The Importance of
Education Quality
Ariel Fiszbein
Chief Economist,
Human Development Network
World Bank
Brussels, June 24, 2008
1. Education quality is about
children learning
It’s about children learning...
Education quality means that enough
learning takes place in schools: we
often assume it but….
 Why should we care about learning
outcomes?



Because individual returns to education are linked
to learning, not just to years of education
Because the overall economy benefits from
quality education
Returns to cognitive skills (literacy)
are generally strong across countries
Estimated Returns to Cognitive
Skills: Examples
● Three studies conducted in the U.S. show a
12% increase in earnings for every 1 SD
increase in math scores. (Mulligan,1999;
Murnane et al, 2000; Lazear, 2003)
● Chilean data shows that 1 SD increase in test
scores on the IALS is associated with higher
earnings of 15-20%. (Sakellariou, 2006)
Education Quality and Economic Growth
Hanushek and Woessman, 2007
2. But learning outcomes in
developing countries are poor
Reading and Math Performance on the OECD PISA Exams, 2000-2003
WB Global Monitoring Report, 2007
Many children do not attain minimum learning levels
WB Global Monitoring Report, 2007
Student performance in mathematics:
What it means?
0%
6%
Proficiency at Level 6
Students are able to carry
out advanced
mathematical reasoning.
0%
18%
Proficiency at Level 2
2%
Students can interpret and
28%
recognize situations in
contexts that require no
more than direct
inference.
6%
27%
Proficiency Below Level 1
18%
Students can not answer
questions involving
familiar contexts where all
relevant information is
present and the questions
are clearly defined.
29%
14%
5%
1%
45%
PISA, 2006
Colombia
Finland
Can Indian children read?
41% of children in class 5 cannot
read at class 2 level
 22% of children in class 2 cannot
recognize words
 58% of children in class 5 cannot
divide (3 digit by 1 digit)

2007 Annual Survey of Education Report (Rural), Pratham
% 10-year olds who can add & subtract single-digit numbers
Never Enrolled (Cannot add/subtract)
What are
children in
Pakistan
(Punjab)
learning?
28.0%
29.0%
Can add and subtract
Enrolled, but cannot add/subtract
43.0%
LEAPS Data from Punjab Pakistan
Note: "Enrolled but cannot add" includes the 2.8% of 10-year olds w ho have dropped out of school
LEAPS Data - Punjab, Pakistan 2007
3. The policy challenge is to
identify how to improve
learning outcomes
The policy challenge:



What are the levers to improve learning
outcomes?
A variety of factors can potentially
influence learning outcomes: households,
schools, environment….
But we often can’t tell because of lack of
rigorous evidence
A ‘general’ theory of what influences
learning outcomes
Economic, social, political context
Demand
Endowments
& Behaviors
of
Students
Parents
Community
Education
Policy
Policy actions,
specific programs
Systemic
reforms
Student learning
Supply
Endowments
& Behaviors
of
Teachers
Schools
Education authorities
Community
Vegas and Petrow. “Raising
Student Learning in Latin
America: The Challenge for
the 21st Century”. 2008.
Examples of interventions…



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Student/parent behavior & endowments: Early
childhood development
School endowments: Textbooks, technology
Teacher endowments and behaviors: Salary
incentives linked to performance, Capacity building
School behaviors: School councils, non-government
provision
Given large inequalities in endowments, a key role
of all interventions is to promote equality of
educational opportunity
Early childhood interventions payoff
later in life (including at school)
Colombia: increased child height (approx
2.4 cm/child), increased school attendance
when in high-school (20 percentage points)
 US (Perry Preschool Project): At age 40
participants had 1/3 higher earnings, more
likely to be employed, less arrests, etc.
● Uruguay: 27% higher school attendance by
age 16

Sources: Attanasio and Vera-Hernandez(2004), Schweinhart (2005), Berlinski,
Galiani, and Manacorda (2006)
Inputs and pedagogical change can
have effects but it is unclear how
context specific they are…



Textbooks: No impact on test scores in Kenya
IT: Computers with math games in primary
schools in India had 0.47 SD increase in math
test scores
Remedial education in India, 0.14 SD increase
in test scores in year 1, 0.28 SD increase in
year 2.
Sources: (Glewwe, Kremer, and Moulin, 2003) and (Banerjee et al, 2006)
Affecting teachers can be a
powerful instrument



Simply adding more teachers (w/o changing
level of effort) does not help.
Kenya: Students of contract teachers score .18
SD higher than students taught by civil service
teachers
India (AP): Monetary incentives to teachers
increased test scores by 0.15 SD; more inputs
to schools (extra teacher, block grant for
school supply needs) only by 0.09 SD
Duflo, Dupas, and Kremer (2007); Muralidharan and Sundararaman (2006)
Institutional factors: Does
decentralization ‘work’?

Argentina: decentralization to provincial
governments, with little vertical or horizontal
accountability


Improve test scores in relatively wealthier areas,
but made the poor worse off
Improvement in ‘well-run’ provinces, badly-run
provinces worse off
Sebastian Galiani, Ernesto Schargrodsky, Paul Gertler (2005)
Institutional factors: Does
community participation work?



Mexico: School-based management
initiative in rural, disadvantaged schools
reduced repetition and failure
Pakistan: School councils did not affect
learning outcomes, but study only
captured year-1 effects.
India: information campaign on education
outcomes improved teacher attendance
and learning outcomes.
Sources: Gertler, Patrinos, and Rubio (2006), Das (2008) and Pandey, (2008)
Institutional factors: Do nongovernment schools work?

Pakistan: Children in private schools are 1.5-2.5
years ahead of children in government schools
in terms of learning, controlling for child,
household and school characteristics (Das, et al.
LEAPS, 2007)

Bogotá: New, privately run, schools in poor,
urban neighborhoods reduced dropout rates by
1.7 percentage points and improved test scores
in math and reading by 0.19 SD and 0.27 SD,
respectively (Barrera, 2006)
4. An Agenda for Education
Quality
An Agenda for Education
Quality

More systematic measurement of learning
outcomes

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International assessments
National assessments
No silver bullet: results likely to need actions to
influence students/parents, teachers and
schools –and the right inputs!
Strong links with broader economic policies
Evidence-based policy: evaluation of reform
programs is key
Political economy: who cares?
Who cares about quality?
Prime Minister: Education in this country is a
disaster. We're supposed to prepare children
for work. Most of the time they're bored stiff.
Sir Humphrey: I should've thought that being
bored stiff was an excellent preparation for
work.
(Yes, Prime Minister! BBC television series)
END
Teacher (non) effort…
Percent of countries that carried out at
least one assessment between 19951999 and 2000-2006
UNESCO, GMR 2008