Every year, the World Bank's World Development Report takes on a topic of central importance to global development. The 2018 Report, Learning to Realize Education's Promise, is the first ever devoted entirely to education.This title explains that education has long been critical for human welfare, but is even more so in a time of rapid economic change.

Table of Contents

• Foreword
• Acknowledgments
• Abbreviations
• Overview: Learning to realize education's promise
• The three dimensions of the learning crisis
• How to realize education's promise: Three policy responses
• Learning to realize education's promise
• Part I: Education's promise
• Chapter 1: Schooling, learning, and the promise of education
• Education as freedom
• Education improves individual freedoms
• Education benefits all of society
• Learning and the promise of education
• Part II: The learning crisis
• Chapter 2: The great schooling expansion—and those it has left behind
• Most children have access to basic education
• Poverty, gender, ethnicity, disability, and location explain most remaining schooling disparities
• For poor parents, schooling requires trade-offs
• Spotlight 1: The biology of learning
• Chapter 3: The many faces of the learning crisis
• For too many, learning isn't happening
• Poor children learn the least, which hurts them the most
• What is causing the learning crisis?
• Spotlight 2: Poverty hinders biological development and undermines learning
• Chapter 4: To take learning seriously, start by measuring it
• The learning crisis is often hidden—but measurement makes it visible
• Measures for learning guide action
• Measures of learning spur action
• Choose learning metrics based on what the country needs
• Will learning metrics narrow the vision for education?
• Six tips for effective learning measurement
• Spotlight 3: The multidimensionality of skills
• Part III: Innovations and evidence for learning
• Spotlight 4: Learning about learning
• Chapter 5: There is no learning without prepared, motivated learners
• Investing in their early years prepares children for school
• Providing demand-side support can get kids to school, but not necessarily to learn
• Remedial education can prepare learners for further education and training
• Chapter 6: Teacher skills and motivation both matter (though many education systems act like they don't)
• Most teacher training is ineffective, but some approaches work
• Helping teachers teach to the level of the student has proven effective
• Teacher motivation and incentives make a difference, even with few inputs
• Chapter 7: Everything else should strengthen the teacher-learner interaction
• Technological interventions increase learning—but only if they enhance the teacher-learner relationship
• Other inputs bring learners to school—but promote learning only if they target teaching and learning
• School management and governance are crucial, and involving communities can help overcome incentive problems and information failures—but only if communities have capacity
• Chapter 8: Build on foundations by linking skills training to jobs
• Workplace training can help young people develop skills, yet few benefit from it
• Short-term job training offers opportunities, but most programs fail to deliver
• TVET can prepare young people for work, but early sorting into TVET can limit career growth
• Successful job training programs share several features
• Spotlight 5: Technology is changing the world of work: What does that mean for learning?
• Part IV: Making the system work for learning at scale
• Chapter 9: Education systems are misaligned with learning
• Misalignments and incoherence impede learning
• Technical complexities make it hard to align education systems with learning
• Spotlight 6: Spending more or spending better—or both?
• Chapter 10: Unhealthy politics drives misalignments
• Unhealthy politics can intensify misalignments in education systems
• Multiple actors and interests: Pulling the system out of alignment at each step of the policy cycle
• Trapped in low-accountability, low-learning equilibriums
• Chapter 11: How to escape low-learning traps
• Improving information
• Building coalitions and strengthening incentives
• Encouraging innovation and agility
• How can external actors support initiatives to improve learning?