine Anglophone countries and over 40,000 young people, we examine teenagers' propensity to claim knowledge of three mathematics constructs that do not really exist. We find substantial differences in young people's tendency to overclaim across countries, genders, and socio-economic groups. Those who are most likely to overclaim are also found to exhibit high levels of overconfidence and believe they work hard, persevere at tasks, and are popular amongst their peers. Together this provides important new insight into overclaiming, how this differs across groups, and how it relates to other psychological constructs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A long-established literature has found that anxiety about testing is negatively related to academic achievement. Yet there remains some debate as to whether this is simply due to less academically able pupils being more likely to develop education-related anxiety issues. This paper presents new evidence on this matter, focusing upon how test anxiety – as measured by five questions included in the PISA 2015 survey – is related to the grades 15/16-year-olds achieve in England's high-stakes GCSE examinations. I find little evidence that teenagers with low or high levels of test anxiety achieve lower GCSE grades than pupils with average levels of test anxiety. Thus, in contrast to much of the existing literature, no clear relationship between test anxiety and examination performance is found. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In England, failing to achieve a 'good pass' (C/4 grade) in key subjects is thought to have serious negative implications. Yet evidence on this issue remains relatively sparse. This paper therefore presents new evidence on the link between meeting a key threshold on high-stakes examination and a wide array of future outcomes. Using Next Steps survey data collected from around 4,000 young people in England, we explore the short-to-medium term benefits of achieving a 'good pass' (grade C/4) in English Language, double science and mathematics. Results from our regression analyses point towards a sizable association with future educational attainment; those who achieve a good pass in GCSE mathematics are around 5 percentage points more likely to hold a university degree by age 26 than observationally similar individuals who fail to meet this threshold. No link is found with future wellbeing and mental health, while results for labour market outcomes are somewhat mixed. The findings potentially motivate the need for GCSEs to move away from awarding a set of discrete grades and towards a continuous measurement scale. Alternatively, if discrete grades are to be retained, computer adaptive testing should be introduced for GCSEs to increase measurement precision around high-stakes grade boundaries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Bandura's influential theory has been used to argue that teachers with high self-efficacy will be more effective at increasing pupil achievement—and a voluminous empirical literature has repeatedly documented associations consistent with this claim. However, few studies have considered whether these correlations reflect an underlying causal relationship. In this paper we utilise across-subject, within-pupil variation in teacher self-efficacy in the Trends in Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) 2015 data to provide new evidence on this question. By focusing upon relative differences in teacher self-efficacy and pupil achievement within pupil-teacher pairs, our estimates control for more potential confounders than much of the existing literature. Contrary to that literature, we find no evidence of a relationship. Instead, this paper presents clear and consistent findings of null effects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Peer review is widely used throughout academia, most notably in the publication of journal articles and the allocation of research grants. Yet peer review has been subject to much criticism, including being slow, unreliable, subjective and potentially prone to bias. This paper contributes to this literature by investigating the consistency of peer reviews and the impact they have upon a high-stakes outcome (whether a research grant is funded). Analysing data from 4,000 social science grant proposals and 15,000 reviews, this paper illustrates how the peer review scores assigned by different reviewers have only low levels of consistency (a correlation between reviewer scores of only 0.2). Reviews provided by "nominated reviewers" (i.e. reviewers selected by the grant applicant) appear to be overly generous and do not correlate with the evaluations provided by independent reviewers. Yet a positive review from a nominated reviewer is strongly linked to whether a grant is awarded. Finally, a single negative peer review is shown to reduce the chances of a proposal being funding from around 55% to around 25% (even when it has otherwise been rated highly). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

School inspections are a key component of the accountability system in many education systems, including England. The judgments and reports produced through these inspections are widely used by parents when they are choosing a school for their children. But should they be? This paper presents new evidence on this issue. We illustrate how parents selecting secondary schools using Ofsted judgments will often be basing their decision on dated information. Indeed, half the time, this will be based on a period in which the school had a different headteacher. We find there are almost no differences in future academic, behavioral, school leadership and parental satisfaction outcomes between schools rated as good, requiring improvement and inadequate in the inspection data available to parents at the point of school selection. That is, parents who choose a "good" secondary school for their child will not leave with appreciably better outcomes than a parent who selects an "inadequate" school. The one exception to this is an Outstanding judgment, which does predict future academic outcomes – though only if the inspection was conducted within the last five years. We thus advise parents that – besides choices involving Outstanding schools – Ofsted judgments are of limited use to them in selecting a school. