Education Reform Support: An Update

1. Education Reform Support: An Update August 3, 2006

2. Education Reform Support: An Update • What is education reform support? • How do projects incorporate reform support activities? • What else is needed to help program staff better understand and operationalize education reform support activities?

3. Why Reform? • Cannot continue to define the problem as needing more resources for expansion (EFA) • Repeated calls for universal access lead to estimation of the funding needed, massive shortfalls in additional assistance, followed by recriminations about inadequate funding or lack of political will • Even with impressive gains in access and tons of resources, learning is limited • Reform is still needed

4. Requirements of Reform Decentralize Build Schools Civil Society Leadership Eliminate Fees Buy Off Unions Expand Access Hire Teachers Reallocate Resources Reform Civil Service Resources Improve Instruction Retrain Teachers Rewrite Laws New Management Systems Institutional Capacity Improve Quality Politics Retrain Administrators Testing and Accountability Design New Funding Formula Mobilize Stakeholders

5. Contribution of Education Reform Support • ERS does not try to explain all the complexities of reform, nor does it try to identify every factor that may influence reform outcomes • Focuses on the politics and process of reform • Applies the logic of projects – i.e. discrete inputs, activities and processes can lead to desired outcomes • Messiness of reform can be addressed, but projects will need to be strategic and opportunistic, not linear

6. Contribution of Education Reform Support • Clearing Space Clearing away mental, institutional and political obstacles • Filling Space Promoting, experimenting, modeling the substance of a reformed system and defining the conditions of success for reform implementation • Building Reform Support Infrastructure Bringing together the variety of actors with the broad range of capacities needed to systematically and continuously clear and fill space

7. Interest Groups Rules and Regulations Bureaucratic Structures Lack of Capacity Ideologies Momentum of the Status Quo Population Growth The Substance of Reform Union Contracts Mental Models • Re-organization of schools • Decentralization • Effective school support • Teaching innovations • Curriculum modifications • Accountability Lack of Knowledge Economy Clearing and Filling Space

8. The Basic Tool Box • Data and Information • demand-driven approach to data • creative use of existing information • surveys • Analysis • cost-effectiveness of policy options • quantifying inequities • cost projections and simulations • Dialogue and Communications • policy presentations, debates, deliberations • social marketing and mobilization campaigns • media campaigns • Networking and Promoting Reform Support Infrastructure • seeding collaborations and coalitions • financing coalitions, collaboratives, networks • encouraging and financing advocacy NGOs

9. Education Reform Support: An Example Policy Dialogue on School Quality in Peru • Data • Simple reading assessment (fluency of reading - words/minute) • Recording of students reading a passage • Characteristics of schools where students read best • Dialogue and communication • Live policy dialogue sessions in four localities • Broadcast on prime-time TV • Editorials in newspapers, discussions on talk shows, etc • Strategic choices/opportunities • Use of video decided after seeing how powerfully people reacted to recordings of children reading • Video opened up broadcast possibilities • Performance indicators that reflect reading fluency • Reading fluency added to national household survey