Data Quality Issues

Abstract

International comparative analysis has increasingly become a key pillar in governments' education policy development.Through co-operation both within the OECD framework and in other international bodies, countries are seeking to learn from each other about how to secure the benefits of education for all, how to foster competencies for the knowledge society, and how to manage teaching and learning in order to promote learning throughout life.This attention has resulted in a major effort by the OECD to strengthen the collection and reporting of comparative statistics and indicators in the field of education.Over the past 14 years, the OECD has developed and published a broad range of comparative indicators that provide insights into the functioning of education systems.These reflect both the resources invested in education and their returns to individuals and societies.The OECD education indicators provide information on many important features of the operation, evolution and impact of education, from early childhood through formal education to learning and training throughout life.They provide an opportunity for each country to see its education system in the light of other countries' performances.Over the years, various methodologies and data collection instruments have been developed to facilitate international comparisons in the different educational areas.This handbook draws these methodologies together for the first time and so provides a single reference source for the international standards, concepts, classifications and conventions being used by the OECD in the area of education.The Handbook is targeted at two groups: users of OECD statistics and indicators of education and also those within the research community or national ministries involved in the compilation of international statistical comparisons of education.For users, the Handbook provides the definitions and conventions used in the underlying data collections as well as the methodologies used to compile the published statistics and indicators derived from them.By also providing advice on data quality issues, the Handbook provides an essential aid to the effective use of the statistics and indicators on education that OECD produces.Secondly, the Handbook offers a unique reference source of standards and conventions for others to adopt in their own compilation of international statistics and indicators on education.