Education Policy Brief 9: Parental Engagement in Early Childhood Development and Preschool Education during the COVID-19 Pandemic: Evidence from Latin America and the Caribbean

Submitted by SPH DIGITAL on

Caregivers of young children in Colombia, Costa Rica, El Salvador, and Peru (62,837 households) participated in a survey on pandemic-era learning at home using resources supplied by educational ministries. The note presents data (disaggregated by socioeconomic group and geographic location) on the use of learning resources, including asynchronous and synchronous lessons, teachers communicate with parents, by text or WhatsApp messages, phone or video calls, as well as printed materials.

Does an Education Major Matter for Teaching?: The Relationship between Teachers Degree and Student Achievement

Submitted by SPH DIGITAL on

It is unclear whether teachers with a degree in education are more effective than those who are not trained in an education-related field. To further examine this issue, we analyze the rela- tionship between teachers college major and student achievement by using unique data from Ecuador, which, for a period of time, allowed any graduate, regardless of their major, to apply for a teaching position in the countrys centralized selection process.

Better regulation for independent work in Latin America and the Caribbean: The gig economy case

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#GigEconomy #LaborMarket #Jobs #Employment #IDB
In this talk, we discussed the barriers to the digitalization of social security and the adoption of flexible schemes in Chile, Colombia, Brazil, Mexico and Peru for independent workers, focusing on gig economy workers as a case study. We also spoke to Jonathan Gruber, Professor of Economics at MIT, about the challenges of adopting these schemes for gig economy workers considering the institutional, regulatory, and technological context of the region.

The Replication of a Parenting Behavioral Change Communication Intervention during the COVID-19 Pandemic: Too Much or Too Little Information?

Submitted by SPH DIGITAL on

Parenting programs can improve experiences during the early years and generate long-term outcomes in variables such as employment, health, education, and salary. The need to scale up parenting programs has driven the implementation of interventions based on communication technologies and behavioral economics. This paper compares two impact evaluations of the Positive Parenting program in 2018 and a fully remote adaptation of the program in 2020.

The Welfare Effects of including Household Preferences in School Assignment Systems: Evidence from Ecuador

Submitted by SPH DIGITAL on

We study the welfare produced by a coordinated school assignment system that is based exclusively on minimizing distance to schools, comparing the matches it produces to a system that includes household preferences using a deferred acceptance algorithm. We leverage administrative data and a mechanism change implemented in the city of Manta, Ecuador in 2021 to estimate household preferences and show that considering applicant preferences produces large welfare gains. Our counterfactual exercises show that differences across alternative assignment mechanisms are small.

Can Information on School Attributes and Placement Probabilities Direct Search and Choice? Evidence from Choice Platforms in Ecuador and Peru

Submitted by SPH DIGITAL on

This paper evaluates how new information influences families applica- tions and assignment outcomes in elementary school choice settings. Specifi- cally, using a multi-country RCT based in Tacna, Peru and Manta, Ecuador, we examine the effect of providing personalized information on schooling alternatives and placement risk. We find that applicants who received feed- back on placement risk and a suggestion of new schools add more schools to their applications and were more likely to include recommended schools than other alternatives available.

Analysis of the Education Management and Information System of Jamaica: Diagnosis and Proposal for Strengthening the EMIS

Submitted by SPH DIGITAL on

This document analyzes the functioning of the Education Management and Information System (EMIS) of Jamaica, its strengths and challenges related to the key management processes and structural conditions.