This paper inquires 'outcomes' in education quality by focusing on issues related to cognitive skill development. Cognitive skills, which include literacy and numeracy, are defined as the "ability to understand complex ideas, adapt effectively to the environment, learn from experience, and reason" (The World Bank, 2017). UNE-SCO (2005, p.2) mentions the importance of cognitive development as "the major explicit objective of all education systems" and as one of the principles of defining quality in education. The first section of this paper will elaborate on the role of cognitive skills within the purpose and quality of education, followed by a section on teacher quality, and early childhood education since an amalgam of research states both factors having a significant statistical impact on cognitive skill formation (HW, 2015; Cunha& Heckman, 2017;Dahmann, 2015). The paper will conclude by touching issues regarding measurement and research gaps. There are several factors which enhance cognitive skill formation, and the aim of this research is not about assessing importance/relevance weights on specific factors; instead, it is an inquiry on the lack of cognitive skills within education quality.JEL Codes: A12, A20, I25 ÖzBu makale bilişsel beceri gelişimi ile ilgili konulara odaklanarak eğitim kalitesindeki "çıktıları" araştırmaktadır. Okuryazarlık ve sayısal bilgiyi içeren bilişsel beceriler, "karmaşık fikirleri anlama, çevreye etkili bir şekilde uyum sağlama, deneyimden ve akıldan öğrenme" şeklinde tanımlanmaktadır (The World Bank, 2017). UNESCO (2005, s.2) bilişsel gelişimin "tüm eğitim sistemlerinin temel açık hedefi" ve eğitimde tanımlamanın ilkelerinden biri olduğunu vurgulamaktadır. UNESCO (2005, s.2) bilişsel gelişimin "tüm eğitim sistemlerinin temel açık hedefi" ve eğitimde kaliteyi tanımlamanın ilkelerinden biri olduğunu vurgulamaktadır. Bu makalenin ilk bölümü, bilişsel becerilerin eğitimin amacı ve kalitesi içindeki rolü üzerinedir. Araştırmalar, bilişsel beceri formasyonu üzerinde bir istatistiksel etkiye sahip faktörleri belirttiğinden (HW, 2015; Cunha ve Heckman, 2017;Dahmann, 2015) sonraki bölümler öğrenci kalitesi ve erken eğitim üzerinde tartışacaktır. Rapor, ölçme ve araştırma boşlukları ile ilgili konulara dokunarak sonuçlandırılacaktır. Bilişsel beceri oluşumunu geliştiren birkaç faktör vardır ve bu yazının amacı belirli faktörler üzerindeki önem ağırlıklarını değerlendirmek değildir; bunun yerine, eğitim kalitesi dahilinde bilişsel becerilerin eksikliğine dair bir soruşturmadır.Anahtar Kelimeler: Eğitimin kalitesi, ekonomik büyüme, bilişsel beceriler Jel Kodları: A12, A20, I25

The field of economics of education has been receiving constant attention with the advent of growth theories stating how education can produce sustainable long-run economic growth and increase people's skills (Hanushek & Woessmann, 2015; Mincer, 1974). Despite its universal relevance, educational research has not been placed on the same scale with fields such as medicine due to seldom usage of robust quantitative research and the dearth of causal inferences (Creemers, Kyriakidēs, & Sammons, 2010). Given this, leading countries in educational research such as the United States (Scimago Journal & Country Rank, 2018) have been initiating "repeated calls for education policy to rely on a foundation of scientifically based research" (Angrist, 2003, para. 1) to nudge the field of education towards using rigorous and innovative methodological methods and experiments (Murnane & Willett, 2011). Using an experimental method is most suitable when the research aims to test the impact of intervention within the respected field of research (Beach & Pedersen, 2016). Henceforward, this paper addresses the opportunities and challenges of using experimental methods in educational interventions, particularly randomized control trials (RCT) and quasi-experiments that test the impact of financial incentives to increase student outcomes. The first section is an overview of experimental designs, followed by sections delineating on RCTs and quasi-experiments, and discussing empirical studies that employ such methods. It should be noted that this paper argues in favor of neither quantitative nor qualitative research methods as both methods can produce quality research if implemented rigorously (Lodico, Spaulding, & Voegtle, 2010).

In keeping with the pattern of the last century, today we observe staunch and oftentimes vociferous opposition to even the prospect of state intervention in the market place to either curtail recessionary downturns or mitigate the corollaries of market failure. To whom or to what is this knee-jerk revulsion to government interference attributable? Is it justified? And what is the role of government in the contemporary economy? Figures that have dominated this hemisphere of thought include free-market advocates such as Friedrich von Hayek. On the other end of the spectrum, personalities like John Maynard Keynes challenged fundamentally the idea that market economies will automatically adjust to create full employment, in the process setting the parameters of a debate that rages on into the contemporary era.

The consensus around the importance of educational quality on economic growth and societal development is more robust than ever. Major studies such as Hanushek & Woessmann (2015; indicate that a nation's aggregate cognitive skills, measured with international mathematics and science assessments such as TIMMS, PIRLS, and PISA, is indicative of its educational quality, which is a vital component for economic growth. Such studies have also influenced the trajectory of international organizations so far as to include 'quality education' as one of the Sustainable Development Goals 2013 (United Nations, 2015). Therefore, by building on the studies asserting the importance of quality education and cognitive skills accumulation, we examine whether there is a universal model of a 'good' education system should look like is emerging. Based on observing the education systems of countries with a solid track record on international assessments aimed to measure cognitive skills, we argue that there seems to be various common themes, and also highly distinctive paths to success among highly renowned education systems.