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study uses longitudinal census data to explore the correlates of school satisfaction among parents of 3rd and 6th grade students from the Canary Islands, a large administrative region in Spain. We use logistic regression to model parental dissatisfaction with their children’s school and teachers. Our results illustrate how parents value academic performance in reading and mathematics equally, while also placing equal emphasis on the development of cognitive and non-cognitive skills. Yet, we find that what matters the most to parents is their children’s happiness at school, rather than their educational progress. We also find that teachers may be able to improve parental satisfaction by providing regular feedback to parents about their children’s progress. Lastly, we discuss some implications for schools to meet parental needs; for example, schools should promote activities such as specialised workshops for parents on various topics ranging from child development to emotional development, stress management and self-confidence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A substantial body of research suggests that young people's emotions – both positive and negative – are linked to a wide range of future outcomes. This paper contributes to this literature by investigating the link between young people's positive and negative emotions and their performance in high-stakes examinations. Using Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) data from England linked to the National Pupil Database (NPD), I investigate how 15-year-olds positive affect, negative affect and fear of failure is associated with the grades they achieve in high-stakes examinations. I find that low levels of positive affect – i.e. pupils rarely feeling happy, lively and cheerful – is associated with a 0.10–0.15 standard deviation reduction in young people's examination grades. On the other hand, little evidence is found of a substantive link between negative affect or fear of failure and examination performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper we investigate the link between the language in which pupils take the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) test and the scores they achieve in this assessment, focusing upon the case of Wales. Using five rounds of PISA data and an instrumental variable approach, we show how pupils who took the test in Welsh score around 0.3 standard deviations (30 PISA test points) lower in reading, mathematics and science than their peers who took the test in English. This finding is robust to different model specifications and statistical approaches. We argue that this may indicate that the academic performance of teenagers in Wales may be underestimated in PISA – particularly amongst those who take this test in Welsh. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Teaching is a demanding job and research suggests that prolonged exposure to stress can affect physical health. While some studies have found that teachers do indeed report relatively poor physical health, the existing literature has important methodological limitations. In particular, no research exists comparing teachers to other occupations using objective biomarker data to measure health. We provide such evidence using two datasets: a representative, cross-sectional survey and a longitudinal convenience sample. We find no statistically significant overall association between teaching and physical health in any of our models or datasets. Teaching may therefore not be as bad for physical health as previously thought. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents the first empirical evidence on long-run trends in teacher mental health and wellbeing in England. We find that, although there has been a recent rise in mental health problems reported by teachers in England, this is mirrored by workers in other professions – with little evidence of a simultaneous change in levels of personal wellbeing. Our conclusion is therefore that the mental health and personal wellbeing of teachers in England has remained broadly stable over the last 20 years, though this group may be more likely to report such problems now than previously. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There is growing concern about the mental wellbeing of young people, including how this is related to national tests. This is a particularly important policy issue in England, where it is claimed that the end of primary Key Stage 2 tests cause schools, pupils and teachers stress. I investigate this issue using data from the Millennium Cohort Study, comparing the wellbeing of pupils in England (measured around the point they are sitting their Key Stage 2 tests) to the rest of the UK (where Key Stage 2 tests are not taken). No evidence is found that the Key Stage 2 tests in England is associated with lower levels of happiness, enjoyment of school, self-esteem or children's mental wellbeing. Likewise, no evidence is found that children who are happier, more self-confident or with higher levels of wellbeing obtain higher Key Stage 2 test scores. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• The paper investigates whether students' ability relative to their school peers is linked to overclaiming. • Being higher achieving than one's school peers is found to be linked to overclaiming. • Effect sizes are relatively modest at around 0.1 standard deviations. Using the OECD's Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) study, we investigate whether students' relative ability in mathematics (in comparison to their school peers) is linked to their tendency to overclaim. Although the estimated effect size is modest (around 0.1 standard deviations) we find empirical support that being a big fish in a small pond is linked to overclaiming, with this robust to different analytic approaches and model specifications. Thus, being one of the highest academic achievers within a school may push young people's beliefs in their own abilities too far, straying into overconfidence and making claims about their knowledge and skills that they cannot justify. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The authors and journal regret that the printed version of the above article contained a number of errors, in which statements which had been blinded for review were not revealed for the publication. These were references to the authors' own prior work. The correct and final version, with complete references, follows. The authors and journal would like to apologise for any inconvenience caused. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Inquiry-based science teaching involves supporting pupils to acquire scientific knowledge indirectly by conducting their own scientific experiments, rather than receiving scientific knowledge directly from teachers. This approach to instruction is widely used among science educators in many countries. However, researchers and policymakers have recently called the effectiveness of inquiry approaches into doubt. Using nationally-representative linked survey and administrative data we find little evidence that the frequency of inquiry-based instruction is positively associated with teenagers' performance in science examinations. This finding is robust to the use of different measures of inquiry, different measures of attainment, across classrooms with varying levels of disciplinary standards and across gender and prior attainment subgroups. