Investing in implementation science, so ‘what works’ actually works in practice

Education is a key to jobs, growth and lifelong learning. Despite access to education expanding substantially, there remains a global learning crisis. While stubbornly persistent, this global learning crisis can be solved. Multiple evidence-based approaches have been shown to consistently improve learning, such as those identified by the Global Education Evidence Advisory Panel. Examples include targeting teaching instruction by learning level; using structured pedagogy, a combination of structured lesson plans, materials, and ongoing teacher support; and equipping parents and communities with information on the economic value of an education.

Now, the challenge is scaling these approaches with national governments, and implementing them with high implementation quality and fidelity. This requires aligning political incentives with the evidence as well as ensuring governance and data systems support consistent delivery at multiple levels, with a clear line of sight to the classroom.

A new partnership – the Implementation Science for Education (ISE) programme – aims to address this challenge. Implementation science refers to the implementation of science, ensuring what works gets delivered in practice. It also means building a science of implementation, systematically studying how to better ensure implementation happens well, so that quality implementation can be repeated at scale.

This partnership between the World Bank Foundational Learning Compact (FLC) and the What Works Hub for Global Education builds on years of strong collaboration between the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office and the World Bank.

The partnership provides small, highly leveraged grants and technical assistance alongside World Bank investments to governments, enhancing billions in education investments. The World Bank is one of the principal financiers of global education, with a $26.5 billion portfolio in 85 countries. These investments are made directly in government ministries with a focus on system strengthening, further leveraging domestic finance in each country, the largest source of financing in education.

World Bank education investments are ambitious, requiring full alignment with both ministries of education and ministries of finance, and often aim to deliver change on the ground at national scale. When implemented well, these investments can deliver enormous returns to society. Quality primary education is the foundation for higher levels of education as well as for jobs and a pathway out of poverty.

So, what can we do to ensure foundational learning for all? First, aligning evidence with the political incentives of a country, both at national and local levels, remains complex and challenging. Yet this alignment is essential. This might involve starting from what is politically salient, and then integrating the evidence, rather than starting from the perfect evidence-based intervention and then hoping that policymakers take it up. For example, if a government wants to procure and deploy new textbooks for students, which is often politically popular, a match can be made. This could involve ensuring textbooks are accompanied by structured lesson plans and ongoing teacher coaching and support, which the evidence shows make a big difference.

Another strategy to align political incentives with the evidence is to ensure learning outcomes – often invisible and unmeasured – are measured more regularly and accessibly, making learning more politically salient. Systematic study of political economy is a key focus of implementation science, helping unlock evidence uptake.

Even once good policies are in place and better aligned to ‘what works’, growing evidence shows that carrying plans into practice is a first-order issue. To close policy-practice gaps, there are key questions we need to be able to answer. How can we ensure ambitious initiatives and interventions are delivered with quality in classrooms? What stands between the design of teaching and learning materials and those materials reaching the hands of students on time? Are teachers able to follow through with structured lesson plans? How can we measure learning frequently and cheaply to enable teachers to better target their instruction? How can we spot challenges in real time to be able to course-correct and ensure impact is kept on track?

The Implementation Science for Education (ISE) partnership invests in implementation through a combination of small grants and technical assistance in a few key areas, drawing on global knowledge and expertise generated under the What Works Hub for Global Education, and conducted in close partnership with governments each step of the way. First, the programme is identifying constraints to implementation at scale through structured scalability assessments. Second, the programme is strengthening government data systems through real-time process monitoring of implementation fidelity. This helps identify breaks in the service delivery chain. Third, when challenges are spotted, solutions are proposed by governments and country teams, rolled out, and then pressure-tested using embedded nimble evaluation approaches such as A/B testing. This combined approach enables regular cycles of learning and adaptation, ensuring complex plans are delivered at quality on the ground. These efforts are embedded within large-scale government-led operations, strengthening and improving national education systems.

The Implementation Science for Education (ISE) efforts are already underway in several countries. In Nigeria, for example, the ISE programme is enhancing a government-led scale-up of structured pedagogy leveraging over $263 million in financing. In Ghana, the government is scaling up Differentiated Learning, which targets instruction to students’ learning level, to over 10,000 schools with $335 million committed to date. In each case, the ISE programme works with government leaders to conduct scalability assessments to align the evidence with political realities, measure implementation in real-time to identify bottlenecks and possible solutions, and rigorously test alternatives to propose improvements in the next phase of scale-up.

Crucially, in all cases, a focus on implementation is accompanied by a laser focus on outcomes, tracking learning both in the classroom and at scale. This type of regular measurement equips teachers on the ground to keep learning on track and aligns education systems around a shared goal: foundational learning outcomes for all.

Implementation science can help ensure that goals translate into outcomes, bringing us closer to realise the promise of schooling translating into learning. Stay tuned for future pieces which will share data and emerging lessons. Implementation is an iterative process, and we are just getting started.