Our mission
CES analyses education policies from across the world to inform the development of coherent and effective education systems that best serve children and young people.
Where the OECD tracks outcomes, CES explains how different approaches work. Where EEF focuses on classroom practice, CES focuses on policy and system design. Our objective is not to find the “right” answer, but to understand the available options, context, mechanisms and outcomes and to advise policy makers on “what’s possible”.
Sam Freedman, CES Strategy Director.
Our vision
Education systems that deliver high quality and equitable outcomes for all children and young people.
Jonathan Dando-Laing
appointed as our first Chief Executive
Joins CES in February 2027
CES are thrilled to announce that we have appointed Jonathan Dando-Laing as its first Chief Executive Officer. He will join CES in February 2027 from Oak National Academy, where he is Director of External Relations and School Support.
Jonathan was one of the founding team who set up Oak in 2020 and has been central to its growth into one of the most widely used education resources in England. Before that he worked at Teach First, The Prince’s Trust and VSO, in roles spanning communications, funding, strategy and government and public relations. He is also a trustee of Ormiston Academies Trust.
Jonathan said: “Education policy can make some of the biggest differences to children and young people, especially the most disadvantaged. Too often that is undermined by knee-jerk decisions, and by borrowing ideas from other countries without understanding why they worked. CES exists to change that, which makes its work hugely necessary and urgent. I’m excited to join such an outstanding team and to help it reach even more policymakers, in the UK and beyond.”
Patrick Wall, Chair of CES, said: “We are delighted to welcome Jonathan. His energy, entrepreneurial attitude and deep understanding of the sector make him exactly the right person to lead CES into its next stage, as we seek to bring greater evidence and rigour to education policymaking.”
Commenting on Jonathan’s appointment, CES’s Chief Research Officer Loic Menzies said: “It’s fair to say that the level of interest in our work since we published our first three studies twelve months ago has exceeded even our most optimistic expectations. We are confident that with Jonathan at the helm we will be even better placed to scale our impact and play our part in shaping more informed and effective education policies.”
What we do
The Centre for Education Systems exists to solve the education challenges affecting everyone. By learning from education systems around the world, CES provides governments, advisors and campaigners with evidence on different approaches, so that important goals can be met in a smart and effective manner.
As our insight and comparative analysis builds, we will provide a deep understanding of each policy area; offer alternative approaches to individual policy initiatives; explain how policy instruments interact and develop an overall architecture to help build system coherence and identify intervention priorities. All of this information and insight will be provided in our Resources section, free and easy to use.
Why compare education systems?
“Systems evidence will improve the quality of the conversation between teachers, the sector and politicians and we certainly need that".
—Baroness Estelle Morris, Labour Secretary of State for Education, 2001-2
“The opportunity for CES to bolster the knowledge and understanding of the person who is appointed in a government re-shuffle is absolutely enormous”.
—Baroness Nicky Morgan, Conservative Secretary of State for Education, 2014 -16
“CES are considering context, data trends and how local policy instruments interact together, this will discourage magpie like policy borrowing”.
—Professor Becky Francis CBE, leading the Curriculum and assessment review, 2024-25
“CES systematically selects systems to study, and uses a principled approach to analysis, so that their reviews are authoritative, practical and relevant to policymakers". —Professor Dylan ap Rhys Wiliam, Emeritus Professor of Educational Assessment at UCL Institute of Education
CES Partners (for current and recent work)
