Search

TITLE III-B OF THE ECONOMIC OPPORTUNITY ACT OF 1964 AND TITLE I OF ESEA REPRESENT THE FIRST MAJOR FINANCIAL EFFORTS DIRECTED TOWARD THE PROBLEMS OF EDUCATING MIGRANT CHILDREN. OEO HAS ESTABLISHED LITERACY CENTERS FOR ADULTS, AND MADE VOCATIONAL TRAINING AVAILABLE TO MANY MIGRANTS. THE STATE DEPARTMENTS OF EDUCATION, WITH MONEY FROM ESEA, HAVE BEGUN TO DEVELOP, COLLECT, AND DISSEMINATE MIGRANT EDUCATIONAL MATERIALS, AND IN A FEW INSTANCES HAVE INITIATED INTERSTATE COOPERATION, WHICH IS A DEFINITE REQUIREMENT IF MIGRANT EDUCATION IS TO BE SUCCESSFUL. FURTHER EFFORTS SHOULD BE DIRECTED TOWARD THE ORGANIZATION OF A NATIONAL NETWORK OF MIGRANT EDUCATION CENTERS WHICH WOULD HAVE AS ITS OBJECTIVES THE FOLLOWING--(1) COORDINATION OF ALL MIGRANT PROGRAMS, (2) EXTENSIVE EXPERIMENTATION IN MIGRANT EDUCATION, (3) DEVELOPMENT OF INSTRUCTIONAL MATERIALS, (4) TRAINING AND RETRAINING OF TEACHERS OF MIGRANTS, (5) TRAINING OF MIGRANT AIDES, (6) TRAINING OF MIGRANT SPECIALISTS, (7) PROVISION OF CONSULTANT ASSISTANCE, AND (8) THE EVALUATION OF THOSE PRESENT AND FUTURE MIGRANT PROGRAMS WHICH RECEIVE FUNDS FROM STATE AND FEDERAL SOURCES. (ES)

SELECTED MATERIALS GENERATED BY THE FOUR 1967 SUMMER LEADERSHIP DEVELOPMENT INSTITUTES IN TECHNICAL EDUCATION ARE PRESENTED. THE MATERIALS WERE COMPILED TO FULFILL A NEED FOR ADDITIONAL INSTRUCTIONAL MATERIALSTO BE USED IN CONDUCTING FUTURE STATE AND LOCALLY SPONSORED TRAINING ACTIVITIES AND INSTITUTES. COMMISSIONED PAPERS ARE--"A DESIGN FOR THE DYNAMIC LEADERSHIP IN VOCATIONAL EDUCATION IN THE DECADE AHEAD" BY RICHARD S. NELSON, "INTERMEDIATE AND LONG-RANGE PROGRAM PLANNING IN VOCATIONAL-TECHNICAL EDUCATION" BY JOSEPH T. NERDEN, AND "TECHNICIAN NEED SURVEYS" BY HERBERT RIGHTHAND. ALSO INCLUDED ARE--(1) 21 REPRESENTATIVE PAPERS ON INSTRUCTIONAL TOPICS DISCUSSED AT THE INSTITUTES CONDUCTED BY THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFONRNIA AT LOS ANGELES, THE UNIVERSITY OF CONNECTICUT, UTAH STATE UNIVERSITY, AND MISSISSIPPI STATE UNIVERSITY, (2) A PRESENTATION ON THE ERIC SYSTEM DESIGNED AS A BASIC SCRIPT TO BE USED WITH TRANSPARENCIES WHICH CAN BE DUPLICATED FROM ACCOMPANYING ILLUSTRATIONS, AND (3) A SERIES OF VOCATIONAL AND TECHNICAL EDUCATION FACILITIES LAYOUTS PROVIDED BY THE U.S. OFFICE OF EDUCATION, BUREAU OF ADULT AND VOCATIONAL EDUCATION, AND DIVISION OF VOCATIONAL AND TECHNICAL EDUCATION, TO SHOW THE DIVERSITY OF FACILITY DESIGNS BEING IMPLEMENTED THROUGHOUT THE NATION. (HC)

