Louis Volante (PhD) is a Professor of Education Governance and Policy Analysis at Brock University and a Professorial Fellow at UNU-MERIT / Maastricht Graduate School of Governance (MGSoG). He has held Visiting Professor appointments in England (University College London), the Netherlands (UNU-MERIT), and Canada (University of Toronto). Among his various leadership roles, Dr. Volante is the current President of the Canadian Society for the Study of Education (CSSE) and Past-President of the Canadian Educational Researchers' Association (CERA).

Professor Volante is an expert with UNESCO’s Inclusive Policy Lab and a member of the United Nations University Migration Network. He also recently served on the Executive of the Joint Committee on Standards for Educational Evaluation (JCSEE), which develops and updates standards for the evaluation field across North America. Dr. Volante regularly engages as a consultant and policy advisor for International Organisations as well as regional and national governments around the world.

Professor Volante’s research is primarily focused on global education governance, international education surveys and policy diffusion, inequality in educational opportunities and achievement, impact evaluation of policies and programs, and assessment policies and practices. His scholarship is widely cited in both academic and policy communities and has been generously supported by international and national agencies such as the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC). He is currently leading a five-year SSHRC project with Professors Don Klinger (University of Waikato) and Melissa Siegel (UNU-MERIT), which examines the relationship between migrant integration policies and student achievement outcomes. He is fortunate to have a publication record that has included collaborations with over 100 scholars in more than 25 countries.

Among his various distinctions, Professor Volante is a two-time recipient of the R.W.B. Jackson Publication Award, which is awarded annually by CSSE to recognize the most outstanding English language journal article. He has been featured as an educational change expert by research societies such as the American Educational Research Association (AERA). At UNU-MERIT/MGSoG, Professor Volante supervises graduate students in the Master of Science Programme in Public Policy and Human Development (MPP) and the PhD Programme in Governance and Policy Analysis (GPAC²). He also teaches doctoral courses which focus on Policy Evaluation as well as the Global Governance of Education. Louis completed his Ph.D. at the University of Toronto with a focus on policy studies after receiving a UofT Open Scholarship from the School of Graduate Studies.

