In summary In two earlier posts, I proposed a metric to measure the "academic gap" – the distance between students performing the lowest and the recognized international benchmark for "average or standard performance". I measured the evolution of the academic gap between 2006 and 2012. In this post, I'm updating the profiles of the countries … Continue reading Academic gap: Any progress since 2012?
The introduction of minimum wages in the United States The early 1930s were the years of the Great Depression, an economic recession that affected the United States as well as most of the European metropolises. This crisis led many countries to enact social policies or reevaluate those in place to protect workers and stimulate the industry. … Continue reading Minimum Wage Policy in the United States
Both of us, Patrice and Gatien, have started to read the recent book (May 2016) of Jean Tirole, a French economist, Nobel Prize in Economics in 2014, entitled Economics of the Common Good (published in French: "Économie du bien commun"). In the first pages, we come across a parallel between economics and medicine, that calls … Continue reading The economist and the doctor: Jean Tirole’s parallel and contrast
In summary Using the metric proposed in my last post, this post presents changes of the "academic gap" across countries with PISA three-subject average between 2006 and 2012. Countries' experience vary widely, while there cannot be well-defined patterns to call from past performance - there were gainers (Japan, Poland, Italy) and losers (Finland, New Zealand, … Continue reading Academic gap: How much did it change between 2006 and 2012?
In summary Inequality in education leads to great potential handicaps for the kids who suffer an academic gap throughout their time in class. Reliable evaluations are a must to measure students' progress (or lack thereof) and drive in-class teacher practice and system-wide education policies. Teachers have their curriculum-related tools for individual students' follow-up. National authorities … Continue reading Academic gap: How deep societies let their kids sink academically?
