Toward Universal Learning: Recommendations from the Learning Metrics Task Force

"If as a global community we are to deliver on the promise of education, we must ensure that children and youth develop the knowledge and skills they need to be productive citizens of the world. Poor quality education is jeopardizing the future of millions of children and youth across high-, medium- and low-income countries alike. Yet we do not know the full scale of the crisis because measurement of learning achievement is limited, and hence difficult to assess at the global level."

This report outlines a series of suggestions for using existing assessments of learning as well as new measures to improve learning opportunities and outcomes for all children and youth. Its impetus was concern about the "global education challenge" as illustrated by figures such as these estimates in the 2012 EFA Global Monitoring Report (United Nations Educational, Cultural and Scientific Organization (UNESCO), 2012):

• Approximately 120 million children either never make it to school or drop out before their fourth year.
• At least 250 million primary school-age children around the world are not able to read, write, or count well enough to meet minimum learning standards, including girls and boys who have spent at least 4 years in school.
• 200 million adolescents, including those who complete secondary school, do not have the skills they need for life and employment.

Specifically, it presents the full set of recommendations of the Learning Metrics Task Force (LMTF), a multi-stakeholder group of 30 organisations that was convened by the UNESCO Institute for Statistics and the Center for Universal Education at the Brookings Institution. The 18-month (July 2012-September 2013) collaborative process involved LMTF members, working groups comprised of 186 technical experts, and more than 1,700 consultation participants from 118 countries.

Here is a summary of the recommendations:

1. A global paradigm shift - LMTF calls for a global shift in focus and investment from universal access to access plus learning. "The collection of better data on learning is central to that effort. Learning measurement can be a highly effective intervention if the results are used to improve the quality of children's learning experiences and outcomes."
2. Learning competencies - LMTF recommends that education systems offer opportunities for children and youth to master competencies in the 7 domains of learning through which "all children and youth develop competencies" (shown graphically in figure 1 on page 11): (i) physical well-being; (ii) social and emotional; (iii) culture and the arts; (iv) literacy and communication ("Communication in the primary language(s) of the society in which children and youth live, including speaking, listening, reading, writing, and understanding the spoken and written word in various media"); (v) learning approaches and cognition; (vi) numeracy and mathematics; and (vii) science and technology. "Education systems around the world should focus on these competencies starting from early childhood through lower secondary school....The Global Framework of Learning Domains can and should apply to the wide range of settings where intentional learning takes place, including but not limited to formal schooling, community education systems and nonformal education programs."
3. Learning indicators for global tracking - LMTF recommends a small set of learning indicators to be tracked in all countries:
   • Learning for all: Combine measures of completion and learning (reading proficiency at the end of primary school) into one indicator.
   • Age and education matter for learning: Measure timely entry, progression, and completion of schooling, and population-based indicators to capture those who do not enter or leave school early.
   • Reading: Measure foundational skills by grade 3 and proficiency by the end of primary school.
   • Numeracy: Measure basic skills by end of primary and proficiency by lower secondary school.
   • Ready to learn: Measure acceptable levels of early learning and development across a subset of domains by the time a child enters primary school.
   • Citizen of the world: Measure among youth the demonstration of values and skills necessary for success in their communities, countries, and the world. ("A measure of such skills and values could include environmental awareness, collaborative problem-solving, information and communications technology (ICT), digital skills, social responsibility and other subdomains.")
   • Breadth of learning opportunities: Track exposure to learning opportunities across all 7 domains of learning.

   "Countries will need to debate, prioritize and take action to determine precisely what they will measure in relation to their specific goals and needs."

4. Supporting countries - LMTF stresses that technical, institutional, and political support will all be needed to translate all of these recommendations into action. Figure 3 on page 12 illustrates the mechanism, which involves communication actions such as supporting communities of practice and engaging civil society in a grassroots movement to measure and improve learning. Overall, the suggestion is that countries lead, with the support of regional and international actors, a multi-stakeholder, collaborative process to: diagnose the quality of their assessment systems; convene stakeholders (from parents, teachers, and non-governmental organisations (NGOs) to governments); and assess the necessary technical and financial resources required to improve learning measurement and outcomes.
5. Equity - LMTF recommends that measures of access and learning, along with data on child characteristics, should be used to ensure equitable learning opportunities (shaped by a range of factors such as school conditions, teacher quality, etc.) and to reduce disparities in learning outcomes - with particular attention to inequalities within countries. "This requires an understanding of the characteristics of out-of-school children and youth and the barriers they face, as well as explicit efforts to identify those children who are furthest behind and put in place strategies to accelerate their progress."
6. Assessment as a public good - LMTF recommends that "donors and the private sector help eliminate cost barriers to assessment, especially in low- and middle-income countries. Full documentation of studies that are funded with public resources should be made widely available to ensure the transparency and reproducibility of results. Documentation should include data sets, instruments and procedures used to generate the data."
7. Taking action - "All education actors can begin incorporating measurement of learning in the areas for global tracking into their existing programming and evaluation efforts. Everyone interested in improving learning outcomes must advocate for accessible, transparent systems for the measurement of learning....Assessments alone will not improve the quality of instruction or learning environments, but reliable data on student achievement can enable policymakers and educators to develop strategies for improving learning while taking into consideration contextual factors. Transparency in assessment methods and outcomes also empowers citizens and the international community to hold leaders accountable for progress."