Quality of USAID-Funded Research and Evaluation Studies in Education
USAID is committed to improving the quality of the evidence base in education. To support this commitment, there have been two reviews of the quality of USAID-funded study reports, in 2017 under the Office of Education and again in 2023 under the Center for Education.
The Study Quality Review Findings Report shares the results from a 2023 assessment of the quality of education evaluations and research commissioned by the Agency since 2017 using the revised Assessment of Study Quality (ASQ) Tool. The study, a follow-on study to the 2017 Synthesis, seeks to (i) understand how the overall quality of study reports published on the Development Experience Clearinghouse (DEC) has changed since 2017 and (ii) identify relative strengths and weakness in reports published on the DEC since 2017 in each of eight principles of quality (Conceptual Framing, Robustness of Methodology, Cultural Appropriateness, Ethics, Validity, Reliability, Openness and Transparency, and Cogency).
Based on the findings from the 2023 Study Quality Review, the Study Quality Action Plan presents a set of recommendations based to inform USAID’s actions regarding the ASQ Tool and the quality of education studies. Although the recommendations included in the document are exclusive to USAID actions, the Action Plan is available to the public for transparency.
The Synthesis of Findings from USAID Evaluations shares the findings from a 2017 study to assess the quality of USAID-funded evaluations in the education sector from 2013 to 2016 and, based on a subset of these evaluations that met minimum quality standards, to synthesize findings and lessons learned for topics related to the Agency’s 2011-2015 Education Strategy. This study’s objective is to provide the Office of Education with a review of findings and lessons learned that may contribute to future USAID programming in three areas: (i) education quality with a focus on early grade literacy; (ii) workforce development and higher education; and (iii) access to education, especially in crisis and conflict environments.