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Reporting on Education

What You Need to Know

David K. EvansWorld Bank

November 10, 2016impactAFRICA webinar

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What we’ll do in this webinar

1. What are the big issues in education?

2. How should we even think about education?

3. How should we think about education programs?

4. What actually works to improve educational outcomes?

5. Tips

6. Resources

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A few big issues

All photos in this presentation that are not in news clips are from the World Bank Flickr feed

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Access and quality

Africa has made major strides in education access.

But there are still far too many children out of school!

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Decreasing children out of school

Adolescents out of school (% of lower secondary school age)Children out of school (% of primary school age)

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Access and quality

Quality education is a major struggle.

Average math score (Grade 4) on TIMSS

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Access and quality

Quality education is a major struggle.

Average math score (Grade 4) on TIMSS

Average math score (Grade 4) on SACMEQ3

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This comes up in the news

http://frontpageafricaonline.com/index.php/news/2374-liberia-s-education-sector-still-low-compared-to-international-standard

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This comes up in the news

http://www.maravipost.com/11-candidates-score-6-points-check-2016-malawi-school-certificate-of-education-examination-results-here/

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Point to Remember

When there is an intervention on access, is it affecting quality? When we seek to improve quality, what is the impact on access?

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Private versus public sector10% of primary school students in private schools

Malawi 1%Mozambique 2%South Africa 4%Namibia 5%Sierra Leone 8%Madagascar 19%Togo 27%

20% of secondary school students in private schools

South Africa 5%Malawi 6%Sierra Leone 7%Mozambique 12%Tanzania 21%Togo 23%Madagascar 40%

Source: World Development Indicators

In some countries, such as Liberia, there have been steps to dramatically expand private provision.

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Private versus public sector

https://www.morningstaronline.co.uk/a-a1ff-Uganda-Teachers-hail-ruling-against-tin-shack-school-profiteers

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Private versus public sector

http://www.the-star.co.ke/news/2016/11/09/kenya-teachers-take-after-uganda-want-uk-backed-private-schools-banned_c1453098

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Point to Remember

What are private school expansions likely to do for access? What about quality?

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There are many others!Teachers Exams

http://allafrica.com/stories/201611090084.html http://allafrica.com/stories/201611070083.html

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The direct factors in education

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But that’s not all the players

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And everyone reacts to everyone else

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Point to Remember

With a new education policy that affects one actor, how will it affect others? (Teacher policies on students. Input policies on teachers.)

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How to governments and NGOs seek to improve education?

Providing information

Providing information

Public-private partnerships

Remedial education

Teacher training

Merit-based scholarships

Cash transfers School-based management

New schools and infrastructure

Hiring teachers

School-based health

Reducing fees Community-based monitoring

Providing materials

Teacher incentives and accountability

School feeding Extra timeGrouping by abilitySource: Snilstveit et al., “The impact of education programmes on learning and school participation in low- and middle-income countries,” 2016.

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Each of these focuses on enrollment, or attendance, or learning (or a combination)

Providing information

Providing information

Public-private partnerships

Remedial education

Teacher training

Merit-based scholarships

Cash transfers School-based management

New schools and infrastructure

Hiring teachers

School-based health

Reducing fees Community-based monitoring

Providing materials

Teacher incentives and accountability

School feeding Extra timeGrouping by abilitySource: Snilstveit et al., “The impact of education programmes on learning and school participation in low- and middle-income countries,” 2016.

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Point to Remember

• Who is an education policy or program principally affecting?

• What mechanism is it working through?

• How will it affect other actors?

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Do we know anything about what actually works?

I did a recent study on this with Anna Popova.

Source: Evans and Popova, “What really works to improve learning in developing countries?” 2016

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Massive expansion in evidenceRecent years have seen an explosion in evidence on learningSix reviews over last two years on the same topic: How to improve learning outcomes for children in low and middle income countriesWe went through these reviews and found what they had in common

1980 1985 1990 1995 2000 2005 2010 20150

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Cumulative learning studies227 total studies

32 total studies

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What works: (1) Pedagogical interventions that match teaching to individual student learning levels

- Assessment in Liberia: Train teachers to use an initial reading assessment and then continually assess student performance (Piper & Korda 2011)

- Tracking in Kenya: Assign students to separate classes based on initial ability so that teachers can focus instruction at the level of learning of individual students (Duflo, Dupas & Kremer 2011)

