International comparisons of education systems

This article introduces the Canadian and International Education journal's special issue on international comparisons of education systems featuring OECD's Indicators of Education Systems (INES). The special issue originates from a symposium on international indicators at the conference of the Canadian Society for the Study of Education in Toronto in May 2002. The introduction discusses the development of indicators worldwide, followed by a description of the establishment. of INES. It then looks at the conceptual framework underlying this OECD program and a brief description of INES today. Finally, it provides a synopsis of what follows in the subsequent articles designed to inform the reader of the current work of this internationally collaborative program.