The development of a methodological device that measures systematic educational discrepancies

2004 Impact statement

Abstract

The project seeks to create a practical tool and method for simulating the impact of a wide range of educational policies on the levels of educational attainment in a population. It is useful for making practical decisions about the allocation of policy resources by identifying the range of policies that are likely to be most effective.

Issue

Education planners in developing nations care about this project. They currently strive to achieve very ambitious goals in the educational sector but with very limited resources at their disposal. By making it possible to evaluate, beforehand, the likely impact of feasible policy options, it helps narrow down the range of options.

Response

We have developed the method and increasingly disseminated it. I am now working collaboratively with Stan Bernstein at the UN to further disseminate it at the level of the UN. With funding from the Polson Institute, I am creating a user-friendly instrument that facilitates the simulations and will make the tool more accessible to policy audiences.

Impact

The product is in adoption phase and the benefits can only be evaluated later. The anticipated benefits are in the form of saved resources and increased policy effectiveness in the education sector.

Funding Sources

  • Private (e.g., commodity groups, foundations, companies)

Topic Description

  • Education Policy Analysis

Collaborators

  • United Nations

Key Personnel

  • Stan Bernstein, Senior Sexual and Reproductive Health Policy Adviser, Millennium Project

submitted by

department, unit, division

mission focus

submitted as part of CALS annual faculty reporting, February 2005