News and Research 245

Novak Djokovic Foundation: Cooperation with the Ministry of Education and the World Bank: 100 new preschool rooms across Serbia | Novak Djokovic Foundation; Ministry of Education, Science and Technological Development of Serbia signed an agreement to partner on the Project of Inclusive Preschool Education, which is financed with the support of the World Bank. Within this cooperation, in the next two years, together with the Ministry, the Novak Djokovic Foundation will adapt and equip premises in public facilities which will be used for providing preschool education. “We will use their knowledge and experience and unite to provide quality conditions for an even larger number of children, especially from socially and economically endangered social groups,” said the First Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of education, science and technological development Branko Ruzic.

Education can empower the future of Europe | Mariya Gabriel (European Commissioner for Innovation, Research, Culture, Education and Youth) and Victor Negrescu (Romanian MEP) |Establishing a European Education Area will enable Europe to lead the green and digital transformations | In front of the pandemic and of the upcoming transformations that our world will face, education can prepare us for these challenges. Our goal in achieving the European Education Area by 2025 is for education to empower people to make full use of their potential and to enable Europe to lead the green and digital transformations. For that, it is key to ensure access to quality education for everyone.

Mapping the road to recovery: How a new venture helps track learning in the wake of the pandemic | Kaliope Azzi-Huck, Maria Barron, Tigran Shmis Aarya Shinde

Students will need tailored and sustained support to help them readjust and catch-up after the pandemic. The COVID-19 pandemic is proving to be the worst crisis to hit education in a century – having kept more than 1.6 billion students out of school at the peak of school closures. The COVID-19 Global Education Recovery Tracker, a new tool from the World Bank, Johns Hopkins University, and UNICEF, aims to gather data and monitor responses of countries shifting their education systems  from emergency measures to recovery policies that target learning losses and help accelerate learning.

Teaching with the Test: Experimental Evidence on Diagnostic Feedback and Capacity Building for Public Schools in Argentina | Rafael de Hoyos, Alejandro Ganimian, Peter Holland | This article examines the impact of two strategies for using large-scale assessment results to improve school management and classroom instruction in the province of La Rioja, Argentina. In the study, 104 public primary schools were randomly assigned to three groups: a diagnostic-feedback group, in which standardized tests were administered at baseline and two follow-ups and results were made available to schools; a capacity-building group, in which workshops and school visits were conducted; and a control group, in which tests were administered at the second follow-up. After two years, diagnostic-feedback schools outperformed control schools by 0.33 standard deviations in mathematics and 0.36 in reading. In fact, feedback schools still performed 0.26 better in math and 0.22 better in reading in the national assessment a year after the end of the intervention.

When pilot studies aren’t enough: Using data to promote innovations at scale | Research shows that national and regional decisionmakers are continually calculating costs and benefits of whichever innovation they’re considering. There are always competing innovations and human and financial resources are always scarce, so innovators must be strategic.

Pre-print: Learning Loss During COVID-19: An Early Systematic Review With COVID-19 having caused significant disruption to the global education system, researchers are beginning to become concerned with the impact that this has had on student learning progress and, in particular, if learning loss has been experienced. To evaluate this, we conduct a thorough analysis of recorded learning loss evidence documented between March 2020 and March 2021. Eight studies were identified; seven of these found evidence of student learning loss amongst at least some of the participants, while one of the seven also found instances of learning gains in a particular subgroup. The remaining study found increased learning gains in their participants. Additionally, four of the studies observed increases in inequality where certain demographics of students experienced learning losses more significant than others.

How to treat the learning crisis like a health crisis | This community health model can be adapted as a solution to regional teacher shortages.

The Long Shadow of Short-Term Schooling Disruption: Analysis of Kuwait’s Civil Service Payroll Data

Does Education Expansion Affect the Returns to Education in Urban China?

Ontario Will Offer Virtual Learning Option For 2021-22

Swiss Higher Ed Qualifications Exceed Vocational Qualifications For First Time

The Long-Term Effects of Universal Preschool in Boston

Heterogenous Teacher Effects of Two Incentive Schemes: Evidence from a Low-Income Country

Singapore Makes Extra Contributions To Education Savings Accounts  To help families facing economic hardships as a result of the pandemic, Singapore’s government recently announced that students between the ages of seven and 20 will receive a one-time deposit of S$200 (US$150) to their Edusave or Post Secondary Education Account (PSEA) by the end of May.  All children in Singapore are given an education savings account called Edusave when they are born, and they begin receiving annual contributions once they reach age seven to help cover the cost of education-related expenses. Primary school students receive S$230 (US$172) a year and secondary students receive S$290 (US$217) a year. In addition, the government gives every child an interest-bearing Post-Secondary Education Account (PSEA) to encourage college savings. These funds can be used to cover expenses such as school fees, enrichment activities, or personal learning devices. In addition, in September, children ages six and under will receive a one-time S$200 deposit to their Child Development Accounts (CDA) to help families pay for educational and healthcare expenses. A total of about 780,000 young Singaporeans are expected to benefit from these additional funds.

Reforming Education and Challenging Inequalities in Southern Contexts: Research and Policy in International Development. A tribute to Christopher Colclough. Videos of key messages with chapter authors. Short videos with authors of each of the book chapters are available here.

COVID-19 and schooling: evaluation, assessment and accountability in times of crises—reacting quickly to explore key issues for policy, practice and research with the school barometer

HLO (Harmonized Learning Outcomes)

Now in print in Nature:

Angrist, N, S Djankov, P K Goldberg and H A Patrinos (2021), Measuring human capital using global learning data. Nature 592, 403–408

Summary in VoxEU: Measuring human capital: Learning matters more than schooling

More HLO in the News and Blogs

Data