Ideas to Action:
Independent research for global prosperity
In an earlier blog post, we proposed a few lessons from the experience of some members of our team with piloting phone-based assessments in Botswana and from other members with oral assessments from before the pandemic. Now, with more piloting experience and data, we update those lessons.
Liberalized trade has led to a boom in int'l students, and reactionary immigration policies—including Trump's move to bar these students from staying in the US if their university shifts online—could leave a lasting impact on higher education and the economy.
Using lessons from early movers in Botswana, together with the extensive literature on face-to-face oral assessments, we’re concluding, “yes,” we think it is possible to measure learning by phone. We’ve published some preliminary principles and discussion in a new working paper. Below is a quick summary—five tips which we hope are helpful for those embarking on their own efforts.
Better data can help us have a better response for COVID, so we piloted a mobile phone survey on 1,000+ respondents in Senegal in partnership with the Centre de Recherche pour le Développement Économique et Social. We published the results of the survey yesterday and we are now publishing some of the key findings.
On what basis have some European policymakers decided that it’s wise to reopen schools? And how will those calculations differ in low- and middle-income countries?
Alongside our tracker of education policy responses by national governments, we’ve started to track what international development partners are doing in education in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Schools may be closed, but the costs of running education systems continue and may even increase
With more than 1.5 billion students are out of school, COVID-19 school closures could exacerbate existing inequities. In this post we analyse what we know (so far) about some of the drivers of inequity—and measures taken to address them—in different countries, using our open-access database.
This week was supposed to be the annual conference for the Centre for the Study of African Economies at Oxford. Take a break from coronastressing and survey the impressive array of work that researchers are doing on education and health in Africa. We summarize more than 80 studies, including many on other topics with impacts on health or education.
Using a newly assembled database, here’s what we found about the scale and timing of school closures, as well as how countries are adjusting to distance learning.
Hundreds of millions of kids get meals at school and, for many, this is the only hot, nutritious meal they have all day. We examine how many and which children will be most affected, and what the policy options are to ensure children do not go hungry during school closure.
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