In this Insight Note, we present a set of principles shared by varied approaches that have all succeeded in improving foundational learning in developing countries. These approaches were not explicitly designed with this list of principles in mind; rather, the principles emerged through analysis and synthesis of successful approaches. We call such efforts ALIGNS approaches, which stands for Aligning Levels of Instruction with Goals and the Needs of Students. ALIGNS approaches take many forms, ranging from large-scale policy and curricular reforms to in-school or after-school remedial programmes. In this note, we describe the principles that ALIGNS approaches have in common (Section I); review interdisciplinary evidence on why aligning instruction with children’s learning levels improves learning (Section II); present three cases from across the spectrum of approaches and illustrate how each embodies the ALIGNS principles (Section III); and provide a longer (though not exhaustive) table of programmes that illustrates the range of possible approaches to implementing ALIGNS principles and describes the design features across which they vary (Table 1).

In 1990, the global community, gathered for the World Conference on Education for All in Jomtien, Thailand, declared that all children should be provided a quality education to "meet their basic learning needs" (World Declaration on Education for All, 1990). This focus on learning was amplified by the adoption of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) in 2015, which include a target to provide every child with an education that leads to relevant and effective learning by 2030 (SDG 4.1). Despite these commitments, the world is far from reaching these goals. Learning levels are low in many low-and middle-income countries. Furthermore, in many countries, learning outcomes at a given grade have declined in recent years, and in some countries, cohort learning levels are lower in spite of enrollment increases. Evidence suggests that continuation of 'business as usual' efforts by education systems are unlikely to achieve the large gains needed to reach global learning goals. The World Bank's Harmonized Learning Outcomes, for example, which provide standardised learning measures spanning recent decades, indicate

How can education authorities and organisations develop empowered, highly respected, strongly performance-normed, contextually embedded teaching professionals who cultivate student learning? This challenge is particularly acute in many low- and middle-income education systems that have successfully expanded school enrolment but struggle to help children master even the basics of reading, writing, and arithmetic. In this primer, we synthesise research from a wide range of academic disciplines and country contexts, and we propose a set of principles for guiding the journey toward an empowered, effective teaching profession. We call these principles the 5Cs: choose and curate toward commitment to capable and committed teachers. These principles are rooted in the fact that teachers and their career structures are embedded in multi-level, multi-component systems that interact in complex ways. We also outline five premises for practice, each highlighting an area in which education authorities and organisations can change the typical status quo approach in order to apply the 5Cs and realise the vision of empowered teaching profession.

No abstract

There is increasing interest in measuring management in schools. This paper discusses a popular measurement tool: the World Management Survey (WMS) for schools. Drawing on WMS data, secondary sources, and the recent literature on school management, we take stock of the WMS and make recommendations for its use in future research and policy. We conclude that the WMS remains a highly useful tool for its stated purpose—the standardized measurement of (a subset of) management practices within schools—and make two sets of recommendations. First, we encourage those seeking to benchmark management practices in schools to take a systems perspective by extending the WMS approach upwards into the education bureaucracy. Second, when measuring practices within schools, we recommend that researchers consider: how best to assess alignment across practices in the operations domain; the challenge of measuring student learning for monitoring and target-setting; and the context specificity of people management.