STRIDE will provide a new, comprehensive and comparative knowledge-base on effective education reforms, policy initiatives and interventions aimed at reducing inequalities in education, training and learning outcomes in Europe. STRIDE will do this through analyses of education reforms in national and regional systems, existing large-scale educational assessment data and existing longitudinal data on the causal link between educational and other social policies and inequalities in educational achievements. In examining the learning progress of students over time, STRIDE will closely examine to the range of intersectional variables such as socio-economic background, gender, (dis)abilities, migration status, home language, early childhood education and care (ECEC) attendance, which may affect learning outcomes in different ways in different contexts. The project will combine diverse methods, data and disciplines (comparative education, political science, education science, sociology) in innovative ways: mapping at national and regional levels on (1) education reforms in the past 25 years by policy analysis, (2) longitudinal trends of inequalities in educational achievement by quasi-experiment analysis of existing large-scale educational assessment data, and (3) effect of education reforms and interventions by analysis existing longitudinal data and registry data following student cohorts over time combined with a qualitative inquiry into policymakers' perspective. Through the involvement of national and European stakeholders, STRIDE will develop methodology and assessment tools for policy learning offering policymakers a toolbox of enhanced knowledge of what shapes educational outcomes over time and demonstrating the usefulness of longitudinal data in policy-making to reduce educational inequalities in the short, medium and long term.
STRIDE is structured in seven work packages (WPs), each with specific objectives and tasks that collectively address the overall aim of the project. STRIDE objectives are to:
O1: Deliver an overview of significant national and regional education reforms aimed at rectifying inequalities in education and learning outcomes and to promote equity and inclusion over the past 25 years in Europe. This will be done through a comparative and historical policy analysis at European and national levels (WP2).
O2: Map the trends of inequalities in educational achievement of students over the past two decades in Europe. This will be done through mapping and meta-analysis of longitudinal studies and evaluations following the key educational reforms (WP2), supplemented by a re-analysis of large-scale educational assessment studies, using quasi-panel analytic techniques to study data from International Large Scale Assessment studies (ILSAs) such as Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS), Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA), International Civic and Citizenship Education Study (ICCS), Progress in International Reading Literacy Study (PIRLS) (WP3).
O3: Develop an interactive map depicting the significant factors in policy development and student achievement that foster or hamper equity, inclusion and resilience in education, training and educational achievements over time (WP4).
O4: Deliver new knowledge on how other social policies (employment, family, child welfare, etc.) may affect the learning outcomes of education policy initiatives through qualitative studies into policymaking in five countries (Denmark, Hungary, Norway, Poland and the United Kingdom as these countries have existing appropriate longitudinal data to be analysed by STRIDE) (WP5).
O5: Identify new perspectives on how pupils progress in education systems. STRIDE will demonstrate that the knowledge drawn from longitudinal studies can provide a valuable input into effective policy initiatives and interventions that compensate for inequalities in learning outcomes over time in five European countries (Denmark, Hungary, Norway, Poland, and the United Kingdom) (WP5).
O6: Develop a policy database with links between cross-sectoral policy making and the intersectional factors that affect intergenerational reproduction of inequalities in educational achievement. (WP5).
O7: Implement a comprehensive impact and dissemination strategy in order to enhance public knowledge on the value of longitudinal data in policy making and its usefulness for policy learning at national and EU levels, and factors that can reduce inequalities in education (WP7)
O8: Explore and develop a toolbox of techniques for facilitating cross-sectoral policymaking and assessment of inequalities in education, training and learning achievements over time using longitudinal data on learning (WP6-7).
