TY - BLOG TI - The Risks of Dangerous Dashboards in Basic Education AU - Pritchett, Lant AB - Many countries’ systems of basic education are in “stall” condition. A recent paper of Beatty et al. (2018) uses information from the Indonesia Family Life Survey, a representative household survey that has been carried out in several waves with the same individuals since 2000 and contains information on whether individuals can answer simple arithmetic questions. Figure 1, showing the relationship between the level of schooling and the probability of answering a typical question correctly, has two shocking results. DA - 2018/// PY - 2018 LA - en M3 - Center for Global Development UR - https://www.cgdev.org/publication/risks-dangerous-dashboards-in-basic-education Y2 - 2022/10/03/10:25:47 ER - TY - RPRT TI - Creating Education Systems Coherent for Learning Outcomes: Making the Transition from Schooling to Learning AU - Pritchett, Lant T2 - Research on Improving Systems of Education AB - Existing systems of education have some elements promoting learning as an objective, but are mainly coherent as systems only around enrollment targets. This paper builds an accountability framework of actors and the four design elements of accountability (delegation, financing, information and motivation) to emphasize that effectiveness in promoting learning requires systems of education that are coherent, in two ways. First, each accountability relationship has to be coherent across its elements, that is, the delegation of what agents are asked to do has to be coherent with the financing, information, and motivation, rather than "pay for one thing and expect another." Second, the relationships have to be coherent across relationships of accountability. That is, if teachers are accountable both to their employer and indirectly to parents/students/communities, then if these two have very different objectives the accountability of teachers will be made incoherent. Such incoherence can explain why small changes in the "right" direction (towards that of high performing systems or demonstrated in other contexts) might consistently fail even where a directed and coherent reform could have major impact. DA - 2015/12// PY - 2015 DP - Zotero SP - 47 LA - en PB - Rise Programme UR - https://www.riseprogramme.org/sites/www.riseprogramme.org/files/inline-files/RISE_WP-005_Pritchett_1.pdf KW - Systems Framework KW - ⛔ No DOI found ER - TY - JOUR TI - National development delivers: And how! And how? AU - Pritchett, Lant T2 - Economic Modelling AB - Core dual ideas of early development, economics and practice, were that (a) national development was a four-fold transformation of countries towards: (i) a more productive economy, (ii) a more responsive state, (iii) more capable administration, and (iv) a shared identity and equal treatment of citizens and that (b) this four-fold transformation of national development would lead to higher levels of human wellbeing. The second is strikingly correct: development delivers. National development is empirically necessary for high wellbeing (no country with low levels of national development has high human wellbeing) and also empirically sufficient (no country with high national development has low levels of human wellbeing). Three measures of national development: productive economy, capable administration, and responsive state, explain (essentially) all of the observed variation in an omnibus indicator of wellbeing based on over 58 distinct indicators, the Social Progress Index. How national development delivers on wellbeing varies, in three ways. One, economic growth is much more important for achieving wellbeing at low versus high levels of income. Two, economic growth matters more for “basic needs” than for other dimensions of wellbeing (like social inclusiveness or environmental quality). Three, state capability matters more for wellbeing outcomes that depend on public production than on private goods (and for some wellbeing indicators, like physical safety, for which growth doesn’t matter at all). While these findings may seem too common sense to be worth a paper, national development--and particularly economic growth—is, strangely, under severe challenge as an important and legitimate objective of action within the development industry. DA - 2022/02// PY - 2022 DO - 10.1016/j.econmod.2021.105717 DP - DOI.org (Crossref) VL - 107 SP - 105717 J2 - Economic Modelling LA - en SN - 02649993 ST - National development delivers UR - https://linkinghub.elsevier.com/retrieve/pii/S0264999321003060 Y2 - 2022/06/06/22:44:49 ER - TY - JOUR TI - Randomizing Development: Method or Madness? AU - Pritchett, Lant AB - An important argument for the increased use of randomized control trial methods in development is that the evidence from these studies will encourage the uptake of effective programs and projects (both through discouraging ineffective projects and improving design of new projects) and this will lead to reduced poverty and improved human well-being. However, cross-national evidence shows that the four-fold transformation of national development, to higher productivity economies, to more responsive states, the more capable organizations and administration and to more equal social treatment produces gains in poverty and human well-being that are orders of magnitude bigger than the best that can be hoped from better programs. Arguments that RCT research is a good (much less “best”) investment depend on both believing in an implausibly low likelihood that non-RCT research can improve progress national development and believing in an implausibly large likelihood that RCT evidence improves outcomes. DA - 2019/// PY - 2019 DP - Zotero SP - 32 LA - en KW - ⛔ No DOI found ER - TY - RPRT TI - The risks to education systems from design mismatch and global isomorphism AU - Pritchett, Lant CY - Helsinki DA - 2014/// PY - 2014 PB - World Institute for Development Economics Research SN - WIDER Working Paper 2014/039 UR - https://www.wider.unu.edu/sites/default/files/wp2014-039.pdf ER - TY - JOUR TI - A structured model of the dynamics of student learning in developing countries, with applications to policy AU - Kaffenberger, Michelle AU - Pritchett, Lant T2 - International Journal of Educational Development AB - Learning trajectories vary amazingly widely across countries, regions, and individual students in dynamic ways. In this paper we develop a parametrized structural model of the dynamics of the learning process and use the model for suggestive policy applications. We first synthesize the existing empirical literature on learning profiles, which suggest a clear set of parameters that formally characterize the learning process. We then calibrate this model of the learning process to reproduce the distribution of observed learning outcomes in low- and middle-income countries. Applying our calibrated model to policy simulations, we find that expanding schooling to universal attainment of basic education without changing the dynamics of the learning process would produce very little additional learning. Adjusting other parameters in the model, however, has large, positive effects. Slowing the pace of curriculum, so that more children can keep up, increases average learning in grade 10 by the learning equivalent of 1.6 years of schooling. Expanding the student skill levels that learn from a given level of instruction to account for within classroom heterogeneity of learning levels increases average grade 10 learning by the equivalent of a full year of schooling. The parameters we use are flexible, to accommodate the learning process in different contexts, and future work could explore additional parameterizations and calibrations for informing plans to improve education systems’ coherence for learning. DA - 2021/04/01/ PY - 2021 DO - 10.1016/j.ijedudev.2021.102371 DP - ScienceDirect VL - 82 SP - 102371 J2 - International Journal of Educational Development LA - en SN - 0738-0593 UR - https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0738059321000249 Y2 - 2022/08/25/21:29:18 KW - Dynamics of learning KW - Education policy KW - Learning trajectories KW - Low and middle income countries KW - Modelling learning ER - TY - RPRT TI - Learning Equity Requires More than Equality: Learning Goals and Achievement Gaps between the Rich and the Poor in Five Developing Countries - Working Paper 504 AU - Akmal, Maryam AU - Pritchett, Lant AB - Achieving some absolute standard of learning for all children is a key element of global equity in education. Using the Annual Status of Education Report (ASER) data from India and Pakistan, and Uwezo data from Kenya, Tanzania, and Uganda that test all children of given ages, whether in school or not, on simple measures of learning in math, reading (local language), and English, we quantify the role of achieving equality between the richest 