Researchers evaluated how well different measures of teacher effectiveness predicted student performance in six school districts in the United States. Measures of teacher effectiveness based on student achievement in the previous year, classroom observations, and student surveys accurately identified which teachers produced higher average student test scores.

Researchers conducted a randomized evaluation in Rwanda to examine how important aspects of cultural practice do or do not change in the wake of exposure to media messages delivered through a radio soap opera drama. While the radio program had little effect on changing individual beliefs and attitudes, it did have a strong impact on listeners’ willingness to express dissent and the ways they resolved communal problems.

Researchers examined the impact of a voluntary summer reading program among low-income Latinx children from language minority homes. Results demonstrated that, although children reported reading more books, their reading test scores and the frequency with which they read with parents did not improve.

Employees may value alternative work arrangements like flexible scheduling and working from home and dislike schedules that vary from week to week on short notice. However, there is little evidence on how much these alternative work arrangements actually matter to employees. Researchers gave US job applicants choices over positions with randomly-determined wages to determine how much applicants valued these options. They found that the average worker valued the option to work from home but did not value scheduling flexibility. Furthermore, workers strongly disliked employers setting their schedules on short notice and preferred not to work nights or weekends.

In Bihar, India, researchers examined how double fortified salt could be most effectively priced, marketed, and distributed in order to have the greatest impact on a range of health, education, and economic outcomes.

Though sometimes referred to as “a feature of the welfare state,” some employment and training programs have recently been contracted out to private enterprises. Researchers conducted a randomized evaluation to test the impact of public and private employment service providers on labor market outcomes of unemployed university graduates. Overall, researchers found that public and private employment service provision did not differ in their impacts on labor market outcomes. Private providers were less cost-effective and, despite providing more intensive and employment-oriented services, had lower client satisfaction compared to public providers.

In India, researchers evaluated the impact of a public sector management program involving comprehensive assessments of schools, detailed school ratings, and customized school improvement plans, on school functioning and student learning. Researchers found that the MPSQA program was successful in conducting high-quality external school assessments.

Researchers evaluated the impact of providing small behavioral tools, including a goal-setting website, text message reminders, and social rewards, to parents to encourage their participation in the Parents And Children Together (PACT) program. These behavioral tools more than doubled parents’ reading efforts, with the greatest effect among parents who scored lower on a test that measured parents’ patience levels.

Researchers partnered with SYEP employers to create personalized letters of recommendation for SYEP participants to evaluate the impact of recommendation letters on participants’ educational and employment outcomes after the program. Youth who received the letter of recommendation saw a 3 percentage point increase in employment in the first year after SYEP participation and, over four years, made $545 more than those who did not receive letters of recommendation.

Researchers evaluated a computer-based adaptive learning platform (Mindspark) for secondary school students in urban India to measure the impact of customized learning technology on student test scores. The program increased test scores across all groups of students and was cost-effective compared to traditional schooling models.

Researchers tested the impact of a job search planning intervention on job search efficiency and employment among unemployed youth in South Africa. The planning intervention improved participants’ job search intensity and efficiency, leading to higher rates of employment.

In many countries, there has recently been an increased interest in targeting labor market programs to unemployed persons who would benefit the most from them. Researchers evaluated the impact of providing a statistical targeting system to case workers in government employment agencies on their choice of labor market programs for jobseekers. Results showed that caseworkers largely ignored the statistical information provided by the targeting system, and that offering this information did not have any impact on their choice of program.

In KwaZulu-Natal, researchers are measuring the impact of the Six Bricks program, which promotes structured play using manipulative bricks combined with a set of carefully designed pedagogical activities, on preschoolers' executive function skills.

A study conducted in Ghana over 15 years evaluated the benefits of secondary school scholarships on both education and health outcomes.

Heavily subsidizing essential health products like insecticide-treated bed nets has the potential to substantially decrease child mortality in sub-Saharan Africa, but there is widespread concern that poor governance and limited accountability among health workers undermines the effectiveness of subsidy programs . Researchers measured the impact of several financial and monitoring incentives on the quality of bed net delivery to pregnant women in Ghana . The incentives had no impact on the quality of delivery. Audits in Ghana, Kenya, and Uganda revealed that around 80 percent of targeted recipients received a bed net subsidy as intended and leakage of products to ineligible recipients was limited. A system change that moved the point of delivery from the clinic to a local shop via vouchers worsened program coverage, reducing the likelihood of a woman receiving a net at her fist visit by 17.8 percentage points.