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raising student learning in latin america
Box 4.1 The Changing Demand for Skills in the United States Levy and Murnane (2004) explore the recent changes in the U.S. labor market. They find that the jobs that are growing in number share two types of general skills: (a) expert thinking, which they define as the ability to solve new problems that cannot be solved by rules, and (b) complex communication, the ability not only to transmit information but to convey a particular interpretation of information to others. The authors explain that while today’s schools need to ensure that students master the critical literacy and math skills needed to acquire the knowledge to become an expert thinker in any field, they also need to provide students with complex communication and expert thinking skills in subject areas such as language, history, and science. Source: Authors, based on Levy and Murnane 2004.
also true when individual countries are examined over time. The results indicate that merely increasing overall educational spending, without making changes in how different institutions and education actors behave, does not improve student learning outcome (Pritchett 2004; Fuchs and Woessman 2007).
Overall Economic Environment A country’s economic environment can affect student learning outcomes. In countries with open and growing economies, globalization raises the demand for skills. Without a well-defined system of property rights and an open economy, education and skills may not have the desired impact on economic outcomes, as Hanushek and Woessmann (2007) note. Cuba, which has a closed economy, has comparatively high student learning outcomes but lower than desired rates of economic development. Chile, an open economy that is the fastest growing in the region, has experienced social unrest as a result of the perceived low quality of its public schools. Indeed, it appears that the economic context maximizes both the impact of skills on economic development and the demand for better-quality education (box 4.1).
The Political Environment Political commitment to student learning outcomes affects not only funding but also the types of educational policies put into place. Elected officials often care about showing results while they are in office. While progress in expanding access to schools can be achieved in relatively short periods