In Uganda, researchers tested whether a school-based savings program reduced dropout rates by enabling students and their families to save for school-related expenses. A version of the program that labeled savings for educational purposes, rather than fully committing money to educational expenses, increased the amount students saved, expenditures on educational supplies, and test scores.

Researchers in Ghana conducted a randomized evaluation to test whether a program informing students and parents about the secondary school choice process and school quality helped students make more strategic decisions about which schools to attend, and whether these choices led to better educational outcomes for students. Results indicated that increasing parents’ access to this information increased parental involvement in students’ educational choices.

Researchers partnered with Ghana Education Services (GES), The National Teaching Council (NTC), The National Council for Curriculum and Assessment (NaCCA), The National Inspectorate Board (NIB), and UNICEF to evaluate whether additional managerial support from head teachers and circuit supervisors could increase the likelihood that teachers implement targeted instruction in their classrooms. The results will help inform Ghana’s Ministry of Education on how teacher-led targeted instruction can be replicated at scale in Ghana.

In Rwanda, researchers worked with TechnoServe to evaluate the impact of an agronomy training program on farmers’ knowledge and use of best practices in coffee-growing. Preliminary results suggest that the trainings helped some farmers improve their coffee-growing practices, but that the practices more likely to be adopted were those that required less effort on the part of the farmers. Future analysis will examine whether and how these practices spread through farmers’ social networks.

In France, researchers evaluated the impact of various school communication strategies designed to encourage parents to participate in their children’s schooling. They found that personalized invitations increased parental participation in school meetings, especially for parents of low-performing children and from poor socio-economic backgrounds.