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In the past decade, hundreds of impact evaluation studies have measured the learning outcomes of education interventions in developing countries. The impact magnitudes are often reported in terms of "standard deviations," making them difficult to communicate to policy makers beyond education specialists. This paper proposes two approaches to demonstrate the effectiveness of learning interventions, one in "equivalent years of schooling" and another in the net present value of potential increased lifetime earnings. The results show that in a sample of low- and middle-income countries, one standard deviation gain in literacy skill is associated with between 4.7 and 6.8 additional years of schooling, depending on the estimation method. In other words, over the course of a business-as-usual school year, students learn between 0.15 and 0.21 standard deviation of literacy ability. Using that metric to translate the impact of interventions, a median structured pedagogy intervention increases learning by the equivalent of between 0.6 and 0.9 year of business-as-usual schooling. The results further show that even modest gains in standard deviations of learning--if sustained over time--may have sizeable impacts on individual earnings and poverty reduction, and that conversion into a non-education metric should help policy makers and non-specialists better understand the potential benefits of increased learning. [This paper is a product of the Office of the Chief Economist, Africa Region and the World Development Report 2018 Team.]

The global spread of COVID-19 has led to unprecedented disruptions in schooling around the world that have animated increased interest among policymakers, educators, researchers and the general public in knowing about how education systems have responded to the pandemic and how students' learning experiences have changed. The PISA Global Crises Module was developed to address this need. 62 student questionnaire items (grouped into 11 questions) and 68 school questionnaire items (grouped into 14 questions) were developed following a process that involved input from leading questionnaire development experts, PISA National Centres, as well as small-scale cognitive interview studies in three countries. While all countries were affected by the pandemic in some way, the module seeks to illuminate differential effects on student learning and well-being, and the degree of interruption or changes to education across different education systems. Governing bodies, organisations and researchers can use the instruments and the descriptions of the underlying constructs for adaptation and broader implementation.

The worldwide school closures in early 2020 led to losses in learning that will not easily be made up for even if schools quickly return to their prior performance levels. These losses will have lasting economic impacts both on the affected students and on each nation unless they are effectively remediated. While the precise learning losses are not yet known, existing research suggests that the students in grades 1-12 affected by the closures might expect some 3 percent lower income over their entire lifetimes. For nations, the lower long-term growth related to such losses might yield an average of 1.5 percent lower annual GDP for the remainder of the century. These economic losses would grow if schools are unable to re-start quickly. The economic losses will be more deeply felt by disadvantaged students. All indications are that students whose families are less able to support out-of-school learning will face larger learning losses than their more advantaged peers, which in turn will translate into deeper losses of lifetime earnings. The present value of the economic losses to nations reach huge proportions. Just returning schools to where they were in 2019 will not avoid such losses. Only making them better can. While a variety of approaches might be attempted, existing research indicates that close attention to the modified re-opening of schools offers strategies that could ameliorate the losses. Specifically, with the expected increase in video-based instruction, matching the skills of the teaching force to the new range of tasks and activities could quickly move schools to heightened performance. Additionally, because the prior disruptions are likely to increase the variations in learning levels within individual classrooms, pivoting to more individualised instruction could leave all students better off as schools resume. As schools move to re-establish their programmes even as the pandemic continues, it is natural to focus considerable attention on the mechanics and logistics of safe re-opening. But the long-term economic impacts also require serious attention, because the losses already suffered demand more than the best of currently considered re-opening approaches.

This publication presents a discussion of the status of poor urban children world-wide and the design of a five-nation study of the condition of distressed urban children. Following an introduction, Section 2 describes the urban child project designed to study and advance the plight of urban children in developing nations. Section 3 outlines the scope of the problem, including urbanization trends, migration, and issues beyond the statistics. Section 4 describes growing up urban and poor, focusing on the deteriorating environment, poverty and ethnic redistribution, the lack of appropriate shelter, child labor in the urban informal sector, lack of access to safe play spaces, and the monotony of poverty stricken communities. Section 5 describes the five studies being carried out in the Philippines, India, Kenya, Brazil, and Italy. The issues covered are childhood, families, coping strategies, communities and neighborhoods, and children in especially difficult circumstances. Also described are the study's comparative assessment of situations, street children, views on working children, and the problem in the context of the larger society. Also mentioned are an assessment of policies and programs, and interventions. Contains 108 references. (JB)

Published in order to further a better understanding of how work in the field of rural sociology is carried on in various places, the six papers describe pedagogical and research activities relating to the sociological concern for rural people in West Africa, Brazil, Iran, the Middle East, Japan, and India. Each paper describes the evolution of rural sociology in one of the six areas, the nature of that area's rural society, the institutions in the area which can or do teach and/or undertake pertinent social research, and the current status of rural sociology in the area. In addition, "The Development of Rural Sociology in West Africa" and "Position of Rural Sociology in India" note problems with personnel training and "Rural Sociology in Japan: Milestones in Development" critically compares contemporary Japanese rural sociology with the discipline in other countries. "Rural Sociology in Brazil" notes a trend toward urban studies, while "History and Development of Rural and Peasant Studies in Iran" outlines many early village studies. "State of Agricultural Social Science and Related Fields in Selected Countries of the ECWA Region" assesses the related but generally insufficient academic offerings of 42 national universities and other educational institutions in 12 Middle East countries. (SB)