Education Equity Research Initiative (fact sheet)

While equal access to quality education is the fundamental principle driving the education development agenda in the post-2015 world, information on inequality and its effects is limited. This fact sheet outlines the Education Equity Research Initiative, which connects organizations and individuals interested in developing, supporting or disseminating evidence on education equity globally.

Year Published: 2017

Author (s): Education Equity Research Initiative

GeneralEducation Equity Research InitiativeFact Sheets
A Global overview of Participation and equity in Pre-primary education (CIES 2018 presentation)

This presentation was presented as part of the panel, The Equity Initiative: Expanding Access to Quality Pre-Primary Education Opportunities: Using Data and Research to Document Inequity, at CIES 2018.

The MICS survey, conducted by UNICEF, addresses data on children and families through the national administration of household surveys. The MICS team recently decided to expand its global education database to cover the attendance of children one year before primary education, to meet the data monitoring needs in the context of SDG4 and to fill the above-mentioned global data gap in access to pre-primary education with an equity focus. This paper will report on new data on pre-primary enrollment, produced by incorporating data from the Multi-Cluster Indicator Surveys (MICS) and Demographic and Health Survey (DHS) from 2010 to 2015.

Learning and RetentionUNICEFCIES 2018, Events, Presentations, ECE
Handbook on Measuring Equity in Education

The new Handbook on Measuring Equity in Education, produced by the UNESCO Institute for Statistics (UIS), the FHI 360 Education Policy Data Centre, Oxford Policy Management and the Research for Equitable Access and Learning (REAL) Centre at the University of Cambridge, provides practical guidance on the calculation and interpretation of indicators designed to target the most disadvantaged groups. It is intended for anyone involved in the measurement and monitoring of equity in education, especially those concerned with national policymaking. It addresses the current knowledge gaps and provides a conceptual framework to measure equity in learning, drawing on examples of equity measurement across 75 national education systems.

The handbook explains what it means to measure equity in learning, recognising that equity itself is a political issue and cannot be isolated from political choices. It focuses on two key principles – impartiality and equality of condition.

Measurement and MetricsUNESCO Institute for StatisticsTools, Policy and Guidance, Equity Initiative Research Products
Starting primary school in southern Mali: The SIRA School Readiness Study (CIES 2018 presentation)

This presentation was presented as part of the panel, The Equity Initiative: Expanding Access to Quality Pre-Primary Education Opportunities: Using Data and Research to Document Inequity, at CIES 2018.

This presentation will discuss how the Selective Integrated Reading Activity (SIRA) in Mali is using Save the Children’s International Development and Early Learning Assessment (IDELA) to ask and answer pressing questions about the policy implications of current practices. This research will assist the Ministry of Education in Mali (MEN) in considering how to invest in pre-primary activities, formal and informal, and to communicate with schools and families about the importance of a child’s development as s/he enters school.

Learning and RetentionSave the ChildrenCIES 2018, Presentations, Events, ECE
Understanding Pre-primary Quality in Tanzania (CIES 2018 presentation)

This presentation was presented as part of the panel, The Equity Initiative: Expanding Access to Quality Pre-Primary Education Opportunities: Using Data and Research to Document Inequity, at CIES 2018.

In 2015, the global Measuring Early Learning and Quality Outcomes (MELQO) initiative was formed by UNICEF, UNESCO, the World Bank, and the Brookings Institution to focus on facilitating feasible, accurate, and useful measurement of young pupils’ development at the start of primary school as well as the quality of pre-primary learning environments, particularly in low- and middle-income countries. This presentation will report on the quality of pre-primary education environments in both Mainland Tanzania and Zanzibar, as found through the national MELQO study conducted in early 2017, and how this may inform sector improvement. 

Learning and RetentionRTI InternationalCIES 2018, Events, Presentations, ECE
Proposed Operationalisation of Equity Measurement (CIES 2018 presentation)

This presentation was presented as part of the panel, Measurement of Equity in Education: A Handbook, at CIES 2018.

This presentation, based on chapter 3 of the Equity Handbook, guides researchers and practitioners through a standard process in the identification of relevant equity considerations, as well as the provision of basic technical and operational framing for the most common metrics of equity in education. The audience will be guided through various visualization and measurement techniques representing equality of condition (univariate measures of inequality) and impartiality (bi- and multi-variate measures of inequality).
 

Measurement and MetricsFHI 360CIES 2018, Events, Presentations
Equity Handbook review (CIES 2018 presentation)

This review was presented as part of the panel, Measurement of Equity in Education: A Handbook, at CIES 2018.

To support efforts to monitor progress towards the SDGs, the Research for Equitable Access and Learning (REAL) Centre at the University of Cambridge and the UNESCO Institute for Statistics (UIS) are co-editing a “Handbook on Measurement of Equity in Education”, produced in collaboration with FHI 360 and Oxford Policy Management. The Handbook is intended to serve as a reference for professionals involved in the measurement and monitoring of equity in education. In this review, Dr. Eduardo Backhoff provides an overview of its content and present examples of its application to national and international equity data.

