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This paper examines the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA), which has become a major and influential component of the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development's (OECD) educational work. This measure of comparative performance of educational systems of member and other nations is based on tests commissioned by the OECD. The paper discusses the role of the OECD in establishing the 'comparative' turn and also describes PISA, its management and effects. It provides three examples of the impact of PISA in Finland, Germany and the UK before moving the focus to its impacts at the transnational level, through an examination of how key European policy actors see PISA and its effects. The paper concludes that PISA, through its direct impact on national education systems in Europe and beyond, has become an indirect, but nonetheless influential tool of the new political technology of governing the European education space by numbers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Over the past decade, increasing effort has been made to develop both national and global indices of well-being. Much like earlier sustainability indices directed at questions of economics and environment, well-being metrics seek to chart the quality of life of citizens in order to (1) support administrative decision making and policy formation, (2) encourage consensus building and public participation in defining what's important, (3) educate and advocate, and (4) facilitate research through data collection and analysis. This paper explores a number of indices of well-being, including the Canadian Index of Well-being, the OECD Your Better Life Index, and the Happy Planet Index, to discuss (1) comparative differences and similarities across the indices, (2) how the indices are used currently, and (3) the importance of understanding judgments of well-being based on notions of place. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: In this paper, we derive the asymptotic distribution of innovational outlier unit root test for trending series with a break. The results of are applied to provide the limiting results of these new test statistics. We tabulate their asymptotic and finite sample critical values, and illustrate the use of the new statistics with an application to the unemployment rate series for 23 OECD countries. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Just over a decade ago, an OECDStarting Strongteam reviewed the system of early childhood education and care (ECEC) in Germany. Regarding the staffing of early childhood provision and referring in particular to resistance at the political level to raise the formal qualification level of educators in alignment with European trends, the evaluative report noted in 2004 that the chosen approach may be overlooking the issue of the sustainability. The article explores key discourses and paradigmatic shifts which have shaped early years professionalisation initiatives and workforce developments since this time. One of the most notable changes has been a remarkable growth in the size of the workforce, which has almost doubled over the past eight years. What are the reasons for this fast-paced expansion, and can it be sustained? Have qualification requirements been lowered, and has the composition of the workforce changed? What are current challenges facing the sector? As ECEC provision develops across Europe, other countries face similar issues. Exploring how they are played out in one particular country context may help to stimulate critical analysis in others. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]