1818 Society Presentation - Marlaine Lockheed May 9, 2011 - World Bank Group

1818 Society Presentation

     Marlaine Lockheed
       May 9, 2011

Sort of an outline
• A bit about Princeton’s WWS
• A bit about the courses I have taught
• A bit about how this has [maybe] encouraged
  students to think about development

Woodrow Wilson School

    “Princeton in the nation’s service
    And in service to all nations”

WWS Academic Programs are small
        (2010 grads)
             PhD
             (10)
          MPA (69)
          MPP (21)
       Undergraduate
        Program (84)

The WWS faculty is large
• 93 professors
• 6 practitioners in residence
• 40 lecturers

• For a student-to-teacher ratio of about 3:1

WWS Alumni Work in Development
160

140

120

100

80

60

40

20

 0
      WBG/IMF   USAID   UN/UNESCO   ADB/IDB/AfDB

WWS does not emphasize education
• Princeton does not have a graduate school of
  education with a focus on development
  – (as does Colombia, Harvard or Stanford)
• WWS offers few courses on education policy
  – One undergraduate course on US Education Policy
  – One graduate “topics in development” course on
    education policy: “Making schools effective in
    developing countries”
  – Occasional undergraduate “task force” courses on
    education (domestic and development-related)
• I developed and taught all education
  development courses, 2006-2010

The Grad Course
• Based on WB experience
• But updated annually from growing new
  literature on education in developing
  countries
  – World Bank, UNESCO, JPAL Working Papers,
    journal articles, etc.
• Focus on preparing policy memos,
  presentations, policy papers

“Making Schools Effective” Syllabus
• economic and social justification for investing in education
• evidence regarding the quality of education (learning outcomes) in
  developing countries
• family background effects on schooling and achievement; impact of
  compensatory programs: preschools, in-school health and nutrition
  programs
• cost of schooling and programs to offset these costs, including
  conditional cash transfers (CCTs).
• school conditions in developing countries and children’s opportunity
  to learn, effects of various school inputs on boosting learning.
• policy instruments for improving education: choice, school-based
  management, decentralization and local control of education, incentives.
• enduring problems and emerging issues: corruption, lack of
  accountability, lack of teacher professionalism, education in conflict-
  affected countries, gender-based violence in school .

Typical student paper topics
• Increasing access to primary school in
  northeastern Kenya
• Promoting gender equity in primary education in
  Pakistan
• Gender equity and education in Papua New
  Guinea
• Primary education in Indonesia
• Increasing the quantity of experienced and
  qualified teachers in the rural areas of Honduras

Where are these MPAs, MPPs
                working?
•   World Bank Group
•   Van Leer Foundation, Netherlands
•   Rockefeller Foundation
•   Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation
•   Millennium Challenge Corporation
•   Jinnah Institute, Pakistan
•   Education Reform Initiative, Turkey
•   National, state or local government

The Undergrad Course

The WWS Junior “Task Force”
• Feature of WWS undergraduate program
• Simulates how research would be done by the
  staff of a governmental special commission or
  other independent investigating agency
• Students do academic research, interviewing and
  field research, oral presentation before a group
  and participate in collective discussion and
  deliberation about a policy issue
• Students prepare “white paper” on the issue for a
  designated client

Task Forces I’ve taught
• Gender and Education in Islamic Countries
  – Client: World Bank
• Inclusive Education in Developing Countries
  – Client: SAVE
  – Included study tour to Costa Rica (2007)
• The Challenge of Secondary Education in
  Developing Countries
  – Client: Education Reform Initiative (Turkish NGO)
  – Included study tour to Turkey (2008)

2007 Task Force: Inclusive Education
       in Developing Countries
• Client: SAVE
  • Provide guidance to SAVE Education
    Director on what policies they might
    support to improve inclusiveness
• Study tour to Costa Rica (2007)
  • Provide students with real-world experience
    to augment their academic research

Student background papers on:
• Improving teacher quality (training, selection and
  incentives))
• School improvement grants
• Compensatory programs
• Community schools
• Conditional cash transfers
• Expanding and improving pre-school programs
• Bilingual schools and programs
• Payments to communities/local
  authorities/governments for progress
• Single-group schools

Study tour included
• Academic lecture
• Visits to private schools (San Jose and Cobano)
• Visits to public schools (San Jose and Cobano)
• Discussions with local ministry official
  (Cobano)
• What follows are extracts from student
  reflections on their experience

Student reactions to study tour

Insufficient teacher
training
“Discussing teacher
training and
professional
development with
teachers in Costa Rica
provided a concrete
example of the
problems of irrelevant
and insufficient
training”

Private bilingual school,
San Jose (expensive, elite)
“Traveling to different
schools was
fascinating because [it
showed] the vast
wealth disparities
across Costa Rica and
the challenges faced
by children in
obtaining an
education.”

