Foundational Learning: What It Is, Why It Matters, and How To Get It

Foundational Learning:
What It Is,
Why It Matters, and
How to Get It
David K. Evans | 25 October 2022 | @DaveEvansPhD

Governments
Sierra Leone
A lot of leaders are talking
about foundational learning
International
organizations
World Bank
Nongovernment
donors
Gates Foundation
Sources: Sachdeva 2022; World Bank 2020; Gates 2018

• There are lots of different definitions.
• Learning poverty: “Learning poverty means being unable to
read and understand a simple text by age 10” (World Bank 2019)
• Foundational skills: basic literacy and basic numeracy that
most curricula cover by grade four (Belafi et al. 2020 – RISE)
• Uwezo, ASER, etc.: up to grade 2 or grade 4 literacy and
numeracy
• The takeaway: literacy (and numeracy) skills that
should be covered in early grades, allowing students
to build on those skills and learn higher order skills
What is foundational
learning?
Source: Evans and Hares 2021

Why are these so important?
Pathways between FLN and life
outcomes

• You can’t learn algebra if
you don’t know arithmetic.
• You can’t read an
engineering textbook if you
don’t know how to read.
FLN investments allow learners to learn
higher order literacy and numeracy skills and
access other parts of the curriculum

School enrollment by grade for different groups in Mali
FLN investments in early grades
are among the most equitable

FLN investments may put children
on a different trajectory.

Poorer performance on
literacy/numeracy
assessments in 5th grade
predict higher rate of
dropout by 7th grade
Early FLN may keep children
in school
Students who don’t read
well by end of 3rd are 4x
more likely to fail to
complete upper secondary
on time
Source: Evans and Hares 2021; Zuilkowski et al. 2016; Hernandez 2011

If foundational learning is so
important, how can we
achieve it?
(We don’t have to look to Finland and Singapore…)

• In 2005, Ceará ranked in the bottom
half of Brazil’s states in education
performance.
• By 2022, it ranked 2nd place (for
fifth graders) and 1st place (for ninth
graders).
• One of Ceará’s municipalities,
Sobral, jumped to first place in the
nation.
David K. Evans | 28 September 2022 | @DaveEvansPhD
From mediocre to excellent
Ceará Sobral
Source: Loureiro et al., World Bank, 2020

• 9 million inhabitants
(comparable to Austria or
Israel – larger than Finland or
New Zealand)
• 5th poorest Brazilian state
• Contains 184 municipalities
• Constitutionally
• Municipalities are responsible for
primary and lower secondary
education
• States are responsible for upper
secondary
The context

What
was
behind
Ceará’s
success?
4 principles
+
1 enabling
condition
.
Fiscal incentives for
municipalities to
achieve education
outcomes
Technical assistance to
municipal school
networks
Municipalities with
autonomy and
accountability to
achieve learning
Regular monitoring of
learning followed by
action
Achieve literacy for all
in early grades
Sustained Political Leadership

Fiscal incentives for
municipalities to achieve
education outcomes
Achieve literacy
for all In early
grades
Principle 1: Fiscal incentives for
municipalities to achieve education
outcomes
The consumption tax became results based in 2008.
Value of transfer depends on results in education (18%) as well as health
(5%)
For poorer municipalities, this transfer is more than half their revenue
Built in incentives for equity
The incentives could be used by the mayor in any sector

Principle 2: Helping the
municipalities to improve
Technical assistance to
Municipal School
Networks
Achieve literacy
for all In early
grades
Literacy support to the municipalities: tightly structured
learning materials with a clear routine for classes and
prioritization of literacy in the early grades.
Regular teacher training on the use of structured
learning materials, including classroom observations
with feedback.
Training and materials to adopt meritocratic selection
of school principals

Principle 3: Municipalities have
autonomy + accountability
Municipalities with
autonomy and
accountability to achieve
learning
Achieve full
literacy for all In
early grades
Unlike most Brazilian states, virtually all public primary and lower
secondary schools in Ceará are devolved to municipal governments.
Power for hiring and firing fall under the municipal government.
The incentives are aligned with the responsibility.
Training to municipalities to provide incentives (financial and
nonfinancial) for teachers meeting literacy targets.

Principle 4: Regular monitoring of
learning + action
Regular monitoring of
learning followed by
action
Achieve literacy
for all In early
grades
Annual external assessments (in the state) in Grade
2
Learning diagnostic for each student at start of
each school year
Training to use assessments to support teachers
and students

• Strategy: compare schools on the Ceará side of the
border and on the other side (Piauí,Rio Grande do
Norte, Paraíba, Pernambuco)
The interplay between incentives
and support: empirically
demonstrated
Source: Lautharte et al., World Bank, 2021
• Three periods
• Baseline: 2005-2007
• Results-based financing: 2007-
2009
• Technical assistance: 2009
onward

Fiscal incentives + technical support
Substantive
rise (0.15 SD)
in learning
among 9th
graders
Double the rise
among 9th graders
+ an increase
among 5th graders

1. Principals and teachers
• Mayors in Ceará were less likely to assign principals; more likely to appoint
them through a formal selection process
• School principals and teachers were more likely to enroll in training and
report that it was useful
2. Materials
• Schools in Ceará less likely to report a lack of textbooks
• Teachers more likely to rate textbooks as “good” or “great”
• Ceará textbooks designed to reach students at their level
3. Pedagogy
• Teachers in Ceará were more likely to cover at least 80% of the curriculum
Why did this work?

• The implementation of the education reforms in Ceará
required strong political leadership
• Learning was elected as the ultimate goal of education
policy, with universal literacy as the first key step
• A key role of the political leadership is to protect
education from politics
• The implementation of the education reforms required
an open and transparent dialogue with all relevant
counterparts
Crucial enabling condition:
Political leadership

• In Sobral, two initial reforms in the late 1990s did
not—by themselves—boost learning.
• Grouping students into larger schools to reduce multi-grade classes
• Eliminated political criteria for selecting school principals and teachers
and implemented technical criteria
• In 2001, reading outcomes were still poor.
• The municipality went on to implement a series of
technical reforms which DID boost learning outcomes.
Sustained political leadership
EVEN with initial failures.
Source: Cruz and Loureiro 2020; Evans and Loureiro 2020

• Kenya’s Tusome program of books, guides, and
coaching: Zero readers initially fell by half
• India’s TaRL program of summer reading camps for
weak readers or adding an hour and reorganizing
students (and pedagogy) for that hour
• Zambia’s “Catch up” program of government teachers
providing one hour of instruction after school with
students organized by ability (and regularly
reorganized): 80% increase in reading texts at Grade 2
level
Ceará isn’t the only place to
see gains.
Source: Piper et al. 2018; Crawfurd et al. 2022; Banerjee et al. 2016; Pershad 2021

• FLN can change lives through several potential
channels
• It is possible to see large gains in a relatively short
timeframe
• A clear, sustained goal is essential, together with
incentives and support
Achieving FLN for all

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