Center for Universal Education

Through innovative research, policy engagement, and convening, Brookings Institution’s Center for Universal Education (The Center) aims to inform the global education agenda, advance learning metrics, improve education resources and learning outcomes, and reach marginalized groups. Through engagement in global education, The Center works to include an increased commitment among education policymakers to support an "access plus learning" agenda, identify and make operational effective scaling and finance models, improve education assessment systems, and increase education and equitable learning opportunities for all children and youth. The proposed grant builds on three previous grants to The Center that supported efforts to develop a common policy agenda that promotes quality learning for children across all levels of schooling, a multi-stakeholder collaboration and research agenda on post-primary education, and the institutionalization of the Learning Metrics Task Force global recommendations. This two-year anchor grant supports general operating costs for The Center in order to: (1) continue research and dissemination of effective strategies for scaling learning innovations; (2) improve the collection and effective use of learning data for improved policy and planning; and (3) further new research on how governments can make better use of existing financial resources.

Support to the Center for Universal Education at the Brookings Institution will help to institutionalize the Learning Metrics Task Force recommendations in 15 Learning Champion countries and will support ongoing technical work for global learning indicators across the seven identified domains of learning. Together this work will continue to build support and leverage momentum at the international, regional, and national levels for inclusion of an access plus learning agenda in the post-2015 development agenda.

The Brookings Institution’s Center for Universal Education (CUE) works to develop and disseminate effective solutions to the many challenges that prevent children in developing countries from accessing universal quality education. The center provides a forum for on-going policy debates, independent research, and dialogue that works to highlight and advance the global education agenda.  The proposed grant builds on two previous grants to CUE, which supported efforts to develop the Global Compact on Learning, a common policy agenda that promotes quality learning for all, at the early childhood, primary, and post-primary levels. This next phase of work will focus on the institutionalization and tracking of implementation of the Global Compact on Learning agenda at the highest levels.

A one year grant of $430,000 to the Center for Universal Education at the Brookings Institution will support planning activities to advance the Global Compact on Learning, including designing a governance structure for multi-stakeholder collaboration and a research agenda on post-primary education.