Sector Results and Learning:

Education

This Education Sector Results and Learning page is a repository of evidence generated by all MCC-funded education interventions. To promote learning and inform future program design, this page captures monitoring data from key common indicators, showcases recent and relevant evaluations, includes all agency lessons from completed education evaluations to-date, and links to learning that has been aggregated across completed evaluations in the sector.

What Do We Invest In?

MCC has funded $815.3 million in education interventions as of September 2024. These interventions target the following levels of education: general education specific; technical and vocational education training/workforce development; and higher education; and fall into the following categories of investment: teacher/school administrator training; infrastructure and equipment; governance and management; and workforce training.

  • General Education Specific

    Education that is designed to develop learners’ general knowledge, skills and competencies and literacy and numeracy skills, often to prepare students for more advanced educational programs and to lay the foundation for lifelong learning.

  • Governance and Management

    Interventions related to accountability measures and incentives, including data management and assessments, education policy, and alignment of measures to more coherence in the system.

  • Higher Education

    Post-Secondary education leading toward an academic degree.

  • Infrastructure and Equipment

    Includes new construction or rehabilitation of school facilities as well as the supplying of equipment for labs, gymnasiums, and other instructional facilities.

  • Teachers/School Administrator Training

    Interventions that involve professional preparation for teachers (pedagogical and subject matter training), as well as training for school management and teacher mentors.

  • Technical and Vocational Education Training/Workforce Development

    Education and training which provides knowledge and skills for employment. TVET uses formal, non-formal, or informal learning to provide practical and occupational skills at the secondary and post-secondary level, often as an alternative to university training.

  • Workforce Training

    Workplace based training, job placement programs, occupational training.

What Have We Completed So Far?

MCC and its country partners develop and tailor Monitoring and Evaluation Plans for each particular program and country context. Within these country-specific plans, MCC uses common indicators where appropriate to standardize measurement and reporting within certain sectors. See below for a subset of common indicators that summarize implementation achievements across all MCC Education investments as of September 2024. Note that these indicators are tracked and reported during program implementation, so do not reflect the continued attendance and graduation of students after MCC-funded programs end. However, such post-program results are included in our independent evaluation reports.

  • 906

    educational facilities constructed or rehabilitated

  • 13,402

    instructors trained

  • 490,276

    students participating in MCC-supported education activities

  • 80,359

    graduates from MCC-supported education activities

What Have We Achieved?

MCC commissions independent evaluations, conducted by third-party evaluators, for every project it funds. These evaluations hold MCC and country partners accountable for the achievement of intended results and also produce evidence and learning to inform future program decision-making. They investigate the quality of project implementation, the achievement of the project and other targeted outcomes, and the cost-effectiveness of the project. The graphs below summarize the composition and status of MCC’s independent evaluations in the Education sector as of November 2024. Read on to see highlights of newly published interim and final evaluations. Follow the evaluation links to see the status of all planned, ongoing, and completed evaluations in the sector and to access the reports, summaries, surveys, and data sets.

Created with Highcharts 11.2.0Evaluations by Type13 (52%)​13 (52%)12 (48%)​12 (48%)PerformanceImpact
Created with Highcharts 11.2.0No. of EvaluationsEvaluations by Status6​61​12​22​220​20PlanningBaselineInterimFinalCompleted0510152025
Created with Highcharts 11.2.0No. of ReportsInterim Reports - Expected and Actual Publication Date1​13​31​11​11​11​11​12​21​11​1PerformanceImpact201420152016201920212022202501234
Created with Highcharts 11.2.0No. of ReportsFinal Reports - Expected and Actual Publication Date1​11​12​21​13​33​31​11​11​11​12​21​12​22​21​12​2PerformanceImpact2009201120152016201720182019202020232024202620280123456

Highlighted Evaluations

What Have We Learned from Our Results?

To link the evidence produced by the independent evaluations with MCC practice, project staff produce an MCC Learning document at the close of each interim and final evaluation to capture practical lessons for programming and evaluation. Use the filters below to find lessons relevant to your evidence needs.

    • Georgia Compact II
    • Improving General Education Quality

    Classroom observation is an important tool to better understand changes in time on task.

    Classroom observation is an important tool to better understand changes in time on task. Time on task was a key intermediate outcome in the school rehabilitation program logic that the MCC team felt would lead to improvements in learning. However, the… read more

    • Georgia Compact II
    • Improving General Education Quality

    It is important that budget and maintenance plans are sufficient to ensure the sustainability of new infrastructure, such as science labs or heating systems, especially when it requires additional funds for higher utility bills.

