Giving Compass' Take: 

• In this video from India Development review, Pratham CEO Dr. Rukmini Banerji shares her insights on the challenges of assessing learning outcomes, the role of applied research, and the importance of evaluation.

• What can education programs in the U.S. learn from Banerji's experience? She speaks to having both a "curiosity" and a "skepticism" that can serve our evaluation tools.

• Here's why it's so crucial to find solutions to the global learning crisis.

Dr. Rukmini Banerji, CEO at Pratham talks with Pranav Kothari, Vice President of Large Scale Education Programs at Educational Initiatives.

With Pratham, Rukmini’s work since 1996 has focused on designing and implementing large-scale programs to help primary school children learn well. This is done through building collaborative partnerships with state governments and with village communities. Rukmini is also the director of ASER Centre, the autonomous research and assessment unit of Pratham.

Trained as an economist, she completed her BA at St. Stephen’s College and attended the Delhi School of Economics. She was a Rhodes Scholar at Oxford University and earned her PhD at the University of Chicago. Rukmini did her post-doctoral work at the Population Research Center at the University of Chicago and later worked as a program officer at the Spencer Foundation.

Watch the full interview about measuring education interventions in India by Educational Initiatives at India Development Review.