Educators and education policy makers are concerned with creating the best possible learning environment for students. How to do this, especially in primary school, where reading, writing and mathematical skills are first acquired, is the subject of policy debates in many parts of the world....

"Expanding and improving basic education in developing countries requires, at a minimum, teachers who are present in the classroom and motivated to teach, but this essential input is often missing. This paper describes the findings of a series of recent World Bank and other studies on teacher...

Bulgaria implemented sweeping decentralization and efficiency-focused reforms in basic education in 2007 and 2008. The education system adjusted to the negative demographic trends by optimizing the network of schools (closing and merging schools), introducing per-capita based financing and...

The following report is the first of a two-stage video study to examine teaching practices and activities in Indonesian classrooms. The first stage is linked to results of the 2007 Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) where 100 of the 150 classes that participated in the...

Teachers are the single most important input to learning, and in many countries in Sub-Saharan Africa teachers' emoluments account for most of the spending on basic education (Bold et al., 2017). However, in many countries in the region teachers are poorly distributed between schools. Schools in...

"Vermeersch and Kremer examine the effects of subsidized school meals on school participation, educational achievement, and school finance in a developing country setting. They use data from a program that was implemented in 25 randomly chosen preschools in a pool of 50. Children's school...

The importance of education to the socioeconomic and political development of nations is widely discussed in the education policy literature. This study seeks to identify the good policies and practices that lead students in some municipal school systems in Brazil to obtain better results than...

"Teachers' salaries have often been highlighted as an important issue in discussions on school improvement. The level and structure of teacher remuneration affect morale and the ability to focus on and devote adequate time to teaching. Lopez-Acevedo examines who teachers are, whether teachers...