Brief

Deep-rooted biases can inhibit our best intentions. Research has found that we all have unconscious biases and preferences related to gender, race, sexual orientation, socio-economic background, or other aspects of identity. Unconscious bias is just that unconscious, and often unrelated to our goals and intentions. This brief covers an experiment in Peru which shows that when prompted by subtle socio-economic cues, teachers exhibit unconscious biases that significantly affect their evaluation of low-income students.

In 2004, Africare, with support from the Japan Social Development Fund (JSDF) and the National Agency for the Control of AIDS, initiated a program to reduce risk from HIV/AIDS among young women in 18 peri-urban and urban communities in and around the capital city of Abuja and in two proximal states of Niger and Nassarawa, which have prevalance rates of 3.2 percent and 5.4 percent respectively.

Among Paraguay’s poorest and most populous municipalities, Carapeguá and Ñemby are a study in contrasts. Carapeguá, located in the Department of Paraguarí, is predominantly rural with a young population dedicated to agricultural activities and handicraft production. The government recognized the growing urgency associated with improving living conditions among the poorest communities in the Country if substantial progress was to be made towards the targets enshrined in the millennium development goals.

Cartagena de Indias (Cartagena of the Indies) is a city on the Northern Coast of Colombia. A tourist destination and economic centre in the Caribbean region, it is one of the most populated urban areas in the Country. As in other urban areas, outward prosperity can mask painful contrasts in wealth distribution and access to services. An estimated 70 percent of the population of Cartagena lives below the poverty line (CIA World Factbook 2009).

Cartagena de Indias (Cartagena of the Indies) is a city on the Northern Coast of Colombia. A tourist destination and economic centre in the Caribbean region, it is one of the most populated urban areas in the Country. As in other urban areas, outward prosperity can mask painful contrasts in wealth distribution and access to services. An estimated 70 percent of the population of Cartagena lives below the poverty line (CIA World Factbook 2009).

The Preah Vihear province was an insecure and contested area from the late 1960s until 2000, when stability returned and the participation of children in primary education throughout the province became a possibility. In 2003, the Japan Social Development Fund (JSDF) provided a grant to save the children Norway - Cambodia (SCN-CO) aimed at improving access and quality in all schools and education offices in the region.

This research shows that teacher and administration absences can negatively affect students’ reading and math abilities.Working with the Peruvian Ministry of Education (MINEDU) and the UK’s Behavioural Insights Team (BIT), we tested whether attendance could be influenced by sending different behaviorally informed messages by email. One email message conveyed the current level of attendance of one’s school district the “social norm” while the other built on teachers’ pro-social motivations by highlighting the positive effect of teacher attendance on student performance.

To prepare for the future, countries must invest in the earliest years of their citizens’ lives. Robust scientific and economic evidence shows that experiences in early childhood have a profound impact on brain development with implications for learning, health, and adult productivity. How Africa manages the upcoming demographic transition will have an indelible influence on the continent’s growth and competitiveness, and requires addressing key human capital challenges.

The Results in Education for All Children (REACH) Trust Fund at The World Bank funded an evaluation that assessed the early impact of a performance-based school grants program on student learning in Indonesia. While all Jakarta government schools receive a fixed grant per student, under the new program top performing schools also receive a bonus. This evaluation focused on two separate effects in the first two years of the new program: the effect of announcing the performance-based incentive to schools, and the effect of receiving the bonus for top performing schools.

The Results in Education for All Children (REACH) Trust Fund at the World Bank has funded a pilot of the Classroom Assessment Scoring System (CLASS) in Guangdong, China to test its usefulness as a tool to assess teaching practices. The pilot was also designed to establish a proof of concept for using classroom observations to measure the impact of teacher training and incentivize training providers within an RBF mechanism.