DESIGNER

Madeleine Salem

PROFILE/DESCRIPTION

“How to get good grades” Article text courtesy of Economist.com EDUCATION is the handmaiden of economic growth: teach future workers well, it is argued, and they will go on to invigorate the economy. No surprise then that the OECD, a club of mostly rich countries, goes to great lengths to discover how the school systems in its member countries are doing. Education ministers are already anxiously awaiting the next issue of its PISA study, which is due to be published on December 7th. As happens every three years, this will detail and rank the reading, mathematics and science skills of 15-year-olds in each country. But even more important than ranking school systems is knowing how to make them better. That is the aim of another new study, to be released on November 29th by McKinsey. The consultancy selected school systems where it has seen standards rise and identified what they had in common. Countries can make rapid progress, it argues, if they do the right thing—and at the right time. [Article Shortened]