20% and the poorest 40% in terms of grade attainment and learning achievement toward accomplishing the global equity goal of universal numeracy and literacy for all children. DA - 2019/// PY - 2019 LA - en PB - RISE Programme Working Paper ST - Learning Equity Requires More than Equality UR - https://www.cgdev.org/publication/learning-equity-requires-more-equality-learning-goals-and-achievement-gaps Y2 - 2022/09/23/17:57:30 ER - TY - RPRT TI - Women's Education May Be Even Better Than We Thought: Estimating the Gains from Education When Schooling Ain't Learning AU - Kaffenberger, Michelle AU - Pritchett, Lant CY - Oxford DA - 2020/// PY - 2020 PB - University of Oxford UR - https://riseprogramme.org/sites/default/files/2020-09/RISE_WP-049_Kaffenberger_Pritchett.pdf ER - TY - RPRT TI - Girls’ Schooling and Women’s Literacy: Schooling Targets Alone Won’t Reach Learning Goals AU - Pritchett, Lant AU - Sandefur, Justin AB - Using the Demographic and Health Survey (DHS) data on the ability of women at various levels of schooling attainment to read a simple sentence, we show that reaching universal completion of grade six among girls would not bring the world anywhere close to the goal of universal female literacy. These calculations are based on the empirical relationship between grades completed and ability to read, a descriptive ‘learning profile.’ The large literature on schooling and life outcomes suggests simple correlations are a reasonable guide to causal effects, and the typical concern is over-estimation of the true return to schooling—implying our calculations using a descriptive and not causal learning profile are a best-case scenario. This best case is often not at all good: the learning profile is so weak in Nigeria that even if all women had completed grade six, adult female illiteracy would only have fallen from 58 percent to 53 percent. In contrast, children in many other countries do learn to read in much higher numbers and enrolling outof-school girls would dramatically reduce illiteracy. For instance, in Ethiopia the same calculations yield a reduction in illiteracy from 82 to 25 percent. But across nearly 50 developing countries with available data our calculations suggest 40 percent of women would be illiterate even if all women completed at least grade six. Achieving new Sustainable Development Goal targets of universal literacy and numeracy will require both achievement of universal schooling and dramatic improvements in the learning profile in most developing countries. CY - Washington D.C. DA - 2017/02/27/ PY - 2017 DP - Zotero SP - 20 LA - en M3 - Policy Paper PB - Center for Global Development SN - 104 UR - https://www.cgdev.org/sites/default/files/girls-schooling-womens-literacy-targets-alone-reach-learning-goals.pdf ER - TY - CHAP TI - Looking like a state: The seduction of isomorphic mimicry AU - Andrews, Matt AU - Pritchett, Lant AU - Woolcock, Michael T2 - Building State Capability: Evidence, Analysis, Action A2 - Andrews, Matt A2 - Pritchett, Lant A2 - Woolcock, Michael AB - In this chapter we argue that isomorphic mimicry is a key “technique of successful failure” that perpetuates capability traps in development. In the context of this study, isomorphic mimicry is the tendency of governments to mimic other governments’ successes, replicating processes, systems, and even products of the “best practice” examples. This mimicry often conflates form and function: leading to a situation where “looks like” substitutes for “does”; i.e., governments look capable after the mimicry but are not actually more capable. We argue that this is endemic in development and has become a primary reason why countries do not build real capability even after years of policy and reform engagement and billions of dollars of capacity building work. We suggest that the tendency to so mimic is amplified by the current development ecosystem, especially where public sectors have become closed to novelty but open (and supportive of) agenda conformity. Such characteristics make it very hard for states to build the new capabilities needed, for their contexts, given their realities. DA - 2017/01/12/ PY - 2017 DP - Silverchair SP - 0 PB - Oxford University Press SN - 978-0-19-874748-2 ST - Looking like a state UR - https://doi.org/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198747482.003.0003 Y2 - 2022/09/10/20:34:52 ER - TY - RPRT TI - Girls’ Schooling is Good, Girls’ Schooling with Learning is Better AU - Oye, Mari AU - Pritchett, Lant AU - Sandefur, Justin T2 - Learning Generation DA - 2016/10// PY - 2016 M3 - Background Paper PB - Education Commission UR - http://report.educationcommission.