Measurement and MetricsInstituto Nacional para la Evaluación de la Educación (INEE)CIES 2018, Events, Presentations
A conceptual framework for equity analysis (CIES 2018 presentation)

This presentation was presented as part of the panel, Measurement of Equity in Education: A Handbook, at CIES 2018.

This presentation, based on chapter 2 of the Equity Handbook, offers a conceptual framework for equity analysis, with an emphasis on equity in learning.

Measurement and MetricsOxford Policy ManagementCIES 2018, Events, Presentations
Selecting and using project-level education equity indicators for access and retention (CIES 2018 presentation)

This presentation was presented as part of the panel, Conflict Sensitive Education Series - Measuring Progress Appropriately: Indicators for Safe Learning Environments, Conflict Sensitivity, Access and Retention, and Program Adaptation, at CIES 2018.

This presentation introduces the work conducted by the Equity Initiative’s workstream on conflict and fragility by briefly outlining general measurement concepts of equitable education access and key measurement challenges specific to conflict and fragility settings. It then introduces potential standard indicators on equitable education access that allows for aggregation and comparison across projects as well as guidance on how to develop customized indicators that recognize context-specific patterns of exclusion and education inequity.

Conflict and FragilityFHI 360CIES 2018, Events, Presentations
Using Adaptive Management Frameworks for Education Aid & Development Activity Planning & Evaluation (CIES 2018 presentation)

This presentation was presented as part of the panel, Conflict Sensitive Education Series - Measuring Progress Appropriately: Indicators for Safe Learning Environments, Conflict Sensitivity, Access and Retention, and Program Adaptation, at CIES 2018.

The project presented here is a partner initiative between the USAID-supported Education and Crisis and Conflict Network steering committee and Social Impact, Inc. It is an ongoing attempt to develop performance, process, and design indictors that could tell us if education initiatives are flexible and adaptive enough in emergency and unstable settings so as to continue to serve the needs of pupils and teachers as conditions change. 

Conflict and FragilitySocial ImpactCIES 2018, Events, Presentations
Measuring Progress Appropriately: Indicators for Safe Learning Environments, Conflict Sensitivity, Access and Retention, and Program Adaptation (CIES 2018 presentation)

This presentation was presented as part of the panel, Conflict Sensitive Education Series - Measuring Progress Appropriately: Indicators for Safe Learning Environments, Conflict Sensitivity, Access and Retention, and Program Adaptation, at CIES 2018.

To help implementing partners better measure safety within their own programs and to enhance conflict sensitive education more broadly, ECCN has developed a list of recommended indicators and performance indicator reference sheets (PIRS) related to safer learning environments. This presentation will briefly outline the crowd-sourced process that was utilized for developing the list, linking the importance of measuring SLE to the broader objective of conflict sensitive education, and then will present the recommended indicators and measurement specifications.

Conflict and FragilityECCNCIES 2018, Events, Presentations
Equity and quality in Latin America: A deeper look (CIES 2018 presentation)
Education Finance, Learning and Retention, Measurement and MetricsSUMMA - Laboratorio de Investigación e Innovación en Educación para América Latina y el CaribeEvents, Presentations, CIES 2018
The global learning crisis: 600 million children are not learning (CIES 2018 presentation)

This presentation was presented as part of the panel, The Equity Initiative: Data and Evidence to Address the Learning Crisis, at CIES 2018.

In this session, the UIS presents new estimates of the number of children and adolescents who will be unable to read or do math proficiently if current trends continue. More than 617 million children and adolescents of primary and lower secondary age – mainly from sub-Saharan Africa and Southern Asia – are expected to lack minimum proficiency in reading and mathematics, due to a combination of lack of access to education, early drop-out, and not learning enough in school. The estimates were generated with a newly developed methodology that makes use of a new UIS database that anchors the results of learning assessments carried out in more than 160 countries and territories between 1995 and 2015, in order to make them internationally comparable.

Learning and Retention, Measurement and Metrics, Education FinanceUNESCO Institute for StatisticsCIES 2018, Presentations, Events
World Development Report 2018: Learning to realize education’s promise (CIES 2018 presentation)

This presentation was presented as part of the panel, The Equity Initiative: Data and Evidence to Address the Learning Crisis, at CIES 2018.

Schooling that doesn’t result in learning is not just a missed opportunity—it is a great injustice. The children whom society is failing most are the ones in greatest need of a good education to succeed in life. But there’s nothing inevitable about low levels of learning—real progress is possible, at any level of development, when countries prioritize learning and mobilize everyone with a stake in education to work toward it. The World Development Report identifies three main dimensions of the learning crisis and provides detailed diagnoses of each dimension based on new data and research. This presentation provides three steps that nations must take to confront the learning crisis.

Learning and Retention, Measurement and Metrics, Education FinanceThe World Bank GroupEvents, Presentations, CIES 2018