A partnership approach to more and better learning data

• In Event: Enhancing transparency and quality in educational assessments: The role of the international education community

Proposal

Working with close to 90 low- and middle-income countries around the globe, this multilateral organization prioritizes the improvement of learning outcomes for all children. Recognizing that this is not possible without reliable data on these outcomes, the organization supports learning assessments and the systems that underpin them in various ways. Of their 110 implementation grants active in 2023, 70 supported learning assessments in 57 partner countries.

Under their strategy period, countries are pursuing the transformation of their education systems through a priority reform area. All partnership compacts under this strategy incorporate interventions related to learning assessment systems as part of their priority reforms, and in two-thirds of the partnership compacts analyzed (38 out of 57), the learning assessment-related interventions were developed in response to gaps identified through partner countries’ own self-assessment of their overall data and evidence ecosystems. In addition, they also directly incentivize improvements in learning assessment systems, as countries that place a high priority on addressing gaps in these systems may be eligible for top-up funding for this purpose.

Beyond this, the organization also supports knowledge generation and exchange between partner countries on issues of learning assessment and serves as an active member of different global and regional initiatives in this area, including the Global Coalition for Foundational Learning, which includes a focus on learning data in the early grades. This paper will provide an overview of these different levers and also share future directions and opportunities that may be available under the organization’s next strategy period.

Author

• Ramya Vivekanandan, Global Partnership for Education