Regional Studies on Education

REGIONAL STUDIES

International Mobility of Researchers and Scientists Policy Options for Turning a Drain into a Gain
High demand for researchers and scientists has led to an increase in skilled migration in recent years. The paper focuses on improving our understanding of the push and pull factors affecting the migration decisions of researchers and scientists from developing countries and discusses policy options for maximizing the potential gains associated with international mobility of advanced human capital. Evidence suggests that a reasonable salary level should be guaranteed but that return decisions of researchers and scientists are primarily shaped by factors such as the quality of the research environment, professional reward structures and access to state-of-the-art equipment.

Central America

Central America - Education Strategy Paper
The purpose of the Education Strategy Paper is to compare basic education outcomes and indicators in El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras and Nicaragua. The paper considers five main dimensions of educational performance: (a) educational coverage, measured by enrollment rates; (b) internal efficiency, measured by student cohort survival rates and other indicators; (c) educational quality, measured by the acquisition of cognitive skills; (d) external efficiency, measured by private (and ideally, social) rates of return to schooling at the various levels; and (e) equity, measured by the distribution among urban-rural areas, socio-economic groups and ethnic groups of all the previous indicators. A key conclusion is that, in spite of progress in past decades, some urgent priorities remain in relation to quality and learning, primary completion and secondary education coverage. 

A comparative analysis of school-based management in Central America
This paper provides a comparative analysis of school-based management reforms in four Central American countries (EDUCO in El Salvador, PRONADE in Guatemala, PROHECO in Honduras, and Centros Autonomos in Nicaragua). It starts by providing a characterization of the models and then reviews how they have expanded community participation and empowerment and school decision-making autonomy. It then continues by analyzing the impact of community and school empowerment on the teaching-learning process, including measures of teacher effort; and assesses the impact of the models on several educational outcomes, relating this impact with the teaching-learning environment and community empowerment. Finally, the paper attempts to explain the impact of the reforms by discussing how variations in reform design, country contexts and actors' assets can explain differences and similarities in result.

Latin America and the Caribbean

Latin American Universities and the Third Mission
Universities in Latin America are increasingly considered instruments of social and economic development and face rising expectations in regard to supplying relevant skills, undertaking applied research, and engaging in commercial activity. The paper discusses trends and challenges within Latin American universities, as well as policy options available for strengthening their contributions to social and economic development. The so-called ‘third mission’ of universities is often equated with knowledge transfer narrowly defined as licensing and commercialization of research. The paper adopts a broader approach and explores how the new role of universities affects all aspects of academic practice in Latin America, including advanced education and research. It concludes that policy-makers and university managers in Latin America face an important challenge of defining a legal framework, sound management procedures and, notably, incentive systems that stimulate outreach and entrepreneurship among students and staff while recognizing and preserving the distinct roles of universities.

Regional and International Challenges to Higher Education in Latin America
Mobility of talented individuals, new providers of higher education, and participation in knowledge networks offer many possibilities for countries in Latin America to access state of the art knowledge, transfer technology, and exploit new business opportunities. In open, increasingly knowledgebased economies, advanced education and research are key to remaining competitive. Yet the international dimension of higher education is a double-edged sword for Latin America. Mobility of skilled individuals risks eroding the region’s knowledge base and draining scarce resources. Every year emigration claims a significant portion of the region’s better-educated population (Wodon 2003).

Education decentralization and accountability relationships in Latin America
This paper analyzes decentralization reforms in the education sector in Latin America (their status, impact, and ongoing challenges) by making use of the accountability framework developed by the World Development Report 2004: Making Services Work for Poor People. It provides three main lessons for selecting " successful " models: (1) avoid complicated models; (2) increase school autonomy and the scope for " client power, " maintaining a clear role for the other accountability relationships; and (3) place more emphasis on the " management " accountability relationship and the sustainability of the models. 

Improving teaching and learning through effective incentives - What can we learn from education reforms in Latin America?
While many Latin American countries have succeeded in providing access to basic education for the great majority of children, educational quality in the region remains low. Most countries in the region spend a lot on education, yet school graduates do not have sufficient skills to earn a decent living. Education policy makers have three main options for improving teaching quality: 1) teacher training and professional development; 2) teacher incentives that impact teachers and how long they remain in the field; and, 3) incentives that affect the work teachers do in the classroom. This study focuses entirely on the second and third options. While previous studies have addressed questions related to teacher quality and incentives in Latin America, this study is the first to focus on the impact of various policy reforms on teacher quality and student achievement in several Latin American countries.

Early Childhood Development in Latin America and the Caribbean
There is considerable evidence that young children in many developing countries suffer from profound deficits in nutrition, health, fine and gross motor skills, cognitive development, and socio-emotional development. Early Childhood Development (ECD) outcomes are important markers of the welfare of children in their own right. In addition, the deleterious effects of poor outcomes in early childhood can be long-lasting, affecting school attainment, employment, wages, criminality, and measures of social integration of adults. This paper considers the theoretical case to be made for investments in early childhood, selectively reviews the literature on the impact of ECD programs in the United States, discusses the evidence from Latin America and the Caribbean, and makes suggestions for future research. The focus is on the relation between outcomes in early childhood and measures of household socioeconomic status, child health, and parenting practices, as well as on the impact of specific policies and programs. The knowledge base on early childhood outcomes is still thin in Latin America and the Caribbean. There are therefore very high returns to comparative descriptive analysis in the region, as well as to careful evaluations of the impact of various programs. 

Region-wide Study

Estimating the Returns to Education: Accounting for Heterogeneity in Ability
Typically estimates of the benefits of education investments show average private rates of return for the average individual. The average may not be useful for policy. An examination of the distribution of the returns across individuals is needed. The few studies that have examined these patterns focus on high-income countries, showing investments to be more profitable at the top of the income distribution. The implication is that investments may increase inequality. Extending the analysis to 16 East Asian and Latin American countries the authors observe mixed evidence in middle-income countries and decreasing returns in low-income countries. Such differences between countries could be due to more job mobility in industrial countries, scarcity of skills, or differential exposure to market forces.

Meeting the Challenges of Secondary Education in Latin America and East Asia
In a context of increased primary school enrollment rates, secondary education is appearing as the next big challenge for Latin American and East Asian countries. This report seeks to undertake a detailed diagnostic of secondary education in these two regions, understand some of the main constraints to the expansion and improvement of secondary education, and suggest policy options to address these constraints, with a focus on policies that improve the mobilization and use of resources.