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This paper experimentally examines the impacts of a large-scale government program that increased the supply and quality of community preschools in rural Cambodia. The construction of new preschool facilities was paired with two demand-side interventions designed to stimulate additional enrollment into preschools. The newly constructed preschools caused an increase in enrollment rates but the demand-side interventions did not. One year after the program started, the paper finds small and significant impacts on cognitive (0.04 standard deviations) and socio-emotional development (0.09 standard deviations). The analysis shows that the cognitive impacts are driven by children from the wealthiest quartile, while the program had limited impacts on children from the poorest families. The effects on cognitive development increased after two years for the wealthiest (the cognitive gap widened) while the effects on socio-emotional development faded out across the board. Using detailed classroom surveys and in-class observations, the paper shows that the program had large impacts on the quality of preschool infrastructure and materials but only limited impacts the quality of educational processes-the results therefore suggest that further improvement of those processes might be needed to foster the development of disadvantaged children.

Early Childhood Development --- Education --- Educational Institutions and Facilities --- Effective Schools and Teachers --- Preschool Facilities --- School Enrollment

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How should parents be mobilized for education in Africa This study implemented a large-scale field experiment in Angolan primary schools, including three treatments: an information campaign at home, simple parents' meetings at school, and the combination of both. The measures of parental mobilization include beneficial practices at home, contacts with teachers, and participation in school institutions. The findings show that the information increased parents' involvement at home but had no impact on engagement at school, while the meetings had the opposite effects. After mobilizing parents, only the combined treatment improved management practices and facilities in schools, teachers' attitudes, and parents' satisfaction.

Education --- Educational Institutions and Facilities --- Educational Sciences --- Effective Schools and Teachers --- Parental Involvement --- Primary Education

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School safety and classroom disciplinary climate have a direct impact on teachers' ability to teach and students' ability to learn. School safety and classroom disciplinary climates have been declining in the Middle East and North Africa region, as is demonstrated in this paper using data from the Trends in Mathematics and Science Study and the Progress in International Reading Literacy Study. The paper then moves on to untangle how disruptive learning environments can have negative impacts on student learning outcomes. Thus, the objective of the paper is to analyze the determinants associated with disrupted learning environments, at the school and classroom levels, in the Middle East and North Africa region and to uncover the impacts these environments have on student learning outcomes. This information will provide policy makers with evidence on disrupted learning environments while offering some recommendations on how these conditions can be improved.

Classroom Discipline --- Classroom Management --- Classroom Violence --- Education --- Effective Schools and Teachers --- Learning Outcomes --- School Safety --- Teacher-Student Relations --- Teaching Practices

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This paper uses machine learning methods to identify key predictors of teacher effectiveness, proxied by student learning gains linked to a teacher over an academic year. Conditional inference forests and the least absolute shrinkage and selection operator are applied to matched student-teacher data for math and Kiswahili from grades 2 and 3 in 392 schools across Tanzania. These two machine learning methods produce consistent results and outperform standard ordinary least squares in out-of-sample prediction by 14-24 percent. As in previous research, commonly used teacher covariates like teacher gender, Education, experience, and so forth are not good predictors of teacher effectiveness. Instead, teacher practice (what teachers do, measured through classroom observations and student surveys) and teacher beliefs (measured through teacher surveys) emerge as much more important. Overall, teacher covariates are stronger predictors of teacher effectiveness in math than in Kiswahili. Teacher beliefs that they can help disadvantaged and struggling students learn (for math) and they have good relationships within schools (for Kiswahili), teacher practice of providing written feedback and reviewing key concepts at the end of class (for math), and spending extra time with struggling students (for Kiswahili) are highly predictive of teacher effectiveness. As is teacher preparation on how to teach foundational topics (for both Math and Kiswahili). These results demonstrate the need to pay more systematic attention to teacher preparation, practice, and beliefs in teacher research and policy.

Education --- Effective Schools and Teachers --- Machine Learning --- Student Achievement --- Teacher Effectiveness --- Teacher Mindset --- Teacher Performance --- Teacher Value-Added

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Studies have shown that learning outcomes are related to the amount of time students engage in learning tasks. However, visits to schools have revealed that students are often taught for only a fraction of the intended time, particularly in lower-income countries. Losses are due to informal school closures, teacher absenteeism, delays, early departures, and sub-optimal use of time in the classroom. A study was undertaken to develop an efficient methodology for measuring instructional time loss. Thus, instructional time use was measured in sampled schools in Tunisia, Morocco, Ghana, and the Brazilian state of Pernambuco. The percentage of time that students were engaged in learning vis-a-vis government expectations was approximately 39 percent in Ghana, 63 percent in Pernambuco, 71 percent in Morocco, and 78 percent in Tunisia. Instructional time use is a mediator variable that is challenging to measure, so it often escapes scrutiny. Research suggests that merely financing the ingredients of instruction is not enough to produce learning outcomes; students must also get sufficient time to process the information. The quantity-quality tradeoff that often accompanies large-scale enrollments may be partly due to instructional time restrictions. Time wastage also distorts budgetary outlays and teacher salary rates. To achieve the Millennium Development Goals students must get more of the time that governments, donors, and parents pay for.

Education --- Education for All --- Educational Quality --- Effective Schools and Teachers --- Human Development --- Instruction --- Learning --- Learning outcomes --- Literacy --- Papers --- Primary Education --- Schools --- Secondary Education --- Social Sciences --- Teacher --- Tertiary Education