Dana Burde’s research while affiliated with New York University and other places

The American Institutes for Research (AIR) and colleagues from New York University (NYU) are studying the implementation, impact, costs, and cost-effectiveness of education interventions for forcibly displaced populations and host communities. In the first phase, the research team systematically gathered, collated, and synthesized evidence on what works to support education for forcibly displaced people and to include them in national education systems. The evidence comes from a wide range of displacement contexts, ranging from acute to protracted crises. To be included in the evidence synthesis, articles had to consist of primary research; include relevant populations, interventions, comparisons, and outcomes (PICO criteria); and meet minimum thresholds for research quality. Our synthesis included 32 experimental and quasi-experimental studies, 14 studies with information on costs, and 202 qualitative studies completed since 2015 that focus on education in forced displacement contexts. We excluded meta-analyses and other reviews but conducted our own meta-analyses based on the individual studies.

We conducted four primarily qualitative country-level case studies to examine the inclusion of displaced populations in national education systems in Chad, Colombia, Pakistan, and Sudan. We also conducted a fifth case study, slightly different in nature, that examined education expenditures in Jordan to approximate the cost of inclusive education for refugees. The case studies focused on displaced populations’ experiences of inclusion in national systems but did not aim to examine how different approaches to inclusion may affect learning outcomes.

The research articles, field notes, and book reviews featured in JEiE Volume 9, Number 1 focus on refugee education and aspirations, social and emotional learning and literacy, teachers' agency and self-concept, peacebuilding, and education responses to COVID-19, among other important themes.

Indirect questioning attempts to overcome social desirability bias in survey research. However, to properly analyze the resulting data, it is crucial to understand how it impacts responses. This study analyzes results from a randomized experiment that tests whether direct versus indirect questioning methods lead to different results in a sample of 8,426 youths in Kenya and Pakistan. Through an examination of differential item functioning and regression analyses, we find that question wording leads to differences in how scales should be scored. We conclude that the use of indirect questioning should be undertaken with caution as a method to replace direct questioning.

Improving learning evidence and outcomes for those most in need in developing countries is at the heart of the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goal on Education (SDG4). This timely volume brings together contributions on current empirical research and analysis of emerging trends that focus on improving the quality of education through better policy and practice, particularly for those who need improved 'learning at the bottom of the pyramid' (LBOP). This volume brings together academic research experts, government officials and field-based practitioners. National and global experts present multiple broad thematic papers – ranging from the effects of migration and improving teaching to the potential of educational technologies, and better metrics for understanding and financing education. In addition, local experts, practitioners and policymakers describe their own work on LBOP issues being undertaken in Kenya, India, Mexico and Ivory Coast. The contributors argue persuasively that learning equity is a moral imperative, but also one that will have educational, economic and social impacts. They further outline how achieving SDG4 will take renewed and persistent effort by stakeholders to use better measurement tools to promote learning achievement among poor and marginalized children. This volume builds on the second international conference on Learning at the Bottom of the Pyramid (LBOP2).* It will be an indispensable resource for policymakers, researchers and government thinktanks, and local experts, as well as any readers interested in the implementation of learning equity across the globe.

This paper uses a "principal strata" approach to decompose treatment effects and interpret why a schooling intervention that yielded exceptional initial effects yielded substantially smaller effects in a replication years later. The specific application is a set of 2008 and 2015 replications of an intervention aiming to increase primary education for girls in rural Afghanistan. The intervention offers a new schooling option, and as such, its effects depend on how individuals use alternatives that already exist. The principal strata approach accounts variation in use patterns when comparing effects across the replications. Our findings show that even though the share of girls for whom the intervention would be valuable dropped considerably in 2015 as compared to 2008, the intervention was even more efficaciousness for those who continued to benefit from it.

While Kenyan youth comprise the majority of the Kenyan electorate, they are typically either stereotyped as criminals or marginalized, rather than taken seriously as politically important actors. The importance of youth in Kenya, and the gaps in our knowledge about this group, prompt us to investigate their views at the cusp of political becoming. Reporting on a survey of 4,773 secondary school students in Nairobi, we argue that understanding this youth population’s perspectives and relationship to the state – ‘seeing like students’ – is critical to any understanding of Kenya today and its future. Our study shows empirically that secondary school youth in Nairobi are perceptive about the challenges facing the country, civically engaged, and hopeful about the future. With views that often differ by ethnicity, gender, or socio-economic background, our findings highlight the importance of acknowledging youths’ complex on-the-ground realities and challenging dominant discourses about youth.

This comprehensive research presents results of randomized controlled trials (RCT) in 200 villages in Afghanistan that tested the efficacy of a Community-Based Education (CBE) sustainability model, where village-level community institutions take charge of the CBE management jointly with local government education offices.