PREAL Blog

Mar 5

International development and the global indicator of learning

We are pleased to share with you an article written by our friends from OREALC/UNESCO Santiago on learning goals and the global agenda. It follows up on Ariel Fiszbein and Eduardo Vélez Bustillo’s recent blog post on the same subject.

By Moritz Bilagher, Mauricio Holz, and Juan Luis Iturria*

The recent launch of the 2013-2014 UNESCO Global Monitoring Report (GMR), which tracks worldwide progress in achieving Education for All (EFA), once more reminds us of the central importance of quality education for international development. Read more

Feb 26

PREAL Publicaciones: Report Card on Education in Nicaragua, 2014

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On Wednesday, February 19, the Foro Educativo Nicaragüense (EDUQUEMOS) and the Consejo Superior de la Empresa Privada (COSEP), with the support of PREAL and IBIS Dinámica, presented the 2014 Report Card on Education in Nicaragua, “Quality and Equity for Human Development” (in Spanish). Read more

Feb 19

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Learning Goals and the Global Agenda: Toward a Latin American Proposal

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By Ariel Fiszbein and Eduardo Vélez Bustillo

The Millennium Development Goals endorsed by member countries of the United Nations in the year 2000 emphasized improving access to primary education. The targeted end date for these goals—2015—presents a clear opportunity to achieve a similar international commitment to improving learning for all children.

Feb 10

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Even Your Children Go to a Bad School

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Each time PISA results are released, those of us who analyze them focus on the average performance of countries and, given our line of work, the most disadvantaged groups (women, rural students, and the poor). Yet the finding that never ceases to surprise my Argentine audiences is this: the most privileged students perform much worse than the public would expect. Read more

Feb 5

Decision to Cancel Mexico’s 2014 Student Achievement Test Sparks Debate

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The Mexican government recently announced it was cancelling the 2014 application of its national standardized achievement test, ENLACE, which has since 2006 evaluated the performance of all primary school students in reading, math and other subjects. Read more

Jan 28

PISA 2012: Some good news from Colombia

By Eduardo Vélez Bustillo

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The final scores from the 2012 Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) were released recently. Shanghai led the world in all three subjects included in the test—math, science, and reading. Vietnam got the 7^th position in math and 17^th overall, several positions ahead of the USA. Colombia got one of the worst results, just ahead of Qatar, Indonesia, and Peru in math, out of the 65 countries that participated from all over the world. Read more

Jan 8

PISA and the state of education in Latin America

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The release of the 2012 PISA results in December presents a good opportunity to reflect on the state of education in Latin America. Read more

Jan 6

PREAL Enlaces: Teach Like A Champion

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Teach Like a Champion, a ground-breaking book by Doug Lemov that identifies and describes 49 specific techniques used by great teachers, has just been published in Spanish & Portuguese. The book takes note of the fact that many factors commonly believed to improve teacher performance–a graduate degree, superior intelligence, professional certification, an extroverted personality, and enthusiasm–have almost no demonstrable relationship with success. Read more

Dec 20

PREAL Publications: Developing the Teaching Profession in Central America

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We are pleased to share with you a series of reports on teacher policies in Central America and the Dominican Republic. The reports were published within the framework of activities of the Central American and Dominican chapter of PREAL’s Working Group on the Teaching profession in 2011-2012. Read more