Evidence-Based Education Policy: From Research to Practice

EDU A811C8 Subject & Catalog Number

Description

Taught by Chen Yidan Visiting Global Fellow Ismael Sanz Labrador.

Education systems worldwide face a common puzzle: large public investments coexist with persistent inequities, stagnant outcomes, and uncertain returns to many promising reforms. Across three intensive sessions, students will engage with rigorous causal evidence on three questions that today's education authorities and school leaders most need answered: (i) how early educational inequalities, socio-economic and gender, emerge and what evidence-based policies can narrow them; (ii) how to identify and reward effective teachers, especially in the schools that serve the most disadvantaged students; and (iii) how to use technology and generative AI without widening existing gaps. The course is uniquely timed: the results of PISA 2025 will be released between our second and third sessions. One full session will therefore be devoted to discussing the new findings live with students, exploring what they tell us about equity, learning recovery after the pandemic, and the policy levers that have or have not worked across OECD systems over the most recent cycle. The course assumes no prior background in econometrics; instead, it equips students with the practical literacy needed to read, critique and translate empirical research into actionable policy.