Preliminary evidence suggests that the rates of return to education in Venezuela have been declining since the 1970s. The authors rigorously estimate the returns to education in Venezuela for the period 1992-2002, and link them to earlier available estimates from the 1980s. They use consistent...

Managers, in both the private and public sectors, are increasingly recognized as critical in the use of scarce resources for national development. There is no unanimity of opinion, however, regarding the models or approaches to management education that are most appropriate in different...

Two cognitively oriented methods were tested in Burkina Faso to help illiterates learn to read more efficiently. These were (a) speeded reading of increasingly larger word units and (b) phonological awareness training to help connect letters to speech. Learners were given reading tests and a...

Early studies of educational achievement in developing countries emphasized the effects of material inputs (such as textbooks) over teaching practices and classroom organization. This paper examines how five teaching practices affected the achievements of fifth grade students in the Philippines...

World Bank project experience on what works to improve women's access to tertiary education is so limited that it may be premature to draw firm conclusions. Many of the projects with interesting multiple interventions are ongoing. But two conclusions emerge. First, the most essential factor for...

In the mid 1980s, half of Colombia's rural schools did not offer complete primary education and more than half of rural children between the ages of 7 and 9 had never attended school. Unitary schools - multigrade classrooms taught by one teacher - were established in the early 1960s in isolated...

Data from household surveys of 12 Latin American countries were used to assess how teachers'salaries compare with those of workers in other occupations. The results show that salaries vary among countries, ranging from an apparent 35 percent underpayment in Bolivia (compared with the contol...

Using statistical methods to adjust for a bias in selectivity, this paper analyzes the relative effectiveness and cost-effectiveness of public schools and two types of private schools - elite and non-elite - in the Dominican Republic. Controlling for selection, it found that students in eighth...

A key consideration in the policy debate on the appropriate role of private schools in predominantly public school systems is cost effectiveness. The questions are: Do private school students learn more than their counterparts, and is it more or less expensive to educate students in private...

The author explores how schools change in response to increased competition generated by voucher programs in Chile. A unique data set provides information on teacher demographics and labor market characteristics, as well as teachers'perceptions of school management. When teacher data are matched...