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/Girls-Schooling-is-Good-Girls-Schooling-with-Learning-is-Better.pdf Y2 - 2022/04/07/19:14:21 ER - TY - BOOK TI - Building State Capability: Evidence, Analysis, Action AU - Pritchett, Lant AU - Andrews, Matt AU - Woolcock, Michael AB - "Building State Capability: Evidence, Analysis, Action" provides evidence of the capability shortfalls that currently exist in many countries, analyses this evidence and identifies capability traps that hold many governments back—particularly related to isomorphic mimicry and premature load-bearing. DA - 2017/// PY - 2017 LA - en ST - Building State Capability UR - https://bsc.cid.harvard.edu/building-state-capability-evidence-analysis-action Y2 - 2022/06/06/23:17:32 ER - TY - BOOK TI - Building State Capability: Evidence, Analysis, Action AU - Andrews, Matt AU - Pritchett, Lant AU - Woolcock, Michael AB - This is an open access title available under the terms of a CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 licence. It is free to read at Oxford Scholarship Online and offered as a free PDF download from OUP and selected open access locations. Governments play a major role in the development process, and constantly introduce reforms and policies to achieve developmental objectives. Many of these interventions have limited impact, however; schools get built but children don't learn, IT systems are introduced but not used, plans are written but not implemented. These achievement deficiencies reveal gaps in capabilities, and weaknesses in the process of building state capability. This book addresses these weaknesses and gaps. It starts by providing evidence of the capability shortfalls that currently exist in many countries, showing that many governments lack basic capacities even after decades of reforms and capacity building efforts. The book then analyses this evidence, identifying capability traps that hold many governments back - particularly related to isomorphic mimicry (where governments copy best practice solutions from other countries that make them look more capable even if they are not more capable) and premature load bearing (where governments adopt new mechanisms that they cannot actually make work, given weak extant capacities). The book then describes a process that governments can use to escape these capability traps. Called PDIA (problem driven iterative adaptation), this process empowers people working in governments to find and fit solutions to the problems they face. The discussion about this process is structured in a practical manner so that readers can actually apply tools and ideas to the capability challenges they face in their own contexts. These applications will help readers devise policies and reforms that have more impact than those of the past. CY - Oxford, New York DA - 2017/01/26/ PY - 2017 DP - Oxford University Press SP - 276 PB - Oxford University Press SN - 978-0-19-874748-2 ST - Building State Capability UR - https://global.oup.com/academic/product/building-state-capability-9780198747482?cc=gb&lang=en& ER - TY - RPRT TI - PDIA toolkit: A DIY Approach to Solving Complex Problems AU - Samji, Salimah AU - Andrews, Matt AU - Pritchett, Lant AU - Woolcock, Michael DA - 2018/// PY - 2018 PB - Center for International Development at Harvard University UR - https://bsc.cid.harvard.edu/files/bsc/files/pdiatoolkit_ver_1_oct_2018.pdf Y2 - 2022/12/09/15:12:16 ER - TY - CHAP TI - Building capability by delivering results: Putting Problem-Driven Iterative Adaptation (PDIA) principles into practice AU - Andrews, Matt AU - Pritchett, Lant AU - Samji, Salimah AU - Woolcock, Michael T2 - A governance practitioner's notebook: alternative ideas and approaches DA - 2015/// PY - 2015 DP - Zotero SP - 11 LA - en PB - OECD UR - https://www.oecd.org/dac/accountable-effective-institutions/Governance%20Notebook%202.3%20Andrews%20et%20al.pdf ER - TY - RPRT TI - PDIA Toolkit: A DIY Approach to Solving Complex Problems AU - Centre for International Development A2 - Samji, Salimah A2 - Andrews, Matt A2 - Pritchett, Lant A2 - Woolcock, Michael DA - 2018/// PY - 2018 PB - Harvard University UR - https://bsc.cid.harvard.edu/files/bsc/files/pdiatoolkit_ver_1_oct_2018.pdf ER -