Education Policy and Program Evaluations in Low- and Middle-Income Countries

While tremendous progress has been made around the world toward universal access to primary school in low- and middle-income countries, student learning and progress in secondary school remains an important challenge for many countries. In the last two decades, governments have implemented many education policies and programs incorporating evaluations using novel methods to estimate their causal impact. Findings have improved our understanding of the effect and cost-effectiveness of a wide range of programs and greatly influenced policy. This course will explore the evidence available, question the theories that motivated the programs, ethics related to evaluation, and the lessons learned. This course is a seminar and designed for students interested in international education policy and development economics. We will explore education policies around the world, but the main geographical focus will be on countries classified as low- or middle-income. Students should have completed an introductory data and research methods course equivalent to EDUC 0750 .