This framework paper provides an overview of what matters most for school autonomy and accountability. The focus is on public schools at the primary and the secondary level. This paper begins by grounding School Autonomy and Accountability in its theoretical evidence base (impact evaluations, lessons learned from experience, and literature reviews) and then discusses guiding principles and tools for analyzing country policy choices. The goal of this paper is to provide a framework for classifying and analyzing education systems around the world according to the following five policy goals that are critical for enabling effective school autonomy and accountability: 1) level of autonomy in the planning and management of the school budget; 2) level of autonomy in personnel management; 3) role of school councils in school governance; 4) school and student assessment, and 5) accountability to stakeholders. This paper also discusses how country context matters to school autonomy and accountability and how balancing policy goals matters to policy making for improved education quality and learning for all.

This report contains papers by various authors who examine accountability from the perspective of students, teachers, administrators, trustees, and society. The report serves to offer more clarity and dimension to the accountability concept for the administrator seeking knowledge about the emerging patterns of administrative accountability. Other aspects of accountability discussed include (1) accountability in management, (2) performance contracting in turnkey operations, (3) control of accountability through PPBES, (4) control of teacher performance through merit salaries, and (5) involvement of professional and lay groups. (JF)

Prepared by consultants, conference participants, and project staff, this document contains guidelines, discussion, and recommendations for implementing residential vocational education programs in these sequentially arranged chapters: (1) Philosophical Guidelines for Residential Vocational Schools, (2) Who Should be Served by Residential Vocational Schools, (3) What Kind of Curricula, Course Objectives, and Instructional Materials Best Serve Students in Residential Vocational Schools, (4) Staff and Faculty Requirements for Residential Vocational Schools, (5) Where Should Residential Vocational Schools Be Located, (6) What Facilities Should Be Provided for a Residential Vocational School. Some of the recommendations which accompany each chapter were: (1) Primary emphasis should be given to students in the 14-21 age range, (2) Employment needs for a state should be determined by a job demand survey or from existing material, (3) College preparation need not be required of residential staff, but inservice education should be provided, and (4) Good employment opportunities must be insured for graduates. A listing of consultants and conference officials, reaction of conference participants, and a position paper summary are appended. (SB)

THE DEVELOPMENT OF A BILINGUAL PROGRAM IN PUBLIC SCHOOLS IS A PUBLIC PRIVILEGE AND RESPONSIBILITY. THE LANGUAGE TEACHERS, SPECIALISTS, AND ADMINISTRATORS HAVE THE INITIAL RESPONSIBILITY, WITH THE SCHOOL BOARD BEING FULLY ACCOUNTABLE TO THE GENERAL PUBLIC. THE FIRST STEP IN THE PROGRAM'S DEVELOPMENT SHOULD BE THAT OF STATING GENERAL OBJECTIVES, OF WHICH THERE SHOULD BE THREE--SKILL IN TWO TONGUES, SATISFACTORY LEARNING IN ALL SUBJECTS, AND PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT. STUDENTS OF DIFFERENT LANGUAGE BACKGROUNDS SHOULD BE INTEGRATED FOR BEST RESULTS WITH BILINGUAL PROGRAMS. A SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY IS INCLUDED, AS WELL AS A LIST OF MATERIALS WHICH ARE IN USE OR UNDER CONSIDERATION IN THE BILINGUAL PROGRAM IN LAREDO, TEXAS. THIS PAPER WAS DELIVERED AT THE ANNUAL CONFERENCE OF THE SOUTHWEST COUNCIL OF FOREIGN LANGUAGE TEACHERS, EL PASO, TEXAS, NOVEMBER 4-5, 1966. (ES)

