News and Research 228

In Armenia, Human Capital Investments are the Key to Resilient Growth in the Era of COVID-19 | Fadia Saadah

Turkey’s Improvements in the Quality of Learning: TIMMS 2019 Results | with Ayse Gunay Gokben and Joel Reyes | Turkey has made considerable improvements in quality of learning, based on math and science test scores among its students in grades 4 and 8. This has been confirmed by the 2019 Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS), which covered 64 countries around the world. It also increased the proportion of students reaching high and advanced international benchmarks. Such progress can be attributed to Turkey’s commitments to increasing the quality and equity of education – along with building on previous gains in schooling access…

What new COVID variants mean for schools is not yet clear | Children are no more susceptible to these lineages than adults are — and closing schools on the basis of incomplete information could have repercussions…

Learning Losses May Lead to Earning Losses | Can COVID-19 School Closures Be Rectified?

3 things we can do reverse the ‘COVID slide’ in education | Emerging pieces of evidence of an actual COVID-19 learning loss and of its likely implications for the future of the generation currently in school show that it is essential to mitigate the long-term effects of the pandemic as much as possible…

The impact of COVID-19 childcare closures and women’s labor supply

Urgent, Effective Action Required to Quell the Impact of COVID-19 on Education Worldwide

American children losing most by missing school may miss it longest | This risks widening the gap between rich and poor even further…

Biden rolls out his plan to reopen schools

Business schools: The MBA class of covid-19 | Once endangered, the venerable degree is emerging stronger from the pandemic

For a Resilient Recovery and Long-term Prosperity, Russia Must Invest in All its People

Don’t write off Russia’s efforts to ascend the global rankings | Russia may still have no universities in the world’s top 100, but its 5-100 Project has made progress…

The case for more state spending on R&D | It is a strong one | There is nothing new about economists arguing for more government spending on research and development (R&D). Theoretical work done by Kenneth Arrow in the 1960s convinced his colleagues that the private sector would not on its own provide the amount of innovation that economies need to maximize their growth. Empirically the coincidence, in the 1950s, of increased government R&D spending and excellent rates of productivity and GDP growth strengthened the case further…

New PASEC Results Show Modest Improvements in Student Learning in Francophone Africa, but Inequalities Are Widening | In December, PASEC released its new results on the quality of schooling in 14 francophone African countries. PASEC data offer a unique perspective on what the 50 million primary school students of these countries are learning… PASEC has collected data on the quality of education in African and Asian countries since 1995… The latest report, based on data collected in 2019, allows analysis of changes five years apart in the 10 countries that participated in both rounds, as well as better estimates for the four remaining countries… Students in PASEC countries still have low levels of learning… Quality has improved a little bit since 2014… Inequalities between schools have strongly increased between 2014 and 2019…