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World Development Report 2018: Learning to realize education’s promise

Wed, March 28, 5:00 to 6:30pm, Hilton Reforma, Floor: 2nd Floor, Don Diego 2

Proposal

Schooling that doesn’t result in learning is not just a missed opportunity—it is a great injustice. The children whom society is failing most are the ones in greatest need of a good education to succeed in life. But there’s nothing inevitable about low levels of learning—real progress is possible, at any level of development, when countries prioritize learning and mobilize everyone with a stake in education to work toward it. The WDR identifies three main dimensions of the learning crisis. First, the poor learning outcomes themselves: low levels of learning, high inequalities (across income, gender, and other characteristics), and slow improvements in learning. Second, the immediate causes of the crisis, seen in the various ways that the teaching-learning relationship breaks down—such as when students are hobbled by a lack of early nutrition, teachers are unprepared or unmotivated, materials and technology don’t improve learning, and school management is poor. Third, the deeper system-level barriers, both technical and political, that pull the various actors away from a focus on learning. The WDR provides detailed diagnoses of each dimension based on new data and research.

To confront the learning crisis, the WDR argues that a nation must take action on three fronts.
• First, assess learning, to make it a serious goal. Countries need to put in place a range of well-designed student assessments to help teachers guide students, improve system management, and focus society’s attention on learning. These measures can spotlight hidden exclusions, inform policy choices, and track progress.
• Second, act on evidence to make schools work for all learners. Countries should start by targeting areas with the largest gaps between what happens in practice and what evidence suggests works for learning. The best place to start is these three key areas: prepared learners; skilled and motivated teachers; inputs and management focused on teaching and learning.
• Third, align actors, to make the whole system work for learning. Even evidence-based classroom innovation may have little impact if system-level technical and political factors prevent a focus on learning. Countries can escape low-learning traps by deploying information and metrics to make learning politically salient; building coalitions to shift political incentives toward learning for all; and using innovative and adaptive approaches to find out which approaches work best in context.

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