	Selected publications by Louis Volante
Articles (journal, professional, popular)
Volante, Louis, Camila Lara, Don A. Klinger & Melissa Siegel, 2022, Academic resilience during the COVID-19 pandemic: a triarchic analysis of education policy developments across Canada, Canadian Journal of Education, More information
Hassan, Elizabeth, Wim Groot & Louis Volante, 2022, Education funding and learning outcomes in Sub-Saharan Africa: A review of reviews, International Journal of Educational Research Open, 3: 1-13, More information
Volante, Louis & Don A. Klinger, 2022, PISA, global reference societies, and policy borrowing: The promises and pitfalls of academic resilience, Policy Futures in Education, More information
Volante, Louis & Don A. Klinger, 2021, PISA and education reform in Europe: Cases of policy inertia, avoidance, and refraction, European Education, 53(1): 45-56, DOI: www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/10564934.2021.1987839, More information
Volante, Louis, Don A. Klinger & Melissa Siegel, 2021, Immigrant student resilience: Policy directions for a post-COVID world, Migration Policy Practice, 11(2): 39-43, More information
Volante, Louis, Don A. Klinger & Melissa Siegel, 2021, Confronting the challenge of immigrant and refugee student underachievement: A comparative analysis of education policies and programs in Canada, New Zealand, and England, Comparative and International Education, 49(2): 35-50
Volante, Louis, Don A. Klinger, Livianna Tossutti & Melissa Siegel, 2021, Student achievement depends on reducing poverty now and after COVID-19, The Conversation, April 19, More information
Volante, Louis, Camila Lara, Don A. Klinger & Melissa Siegel, 2020, The use of a multi-dimensional support model to examine policies and practices for immigrant students across Canada, Canadian Journal of Education, 43(1): 121-169
Volante, Louis & Francesca Borgonovi, 2020, Girls consistently outperform boys in reading skills – but could this be changing?, The Conversation, More information
Volante, Louis, Francesca Borgonovi & Jo Ritzen, 2019, Global education rankings may overlook poor graduation rates, The Conversation, More information
Volante, Louis, John Jerrim, Jo Ritzen & Sylke Schnepf, 2019, This is how the way the world measures success in education is changing, World Economic Forum - Agenda Weekly, More information
Volante, Louis, John Jerrim & Jo Ritzen, 2019, High school dropouts cost countries a staggering amount of money, The Conversation, More information
Volante, Louis, Don A. Klinger, Melissa Siegel & Leena Yahia, 2019, Policy options for addressing immigrant student achievement gaps, Migration Policy and Practice, 9(2): 9-12, More information
Volante, Louis, Don A. Klinger, Melissa Siegel & Leena Yahia, 2019, Raising the achievement of immigrant students: Towards a multi-layered framework for enhanced student outcomes, Policy Futures in Education, 17(8): 1037-1056, DOI: 10.1177/1478210319835336, More information
Volante, Louis & John Jerrim, 2018, Why a good education isn't always the key to social mobility, World Economic Forum - Agenda Weekly, More information
Volante, Louis, Don A. Klinger & Melissa Siegel, 2018, The secrets of immigrant student success, The Conversation, More information
Volante, Louis, Xavier Fazio & Jo Ritzen, 2017, The OECD and educational policy reform: International surveys, governance, and policy evidence, Canadian Journal of Educational Administration and Policy, 184: 34-48, More information
Volante, Louis, Don A. Klinger, Özge Bilgili & Melissa Siegel, 2017, Making sense of the performance (dis)advantage for immigrant students across Canada, Canadian Journal of Education, 40(3): 329-361
Volante, Louis, Don A. Klinger, Özge Bilgili & Melissa Siegel, 2017, The immigrant (dis)advantage: Addressing student achievement gaps, Education Canada, More information
Volante, Louis, Don A. Klinger, Melissa Siegel & Özge Bilgili, 2017, Immigrant youth help to build nations, The Conversation, More information
Morgan, Clara & Louis Volante, 2016, A review of the OECD’s international education surveys: Governance, human capital discourses, and policy debates, Policy Futures in Education, 14(6): 775-792
Volante, Louis & Jo Ritzen, 2016, The European Union, education governance, and international education surveys, Policy Futures in Education, 14(7): 988-1004
Books (monograph or edited volume)
Volante, Louis, Sylke Schnepf & Don A. Klinger (eds.), 2022, Cross-National Achievement Surveys for Monitoring Educational Outcomes: Policies, Practices, and Political Reforms within the European Union, Publications Office of the European Union, Luxembourg, 242 pp, More information
Volante, Louis, Sylke Schnepf, John Jerrim & Don A. Klinger (eds.), 2019, Socioeconomic Inequality and Student Outcomes: Cross-National Trends, Policies, and Practices, Springer Press, Singapore, 223 pp, More information
Volante, Louis, Don A. Klinger & Özge Bilgili (eds.), 2018, Immigrant Student Achievement and Education Policy: Cross-Cultural Approaches, Springer Press, Switzerland, 214 pp, More information
Volante, Louis (ed.), 2018, The PISA Effect on Global Educational Governance, Routledge Press, New York & London, 236 pp, More information
Volante, Louis (ed.), 2016, The Intersection of International Achievement Testing and Educational Policy: Global Perspectives on Large-Scale Reform, Routledge Press, New York & London, 199 pp, More information
Volante, Louis (ed.), 2012, School Leadership in the Context of Standards-Based Reform: International Perspectives, Springer Press, Dordrecht, Netherlands, 263 pp, More information
UNU-MERIT Working Papers
Bilgili, Özge, Louis Volante, Don A. Klinger & Melissa Siegel, 2019, Confronting the challenge of immigrant and refugee student underachievement: Policies and practices from Canada, New Zealand and the European Union, UNU-MERIT Working Paper 2019-048
Briefs
Borgonovi, Francesca & Louis Volante, 2020, PISA 2018 indicates gender reading gaps are closing: Is it time to celebrate?, The blog International-Education is an outcome of the project OCCAM. This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under the Marie Skodowska-Curie grant agreement No. 76500, More information
Volante, Louis, Sylke Schnepf, John Jerrim & Don A. Klinger, 2019, Socio-economic background and educational inequalities, Science for Policy Briefs Series. Ispra, Italy: Joint Research Centre – European Commission. This policy brief builds on research findings published in 'Socioeconomic inequality and student outcomes: Cross-national trends, policies and practices', More information