Education has increasingly become the focus of public discourse and policy, with its methods, resources and achievements widely debated. As a result, educational systems are now more than ever faced with the challenge of improving their performance and of proving that suitable measures are being taken to guarantee greater efficiency regarding equity. This desire for better results requires that better methods for their measurement exist so that they can be better understood and, ultimately, improved.

"Education has increasingly become the focus of public discourse and policy, with its methods, resources and achievements widely debated. As a result, educational systems are now more than ever faced with the challenge of improving their performance and of proving that suitable measures are being taken to guarantee greater efficiency regarding equity. This desire for better results requires that better methods for their measurement exist so that they can be better understood and, ultimately, improved.

Introduction: Governance and Performance of Education Systems.- Introduction: Governance and Performance of Education Systems.- The Changing Governance of Educational Systems.- The New Regulation Forms of Educational Systems in Europe: Towards a Post-bureaucratic Regime.- Comparing Higher Education Governance Systems in Four European Countries.- Performance Monitoring and Evaluation.- Purpose and Limits of a National Monitoring of the Education System Through Indicators.- Measuring and Comparing the Equity of Education Systems in Europe.- The Economic Benefits of Improved Teacher Quality.- Direct Democracy and Public Education in Swiss Cantons.- School Factors Related to Quality: Multilevel Analysis for Three Swiss Cantons.- Are Swiss Secondary Schools Efficient?.- Explaining and Controlling the Costs of Education Systems.- Funding Schools by Formula.- A Cost Model of Schools: School Size, School Structure and Student Composition.- Strategies to Encourage Performance and Equity.- The Potential of School Information Systems for Enhancing School Improvement.- School Autonomy and Financial Manoeuvrability: French Principals' Strategies.- Finnish Strategy for High-Level Education for All.