How context shapes skills at 18: Comparative lessons for the UK

This project will explore the contextual determinants of high performing education systems, with the aim of improving literacy and numeracy skills among young adults.

Why this project is important

In an increasingly digitalised world, advanced literacy and numeracy skills are essential for daily functioning, but many young adults lack proficiency in these areas.

Skills acquisition in upper secondary education and training is under-researched. Studies typically focus on individual-level performance variations. There is little agreement on which system factors are most important and limited consideration of how these factors interact.

The lack of authoritative evidence on what works and in which context can lead to ineffective policy borrowing that does not take account of each system’s characteristics and history, and the culture, society, and economy it originated in and currently serves.

What it will involve

This research aims to address these gaps by answering the following questions:

• What student, school, system, and contextual factors explain cross-country variations in the levels and distributions of literacy and numeracy skills, and what are the most appropriate comparators for English policymakers to borrow from?
• What are the common and distinguishing characteristics associated with different education systems and how have these converged or diverged over time?
• What are the effects of different system types and characteristics on levels and distributions of literacy and numeracy skills across countries and how do these levels and distributions change during upper secondary education?
• What are the configurations of system and contextual factors associated with positive skills outcomes at country level? How do these factors interact; and what different pathways lead to improvement in skills, and reductions in skills inequalities?

The research will involve:

• The construction of a longitudinal system-level dataset that links characteristics of secondary education system across 31 countries to skills at ages 15 and 18-20.
• Statistical analysis of the effects of student, school, and education system characteristics on changes in the levels and distribution of literacy and numeracy skills. A typology of education systems will be created and used to investigate trends over three decades.
• Qualitative Comparative Analysis will be used to determine conditions for high performance.
• In-depth qualitative case studies of diverse high-achieving systems will be constructed and used to compare England to other countries.

How it will make a difference

The project will provide examples of high performing systems, with distinctive sets of contextual features, in different regions of the world, with the case studies demonstrating in detail how the characteristics of a selection of these systems combine together to generate successful outcomes. Alongside reports, policy briefs, academic articles, sector press articles and blogs, the project will produce an education system-level database that will be made publicly available for use by policymakers and researchers.