The equity initiative: equity for sustainability; applying the structured questions for equity analysis

Group Submission Type: Formal Panel Session

Proposal

Equity is at the heart of Sustainable Development Goal 4, which aims to “ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all” and requires that “no education target should be considered met unless met by all” (UN, 2016). To sustainably achieve this goal as they progress towards 2030, education systems will need to understand and address the needs of the most disadvantaged. As education practitioners and stakeholders in the realization of this goal, international development organizations also need to consider our role in championing equity and critically examine the impact of our efforts on equity. Are we capturing and using the data necessary to understand and respond to inequality in education provision and outcomes? How well do we understand the causes and solutions of inequality? Are we promoting strategies that will improve rather than worsen equity in education?

In this panel, convened by the Education Equity Research Initiative, representatives of three international development organizations will present their experience of using the Structured Questions for Equity Analysis, a Stata-based tool to analyze impact data from education project datasets. The Structured Questions for Equity Analysis is a formalized, sequential series of analytical questions about the distribution of outcomes within an education dataset. The Education Equity Research Initiative created the Structured Questions for Equity Analysis to improve the frequency, comparability and quality of equity analyses within and across datasets. It is a tool to help education researchers and practitioners answer the questions of whether certain populations are being left behind with regards to educational achievement.

The Structured Questions approach begins with a student-level analysis of the full distribution of learning outcomes, with the goal of identifying groups clustered at the lower end of the distribution. The next step examines the profile of lower-performing students, seeking to improve the user’s understanding of the underlying equity dimensions as they relate to disparities in outcomes. The analysis is then repeated at the school level, looking at the shape of distribution across schools and whether schools at the lower end of the distribution differ substantively in terms of student composition from others in the sample. The final group of questions looks at differences in resource and input allocations at the school level, considering indicators such as pupil-teacher ratios, teacher characteristics and other resource allocations, and whether these inputs are correlated with differences in outcomes at the school level. When an impact evaluation is applicable, the tool guides an analysis of the effect of the project on outcomes of interest, asking whether it is homogeneous or heterogeneous across the different student subgroup to determine whether the project has had an equity building effect, been equity neutral, or has increased inequality among student populations.

Each presentation in this panel will first consider the relevant equity dimensions in a particular education context, with different types of resource variables and outcomes. Presentations will then explain how those dimensions were addressed through the projects approach and interventions. Finally, each presentation will examine whether achievement gaps between different groups were affected by the project, and posit explanations for why and how this occurred. Overall, this panel will offer the audience a better understanding of what equity analysis looks like in education, and what it means to systematically examine policies and programs for equity building effects that are essential to the successful achievement of SDG4.

The Education Equity Research Initiative is a collaborative partnership that connects organizations and individuals committed to building stronger evidence and knowledge for improving solutions for equity in and through education. It serves to help ensure that an equity lens is incorporated into data production and research across all education and development programs and policies. With more than two dozen organizations participating in its work streams and task teams, The Equity Initiative is a vital forum for bringing collective knowledge and expertise together to address the challenge of equity. The organizations in this panel are contributing to building the knowledge base and advancing the field in understanding inequities in education outcomes and developing evidence-based solutions to address them. Learn more at www.educationequity2030.org.

Sub Unit

• General Pool

Individual Presentations

• Equity in reading outcomes: an impact analysis of the Mahay Mamaky Teny (MMT) first grade reading intervention in Madagascar - Wael Moussa, FHI 360

• Evaluating with an equity lens: An analysis at baseline, midline and endline of Save the Children’s Literacy Boost program in Guatemala - Clara Pava, Save the Children

• Are accelerated learning programs for out-of-school children closing or reinforcing equity gaps in emergency settings? Evidence from Nigeria - Anita Reilly, International Rescue Committee; Jeongmin Lee, Florida State University

Discussant

• Amy Mulcahy-Dunn, Encompass LLC