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Interior design George Kokkinidis, Design Language, Brooklyn, New York, and Kurt Niedermeier, Niedermeier Design, Seattle, Washington.v xi Foreword xiii Acknowledgments xvii Abbreviations 1 Overview Learning to realize education’s promise 4 The three dimensions of the learning crisis 16 How to realize education’s promise Three policy responses 27 Learning to realize education’s promise 37 Part I Education’s promise 38 Chapter 1 Schooling, learning, and the promise of education 38 Education as freedom 38 Education improves individual freedoms 41 Education benefits all of society 44 Learning and the promise of education 57 Part II The learning crisis 58 Chapter 2 The great schooling expansionand those it has left behind 58 Most children have access to basic education 60 Poverty, gender, ethnicity, disability, and location explain most remaining schooling disparities 63 For poor parents, schooling requires trade-offs 68 Spotlight 1 The biology of learning 71 Chapter 3 The many faces of the learning crisis 71 For too many, learning isn’t happening 78 Poor children learn the least, which hurts them the most 78 What is causing the learning crisis 88 Spotlight 2 Poverty hinders biological development and undermines learning 91 Chapter 4 To take learning seriously, start by measuring it 91 The learning crisis is often hiddenbut measurement makes it visible 92 Measures for learning guide action 93 Measures of learning spur action Contentsvi | CONTENTS 95 Choose learning metrics based on what the country needs 95 Will learning metrics narrow the vision for education 96 Six tips for effective learning measurement 102 Spotlight 3 The multidimensionality of skills 107 Part III Innovations and evidence for learning 108 Spotlight 4 Learning about learning 112 Chapter 5 There is no learning without prepared, motivated learners 112 Investing in their early years prepares children for school 116 Providing demand-side support can get kids to school, but not necessarily to learn 119 Remedial education can prepare learners for further education and training 131 Chapter 6 Teacher skills and motivation both matter though many education systems act like they don’t 131 Most teacher training is ineffective, but some approaches work 133 Helping teachers teach to the level of the student has proven effective 136 Teacher motivation and incentives make a difference, even with few s 145 Chapter 7 Everything else should strengthen the teacher-learner interaction 145 Technological interventions increase learningbut only if they enhance the teacher-learner relationship 147 Other s bring learners to schoolbut promote learning only if they target teaching and learning 148 School management and governance are crucial, and involving communities can help overcome incentive problems and ination failuresbut only if communities have capacity 154 Chapter 8 Build on foundations by linking skills training to jobs 154 Workplace training can help young people develop skills, yet few benefit from it 156 Short-term job training offers opportunities, but most programs fail to deliver 156 TVET can prepare young people for work, but early sorting into TVET can limit career growth 157 Successful job training programs share several features 164 Spotlight 5 Technology is changing the world of work What does that mean for learning 169 Part IV Making the system work for learning at scale 170 Chapter 9 Education systems are misaligned with learning 171 Misalignments and incoherence impede learning 175 Technical complexities make it hard to align education systems with learning 183 Spotlight 6 Spending more or spending betteror both 189 Chapter 10 Unhealthy politics drives misalignments 189 Unhealthy politics can intensify misalignments in education systems 190 Multiple actors and interests Pulling the system out of alignment at each step of the policy cycle 195 Trapped in low-accountability, low-learning equilibriums CONTENTS | vii 199 Chapter 11 How to escape low-learning traps 199 Improving ination 203 Building coalitions and strengthening incentives 207 Encouraging innovation and agility 211 How can external actors support initiatives to improve learning Boxes 6.5 137 Would raising teachers’ salaries increase their motivation 6.6 138 One factor undermining teaching Poor working conditions 7.1 149 Training better school principals in Jamaica 9.1 172 It’s all about education systems 9.2 174 Aligning all the ingredients for effective teaching in Shanghai 9.3 176 Can private schooling be aligned to learning for all 10.1 191 How do teachers’ unions affect learning 10.2 193 How politics can derail learning in conflict-affected states 11.1 201 Using ination to align incentives with learning in Brazil 11.2 202 Citizen-led assessments have raised awareness of the learning crisis in South Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa 11.3 204 Using the legal system to press for change 11.4 205 Using “labs” to build coalitions for learning 11.5 205 Reers in Chile negotiated changes gradually 11.6 208 High-pering schools in the West Bank and Gaza offer some learning lessons 11.7 209 Burundi improved education services by iterating and adapting 1.1 40 Schooling as human capital ation or as a signaling device 1.2 44 Education can’t do it alone 1.3 48 Comparing attainment across countries and economieslearning- adjusted years of schooling 2.1 61 Access denied The effects of fragility, conflict, and violence 3.1 74 Those who can’t read by the end of grade 2 struggle to catch up 3.2 75 Gender-based differences in learning depend on the subject 3.3 82 Teachers may perceive low effort as being justified 4.1 92 Good measures of learning illuminate all parts of the education system 4.2 97 A global learning