    It is important that budget and maintenance plans are sufficient to ensure the sustainability of new infrastructure, such as science labs or heating systems, especially when it requires additional funds for higher utility bills. The evaluation showed that the… read more

    • Georgia Compact II
    • Improving General Education Quality

    It is important to allow time for teachers to become accustomed with new teaching practices and to train enough teachers and school directors to create momentum around a community of practice.

    It is important to allow time for teachers to become accustomed with new teaching practices and to train enough teachers and school directors to create momentum around a community of practice. The findings show teachers were more confident in using the new… read more

    • Georgia Compact II
    • Improving General Education Quality

    Setting school infrastructure design standards during Compact Development is likely to mitigate completion risks.

    Setting school infrastructure design standards during Compact Development is likely to mitigate completion risks. Early delays in construction timelines were due to time spent deciding what infrastructure components would be prioritized. MCC should establish… read more

    • Georgia Compact II
    • Improving General Education Quality

    Several Ministry of Education policies helped bolster the perceived effect of the Training Educators for Excellence activity, including implementing a professional development scheme and retirement incentives.

    Several Ministry of Education policies helped bolster the perceived effect of the Training Educators for Excellence activity, including implementing a professional development scheme and retirement incentives. MCC should design teacher training interventions… read more

    • Georgia Compact II
    • Improving General Education Quality

    When designing education investments in contexts of relatively low dropout and high graduation rates it is important to consider all project causal chains that lead to changes in learning.

    When designing education investments in contexts of relatively low dropout and high graduation rates it is important to consider all project causal chains that lead to changes in learning. Available literature during Compact development pointed to changes in… read more

    • Guatemala Threshold Program
    • TVET

    Align level of training with the skill level of those who will be enrolling in TVET (Technical and Vocational Education and Training) programs and have realistic expectations for the level of improvement that is possible.

    Align level of training with the skill level of those who will be enrolling in TVET (Technical and Vocational Education and Training) programs and have realistic expectations for the level of improvement that is possible. The Ministry of Education of Guatemala… read more

    • Guatemala Threshold Program
    • TVET

    Clearly define and develop strategy for measuring technical competencies to be acquired by students in a TVET (Technical and Vocational Education and Training) program.

    Clearly define and develop strategy for measuring technical competencies to be acquired by students in a TVET (Technical and Vocational Education and Training) program. In the case of the Guatemala Education Project, it was difficult to measure success of the… read more

    • Guatemala Threshold Program
    • Education

    Consider early on how to incentivize and build momentum for partner country institutional reforms.

    Consider early on how to incentivize and build momentum for partner country institutional reforms. Institutional reforms would have been easier to facilitate if more was accomplished during the earlier years of the Threshold Program when MCC had an in-country… read more

    • Guatemala Threshold Program
    • Education

    For student assessments to accurately discern changes in student performance, the difficulty of the questions needs to be aligned with average student performance in the context they are used.

    For student assessments to accurately discern changes in student performance, the difficulty of the questions needs to be aligned with average student performance in the context they are used. Both baseline and endline scores on student assessment for the… read more

    • Guatemala Threshold Program
    • TVET

    Having institutional-level commitments rather than individual-level commitments to implement desired reforms may help secure more sustainable buy-in from stakeholders and partner institutions.

    Having institutional-level commitments rather than individual-level commitments to implement desired reforms may help secure more sustainable buy-in from stakeholders and partner institutions. The TVET Activity (Technical and Vocational Education and Training)… read more

    • Guatemala Threshold Program
    • Education

    Including pedagogical advisors and learning communities can improve participant satisfaction with teacher training programs.

    Including pedagogical advisors and learning communities can improve participant satisfaction with teacher training programs. Participants in the teacher training programs in Guatemala’s Education Program appreciated that the training was supported by… read more

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How Have We Aggregated Learning Across the Sector?

In January 2023, MCC published Insights from General Education Evaluations, a paper that synthesizes evidence from completed evaluations of general education investments. MCC previously developed a Principles into Practice paper using evidence from other completed independent evaluations in the education sector – Principles into Practice: Training Service Delivery for Jobs and Productivity.

The Principles into Practice series offers a frank look at what it takes to make the principles MCC considers essential for development operational in the projects in which MCC invests. The learning captured in this paper informs MCC’s ongoing efforts to refine and strengthen its own model and development practice in the education sector. MCC hopes this paper will also allow others to benefit from, and build upon, MCC’s lessons.