This paper examines the main driving forces behind the creation of Education City (EC) in Qatar. A methodological triangulation was used and data was analyzed according to the principle of Grounded Theory in order to give a more detailed picture of the City. The findings suggest that five main drivers have been instrumental in the creation of the City: the region-specific tradition to import 'best practice', regional and global competition, local education reform and policies, national liberalization initiatives, and globalization, internationalization of education, and transnational education. These findings have possible implications for policymakers and for researchers of emerging trends in education policy as well as for countries that are planning to develop similar education model or establish themselves as a regional education hub. The analysis laid the foundation for much needed future evaluation studies on the country's education policies and their impacts. The treatment of this subject from a governmental policy angle has not received nearly enough attention among scholars. This paper fills this gap in the literature and highlights important issues specific to a relatively unexplored region undergoing rapid development.

The dynamics of international education in Qatar : exploring the policy drivers behind the development of Education City

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Rethinking Issues of Alignment under "No Child Left Behind." Knowledge Brief.

The education system in Qatar comprises of both private schools, which receive money through student fees, and public schools, which are fully government-funded. In the mid-2000s, Qatar started its transition towards an independent school model with the aim of eventually converting all public schools into government-supported independent schools. The idea was to give public schools more autonomy in terms of hiring decisions, adoption of curriculum and textbooks, and budget spending, enabling them to emulate some of the private schools’ strategies for turning out successful students. This study examines evidence from the 2006–2012 administrations of the Program for International Student Assessment (PISA) in Qatar in order to evaluate whether or not recent educational reform efforts in this country have succeeded in bridging the literacy divide between private and public schools. The results, presented in a number of detailed tables and discussed in the last part of the article, indicate that there is a significant difference in key literacy skills between the two types of schools. Private schools were found to outperform their public counterparts in areas such as mathematics, reading and science, both before and after controlling for important student-level differences, and this gap has evidently persisted from 2006 to 2012.

The private–public literacy divide amid educational reform in Qatar: What does PISA tell us?

Various studies show that sustainability and education are closely interdependent. Design and implementation of the right performance assessment for students’ skills acquisition and achievements is, therefore, critical for achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). This article presents an in-depth analysis of the Qatar education system (K-12 level), focusing on the current assessment approaches and remaining challenges that hinder the development and implementation of proper performance-assessment methods aligned with SDGs. Based on a proposed theoretical framework influenced by the constructive alignment theory, this article examines the current performance assessment practices in Qatar and recommends potential improvement avenues with respect to SDGs and education goals (EGs). Using this framework as an analytical tool, results reveal a lack of alignment between the assessment practices, educational goals, and the SDGs. This work shows that tailored, contextually proper, and progressive assessment strategies need to be developed to accurately evaluate and guide the twenty-first-century skills of the students toward the achievement of SDGs. Further findings of this article concern presentation and discussion of the locally relevant and consistent recommendations for performance assessment methodologies that must be redesigned to be compatible, aligned, and supporting the SDGs and EGs.

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Performance assessment in education for sustainable development: A case study of the Qatar education system

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A phenomenological study of Qatari student experiences of identities, languages and academic achievement

Central to Qatar's education reform was the development of internationally benchmarked curriculum standards and standards-based assessments in four subjects: Arabic, English as a foreign language, mathematics, and science. This report recounts the development of Qatar's standards-based student assessment system, providing important lessons learned for Qatar and other countries that are seeking to implement similar measures on a large scale.

/pdf/lessons-from-the-field-developing-and-implementing-the-qatar-3oqgyar024.pdf

Lessons from the field : developing and implementing the Qatar student assessment system, 2002-2006

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Lessons from the Field: Developing and Implementing the Qatar Student Assessment System, 2002-2006. Technical Report.

Developing and Implementing the Qatar Student Assessment System

This research brief summarizes the development of a standards-based student assessment system in Qatar, lessons for policymakers in Qatar and elsewhere, and challenges in aligning the assessment with future changes in the curriculum standards.

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Julie DaVanzo

Papers

Lessons from the field : developing and implementing the Qatar student assessment system, 2002-2006

Lessons from the Field: Developing and Implementing the Qatar Student Assessment System, 2002-2006. Technical Report.

Developing and Implementing the Qatar Student Assessment System

Lessons Learned from Developing and Implementing the Qatar Student Assessment System