This policy brief compares educational progress among South African girls across the socioeconomic spectrum to shed some light on which girls are actually succeeding academically and which ones are being left behind.
RESEP education research has a strong emphasis on empirical research in a broad range of policy-related issues including teacher knowledge and training, early-childhood outcomes, accountability, socioeconomic status, and school effectiveness. Policy application is one of the central aims of the research.

Publications: Education
Wills, G. and van der Berg, S., 2020. Measuring school leadership and management and linkages with literacy: Evidence from rural and township primary schools in South Africa. Educational Management Administration & Leadership, p.1741143220915923.
Addressing the ‘leadership conundrum through a mixed methods study of school leadership for literacy
Taylor, N., Wills, G. and Hoadley, U., 2019. Addressing the ‘leadership conundrum ’through a mixed methods study of school leadership for literacy. Research in Comparative and International Education, 14(1), pp.30-53.
Abstract: This paper investigates a disruption hypothesis that student learning is lost as a direct consequence of teacher strike action in South Africa. At face…
Book: Improving Early Literacy Outcomes Chapter: Assessing Early Literacy Outcomes in Burkina Faso and Senegal: Using DHS and PASEC to Combine Access and Quality https://brill.com/view/title/55194?lang=en…
Spaull, N. (2019). Learning to Read and Write for Meaning and Pleasure. In Spaull, N. & Comings, J. (Eds), Improving Early Literacy Outcomes. Leiden, The Netherlands: Brill
Spaull, N. & Pretorius, E. (2019). Still Falling at the First Hurdle: Examining Early grade Reading in South Africa. In Spaull, N., & Jansen, J. (Eds), South African Schooling: The Enigma of Inequality. Springer Nature. Cham, Switzerland.
Spaull, N. (2019). Equity: A Price Too High to Pay? In Spaull, N., & Jansen, J. (Eds), South African Schooling: The Enigma of Inequality. Springer Nature. Cham, Switzerland.
Wills, G. and Hofmeyr, H., 2019. Academic resilience in challenging contexts: Evidence from township and rural primary schools in South Africa. International Journal of Educational Research, 98, pp.192-205.
ZUZE TL & JUAN A. (2018) School leadership and local learning contexts in South Africa. Educational Management Administration & Leadership.
JUAN A, ZUZE TL, HANNAN S, GOVENDER A & REDDY V. Bullies, victims and bully-victims in South African schools: Examining the risk factors. South African Journal of Education 2018; 3(8): S1-S10.
Wills, G., Shepherd, D., and Kotze, J. (2018). Explaining the Western Cape performance paradox: An econometric analysis, in The Politics and Governance of Basic Education: A Tale of Two South African Provinces (Ed. Levy, B., Cameron, R., Hoadley, U. and Naidoo, V.): Oxford University Press.
Shepherd, D.L. (2018). Understanding language in education and grade 4 reading performance using a ‘natural experiment’ of Botswana and South Africa. Assessment in Education: Principles, Policy & Practice, Special Issue: Assessment of Reading in International Studies, 25(1), 87-106.
Gustafsson, M. and Taylor, S., 2018. Treating Schools to a New Administration: Evidence of the Impact of Better Practices in the System-Level Administration of Schools. Journal of African Economies, 27(5), pp.515-537.
Spaull, N. (2017) Who makes it into PISA? Understanding the impact of sample eligibility using Turkey as a case study (PISA 2003- PISA 2012). OECD Education Working Papers, No. 154, OECD Publishing, Paris. DOI: https://dx.doi.org/10.1787/41d175fc-en
Introduction The Millennium Development Goals aimed to achieve universal access to primary education by 2015. Attendance rates in South Africa remain high, with 97% of…
Abstract: School leadership changes are gaining momentum in South Africa as larger proportions of incumbent principals near retirement age. While this presents opportunities to replace…
Abstract The aim of this article is to exploit an unusual occurrence whereby a large group of South African grade 3 students were tested twice,…
Abstract There has been a global increase in the number of girls studying mathematics but women still remain underrepresented in the scientific workforce. The…
Abstract In the absence of longitudinal data that track individuals over an extended period of time, information on childhood socio-economic status can be provided…