There is an inherent tension between implementing organizations - which have specific objectives and narrow missions and mandates - and executive organizations - which provide resources to multiple implementing organizations. Ministries of finance/planning/budgeting allocate across ministries...

Learning profiles, that track changes in student skills per year of schooling, often find shockingly low learning gains. Using data from three recent studies in South Asia and Africa, we show that a majority of students spend years of instruction with no progress on basics. We argue shallow...