The Power of Persistence: Education System ... - EQUIP123.net

Foreword
The United States Agency for International Development (USAID)-funded
Educational Quality Improvement Program 2 (EQUIP2) is a Leader with
Associates Award that conducts research and disseminates information on
education development with a focus on policy, management, and system
reform strategies to create more effective education programs. The project has
addressed such complex topics as abolition of school fees, decentralization, costeffectiveness
of complementary education systems for hard-to-reach populations,
school effectiveness with an emphasis on efficient use of instructional time,
indicators and information systems, secondary school teacher shortages, and
donor effectiveness. EQUIP2 research combines two perspectives: 1) The
implications for national education policy supporting EFA goals and 2) the
implications for more effective support from donor agencies.
The Power of Persistence grew out of an on-going series of discussions and the
above-mentioned EQUIP2 research about the nature of education reform and
the role of donor assistance. The intent of this study was not to replicate the
standard evaluations of donor projects, but rather to understand the technical,
institutional, and political dynamics of introducing complex changes in education
systems over the long term.
Most education studies focus on either the relative effectiveness of technical or
policy strategies (e.g., decentralization, school fees, or teacher training) or on
evaluating whether specific projects or programs have achieved their goals. Some
seek to identify common findings of multiple projects, like EQUIP2’s Analysis
of USAID Assistance to Basic Education in the Developing World, 1990–2005, a
meta-evaluation of USAID projects over a 15 year period. These studies contain
important lessons about policy and project design, but often fail to provide useful
insights into sustainability, institutionalization, and scaling up. However, these
studies often fail to capture the contextual dynamics of culture, history, and
political and institutional forces that shape reform adaptation and sustainability.
Evaluating results through the narrow window of activities in a five-year project
inevitably gives a distorted view of reality and leaves one with an impression that
most projects are successful, but that education systems neither improve nor
sustain reforms.
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