metric 5.1 116 Early childhood education prepares young children for school 5.2 118 Communities can leverage the many hours spent outside the classroom to boost learning 5.3 120 Providing ination on children’s school perance can help parents to motivate their children 6.1 133 The landscape of in-service teacher training 6.2 133 What works in preservice teacher training 6.3 135 Reaching learners in their own language 6.4 136 Using diagnostic data to deliver better learning in Latin America Figures O.1 5 Shortfalls in learning start early O.2 6 In several countries, the 75th percentile of PISA test takers pers below the 25th percentile of the OECD average O.3 7 Children from poor households in Africa typically learn much less O.4 7 Students often learn little from year to year, and early learning deficits are magnified over time O.5 8 The percentage of primary school students who pass a minimum proficiency threshold is often lowviii | CONTENTS O.6 9 School completion is higher for richer and urban families, but gender gaps are more context-dependent O.7 10 Why learning doesn’t happen Four immediate factors that break down O.8 11 Socioeconomic gaps in cognitive achievement grow with ageeven in preschool years O.9 11 In Africa, teachers are often absent from school or from classrooms while at school O.10 12 Management capacity is low in schools in low- and middle-income countries O.11 13 Technical and political factors divert schools, teachers, and families from a focus on learning O.12 17 Many countries lack ination on learning outcomes O.13 19 Low-pering countries don’t face sharp trade-offs between learning and other education outputs O.14 21 It’s more complicated than it looks People act in reaction to the choices of others throughout the system O.15 26 Coherence and alignment toward learning 1.1 39 More schooling is systematically associated with higher wages 1.2 40 Mortality rates in the United States are lower for adults with more education 1.3 43 People with higher education hold stronger beliefs about the importance of democracy 1.4 45 Learning varies widely across countries; in 6 of the 10 countries assessed, only half or fewer of primary completers can read 1.5 46 What matters for growth is learning 1.6 47 Increasing learning would yield major economic benefits B1.3.1 48 There can be a large gap between learning-adjusted and unadjusted years of schooling 2.1 59 School enrollments have shot up in developing countries 2.2 59 Most of the world’s population with less than a primary education is in South Asia, but rates are similar in Sub-Saharan Africa 2.3 60 National income is correlated with the gap between primary and lower secondary completion rates 2.4 61 Lower-income countries are rapidly expanding secondary education at a time when much of their population has not yet completed primary school 2.5 62 School completion is higher for richer and urban families, but gender gaps are more context-dependent 2.6 63 Multiple exclusions Girls from poor households often have the lowest rates of education attainment S1.1 69 Synapse development over the first 20 years of life 3.1 72 Most grade 6 students in West and Central Africa are not sufficiently competent in reading or mathematics 3.2 72 Most grade 6 students in southern and East Africa are not sufficiently competent in mathematics, and several countries score poorly in reading as well 3.3 73 Learning outcomes are substantially lower for poor children in Latin America B3.2.1 75 Girls outper boys on reading in all countries and economies, but boys typically do better in mathematics and science 3.4 76 Learning outcomes vary greatly across countries and economiesin several countries, the 75th percentile of PISA test takers pers below the 25th percentile of the OECD average 3.5 77 Middle-income countries tend to have lower rates of literacy proficiency than high-income countries 3.6 77 Reading proficiency is low in many parts of the developing world 3.7 78 Family socioeconomic status significantly affects students’ average PISA scores 3.8 79 The proximate determinants of learning 3.9 79 Socioeconomic gaps in cognitive achievement grow with ageeven in preschool years 3.10 81 A lot of official teaching time is lost B3.3.1 82 Teachers’ beliefs about their effort and its effectsCONTENTS | ix 3.11 82 Staff compensation consumes the largest share of resources available for public education 3.12 83 Management capacity is low in schools in low- and middle-income countries S2.1 89 Severe deprivation affects brain structure and function from early in life S2.2 89 Risk and protective factors affect developmental trajectories 4.1 95 No internationally comparable data on learning are available for most children outside of high-income countries 4.2 96 Low-pering countries don’t face sharp trade-offs between learning and other education outputs S3.1 103 Cognitive, socioemotional, and technical skills interact S4.1 108 The number of experimental and quasi-experimental studies of interventions to improve learning has mushroomed in recent decades S4.2 109 It’s more complicated than it looks People act in reaction to the choices of others throughout the system 5.1 114 Investments in high-quality programs during children’s early years pay off 5.2 115 Intense deprivation can impair brain development 5.3 117 Integrated programs through the early years are necessary for proper child development 5.4 118 What happens when school fees are eliminated Evidence from eight countries 5.5 119 Not all education systems are equally productive, but even the least productive deliver some learning to some learners 5.6 120 Young people follow different paths in their education 5.7 121 Workers with higher literacy proficiency are more likely to enter white-collar jobs 6.1 134