News and Research 326

Why is education more important today than ever? Innovation | The competitiveness of an economy depends a lot on technological progress, but recent data in some countries, including not only high-income but also middle-income countries, suggests that innovation is getting harder, and the pace of growth is slowing down. A new challenge, then, is to understand what conditions are most effective in supporting innovation, so countries can support their best and brightest to advance technology and lead innovative work that helps boost economies.

New Jersey Lawmaker Wants to Create a State ‘Learning Loss Czar’ The learning loss czar would be appointed by the governor and act as a liaison between their office and the Department of Education.

New book alert: Human Capital and Gender Inequality in Middle-Income Countries: Schooling, Learning and Socioemotional Skills in the Labour Market by Elizabeth King |  The role of cognitive and socioemotional skills alongside education in determining people’s success in the labor market has been the topic of a growing body of research – but previous studies have mostly missed middle-income countries and the developing world because measures of those skills and data on employment and earnings on large enough samples of adults have typically not been available. Using comparable survey data on these schooling, skills and labor market outcomes from 13 developing and emerging economies worldwide, this book revisits human capital and gender inequality models. It presents new estimates of the returns to different levels of schooling as well as cognitive and socioemotional skills for women and men. It examines whether those returns are due to levels of human capital or to structural bias in labor markets, and how these two factors work across the earnings spectrum. The book examines the existence of ‘glass ceilings’ and ‘sticky floors’ for women using this expanded measure of human capital. Further, by analyzing a group of countries of wide-ranging levels of economic development and socio-political contexts, the book reveals patterns and insights into how context mediates the relationship between skills and gender gaps in labor market outcomes. 

All about schooling in France:

• What are the medium-term educational and labour market effects of private schooling in France? | This article examines the impact of private school attendance on a range of outcomes during adulthood. Students are followed for 17 years after they enter the sixth grade. The effect of private schooling on educational and labor market outcomes is estimated using propensity score matching. Private schooling has a positive effect on the likelihood of obtaining the baccalauréat and a higher education qualification, as well as obtaining a higher wage, for both girls and boys.

• Do private schools increase academic achievement? Evidence from France | This article investigates the effect of private lower secondary schools on student achievement in France. Using propensity score matching on a large database to estimate the effect of enrollment in a private school on academic achievement as measured by ninth-grade test scores in three school subjects. private school attendance has a large and significant effect on educational success. Boys’ (girls’) scores in private school were between 0.19 and 0.22 standard deviations higher on standardized tests in ninth grade.

• Private schooling and unhealthy lifestyle in France | Using data which follow the educational trajectories of students during secondary education and measure health status during adulthood, this paper analyzes the effects of private schooling on a range of unhealthy lifestyle outcomes. There is a positive effect of private schooling on the self-reported health status of girls and a negative effect for boys. These results are related to those on risky behaviors: enrolment in a private school reduces the likelihood of daily smoking for girls but increases the likelihood of drinking multiple times a week for boys, twelve years after sixth grade.

All Aboard! Education Reforms Require Partnerships | Improving learning quality is not only the responsibility of teachers and students . Many stakeholders play an important role in informing educational policies, teaching practices, opportunities for improvement of the educational system, and the impact of educational reforms. The Dominican Republic has taken decisive steps to improve its education system, including developing a national learning assessment system.

In the news:

SMART EDUCATION 6: Webinar on the role of education | Reimagining education

Öğrenme kayıpları nasıl giderilir?  How to fix learning losses?

Apakah Penyebab Learning Loss Akibat Pembelajaran Jarak Jauh?  What Causes Learning Loss Due to Distance Learning?

Designing effective public-private partnerships in education | Now available in Español Français العربية | To be effective, public-private partnerships (PPPs) in education, need to be innovative, hold schools accountable, empower parents and students, and promote diverse educational institutions. A clear legal and regulatory framework is crucial to achieving a sustainable solution. Best practice would include rigorous impact evaluation to find out what works, how and for whom.