Education Week’s Quality Counts 2012: The Global Challenge considered the usefulness of employing international comparisons to drive education reform in the United States.  With this idea in mind, I wrote North Carolina vs. the World: Comparisons of educational inputs and outcomes, which used available data and research to compare public education in North Carolina to industrialized nations in Europe and Asia.  I plan to expand this report in the future by adding input and outcome measures not included in this first edition.

There in nothing novel about this idea.  The Center for International Understanding and the NC Public School Forum identify best practices abroad and engage education policymakers about ways to implement those practices in our state.  I hope that North Carolina vs. the World: Comparisons of educational inputs and outcomes adds to this conversation.