What is a country supposed to do when looking to improve student learning when there is no tried-and-true prescription for what an education system needs to look like? When simply replicating “best practices” is not enough to ensure that all children are learning? When what is effective in improving learning in some contexts may not work in others, or may even be detrimental?

The answer is that decisionmakers need access to and capacity to use consistent, high-quality data on how the system is performing, evidence on what affects student learning in their context, and the motivation to work toward the ultimate goal of equipping all children with the skills they need to succeed in their lives.

This intersection between information and accountability was the theme of a recent conference of education officials from the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region to share innovative monitoring and data collection processes, and discuss strategies to enhance accountability among educational actors: the state, schools, and citizens.

Relevant, standardized, and comparable information about the quality of educational services in schools has been largely unavailable to stakeholders in the MENA region until very recently. In addition, critics have claimed that the region focuses too much on “engineering” education and too little on incentives and accountability relationships.

Read the full article about global solutions in education by Tamar Manuelyan Atinc and Lindsay Read at Brookings.