The Johns Hopkins Institute for Education Policy is proud to host the Educational Pluralism Database in partnership with the European Association for Education Law and Policy, and the Balancing Freedom, Autonomy, and Accountability in Education project.

Balancing Freedom is a multi-volume study of school systems in more than 60 countries. The project examines each system through the lens of educational pluralism — a structure for public education in which governments fund and regulate, but do not necessarily deliver, public education. Each profile investigates the extent to which the country’s laws and regulations empower parents and school-level educators to make choices, while protecting the public purpose of education. 

By granting access to the database, IEP and ELA are committed to: 

  • Providing a permanent, publicly-available home for the country-level and topical profiles originally published in Balancing Freedom.
  • Updating profiles on a biennial basis, with interim updates as necessary.
  • Promoting use of the database among scholars, policymakers, and practitioners.

The ELA has published three editions of Balancing Freedom under the leadership of Jan deGroof (College of Europe and Tilburg University) and Charles L. Glenn (Boston University). Contact Ashley Berner, Director at [email protected] with questions about the database.

Overview and Discussion

Regional Profiles

Country Profiles

European Association for Education Law and Policy (ELA)
The European Association for Education Law and Policy (ELA) is an independent association, with its head office in Antwerp, and partners with similar associations worldwide. ELA aims to encourage progress in educational rights by promoting the right to education, developing education law and policy studies as disciplines, and actively supporting every serious effort made toward the codification of educational rights in legislation and court decisions. Its infrastructure is provided for by the University of Antwerp.
Read more about ELA

Questions about the database?