A randomized evaluation of a 9-month comprehensive math program for preprimary Bangladeshi school children addressed skills such as numbers, measurement, shapes, patterns, and space. Nine schools were randomly selected for the Intervention group and nine for the Control group, with 12 children randomly selected from each to participate in testing.…

What was accomplished and what was learned from United States Agency for International Development's (USAID) investment of over $733 million aimed at strengthening basic education systems in the developing world? These questions were addressed through an analysis of 286 documents drawn from 33 projects sponsored by the USAID between 1990 and 2005.…

A school improvement program that provided support to poor-performing schools on the basis of needs identified in a school improvement plan was implemented in 72 government schools in Jamaica, from 1998 to 2005. In this independent evaluation of the program, we use propensity score matching to create, post hoc, a control group of schools that were…

In this paper, we present data from an evaluation of the educational impact of a school breakfast program implemented in rural schools in Peru. The results showed positive effects on school attendance and dropout rates, and a differential effect of the breakfast program on multiple-grade and full-grade schools. Particularly in multiple-grade…

This paper presents the main goals and themes, as well as a critical analysis, of an ambitious new reform of Mexico's secondary-level program for civic education. It begins with a brief historical review of the modern Mexican secondary school, as well as a thematic analysis of the new published curriculum and study program, which puts heavy…

This paper tests the hypothesis that World Bank education projects have a higher likelihood of being successful if at the time of appraisal, they underwent good quality economic analysis. Analysis shows a strong relationship between the quality of cost-benefit analysis and cost-effectiveness analysis and the quality of project outcomes. Economic…

This article discusses the value and feasibility of carrying out evaluation research on teacher development and uses as points of reference the author's experiences in two countries, Sri Lanka and Mexico. In Sri Lanka, an evaluation study was designed to understand the effectiveness and costs of teacher development at the elementary level linking…