THIS PAPER WAS PRESENTED AT THE ELEVEN NATION UNITED ARAB REPUBLIC SEMINAR ON EDUCATIONAL TELEVISION SPONSORED BY THE CENTRE FOR EDUCATIONAL TELEVISION OVERSEAS (CAIRO, EGYPT, FEBRUARY 6-12, 1966). IT PURPOSES ARE TO DISCUSS THE POTENTIALS OF TELEVISION TO SOLVE SPECIAL EDUCATIONAL NEEDS, AND TO PRESENT 20 ELEMENTS WHICH THE AUTHOR BELIEVES ARE VITAL TO THE SUCCESSFUL USE OF TELEVISION IN EDUCATION. THESE ELEMENTS INCLUDE--(1) THE EDUCATIONAL NEED, (2) THE TELEVISION TEACHER, (3) CURRICULUM AND LESSON PLANNING AND SUPPORT, (4) THE TELEVISION LESSON, (5) SUPPORTING PRODUCTION, (6) THE TELEVISION MEDIUM, (7) TELEVISION ORIGINATION EQUIPMENT, (8) TELEVISION DISTRIBUTION SYSTEM, (9) GENERAL ADMINISTRATIVE SUPPORT, (10) LOCAL ADMINISTRATIVE SUPPORT, (11) THE CLASSROOM TEACHER, (12) TEACHER UTILIZATION, (13) SYSTEM OF INFORMATION DISSEMINATION, (14) SUPPLEMENTAL INSTRUCTION MATERIALS, (15) THE TELEVISION SET, (16) THE RECEPTION SETTING, (17) RECEIVER MAINTENANCE AND REPAIR, (18) THE STUDENT, (19) FEEDBACK TO THE STUDIO, AND (20) RESEARCH AND EVALUATION. THE AUTHOR CONCLUDES THAT THE ELEMENTS PRESENTED ARE NOT MEANT TO BE A CHECKLIST, BUT RATHER A MEANS OF STRENGTHENING EXISTING PROGRAMS OR DESIGNING BETTER INITIAL EFFORTS. (JM)

This paper seeks to find an empirical explanation of Vietnam's outstanding performance on the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) in 2012. Only a few developing countries participate in the assessment. Those who do, with the unique exception of Vietnam, are typically clustered at the lower end of the range of the Programme for International student Assessment scores. The paper compares Vietnam's performance with that of a set of seven developing countries from the 2012 assessment's data set, using a cut-off per capita GDP (in 2010 purchasing power parity dollars) of $10,000. The seven developing countries' average performance lags Vietnam's by more than 100 points. The "Vietnam effect" is difficult to unscramble, but the paper is able to explain about half of the gap between Vietnam and the seven countries. The analysis reveals that Vietnamese students may be approaching their studies with higher diligence and discipline, their parents may have higher expectations, and the parents may be following up with teachers regarding those expectations. The teachers themselves may be working in a more disciplined environment, with tabs being kept on their own performance as teachers. Vietnam may also be benefiting from investments in pre-school education and in school infrastructure that are disproportionately higher when compared with Vietnam's per capita income level.

Sri Lanka is increasingly seeking to ensure that its public school system not only delivers greater shares of students who have completed higher secondary and tertiary education, but also that all students obtain a much better education. Raising teacher effectiveness is considered as crucial for achieving these aims. This paper reviews the literature on teacher management in Sri Lanka, and points to what may be critical teacher management issues. The paper also outlines considerations and options for addressing these issues, informed by international evidence on approaches to improve teacher effectiveness.

