External experts
JAN HERCZYŃSKI
Dr. Jan Herczyński has over 15 years of experience in education finance, in education policy and in formulation and analysis of education strategy. Between 1999 and 2001, he advised the Polish Ministry of National Education on the problems of education finance and education decentralization, developed and helped implement the new per student algorithm for the allocation of education subvention to local governments. Between 2002 and 2007, under USAID funded projects in Skopje, Dr. Herczyński was advising the Macedonian Ministry of Education and Science on strategic issues of education decentralization and finance, including preparation and implementation of a per student allocation formula for categorical and block grants for education. Between 2010 and 2012 Dr. Herczyński coordinated a 3 year project on strengthening strategic capacities of Polish local governments in the education sector, and edited 7-volume Library of Local Government Education (2012).
Dr. Herczyński participated in the capacity of consultant and report author in many short-term projects in education finance, strategy and management in transition countries, including Albania, Belarus, Bulgaria, Georgia, Kosovo, Kyrgyzstan, Lithuania, Macedonia, Moldova, Poland, Romania, Serbia, Tajikistan, and Ukraine. Prior to taking up education finance and management Dr. Herczyński worked for 17 years as lecturer and researcher in applied mathematics at Faculty of Mathematics, Warsaw University, worked in IT quality assurance and strategic planning in a major Polish commercial bank (the implementation of new banking software), and conducted trainings and analysis in the field of industrial safety (analysis of accidents, risk analysis). Dr. Herczyński holds a Ph.D. in Mathematics.
JANET LOONEY
Ms. Janet Looney is the director of the Institute of Education and Social Policy and the joint editor of the European Journal of Education. Currently, she is the project lead for the ongoing Study on policy measures to support, develop and incentivise teacher quality, funded by the European Commission. She is also providing consultant support to the ET2020 Toolkit Editorial Board presenting strategies to prevent early school leaving, and is providing support to two European SchoolNet projects related to online professional development: Mentoring Technology Enhanced Pedagogy (MENTEP) and the recently launched TeachUP project. Ms Looney also had a lead research role in the KeyCoNet (2013 – 14), which included a network of more than 100 organisations representing educational stakeholder groups from 30 European countries focused on improving the implementation of key competences in school education. In 2013 - 2015, she served as a senior expert for a Cedefop project, “The application of learning outcomes approaches across Europe – a comparative perspective (2013 – 2015)”. The project covered policy development and implementation of learning outcomes across school, vocational education and training, adult learning and university sectors. It also featured case studies on teacher training and professional development related to learning outcomes approaches. Between 2002 and 2008, she worked at the OECD, leading two major international studies on assessment and evaluation. She was Associate Director of the Institute for Public Policy and Management at the University of Washington (1996 – 2002), focusing on community development and urban education reforms. At the Institute, she also led the Progress Project to consider how we define, measure and promote progress. She began her career as a programme examiner in the Education Branch of the U.S. Office of Management and Budget, Executive Office of the President (1994-1996). has participated in several European-level studies.
ROGER SMYTH
Roger Smyth has worked in tertiary education in New Zealand for nearly 30 years. He was Assistant Vice Chancellor at Lincoln University between 2000 and 2002. From 2002 until 2017, he worked at the New Zealand Ministry of Education, initially heading the Ministry's tertiary sector performance analysis unit. From 2013, Roger headed the Ministry’s Tertiary Education Group, responsible for all policy advice to the Government on tertiary education and for monitoring and evaluating the performance of the system. He has published more than 25 papers on tertiary education, mostly focused on student financial support, the employment outcomes of tertiary education and university research performance.
He was New Zealand national co-ordinator during the OECD thematic review of tertiary education, 2004-2006. He was an expert member of the OECD panel that reviewed the tertiary education system of Iceland and of the OECD review of the Japanese education system.
Since April 2017, he has been working as an independent advisor/consultant on tertiary education.
FANI STYLIANIDOU
Ms. Fani Stylianidou has a BSc in physics from the University of Athens, followed by an MA and a PhD in Science Education from the Institute of Education, University of London. She has worked as a researcher in major European projects concerned with the implementation of curriculum innovations by science teachers, and the development of an open modelling collaborative software. Her previous jobs in Greece have included teaching undergraduate nursery education students, as deputy national co-ordinator of the OECD Activity "Attracting, Developing and Retaining Effective Teachers" and she has worked as a consultant for the OECD Directorate for Education and Skills in the design and management of the ‘Improving School Leadership’ project. She held the post of deputy director at the Science Learning Centre London and co-directed a ESRC-funded project on "Understanding Participation in post-16 Mathematics And Physics" at the Institute of Education, University of London. Her research interests include: professional development of science teachers; pupils' attitudes to science; use of innovations in the science classroom; pupils' difficulties with reading pictures in science; the use of computer modelling in science lessons; teaching about energy.
OECD analysts
BEATRIZ PONT
Dr. Beatriz Pont, Senior Policy Analyst is currently leading OECD countries’ school education policy reviews in the OECD Directorate for Education and Skills. Focused on education policy analysis and advice, she has managed and contributed to a range of education policy comparative reviews in the area of school improvement, school leadership, equity, adult learning and adult skills, among others (Education Policy Outlook 2015; Equity and Quality in Education: Supporting Disadvantaged Students and Schools, 2012; Improving Lower Secondary Education in Norway, 2011); Improving Schools in Mexico, 2010; Improving School Leadership, 2008); Promoting Adult learning, 2005). She was previously a researcher in the Economic and Social Council of the Government of Spain, and in Andersen Consulting. She has a BA from Pitzer College, a Masters of International Affairs from Columbia University, a PhD in Political Science from the Complutense University in Madrid and an honorary Doctorate from Sheffield Hallam University.
ANDREW MACINTYRE
Andrew Macintyre, Policy Analyst in the OECD Directorate for Education and Skills, has been at the OECD since 1995. In a varied career he has worked in external communications for several of the OECD's specialised agencies and in the Directorate for Public Affairs and Communications before becoming Counsellor to the OECD Director of Education and Skills in 2012. He has a BA from Otago University (NZ), a Postgraduate Diploma in Economics from SOAS, University of London, and an MA in Sociology (Mass Communications) from the University of Leicester (UK).