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International and comparative
The Reliability of Classroom Observations and Student Surveys in Non-Research Settings: Evidence from a Middle-Income Country
Topics: Teacher and Leader DevelopmentWe present one of the first Generalizability studies of non-test measures of teaching effectiveness administered by practitioners in a middle-income country. The reliability of observations varies widely (from 0 to 0.75 on a 0-1 scale) and depends upon their context (whether they are conducted… more →
Residential Segregation and Unequal Access to Local Public Services in India: Evidence from 1.5m Neighborhoods
Topics: Policy, Politics, and GovernanceWe study residential segregation and access to public services across 1.5 million urban and rural neighborhoods in India. Muslim and Scheduled Caste segregation in India is high by global standards, and only slightly lower than Black-White segregation in the U.S. Within cities, public facilities… more →
The reliability of classroom observations and student surveys in non-research settings: Evidence from Argentina
Topics: Teacher and Leader DevelopmentThere is a growing consensus on the need to measure teaching effectiveness using multiple instruments. Yet, guidance on how to achieve reliable ratings derives largely from formal research in high-income countries. We study the reliability of classroom observations and student surveys conducted… more →
Right to Education (RTE) Act’s Influence on Caste-based Enrollment Gaps and Segregation in India
Topics: School ChoiceSection 12(1)(c) of the Right to Education (RTE) Act of India expanded affirmative action to primary schooling by requiring non-government-funded private schools to reserve 25% of their admissions for students from marginalized castes and economically disadvantaged backgrounds. Using variation… more →
Does Civic Education Impact Primary-School Students’ Civic Outcomes? Experimental Evidence from Liberia
Topics: Student LearningWe present experimental evidence on a civic education program in Liberia's public primary schools across 140 schools serving grades 3 and 4. The program provided new civic textbooks, teacher training, bi-weekly instruction, and regular classroom monitoring. After one school year, treatment… more →
From Population Growth to Demographic Scarcity: Emerging Challenges to Global Primary Education Provision in the Twenty-first Century
Topics: Policy, Politics, and GovernanceDemographic pressures are reshaping the challenges faced by primary education systems around the world in ways that carry significant implications for the landscape of global educational inequality. We first demonstrate highly disequalizing demographic pressures on the world's educational… more →
The Learning Crisis: Three Years After COVID-19
Tomasz Gajderowicz, Maciej Jakubowski, Alec Kennedy, Christian Christrup Kjeldsen, Harry A. Patrinos, Rolf Strietholt.Topics: Student LearningThe COVID-19 pandemic caused widespread disruptions to education, with school closures affecting over one billion children. These closures, aimed at reducing virus transmission, resulted in significant learning losses, particularly in mathematics and science. Using data from TIMSS 2023, which… more →
Creating Short Forms of Early Childhood Development Measures: A Framework for Quantifying Statistical, Conceptual, and Practical Tradeoffs in Direct Assessment
Direct assessments of early childhood development (ECD) are a cornerstone of research in developmental psychology and are increasingly used to evaluate programs and policies in lower- and middle-income countries. Despite strong psychometric properties, these assessments are too expensive and… more →
Education, gender, and family formation
Topics: Families and CommunitiesWe study the effect of educational attainment on family formation using regression discontinuity designs generated by centralized admissions processes to both secondary and tertiary education in Finland. Admission to further education at either margin does not increase the likelihood that men… more →
Loss of Schooling from Tropical Cyclones: Evidence from 13 Low- and Middle-income Countries
Renzhi Jing, Sam Heft-Neal, Zetianyu Wang, Jie Chen, Minghao Qiu, Isaac M. Opper, Zachary Wagner, Eran Bendavid.Topics: Student LearningIncreasing educational attainment is one of the most important and effective tools for health and economic improvements. The extent to which extreme climate events disrupt education, resulting in fewer years of schooling and reduced educational attainment, remains under-studied. Children in low… more →
Beyond the silver bullet: Unveiling multiple pathways to school turnaround
Topics: Policy, Politics, and GovernanceResearch on school improvement has accumulated an extensive list of factors that facilitate turnarounds at underperforming schools. Given that contextual or resource constraints may limit the possibilities of putting all of these factors in place, an important question is what is necessary and… more →
The Challenges of Scaling up Effective Child-Rearing Practices Using Technology in Developing Settings: Experimental Evidence From India
Topics: Student Well-BeingHome-visitation programs have improved child development in low- and middle-income countries, but they are costly to scale due to their reliance on trained workers. We evaluated an inexpensive and low-tech alternative with 2,433 caregivers of children aged 6 to 30 months served by 250 public… more →
Neighbors' Spillovers on High School Choice
Topics: School ChoiceDo residential neighbors affect each others' schooling choices? We exploit oversubscription lotteries in Chile's centralized school admission system to identify the effect of close neighbors on application and enrollment decisions. A student is 5-7% more likely to rank a high school as their… more →
The Prevalence and Policy Implications of Between-School Heterogeneity in Learning Outcomes: Evidence from Six Public Education Systems
Topics: Student LearningWhile learning outcomes in low- and middle-income countries are generally at low levels, the degree to which students and schools more broadly within education systems lag behind grade-level proficiency can vary significantly. A substantial portion of existing literature advocates for aligning… more →
Exploring Multidimensional Approaches to Learning During Early Childhood in Ghana
Topics: Student LearningChildren's approaches to learning (AtL) are widely recognized as a critical predictor of educational outcomes, especially in early childhood. Nevertheless, there remains a dearth of understanding regarding the dimensionality of AtL, the reciprocal dynamics between AtL and learning outcomes, and… more →
The long-term distributional impacts of a full-year interleaving math program in Nigeria
Topics: Student LearningThis study reports the findings from a year-long randomized evaluation assessing the impact of assigning 62 classrooms in Nigeria to receive either blocked or interleaved math problem sets. Blocked practice sessions focused on a single skill at a time. Interleaved problem sets alternated between… more →
Unintended Consequences of Youth Entrepreneurship Programs: Experimental Evidence from Rwanda
The persistently high employment share of the informal sector makes entrepreneurship a necessity for youth in many developing countries. We exploit exogenous variation in the implementation of Rwanda’s entrepreneurship education reform in secondary schools to evaluate its effect on student… more →
Is Reputational Pressure Enough to Create Competitive School Choice Effects? Evidence from Seoul’s School Choice Policy
Topics: School ChoiceDuring the pandemic, a number of states instituted hold-harmless funding policies to protect school district financially from declining enrollments (Center for Public Education, 2021). In addition, some school choice policies have protected traditional public schools financially from declining… more →
Explaining the Productivity Paradox: Experimental Evidence from Educational Technology
Topics: Student LearningExplaining the productivity paradox—the phenomenon where an introduction of information and communication technology (ICT) does not lead to improvements in labor productivity—is difficult, as changes in technology often coincide with adjustments to working hours and substitution of labor. I… more →
Can Patience Account for Subnational Differences in Student Achievement? Regional Analysis with Facebook Interests
Topics: Student LearningDecisions to invest in human capital depend on people’s time preferences. We show that differences in patience are closely related to substantial subnational differences in educational achievement, leading to new perspectives on longstanding within-country disparities. We use social-media data… more →