Embedding Evidence into Education Systems: Results from three global grant projects

Group Submission Type: Formal Panel Session

Proposal

Achieving the United Nation’s Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 4 to ensure “inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all” requires a concerted effort, including one that addresses knowledge gaps and improves access to evidence. Having reliable, timely, accurate, and accessible education data can enable low- and middle-income countries to better inform planning in their education sectors, which can lead to better education outcomes. In short, having quality data can make a positive difference when it comes to enacting education policies that benefit children. Although there has been significant progress in building the infrastructure and human capacity for working with education data systems, many gaps persist, both in the availability of data and in its utilization.
Efforts to strengthen Ministries of Education’s data systems and create more efficient ways of using evidence to support data-informed decision-making is at the heart of three projects funded by the Global Partnership for Education (GPE) Knowledge and Innovation Exchange (KIX). KIX is a global fund that supports the scaling of promising education innovations and strengthens partners’ capacity to address education challenges and is the largest fund solely dedicated to bridging the knowledge gaps that undermine education systems in developing countries. It is being implemented by the International Development Research Center (IDRC).
The proposed panel will include presentations by three KIX-funded projects: (1) Data Must Speak about Positive Deviance Approaches to Learning (2) Using Data for Improving Education Equity and Inclusion (MICS-EAGLE), and (3) Data Use Innovations for Education Management Information Systems in The Gambia, Uganda, and Togo. Each of these projects aims to help countries better design and scale data systems, and then use education data in the policy and planning process. The projects work across different countries in the global south and seek to create public goods that can be adapted in various contexts.
As these KIX projects enter their third year of implementation, they have begun to show results on embedding evidence into education systems. Rather than simply packaging and delivering solutions to governments, however, all three projects work directly with experts in national statistics offices and ministries of education to co-create and implement activities and achieve outcomes. This partnership approach has been integral to success. Each project has also learned many lessons over the past two years and has had to overcome various challenges in pursuit of its achievements.
The panel will begin with Data Must Speak (DMS) Positive Deviance Research which aims to (1) identify school-level practices and behaviours that are leading some schools in a country to perform better than peer schools in similar contexts and with similar levels of resources and (2) investigate potential levers and mechanisms for scaling these positive deviant practices to lower performing schools. The DMS research incorporates a mixed method, positive deviance research approach, generating insights from behavioural sciences, implementation research, and scaling science. After more than two years of implementation with 14+ participating countries across three continents, the DMS research team has learned many lessons on how to efficiently engage with country partners, how to co-create meaningfully, and how to best leverage existing datasets. This presentation aims at highlighting some of those lessons learned and best practices while also focusing on the team’s shortcomings and mitigation strategies.
Next, the panel will move to Using Data for Improving Education Equity and Inclusion, known as MICS-EAGLE for Multiple Indicator Cluster Surveys-Education Analysis for Global Learning and Equity. The MICS-EAGLE initiative strives to help countries make better use of their education data so that it can feed into education policymaking. Through the dissemination of MICS-EAGLE factsheets, countries have access to data in an easy-to-understand format on key topics such as foundational learning skills, inclusive education for children with disabilities, and out-of-school children. Government decision-makers can leverage these data to create evidence-based policies that change children’s lives. Since 2018, the MICS-EAGLE initiative has been working in more than two dozen countries to impact education policy using a data-informed approach. This presentation will focus on some of the achievements of the project over the past two years, with examples from countries such as Togo, Ghana, Kiribati, and Lesotho that have demonstrated how education data can be transformed into action.
Finally, the panel will conclude with Data use Innovations for Education Management Information Systems (EMIS) in The Gambia, Uganda, and Togo. The general objective of the project is to identify scalable EMIS tools and information use procedures that facilitate data-driven and decentralized decision-making and to build local capacity to sustain these. The approach entails aligning global recommendations and indicators with district and school level priorities, capacities and practices through participatory design of analytics and dashboards. These include an “EMIS shift” to nation-wide data on individual students and teachers in the Gambia, a focus on strong “Districts of Excellence” for education management as well as nation-wide school-based COVID surveillance for reopening schools in Uganda, and on an integrated national data warehouse in Togo. This presentation will explore some of the key learnings the project has encountered over the past two years, including the need to engage with stakeholders to identify, capture and make available education data that is relevant on a routine basis and with increased frequency, as opposed to yearly surveys and censuses that are less actionable at the local level.
Through these presentations, the panel seeks to share the experiences, noting both the successes as well as the challenges of education research projects working in low- and middle-income countries across the globe committed to improving education data systems. This aligns well with the theme of CIES 2023 “Improving Education for a More Equitable World” as with better availability and use of education data, better informed decision-making can lead to more efficient and equitable outcomes.

Sub Unit

• Large-Scale Cross-National Studies in Education SIG

Chair

• Tricia Wind, International Development Research Centre

Individual Presentations

• Strengthening and Promoting Education Data Systems and Utilization: Lessons from the UNICEF Data Must Speak Research - Jessica Bergmann, Unicef - Office of Research, Innocenti; Renaud Comba, UNICEF

• Using Data to Support Evidence-Based Education Policymaking: Experiences from the UNICEF MICS-EAGLE Research - Suguru Mizunoya, UNICEF; Peggy L Kelly, UNICEF; Sakshi Mishra, UNICEF

• Implementation of EMIS Data Use Innovations in the Gambia, Uganda, and Togo: Lessons learned - Knut Staring, University of Oslo

Discussant

• Hamidou Dodo Boukary, International Development Research Center