Data to drive change

countries, measured student learning is low, with less than half of students able to read a simple sentence or perform basic mathematical operations. However, differences in learning are large, both between and within countries, with the lowest-performing schools concentrated in rural areas. There is also important variation in the factors associated with learning. Almost a quarter of teachers can be expected to be absent from school during an unannounced SDI visit, and, among those present in school, many are not present in the classroom during their assigned teaching times. Teachers’ skills are also low, in both content knowledge and pedagogy, and are not correlated with education level.

Identifying some of the top schools in each country and analyzing how they succeed could help to set examples for lower-performing schools. Basic school inputs, such as whiteboards and functioning toilets, can be effective in improving the schooling experience. Hiring more teachers—and basing that recruitment on talent instead of solely on credentials—would help to lower the high ratio of students per teacher and improve learning outcomes. Finally, private schools often outperform their public counterparts in student learning, and examining the drivers of their success could help to spark innovation in the public sector.

By measuring how services are delivered, SDI surveys link resources to results and help to shift the national policy dialogue from inputs to quality and outcomes. SDI surveys have provided the necessary evidence to spur policy debates and accelerate reforms. For example, in Mozambique, a national campaign to tackle teacher absence was instituted after the launch of the report of the 2014 SDI education survey (Bassi, Medina, and Nhampossa 2019). In Togo, teachers’ college curricula were revised in response to the finding that only 2 percent of fourth-grade teachers scored 80 percent or more on the grade-level test. With the approval and support of Togo’s education ministry, a teachers’ union delivered regional workshops aiming to improve learning outcomes. In Tanzania, SDI data were used as diagnostics during the planning of major reforms, and indicators from SDI surveys were added to the monitoring framework of the Big Results Now! education program.

Besides informing dialogue and reform, SDI surveys provide a platform for innovation and research. In education, the SDI initiative has recently expanded into a novel teacher observation tool to enrich the understanding of pedagogy. In health, researchers are adapting SDI questionnaires to capture different aspects of quality of care. For example, clinical vignettes have been developed to assess clinicians’ knowledge about the nutrition and growth trajectories of children and about common noncommunicable diseases, such as depression and