Learning to realize education’s promise

To realize education’s promise, we need to prioritize learning, not just schooling. This Report argues that achieving learning for all will require three complementary strategies: First, assess learning to make it a serious goal. Information itself creates incentives for reform, but many countries lack the right metrics to measure learning. Second, act on evidence to make schools work for learning. Great schools build strong teacher-learner relationships in classrooms. As brain science has advanced and educators have innovated, the knowledge of how students learn most effectively has greatly expanded. But the way many countries, communities, and schools approach education often differs greatly from the most promising, evidence-based approaches. Third, align actors to make the entire system work for learning. Innovation in classrooms won’t have much impact if technical and political barriers at the system level prevent a focus on learning at the school level. This is the case in many countries stuck in low-learning traps; extricating them requires focused attention on the deeper causes.