Policy Insights

What have we learned from randomized evaluations that policymakers, practitioners, and funders can use to improve social programs? J-PAL’s Policy Insights, organized by sector, highlight lessons emerging across multiple studies and the mechanisms that help explain the results.

J-PAL’s Sector Chairs and staff draw these insights from relevant randomized evaluations, updating and adding insights as the body of evidence grows. Each Policy Insight briefly summarizes their perspective on the evidence on a specific topic, with links to the original research and policy summaries. Read this blog post for more information about how we develop Policy Insights.

When combined with a detailed understanding of context and program implementation, we hope these insights can be practical inputs for policy and program design. For examples of how insights from randomized evaluations have informed policy, visit our Evidence to Policy page.

A Teaching at the Right Level reading activity in Zambia. Photo: Anton Scholtz | J-PAL

Tailoring instruction to students’ learning levels to increase learning

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In classrooms around the world, many students are not learning at grade level and struggle to catch up. Dedicating a portion of instruction time to tailoring instruction to the learning levels of students is one of the most effective and cost-effective ways of improving learning. Tailored...

Increasing enrollment and attendance by making education benefits salient and changing perceptions

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Interventions that address perception gaps about the benefits of education or make the benefits more salient can increase student participation at low cost. In contrast, increases in the quality of education can be difficult for parents to accurately perceive and thus do not necessarily lead to...
 étudiants

Améliorer l’accès à l’université en simplifiant le processus de candidature

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Aux États-Unis et au Canada, la mise en œuvre de programmes relativement peu coûteux visant à simplifier le processus de candidature à l’université et à accompagner les futurs étudiants durant cette transition permet d’augmenter les taux d’inscription dans le supérieur et de poursuite des études...
Students work on white board

Charter schools et apprentissage scolaire

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Aux États-Unis, les évaluations de l’impact des charter schools, (des écoles privées à financement public), laissent apparaître de fortes variations. Dans le Massachusetts, les élèves admis par tirage au sort dans une charter school située en zone urbaine s’en sortent souvent bien mieux que les...