This report for Austria forms part of the OECD Review of Policies to Improve the Effectiveness of Resource Use in Schools (also referred to as the School Resources Review, see for further details). The purpose of the review is to explore how school resources can be governed, distributed, utilised and managed to improve the quality, equity and efficiency of school education. School resources are understood in a broad way, including financial resources (e.g. expenditures on education, school budget), physical resources (e.g. school infrastructure, computers), human resources (e.g. teachers, school leaders) and other resources (e.g. learning time).

The Austrian school system benefits from high levels of investment. Although education has also faced some budget cuts and budget pressures seem to be increasing, the recent economic and financial crisis did not yet have a strong impact on the education budget. An international comparison of spending data indicates still relatively high general levels of public investment in education in Austria. The school infrastructure is good and classes are relatively small and student-teacher ratios relatively low. However, there is concern that the country’s considerable commitment of resources to education has not sufficiently been translated into educational success as measured through international surveys. In the OECD Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) 2012, the mean performance of Austrian 15-year-olds was only slightly above the OECD average and below the level of other European countries such as Germany, Switzerland, Belgium and Finland. While Austria had a comparatively small share of low performers, the country also had a small share of top performers. There are also continued concerns about equity. Student’s socio‐economic background has a key impact on their achievement and educational trajectory through Austria’s stratified school system that is characterised by early tracking and selection. Students with an immigrant background are at particular risk of underperformance. Hence, the main challenge does not lie in expanding investments, but in using available resources more effectively and efficiently to improve the quality and equity of schooling.

In 2011, Austrian primary school students in Year 4 took part in the IEA’s TIMSS (Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study) and PIRLS (Progress in International Reading Literacy Study). Austria’s results in mathematics and reading in these assessments were considered unsatisfactory compared to 14 participating countries with similar socio-economic characteristics. In both subjects, Austria scored above the international average, but took the last place in its reference group for reading and the third-last for mathematics. In both subjects, the share of Austrian students meeting the Advanced and High International Benchmarks was smaller than the international median. Reading literacy scores have experienced a decline since 2006 and scores for mathematics have decreased since 1995. In science, however, Austria continues to show good results, performing above the international benchmarks across all levels of achievement. In 2012, Austrian 15-year-olds participated in OECD PISA 2012 performing above the OECD average in mathematics (506 vs. 494), at the average in science (506 vs. 501) and below the average in reading (490 vs. 496). In mathematics and reading, Austria fared worse than Germany and Switzerland, but better than or similar to Italy and the Slovak Republic. Since PISA 2003, Austria has slightly narrowed the share of low performing students in all subjects, but at the same time experienced a reduction in its share of top performers. This has resulted in a comparatively small share of students at the bottom, but also at the top of the performance scale in PISA 2012. TIMSS, PIRLS and PISA indicate relatively strong gender gaps in education.

This chapter presents an overview of the economic and demographic context in Austria, including a description of the present governance arrangements and the distribution of responsibilities for the funding and administration of the system. It also provides a brief description of the Austrian school system for international readers. Finally, it presents evidence on the quality and equity of the Austrian school system.

This chapter is about the funding and governance of primary and lower secondary education in Austria. It analyses the overall budget for education and the distribution of funding across levels of education, provinces, school types and resource categories. It looks at the complex distribution of responsibilities for governing, financing and administering different school types between the federal, provincial and municipal levels and the extent of school autonomy taking recent reforms and proposals for further reform into account. It considers the strengths and challenges inherent in the current system highlighting the problematic incentives, the lack of transparency and trust, and the inefficiencies the complex system of governance generates and makes policy recommendations to address these issues through a reform of governance and funding mechanisms.

This chapter focuses on the organisation of the school offer. It analyses the distribution of schools across the country and the size of schools and classes as well as the distribution of responsibilities for maintaining schools and their infrastructure and facilities. It examines recent reforms to change the organisation of the school offer towards greater equity with the New Secondary School reform and the expansion of all-day schooling. Furthermore, it briefly describes how the school offer seeks to facilitate the inclusion of students with special educational needs and to meet the needs of greater diversity in schools and classrooms. It considers strengths and challenges, paying particular attention to the structural obstacles for a more rational organisation for the school offer in rural areas, the remaining equity issues of early tracking and selection, and the difficulties for the introduction of integrated forms of all-day schooling. It concludes by proposing different policy recommendations to address these issues.

This chapter analyses the management of the teaching workforce in Austria, from initial teacher education and professional development to the organisation of teachers’ employment conditions and working time. It also analyses the availability and organisation of administrative and other pedagogical support staff and the local management of schools through school leadership. It considers recent reforms of initial teacher education and teachers’ employment conditions – major milestones in the creation of a common teaching profession beyond school types. But it also highlights the difficulties the complex governance arrangements create for the effective organisation of human resources in schools from a broader perspective and across primary and lower secondary education as a whole as well as the need to develop a vision of teacher professionalism and the need to further develop the leadership of schools. The chapter concludes in suggesting a number of policy recommendations to address these issues.