Over the past two decades, the Jordanian education
system has made significant advances. Net enrollment
in basic education increased from 89 percent in 2000
to 97 percent in 2006. Transition rates to secondary
education increased from 63 to 79 percent in the same
period. At the same time, Jordan made significant gains
on international surveys of student achievement, with a
particularly impressive gain of almost 30 points on the science portion of the Third International Mathematics
and Science Study. Changes in test scores over time are
presented and analyzed using decomposition analysis.
The trends are related to policy changes over time. It
is argued that benchmarking education systems and
constant feedback between researchers and policymakers
contributed to this achievement.