- Assessment & tracking in India: Teach daily Hindi sessions tailored to ability on initial test, regardless of age or grade (Duflo et al 2015)

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…including computer-assisted learning (CAL)- Use math software to help students learn at their own pace in India

(Banerjee et al. 2007)

- Provide laptops including learning software & games linked to the curriculum to students in China (Mo et al. 2012)

- But just giving out laptops or desktop computers won’t guarantee gains

• One Laptop Per Child in Peru unaccompanied by parent or student training (Cristia et al., 2012) & mainly used to search the internet in Uruguay (De Melo et al. 2014)

• Computers not tied to curriculum or integrated into classroom instruction in Colombia (Barrera-Osorio & Linden, 2009)

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What works: (2) Individualized, repeated teacher training

- Train teachers and provide them with regular mentoring to implement early grade reading instruction in local language in Kenya & Uganda (Lucas et al. 2014)

- Provide local contract teachers with two weeks of initial training but reinforcement throughout the year in India (Banerjee et al. 2007)

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… often associated with a specific method or task

- Combine student reading groups with in-school supervisors to provide ongoing guidance to group leaders in Chile (Cabezas et al. 2012)

- Help teachers learn to use storybooks and flash cards in India (He et al. 2009)

• As opposed to a similar (not identical) program introduced without teacher preparation (He et al. 2008)

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Many other types of programs have been effective in a given context.

• Deworming in Kenya led to more school participation and better labor market outcomes

• Providing information on the returns to education improved both attendance and learning in Madagascar

• Building rural roads improved attendance and learning in India

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Point to Remember

When reporting on a proposed policy or program, is there evidence from other countries that can inform your country’s experience?

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A few tips

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Tip 1: Use the dual lens of access and qualityHow will this affect children’s access to education?

How will it affect how effectively they learn?

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Tip 2: Beyond the direct players, who is affected?

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Tip 3: Not just speeches but actual programs

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Tip 3: Not just speeches but actual programs

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Tip 3: Not just speeches but actual programs

What else to report on?

• New policies

• New programs from government or non-government organizations

• New studies of programs in your country

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Tip 4: Complement reporting with real data

• World Bank – World Development Indicators: http://data.worldbank.org/data-catalog/world-development-indicators

• Service Delivery Indicators (detailed education outcomes across several African countries): http://www.sdindicators.org/

• The Demographic and Health Surveys: http://dhsprogram.com/data/

• Local surveys

• Uwezo in Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda - http://www.uwezo.net/

• Household surveys

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Tip 4: Complement reporting with real dataData will also come from global and regional reports

• Annual: The Global Education Monitoring Report http://en.unesco.org/gem-report/

• The Education Commission http://report.educationcommission.org/

• The World Bank’s World Development Report on Education [coming next year!]

• Regional – Mathematics Education in Sub-Saharan Africa : Status, Challenges, and Opportunities https://openknowledge.worldbank.org/handle/10986/25289

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Tip 5: Complement reporting with evidence of impact

• In Tanzania, there is a major cash transfer initiative, with conditions on whether children stay in school.

• There was a pilot initiative there in Tanzania

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Tip 5: Complement reporting with evidence of impact

• Where to find this evidence?

• Check reviews of evidence: https://sites.google.com/site/davidkevans/database-of-education-studies

• Search for “impact evaluation” and “class size reduction” or “computer-assisted learning” or “…”

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Tip 6: People, not just programs

Education is about learners. Journalists have a unique opportunity to make data and statistics come alive with the stories of students.

• Very few people are moved by statistics. They are moved by stories.

• Choose stories that demonstrate the truth about programs: If 90% of students failed to benefit from a program, make sure you tell some of their stories. (Not just the 10%.)

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Tip 6: People, not just programs

This applies to reporting on studies as well.

• Who are the researchers?

• Why did they ask this question?

• Am I getting their results right?

Most researchers are desperate for their evidence to make it into the media. They want to talk with you.

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Education matters

• No country escapes poverty without quality education.

• Good reporting can hold policy makers accountable and keep citizens motivated and informed.

• Thank you for your service!

Don’t miss the previous impactAFRICA webinars

• Measuring the impact of development projects

• Early childhood nutrition, health and education

• How journalists can use data to improve reporting on water and sanitation issues

• Reporting on mother and child healthcare

• All available at http://impactafrica.fund/webinars 43