To address the educational gap, many Latin American countries are focusing on extension of the school day and enrichment of the curriculum. In Brazil, a nationwide policy -- Mais Educação -- was implemented in 2008 with this objective. This paper explores the nationwide rollout of the program across the country and compares the performance of schools before and after implementation of the program. The paper quantifies the impacts of the program on student learning and dropout rates in urban areas, and investigates the heterogeneity of impacts by several characteristics of the program's implementation. Participating schools are compared with nonparticipating schools after controlling for school selection into the program based on observable characteristics using propensity score matching. The analysis finds that participation in Mais Educação has on average no impacts on school dropout rates and average negative impacts on mathematics test scores. The negative impacts on student achievement are stronger in the short term, which suggests that the negative effects may be reduced as the program improves its implementation. In addition, especially for fifth-grade schools, the level of student spending is associated with reduced dropout rates. Interestingly, in schools choosing the fields of Portuguese and/or sports in the added hours, the program is associated with lower test scores in Portuguese and mathematics. Finally, for the sample of fifth-grade schools, heterogeneous impacts are seen in the program according to the GDP per capita of the city where the school is located. The higher the GDP per capita, the greater the positive impact of the program on mathematics test scores and on dropout rates.

Improving the quality of education is one of today's main challenges for governments in the developing world. Based on a unique matched student-to-teacher panel data set on test scores this paper presents two empirical results for Indonesia. First, through detailed inspection of teacher-level responses to test questions, the paper concludes that subject matter knowledge of primary school teachers in Indonesia is low on average and that a 1.0, but also a 2.0 standard deviation increase in teachers' subject matter knowledge seem to be achievable medium-term goals for education policy making in Indonesia. Second, the paper presents the results of three types of value-added regressions, a (standard) level specification, a school fixed-effects specification, and a flexible student-teacher fixed-effects specification. The student-teacher fixed-effects approach estimates the parameters of a value-added model using test score variation within each student-teacher pair across three different subjects, mathematics, science and Indonesian language. The results suggest that a 1.0 (and 2.0) standard deviation increase in teachers' subject matter knowledge across-the-board can yield increases in student achievement by 0.25 (and 0.50) student-level standard deviations by the time students complete the six-year primary school cycle.

The rise of the global economy, where social and economic development are driven by knowledge coupled with the information and technology revolution, signifies that tertiary education everywhere cannot continue with business as usual. The hope is that by creating, applying and disseminating new ideas and technologies to greater numbers, higher education systems will graduate a skilled, flexible and productive work force. The scope of the study includes primarily the governance and management system across the Higher Education (HE) sector in Odisha; the current Quality Assurance System (QAS) including affiliation and accreditation and the inter-relationship between QAS and HE governance system; issues associated with autonomy in Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) in Odisha; the existing policy and legal environment in view of systemic transformation of governance for excellence; and international experience of good practices of governance and management system focusing on quality assurance. This paper aims: to describe and analyze the state of governance in Odisha higher education with special focus on the role of the higher education department of the GoO, university management, college management and the relationship between these structures; to analyze and re-examine the concept of increased autonomy for HEIs in Odisha; and to make recommendations on how to improve efficiency, effectiveness and accountability for increased autonomy in higher education governance.

Countries throughout Latin America and the Caribbean are reforming their education systems with the view of adding more hours to the school day. This paper examines the existing evidence on the relationship between instructional time and student learning, and reviews 15 studies measuring the effects of longer school days. It draws on examples throughout the region to characterize differences in the implementation of extended school day programs, and provides one detailed case study and cost-effectiveness exercise (for Uruguay). While the evidence suggests positive impacts across a range of outcome variables, including gains in student learning, reductions in repetition and dropout, and reductions in teenage pregnancy, there is considerable heterogeneity across programs and studies. Even using the most optimistic impact estimates, a cost-effectiveness exercise suggests that there are likely many more cost-effective reforms to achieve similar effects. The paper concludes with a discussion of the implications for policy makers and practitioners considering an extension of the school day.

This paper seeks to understand what drove the trends in learning outcomes in Argentina between 2000 and 2012, using data from four rounds of the Program for International Student Assessment. A year-specific education production function is estimated and its results used to decompose the changes in learning outcomes into changes in inputs, parameters, and residuals via microsimulations. Estimates of the production function show the importance of socioeconomic status, gender, school autonomy, and teacher qualifications to determine learning outcomes. Despite an important increase in the level of resources invested in public education, learning outcomes in public schools decreased vis-à-vis private schools. According to the results presented here, the increase in the number of teachers in the system, pushing the pupil-teacher ratio in Argentina to 11, had no effect on learning outcomes. The microsimulation further confirms that changes in the system’s ability to transform inputs into outcomes accounted for most of the changes in test scores. Overall, the study shows the ineffectiveness of input-based education policies to improve learning outcomes in Argentina.

