Scaling impact in education for transformative change Practical recommendations from the Real-Time Scaling Labs

• In Event: Democrat, Education and Literacy

Proposal

Transforming education systems is a complex process that requires understanding the strengths and weaknesses of the educational ecosystem and exploring new approaches, ideas, and initiatives to improve quality learning opportunities for children and youth. However, research shows it is not enough to simply identify effective education initiatives and expand them to more people. It takes a combination of technical expertise, understanding of local contexts, political strategy, collaborative partnership, flexible adaptation, and shared vision to scale and sustain the impact of education initiatives. Scaling cannot occur through one actor alone; it requires concerted and collaborative action by multiple actors at all levels of the education system. Scaling represents a range of approaches—from deliberate replication to organic diffusion to integration into national systems—that expand and deepen impact leading to lasting improvements in people’s lives.

Too often, the work of scaling is not captured by typical monitoring and evaluation or research studies and lessons learned are not systematically documented. In response, in 2018 the Center for Universal Education (CUE) at Brookings launched a series of Real-time Scaling Labs (RTSLs) to generate more evidence and provide practical recommendations on how to expand, deepen, and sustain the impact of education initiatives leading to transformative change in education systems, especially for the most disadvantaged children and youth. Versions of the RTSLs were established with local partners in Botswana, Cote d'Ivoire, Jordan, the Middle East region, the Philippines, and Tanzania.

The purpose of this paper is to look across all six of the RTSL cases to analyze common themes, insights, and lessons learned about the process of scaling as well as interesting divergences, and to offer considerations for others looking to learn from or build on this work.

Section 1 examines key scaling lessons that emerged across all of the RTSL cases and- analyzes scaling drivers (key levers, forces, or factors critical to making progress toward the scaling goal) at three different units of analysis to explore the way scaling happens at the system, institution, and individual levels. At the system level, key lessons include looking at how to balancing tradeoffs, priorities and opportunity costs while scaling, and the challenges of prioritizing costing and long-term financing. At the institution level, the findings dive into assessing who takes an initiative to scale and how roles evolve over time, as well as what it means to plan and act non-linearly. At the individual level, the findings relate to the role of champions in the scaling process and why it is important to move from top-down control to collaboration when working with educators. Through key questions and debates that came out of the research and experiences of the labs are shared.

The second section analyzes how the RTSL as a research methodology and how it in practice, its strengths and challenges, and how it contributed to scaling. This section examines key questions around when is the right time for a lab, who should be involved, where it should be hosted, what activities it should focus on, and how the principles of adaptative capacity and collaborative research worked in practice. Unless otherwise cited, data throughout this paper comes from firsthand documentation and analysis collected by RTSL scaling lab researchers and partners between 2018-2023.

The paper concludes with a set of core recommendations targeted for governments, implementing organizations, donors, and researchers developed in consultation with the RTSL learning community. Our aim in sharing this research is to facilitate learning and discussion about both what it takes to scale impact in education systems, and what it means to carry out participatory research. After presenting the findings, the authors will take time to answer questions and foster discussion with participants about their own scaling experiences.

Authors

• Maya Elliott, Brookings

• Jenny Perlman Robinson

• Ghulam Omar Qargha, The Brookings Institution

• Molly Curtiss Wyss, Brookings Institution