Addressing the equity and learning crisis in education requires resolute efforts to strengthen national systems. This includes efforts by development partners to improve development cooperation practices with more alignment of aid for education with national systems. Alignment provides unique opportunities to strengthen national systems for the…

Interest in scaling promising innovations to effect systemic change in education around the world has grown over the last decade. The work of scaling education innovations (up, out, down, and into deep and lasting impact) has always required nimble attention to the unpredictability of implementation. Much has been written about the need for…

Data from sub-Saharan Africa show that many students leave school without the skills they need. To address this issue, it is important to understand what factors influence learning. According to the Heyneman and Loxley effect established in 1983, in low income countries school quality influences how much students learn more than those students'…

A growing body of literature in low- and middle-income countries is challenging the long-held assumption that the respondent and interviewer should be strangers. We conducted a qualitative study in Burkina Faso comprised of in-depth interviews and focus group discussions to explore interviewers' experiences of collecting data on sexual and…

The COVID-19 pandemic has renewed concerns about how shocks may affect religious and other private schools in low-income countries, especially when they do not benefit from state support. By reducing parental incomes, shocks -- not only epidemics but also natural disasters and conflicts, reduce overall enrollment in school. But they may also lead…

The Commission on International Adult Education (CIAE) of the American Association for Adult and Continuing Education (AAACE) provides a forum for the discussion of international issues related to adult education in general, as well as adult education in various countries around the globe. These "Proceedings" are from the Commission of…