Education Research in the Center for Latin American Social Policy

Education is critical to national and local development. Failure to improve the quality of and access to educational systems in Latin America can hinder the region’s future. Towards this end, CLASP researchers have:

• analyzed ways in which education may promote development by assessing the state of education in Latin American countries as well as the policies that might bring about positive change;
• undertaken evaluations of school-based management initiatives in the region, and have evaluated the impact of a large-scale teacher incentive program in Mexico. (Here, they found that the program had little impact, which resulted in major reform proposals);
• investigated the economic effects of increasing access to higher education through loans targeted at talented low-income students in Colombia;
• focused on the connection between public spending on education and productivity in the labor market;
• examined the effectiveness of different policies that seek to attract the young into higher education;
• studied non-traditional ways in which education can bring people out of poverty.

Moreover, because the early years are foundational for the development of cognitive and non-cognitive skills, CLASP researchers are looking into interventions to improve the cognitive development of very young Latin Americans.