In recent years, the advent of low-cost digital and mobile devices has led to a strong expansion of social interventions, including those that try to improve student learning and literacy outcomes. Many of these are focused on improving reading in low-income countries, and particularly among the most disadvantaged. Some of these early efforts have…

United Nations development goals have consistently placed a high priority on the quality of education--and of learning. This has led to substantive increases in international development assistance to education, and also to broader attention, worldwide, to the importance of children's learning. Yet, such goals are mainly normative: they tend…

Timely and credible data on student learning has become a global issue in the ongoing effort to improve educational outcomes. With the potential to serve as a powerful diagnostic tool to gauge the overall health and well-being of an educational system, educational assessments have received increasing attention among specialists and the media.…

Over the past decade, international and national education agencies have begun to emphasize the improvement of the quality (rather than quantity) of education in developing countries. This trend has been paralleled by a significant increase in the use of educational assessments as a way to measure gains and losses in quality of learning. As…

Over the past decade, international development agencies have begun to emphasize the improvement of the quality (rather than simply quantity) of education in developing countries. This new focus has been paralleled by a significant increase in the use of educational assessments as a way to measure gains and losses in quality. As this interest in…

This paper discusses present forms of traditional Islamic (Quranic) education in Morocco in the light of modernization. Also considered is the potential impact of such traditional pedagogy on various cognitive abilities, whose growth is sometimes said to have been stunted by such experiences. (Author/SJL)

Reviews three volumes that address national and international efforts to increase adult literacy. The books focus on: (1) case studies of literacy campaigns since 1560, and better known, contemporary mass education programs; (2) literacy work as a form of cultural politics; and (3) United Nations field-based literacy projects. (SV)

Discusses problems involved with surveying and assessing literacy rates in developing nations. Defines current debates over literacy measurement, classification, and surveying. Examines and questions current assumptions linking literacy policy and economic development. Describes models for surveying and measuring literacy and numeracy skill…