Measurement & Metrics

Children’s learning and development are deeply shaped by contexts of poverty, crisis, displacement and inequality. Without reliable measurement systems that capture holistic outcomes—not just test scores—we cannot fully understand, track or improve the gaps in children’s lives. Robust data and assessment frameworks are therefore essential for decision-makers who aim to build effective and equitable education systems.

• We co-design context-relevant, psychometrically-sound instruments and metrics with local and national partners, ensuring cultural validity and operational scalability.

• We support the development of data infrastructure, monitoring systems and analytic capacity so that evidence is collected, interpreted and used for real-time program and policy decisions.

• We open-source our tools, datasets and learning resources—so that our public-goods approach strengthens measurement capacity globally and accelerates shared learning.

Our work crosses three interrelated domains:

1. Foundations of measurement: Building instruments and frameworks to assess children’s cognitive, socio-emotional, physical and educational development in diverse, often crisis-affected settings.

2. Systems for data use: Partnering with ministries, NGOs and multilateral agencies to embed measurement into national/sub-national systems—so results inform resource allocation, policy design and program improvement.

3. Scale and sustainability: Working with stakeholders to ensure that measurement efforts are not one-off, but integrated into long-term systems that adapt, iterate and expand.