This paper develops and estimates an equilibrium model of charter school entry and school choice. In the model, households choose among public, private, and charter schools, and a regulator authorizes charter entry and mandates charter exit. The model is estimated for Washington, D.C. According to the estimates, charters generate net social gains by providing additional school options, and they benefit non-white, low-income, and middle-school students the most. Further, policies that raise the supply of prospective charter entrants in combination with high authorization standards enhance social welfare.

This paper presents evidence from the first three years of a randomized controlled trial of a government-administered pilot teacher performance pay program in Punjab, Pakistan. The program offers yearly cash bonuses to teachers in a sample of public primary schools with the lowest mean student exam scores in the province. Bonuses are linked to three school-level indicators: the gain in student exam scores, the gain in school enrollment, and the level of student exam participation. Bonus receipt and size are also randomly assigned across schools according to whether or not the teacher is the school’s head. On average, the program increases school enrollment by 4.1 percent and student exam participation rates by 3.4 percentage points, both in the third year. The analysis does not find that the program increases student exam scores in any year. Mean impacts are similar across program variants. The positive mean impact on school enrollment is mainly seen in urban schools and the positive mean impact on student exam participation rates is only seen in rural schools.

Education systems in developing countries are often centrally managed in a top-down structure. In environments where schools have different needs and where localized information plays an important role, empowerment of the local community may be attractive, but low levels of human capital at the local level may offset gains from local information. This paper reports the results of a four-year, large-scale experiment that provided a grant and comprehensive school management training to principals, teachers, and community representatives in a set of schools. To separate the effect of the training from the grant, a second set of schools received the grant only with no training. A third set of schools served as a control group and received neither intervention. Each of 273 Gambian primary schools were randomized to one of the three groups. The program was implemented through the government education system. Three to four years into the program, the full intervention led to a 21 percent reduction in student absenteeism and a 23 percent reduction in teacher absenteeism, but produced no impact on student test scores. The effect of the full program on learning outcomes is strongly mediated by baseline local capacity, as measured by adult literacy. This result suggests that, in villages with high literacy, the program may yield gains on students learning outcomes. Receiving the grant alone had no impact on either test scores or student participation.

Turkey now hosts the largest refugee population in the world. The Government of Turkey (GoT) estimates the total number of registered Syrians under Temporary Protection (SuTPs) at 2,225,147. The objective of this policy brief is to collate existing publically available material on the situation of SuTPs in Turkey and to summarize: (i) the strategy and principles of Turkey’s unique response to its displacement crisis; (ii) the challenges in managing the socioeconomic dimensions of displacement; and (iii) remaining critical policy issues and the road ahead for Turkey, as well as implications for other countries’ refugee response efforts.

This study presents evidence from a randomized control trial (RCT) in Mongolia on the impact of in-service teacher training and books, both as separate educational inputs and as a package. The study tests for the complementarity of inputs and non-linearity of returns from investment in education as measured by students test scores in five subjects. It takes advantage of a national-scale RCT conducted under the Rural Education and Development project. The results suggest that the provision of books, in addition to teacher training, raises student achievement substantially. However, teacher training and books weakly improve test scores when provided individually. Students whose teachers have received training and whose classrooms have acquired books improved their cumulative score (totaled across five tests) by 34.9 percent of a standard deviation, relative to a control group. Students treated only with books improved their total score by 20.6 percent of a standard deviation relative to a control group of students. On the other hand, extra teacher training did not have a statistically significant effect on the total test score. In addition, providing both inputs jointly improved test scores in most subjects, which was not the case when either input was provided individually. This study sheds light on the relevance of supplementing teacher training schemes with appropriate teaching materials in resource-poor settings. The policy implication is that isolated education investments, in settings where complementary inputs are missing, could deliver minimal or no return.