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper provides new evidence on the link between primary and secondary teacher workload and wellbeing for five predominately English-speaking education systems (England, Australia, Alberta-Canada, New Zealand, United States). It illustrates how, by ignoring potential non-linearities and measurement error, previous research may have missed key aspects of the workload-wellbeing relationship. We also demonstrate how the time that teachers spend marking is the key driver of workload stress and poor levels of workplace wellbeing across English-speaking countries. • Longer working hours are associated with higher levels of workload stress. • Much of the previous literature on this issue may have underestimated the strength of this relationship due to measurement error. • The link between working hours and workload stress may be non-linear, with teachers' quality of life declining once they work more than 55 h per week. • The time that teachers spend upon marking is found to be particularly detrimental to their wellbeing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Surveys have revealed that teachers in England work far longer hours than their international counterparts, causing serious concern amongst both policymakers and the profession. Despite this, surprisingly little is known about the structure of and changes to teachers' working hours. We address this gap in the evidence base by analysing four different datasets. Working hours remain high: a quarter of teachers work more than 60 hours per week during term time, 40% report that they usually work in the evening and around 10% during the weekend. However, contrary to current narratives, we do not find evidence that average working hours have increased. Indeed, we find no notable change in total hours worked over the last twenty years, no notable change in the incidence of work during evenings and weekends over a fifteen year period and no notable change in time spent on specific tasks over the last five years. The results suggests that policy initiatives have so far failed to reduce teachers' working hours and that more radical action may need to be taken in order to fix this problem. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Social adjustment is critical to educational and occupational attainment. Yet little research has considered how the school's socioeconomic context is associated with social adjustment. In a longitudinal sample of Australian 4- to 8-year-olds (N = 9369; 51% boys) we tested the association between school average socioeconomic status and social skills (parent and teacher reported). Models controlled for age 4 social adjustment and additional covariates. Results showed that children from more advantaged schools are more likely to have better prosocial behavior and fewer peer and conduct problems. An interaction between family and school average socioeconomic status (SES) suggested that this association was mainly present for children from lower SES backgrounds. Public Significance Statement: Socioeconomic status (SES) predicts social skills. Social skills help children form positive relationships with each other and adults. The SES of a school can influence social skills. In many countries and states, the SES level of a school a child goes to depends on the wealth of their parents. High SES schools usually have more resources. We found that children that go to high SES schools have improved social skills. This may be because they can access more resources. High SES schools appeared to be most beneficial for children from low SES backgrounds. The way society determines what child will go to what school may influence the social skills that children develop. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Menstrual health is an increasingly recognised public health issue, defined as complete physical, mental, and social well-being in relation to the menstrual cycle. The MENISCUS trial aims to assess whether a multi-component intervention addressing physical and emotional aspects of menstrual health improves educational attainment, mental health problems, menstrual management, self-efficacy, and quality of life among girls in secondary school in Uganda.Methods: The study is a parallel-arm cluster-randomised controlled trial with 60 schools (clusters) in Wakiso and Kalungu districts, with a mixed-methods process evaluation to assess intervention fidelity and acceptability and economic and policy analyses. The schools will be randomised 1:1 to immediate intervention or to optimised usual care with delayed intervention delivery. The intervention includes creation of a Menstrual Health Action Group at schools and NGO-led training of trainers on puberty education, development of a drama skit, delivery of a menstrual health kit including reusable pads and menstrual cups, access to pain management strategies including analgesics, and basic improvements to school water, sanitation, and hygiene facilities. Baseline data will be collected from secondary 2 students in 2022 (median age ~15.5 years), with endline after 1 year of intervention delivery (~3600 females and a random sample of ~900 males). The primary outcomes assessed in girls are (i) examination performance based on the Mathematics, English, and Biology curriculum taught during the intervention delivery (independently assessed by the Uganda National Examinations Board) and (ii) mental health problems using the Total Difficulties Scale of the Strengths and Difficulties 25-item questionnaire. Secondary outcomes are menstrual knowledge and attitudes in girls and boys and, in girls only, menstrual practices, self-efficacy in managing menstruation, quality of life and happiness, prevalence of urogenital infections, school and class attendance using a self-completed menstrual daily diary, and confidence in maths and science.Discussion: The trial is innovative in evaluating a multi-component school-based menstrual health intervention addressing both physical and emotional aspects of menstrual health and using a "training of trainers" model designed to be sustainable within schools. If found to be cost-effective and acceptable, the intervention will have the potential for national and regional scale-up.Trial Registration: ISRCTN 45461276 . Registered on 16 September 2021. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]