Analyzing the OECD Indicators Model

Abstract

The Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) has identified an elaborate set of indicators by which to judge aspects of education systems. This paper provides a comparative analysis of the education-related features of 28 high-income countries in terms of three blocks of indicators relating respectively to the contexts, processes and results of each system. Factor analyses showed that several aspects of the OECD model are more complicated than previously thought. For this reason, the OECD faces a choice of enriching the range of indicators or pruning some components to gain parsimony and greater country participation in data collection. The article demonstrates that to the extent that the OECD model holds, education context variables appear to influence costs, resources and school processes. In turn, processes appear to influence results including achievement though in some cases weakly and in other cases surprisingly. Although further changes in the OECD model deserve consideration the article also shows how it has grown substantially in scope, methodological rigor and country participation during the past decade.