Page 22 - Štremfel, Urška, and Maša Vidmar (eds.). 2018. Early School Leaving: Cooperation Perspectives. Ljubljana: Pedagoški inštitut.
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Review of existing (good) practices
An analysis of existing (good) policies and practices and measures in or-
der to expose ‘what works’ when tackling ESL in different environments
and which approaches are worthwhile learning from when developing new
(school, local, national) approaches to ESL. Data for the analysis are gath-
ered by different sources (mainly the DG EAC and EACEA websites, ESL
project websites, national reports etc.). While the focus of the TITA scien-
tific base is ESL in the EU, we also refer to practices outside Europe, which
strengthens the evidence base, and suggest alternative solutions.

Synthesis of the quantitative information available on ESL
Data were gathered and analysed from different points of view (longitudi-
nal analyses, comparison between member states, different regions and lo-
cal environments in the EU). Strong disparities in ESL levels might indicate
specific structural problems in certain geographical areas or educational
tracks and help identify national, regional and local specificities of the phe-
nomenon. The primary sources are EU qualitative reports, country reports,
inspection reports, as well as EU and OECD (Organisation for Economic
Cooperation and Development) indicators.

Secondary analyses of data from international comparative
assessment studies
Secondary analyses of data emerging from international comparative as-
sessment studies are made in areas where existing studies do not provide
sufficient information on ESL that is of special importance to the TITA pro-
ject. These data can provide an additional strong and robust evidence base
for tackling ESL at the level of the consortium countries. These data can
provide an important insight into factors that cause ESL (identification and
prevention) and effective school and policy practices that contribute to re-
ducing it (intervention). In addition, such data are not only able to explain
the big differences between EU member states in attaining the EU bench-
mark, but can also identify the factors that help cut ESL in the member
states which are making the best progress in that regard.
In order to provide a comprehensive review of the ESL phenomenon,
the TITA scientific base consists of scientific review articles that are organ-
ised in the sections and subsections already described above. Each scien-
tific review article consists of the title, a key message in which the article’s

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