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News, ideas, and analysis from J-PAL staff and affiliated professors. Subscribe to our newsletter to receive monthly email updates.

Unidentified Ghanaian pupils in school uniform in a local village. Photo: nicolasdecorte | Shutterstock.com

Want to get girls to school in sub-Saharan Africa? Tackle poverty

Female education remains a key challenge in sub-Saharan Africa, which is home to the largest population of out-of-school girls. Poverty remains a key barrier to school enrolment, especially following the economic disruptions triggered by the Covid-19 pandemic. Can governments really hope to tackle...
Screenshot of the DFM Chile learning platform.

Facing an educational Covid earthquake: An example of scaling up and innovating in Chile

Regardless of what happens with the new variants of Covid-19, our children’s educational process was substantially interrupted. Despite the tenacious efforts of educational communities and families, there is evidence that the negative consequences on educational achievement, socialization, emotional...
A teacher sits on the floor by a chalk board. Students on either side of her raise their hands.

Launching the FLN Hub: A library of resources to support education actors improve learning outcomes

With the support of The World Bank Group and Global Partnership for Education (GPE), the FLN Initiative is launching the FLN hub, a dedicated resource website anchored by evidence generated and synthesized by J-PAL, as well as practical resources developed by Pratham, Delivery Associates, and other...
A young man stands at a whiteboard in front of a class of students, all wearing masks

Applying evidence to help students catch up

School closures due to Covid-19 have thrown education in Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) into crisis. How can we begin to address a disruption of this magnitude? To start, we can turn to the ample body of education evidence to guide us. Read to learn how evidence can guide education recovery...
An African teacher teaches six students in a classroom.

The long and winding road of evidence adoption

J-PAL’s mandate is to improve lives by ensuring that policy is informed by scientific evidence. So what does bridging the gap between evidence, policy and practice actually look like? J-PAL's Associate Director of Policy, Ashleigh Morrell, reflects on the three approaches J-PAL Africa has adopted...
High school girls in Accra, Ghana posing for the camera in their graduation uniforms.

Investing in girls' education? Top 3 lessons from the evidence

How can governments, donors and implementing partners decide on where to invest to improve girls’ enrollment? Global evidence on effective interventions can be a great place to start. J-PAL Africa highlight three key lessons everyone should keep in mind on keeping girls in school.
students sit at desks inside a classroom working on an assignment

Affiliate Spotlight: Michela Carlana

Michela Carlana is an assistant professor of public policy at the Harvard Kennedy School. From researching the subtle role of bias and motivation in student outcomes to rapidly launching and evaluating scalable programs to combat learning loss, Michela’s work reflects a commitment to reducing...
teacher and students learning outdoors during the covid-19 pandemic

Learning to live with the pandemic, but not its terrible impact

In a blog post for the Center for Effective Philanthropy, J-PAL Global's Iqbal Dhaliwal and Ingrid Lustig reflect on new and deepened sectoral challenges that must be prioritized by the philanthropic community in this new phase of the pandemic.