Can test results lead to education reform? @alenestour.bsky.social and @leecrawfurd.bsky.social show how PASEC results have improved learning in Francophone Africa. At a few cents per child, the question is not cost but whether countries can afford to lose it. cgdev.org/blog/pisa-shocks-africa

“PISA-Shocks” in Africa

When the OECD published its first international student assessment (PISA) in 2000, several countries were taken aback by just how poorly students performed. This “PISA-Shock” prompted comprehensive re...

cgdev.org

You might have heard of "PISA-shock". You probably haven't heard of "PASEC-shock" in Niger [new blog with @alenestour.bsky.social]

❓Why do the Nordics & Dutch speak English so much better than the Germans, Italians & French? ➡️ New Working Paper: Out-of-School Learning: Subtitling vs. Dubbing and the Acquisition of Foreign-Language Skills w/ F. Baumeister & E. Hanushek www.nber.org/papers/w33984 A 🧵 1/12

New blog: @rglenner.bsky.social & I suggest 4 criteria for donors choosing between multilateral education funds (eg GPE/ECW/IDA/IFFED/UNICEF/UNESCO) 1. Cost-effective interventions 2. Foundational literacy & numeracy 3. Poor countries 4. Financial & policy leverage www.cgdev.org/blog/four-cr...

I’m happy to share our latest Data Must Speak report for #BurkinaFaso. We collaborated with the Ministry of #Education to analyze their admin education data and model the factors influencing school performance. Main results in a 🧵 @unicefinnocenti.bsky.social www.unicef.org/innocenti/re...

Data Must Speak: Burkina Faso

Positive deviance reports and project briefs

unicef.org

A 10 μg/m3 increase in daily PM2.5 air pollution causes a 5.7 percent increase in full-day student absences, a 13.1 percent increase in teacher absences, and a 28 percent increase in behavior referrals, from Sarah Chung, Claudia Persico, and Jing Liu https://www.nber.org/papers/w33549

"We might see a fall in ODA, by 2027, of at least 25% relative to 2023 levels. And that’s very much a best-case scenario." ☹️ devpolicy.org/burden-shedd...

I’m happy to share our latest Data Must Speak report for #BurkinaFaso. We collaborated with the Ministry of #Education to analyze their admin education data and model the factors influencing school performance. Main results in a 🧵 @unicefinnocenti.bsky.social www.unicef.org/innocenti/re...

Data Must Speak: Burkina Faso

Positive deviance reports and project briefs

unicef.org

If VAT is a tariff, si is sales tax....

Interesting new paper on unemployment of college graduates in Burundi. Using a field experiment, Ndayikeza shows that college graduates are more likely to find a high-skill job if they have low-skill job experience. www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

PEPFAR is *currently providing* lifesaving HIV treatment for 20.6 million people, including 566,000 children, as of Sept. 30, 2024. That treatment is now in serious jeopardy. I'm sure people in the administration don't want half a million kids on their conscience. www.nytimes.com/2025/01/24/u...

Trump Pauses Disbursements to Program Supplying H.I.V. Treatment Worldwide

Pepfar, which is estimated to have delivered lifesaving treatment to as many as 25 million people in 54 countries, faces a funding delay of as long as 180 days.

nytimes.com

New @cgdev.org policy paper: *MALARIA VACCINES* are a huge scientific breakthrough. But the world is dragging its feet on rolling them out. We examine why, and how to go faster. 🧵

Crazy footages of rebels liberating women and children from Assad’s worst prison. I’m so happy for Syrian people that they’re finally free!

elia ayoub@ayoub.bsky.social · 2y ago

Women and CHILDREN being released from Assad’s Saydnaya prison by the rebels. ASSAD PUT CHILDREN IN THERE. #Syria More below

The fall of the Bastille, 2024.

Nedal Al-Amari@nedalalamari.bsky.social · 2y ago

BREAKING NEWS 😭😭😭 THE DETAINEES OF SAYDNAYA PRISON ARE FREED

SAYDNAYA librateddddddddd Freedom shatters the doors of darkness. FREE ARMY freed the detainees from Saydnaya Prison. All my cousins were there. I can't wait to know if they are alive. Ya Allah, I don't know what to write. I can't describe my feelings.

I’m not a Syrian refugee anymore. I’m Syrian. Just Syrian.

It’s actually happening. The Assad regime is going to fall.

As expected, French government has fallen. Barnier is the first PM to be voted out since 1962. Despite all his efforts to please the extreme-right, Le Pen let him down. France still has no budget for 2025…

Here a starter pack for UNICEF people . please share and add suggestions go.bsky.app/GhcuBN3

Notre-Dame de Paris reopens 5 years after the fire.

Macron has supported the Chadian dictatorship for years to avoid losing this military base. France said nothing last year when Chadian security forces killed the leader of the opposition (Yaya Dillo). And now we’re kicked out anyway…

The algorithms of Bluesky's official feeds should be public and there should be a plain English explanation of what they do.

Super interesting podcast by @draliceevans.bsky.social who interviews @aspaglayan.bsky.social on her last book "Raised to obey" about the mass expansion of primary education in the world. 1/7 open.spotify.com/episode/1BsZ...

"Raised to Obey": Agustina Paglayan

ROCKING OUR PRIORS · Episode

open.spotify.com

Does educational expansion promote social mobility? In my latest study on 40 countries, that just came out in the American Sociological Review, it looks like it does. Integrating decomposition techniques with a comparative framework, 1/n

The gaps in college completion by race and gender in the US are extraordinarily large. 77% of Asian women between 25 and 34 have a BA. (I.e. they've not just done "some college", but completed a degree.) Incredible figure. www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/...

Blue sky over Marseille.

Thrilled to (finally) share my working paper on the electoral impact of French repatriates from Algeria. The Algerian War and the repatriation of over 1 million French Algerians (pieds-noirs) remain a sensitive and essential chapter for understanding French politics. shorturl.at/hh9Ro

The richest 1% are responsible for 14% of global CO2 emissions and the top 10 for 43%! From a new paper in Nature www.nature.com/articles/s41... ht @doctorvive.bsky.social

"We show that 31–67% and 51–91% of the planetary boundary breaching responsibility could be attributed to the global top 10% and top 20% of consumers, respectively." Any economic agenda, even the "abundance" agenda, must deal with this scientific finding, no? www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Keeping the global consumption within the planetary boundaries - Nature

An analysis of the environmental footprints of consumption finds that planetary boundary transgressions can be mitigated by following an effective mitigation pathway focused on the food and services s...

nature.com

Tinder but for lead research: Tune into our online matchmaking event for researchers to hear from and talk to organizations working on lead exposure in the developing world. Today 11 am ET/4pm UK www.cgdev.org/event/resear...