Public bilingual school in
San Jose (viewed “best”)
The ministry of education
supports bilingual
education, but …English
teachers in the public
system are being drawn
into tourism and private
schools where they can
earn a greater salary. At
this “bilingual” school, the
one English teacher had
decided to enter the hotel
industry after five years of
tenured teaching.

Private school San Jose
(kindergarten)
Private pre-school
programs not only
encouraged
socialization, but also
taught basic literacy,
mathematics and
reasoning skills.
Private preschools
contained a full range
of materials.

Private school kindergarten (Cobano)

Public elementary school (Cobano)

Public elementary school (Cobano)

Rural public elementary
school, closed due to
teacher absences
The students in rural schools
appeared to be segregated
based on their geographic
location, which caused the
schools to be homogeneous
in terms of economic status.
Schools such as [this one]
drew student mainly from the
poor surrounding area, many
of whom had broken families
and difficult home lives.
Despite these differences, the
government maintained the
same policies and means of
funding across the board
without distinctions for need.

Public school teacher
lacked preparation for
multi-grade teaching
The teacher had studied
biology at university, but
for various reasons had
ended up teaching in a
one-room school with five
students ranging from first
to sixth grade in the same
classroom. His pre-service
training had provided him
with no instruction
whatsoever on how to deal
with multi-grade teaching.

Academic Lecture on
compensatory programs
“Of all the schools visited
and presentations viewed,
the presentation by Renata
Villers of Amigos de
Aprendizaje was most
relevant to my topic” as it
pointed out that “teacher
training coupled with
tutoring improved quality
and student performance.”

2008 Task Force: The Challenge of
  Secondary Education in Developing
              Countries

• Client: Education Reform Initiative (Turkish
  NGO)
• Study tour to Turkey
  – Istanbul
  – Ankara
• Cleared by MOE

Ministry of Education

Private secondary school in Istanbul

Tracking in public schools
• “We saw tracking of students showcased at its
  finest, in elite high schools, and at its worst,
  through anecdotes about rural vocational
  schools.”
• “I noted the disparities between the public
  general high school and the public science
  high school.”

Public secondary school in Istanbul

A vocational school in Istanbul

Gender segregation in vocational
              schools
• “Vocational education classes directly related
  to vocational fields were absolutely gender
  separated – not one girl in the mechanics class
  and not one boy in the sewing class.”
• “The Ministry has separate directorates for
  boys and girls vocational education and has
  not concrete plans for integration of the two
  departments. It is clearly a divisive political
  issue”

A private school in Ankara

Private tutoring
(Dershanesi ) is rampant
The study tour offered
tremendous insight into
the culture of secondary
education in Turkey. One
experience I remember
well is when a student at [a
private elite secondary
school] quite candidly
explained that she was
going to years of darshane
and applying to law school
because it was the most
prestigious thing to do.

Student reactions to the study tour

Student background papers on:
• Social inclusion and the curriculum
    – a content analysis of new secondary textbooks
•   Tracking of student
•   Reaching students in rural areas
•   Ensuring gender equity in vocational schools
•   Improving teacher quality

And their report was used in their
      client’s 2009 report

With the students acknowledged

So, what are the students from these
  study tours doing, 2-3 years later?
• Literacy program, Dominican Republic
• World Food Program, Benin
• NicaHOPE vocational training program for city
  dump residents of Managua, Nicaragus
• Microfinance program, Colombia
• Antibiotic resistance, India
• Intestinal parasites, Guatemala
• Biodiversity conservation, Panama
• Teaching in a public school

What have I learned?
• WWS students are smart and “world
  experienced” (from vacations)
• Field experience expands their horizons
• They are capable of preparing thoughtful
  reports on policy issues
  – About as good as WB PADs in some cases

It’s been fun