A randomized control trial was conducted to study whether providing 10th grade students with information about the returns to upper secondary and tertiary education, and a source of financial aid for tertiary education, can contribute to improve student performance. The study finds that the intervention had no effects on the probability of taking a 12th grade national standardized exam three years after, a proxy for on-time high school completion, but a positive and significant impact on learning outcomes and self-reported measures of effort. The effects are larger for girls and students from households with a relatively high income. These findings are consistent with a simple model where time discount determines the increase in effort and only students with adequate initial conditions are able to translate increased effort into better outcomes.

Skills development is one of the priorities for national economic development strategies of Bangladesh. The vision 2021 of the Government of Bangladesh gives the highest priority to building a large base of skilled workers in order to achieve a poverty-free middle-income country by 2021. The skills development sector is highly complex due to multiple service providers, a vast spectrum of target audiences, a large range in modalities of service provision, and varied emphases in terms of skills levels and types. The short-term training, a formal channel of six months training, is an important instrument for bridging the gap between the needs of the labor market for increasing the pool of skillful workers and the aspiration of the students for finding a good job. In order to assess the performance of short-term training and interventions by Skills and Training Enhancement Project (STEP), a tracer study was conducted between December 2013 and January 2014. Skills and Training Enhancement Project (STEP) is jointly financed by the World Bank, Canada and the Government of Bangladesh (GoB), which started in 2010 for contributing to Bangladesh’s medium to long-term objective of developing its human resources as a cornerstone of its strategy for poverty alleviation and economic growth. It supports competitively selected 42 public and 8 private short-term training institutions for improving the quality of training and providing opportunities to the disadvantaged youth for obtaining skills from the select training providers.

Parents and students from different socioeconomic backgrounds value differently school characteristics, but the reasons behind this preference heterogeneity are not well understood. In the context of the centralized school assignment system in Mexico City, this study analyzes how a large household income shock affects choices over high school tracks exploiting the discontinuity in the assignment of the welfare program Oportunidades. The income shock significantly increases the probability of choosing the vocational track vis-a-vis the other more academic-oriented tracks. The findings suggest that the transfer relaxes the financial constraints that prevent relatively low-ability students from choosing the schooling option with higher labor market returns.

In 2009, the Mexican state of Colima implemented a low-stakes accountability intervention with diagnostic feedback among 108 public primary schools with the lowest test scores in the national student assessment. A difference-in-difference and a regression discontinuity design are used to identify the effects of the intervention on learning outcomes. The two alternative strategies consistently show that the intervention increased test scores by 0.12 standard deviations only a few months after the program was launched. When students, teachers, and parents in a school know that their scores are low, and this triggers a process of self-evaluation and analysis, the process itself may lead to an improvement in learning outcomes. Information on quality, without punitive measures but within a supportive and collaborative environment, appears to be sufficient to improve learning outcomes.

A number of developing countries are currently promoting vocational education and training (VET) as a way to build human capital and strengthen economic growth. The primary aim of this study is to understand whether VET at the high school level contributes to human capital development in one of those countries—China. To fulfill this aim, a longitudinal data on more than 10,000 students in vocational high school (in the most popular major, computing) and academic high school from two provinces of China are used. First, estimates from instrumental variables and matching analyses show that attending vocational high school (relative to academic high school) substantially reduces math skills and does not improve computing skills. Second, heterogeneous effect estimates also show that attending vocational high school increases dropout, especially among disadvantaged (low-income or low-ability) students. Third, vertically scaled (equated) baseline and follow-up test scores are used to measure gains in math and computing skills among the students. The results show that students who attend vocational high school experience absolute reductions in math skills. Taken together, the findings suggest that the rapid expansion of vocational schooling as a substitute for academic schooling can have detrimental consequences for building human capital in developing countries such as China.