Measuring Global Educational Progress
Summary
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Education is one of the largest and most important investments made by
governments and people. Understanding whether this investment leads to the
desired ends is crucial to effective government policy and private
decision-making. What is known, statistically, about the current state of
education across the world? What are the sources and quality of basic
statistical data?
As a part of the project on Universal Basic and Secondary Education, David E.
Bloom (Harvard University) considered the global data on education, both what
are available and what they demonstrate. Measuring Global Educational Progress
reviews past and current efforts to collect and analyze data, pointing to the
places where improved data could lead to more informed policy-making.
Bloom also presents some overarching facts and trends in educational progress
based on his review of the available data. These include estimates of the
number of primary- and secondary-age children that remain out of school, as
well as the differences in both quantity and quality of education between
developed and developing countries. The data confirm that although progress has
undoubtedly been made, tremendous work remains, especially in South Asia and
Sub-Saharan Africa.
Evidence-based policymaking holds great promise, but
that promise can only be realized when relevant and accurate data are
available. Measuring Global Education Progress is a broad and thorough survey
of what is known, can what can and should be known, about the world’s
investment in education.
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Author
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David E. Bloom is Clarence James
Gamble Professor of Economics and Demography and chairman of the Department of
Population and International Health at the Harvard School of Public Health. His
recent work has focused on primary, secondary, and higher education in
developing countries and on the links among population health, demographic
change, and economic growth. He has been on the faculty of the public policy
school at Carnegie Mellon University and the economics departments of Harvard
University and Columbia University. He is a fellow of the American Academy of
Arts and Sciences, where he co-directs the project on Universal Basic and
Secondary Education. He is a faculty research associate of the National Bureau
of Economic Research. He received a B.Sc. in industrial and labor relations
from Cornell University in 1976, an M.A. in economics from Princeton University
in 1978, and a Ph.D. in economics and demography from Princeton University in
1981.
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