Assessing learning remotely in impact evaluations: Lessons from SIEF’s COVID-19 Window

Marguerite Clarke is a World Bank Senior Education Specialist. She leads the Bank’s work on learning and skills assessment and has more than 20 years of experience working with countries around the world to strengthen their education systems, including in the areas of 21st century skills and learning competencies, student assessment, high-stakes examinations, vocational education, and second chance education. She has a PhD in Educational Research, Measurement, and Evaluation and is a member of the UNESCO Institute for Statistics’ Global Alliance to Monitor Learning (GAML).

Diego Luna Bazaldua is an Education Specialist in the Education Global Practice, where he supports World Bank staff and clients in building capacity in technical processes linked to the development of psychological and educational assessments. His areas of expertise focus on Psychometrics, Measurement, and Assessment in psychology and education, covering topics such as student learning assessments, early childhood development, and teaching quality. He holds a master's degree in Statistics, and master's and doctoral degrees in Measurement and Evaluation from Columbia University.

Irma Arteaga is an Associate Professor at the Truman School of Public Affairs, University of Missouri. She earned a Master in Public Policy and a Ph.D. in Applied Economics from the University of Minnesota. Dr. Arteaga’s research seeks to understand the consequences of early childhood investments over the life course. Her research agenda has three dominant themes: analysis of the short-term effects of early childhood interventions and program delivery on children’s well-being, analysis of the long-term effects of child policy on children’s well-being, and analysis of early childhood investments in the developing world.

Igor Asanov is the head of the Evidence-Based Science and Innovation Policy Research Group at the INCHER, University of Kassel, Germany. He received his doctoral degree at the Friedrich Schiller University, Jena, Germany, at the group DFG “Economics of Innovative Change.” His research expertise includes experimental and behavioral economics (lab and field experiments), economics of innovations and entrepreneurship, socio-emotional learning, mental health, and digital education.

Emily Beam is an associate professor in the Department of Economics at the University of Vermont. She received her Ph.D in economics and public policy from the University of Michigan in 2013 and her B.S. in economics, mathematics, and Spanish from the University of Michigan in 2006. Emily's research interests are in labor and development economics, with a particular focus on employment and education policy, migration, fertility and marriage, and the role of incomplete information and behavioral biases on individual decision-making.

David Evans is a senior fellow at the Center for Global Development, working on education, health, and social safety nets. Previously he was at the World Bank, where he co-authored the World Development Report 2018, Learning to Realize Education’s Promise, coordinated impact evaluation work for sub-Saharan Africa, and managed education projects in Brazil. Evans has evaluated education, early child development, agriculture, health, and social safety net programs in Brazil, the Gambia, Kenya, Mexico, Nigeria, Sierra Leone, and Tanzania. He received a PhD in Economics from Harvard University, specializing in economic development and labor economics.

Tazeen Fasih is a Lead Economist and program leader of the World Bank. She is currently working in the Europe and Central Asia region. Her recent policy-oriented research focuses on improved efficiency of education expenditure in decentralized settings and on skills and labor market outcomes. Other areas of her work include education finance and school autonomy. She has worked in countries in the Middle East, Eastern Europe, Africa and South Asia and has experience working in academia as well as think tanks. Tazeen holds a PhD in Economics from the University of London.

Sharon Wolf is an Associate Professor of Human Development and Quantitative Methods at the University of Pennsylvania. As an applied developmental psychologist, she studies how children's family and educational environments shape their development, focusing on disadvantaged populations in the United States and in low-income countries. Dr. Wolf's research informs interventions and tests the effectiveness of theoretically informed policy solutions designed to promote childhood development and learning through randomized field experiments. She holds a Ph.D. in Applied Psychology from New York University.