Given South Africa’s weak performance in international testing programmes, there is a strong interest in gauging improvements within these programmes.
This paper estimates correspondence curves between mathematics and mathematical literacy scores for South African Matric Students from 2010 to 2018.
This small workshop largely involved RESEP researchers and people from the policymaking world. It was held at STIAS in July and funded from RESEP’s own resources.
This two-year project for the UK’s Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) will involve a number of researchers from outside RESEP, including Elizabeth (Lilly) Pretorius from Unisa, Cally Ardington of UCT, Nompumelelo Mohohlwane from the DBE, and Nwabisa Makaluza and Ngamso Mtsatse from Funda Wande. Some of the research links to the Early Learning Programme.
This project for the Department of Higher Education and Training involved writing this report on DHET’s behalf, analysing their own data.
In the last ten years, RESEP has expanded its health policy expertise to the point where it has built up substantial expertise and experience in the field. The group has differentiated themselves by focusing on the demand side, understanding healthcare from the perspective of the client. We have been involved in a variety of projects, but they have all been attempts to listen closely and anew to people’s stories – whether it be through primary data gathering or secondary data analysis.
Two recent papers by RESEP’s Martin Gustafsson look into, firstly, the historical trends between nations in children’s reading and mathematics performance and, secondly, their future projections. These are based on three international evaluations: PIRLS, PISA and LLECE.
The reduction of class size is frequently argued to be a relatively simple, cost-effective way to improve learner outcomes in a wide array of contexts. However, methodological concerns regarding the appropriate use of observational data and endogeneity have led to a lack of consensus on this relationship in the literature.
This paper will aim to answer three questions: (1) Are girls absent from school during their periods? (2) If so, how large is the effect of menstruation on absenteeism? (3) Do the effects differ by socio-economic status (SES)?
Socio-economic status and educational outcomes are strongly linked across countries and education systems. However, a growing body of research documents the existence of students from disadvantaged socio-economic backgrounds who manage to achieve exceptional academic results.
This paper analyses the SA-SAMS school administration data that the Michael and Susan Dell Foundation in partnership with the Department of Basic Education collects quarterly from schools in order to assess its usefulness for better understanding the school system.
Over the period 2016 to 2018, RESEP were engaged in a study titled “Leadership for Literacy” funded by the ESRC/DFID. The project resulted in the collection of new data on reading in three African languages. In this research impact brief published by the REAL Centre, University of Cambridge, and The Impact Initiative, the impact of this work to establish tentative benchmarks in African languages is highlighted.
RESEP led an introductory training course on quantitative data analysis for researchers in education in Stellenbosch from 11 to 15 November. The course was attended by 29 participants working in education, and included graduate students, researchers, NGO memebers and policymakers from across South Africa. Funding was provided by the Allan Gray Orbis Foundation Endowment as part of RESEP’s Early Learning Programme.
STIAS, Stellenbosch
26 November 2019
Wills, G., 2019. School leadership and management: Identifying linkages with learning and structural inequalities. In South African Schooling: The Enigma of Inequality (pp. 301-320). Springer, Cham.
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…
Burger, R., Christian, C.S., Gerdtham, U.G., Haal, K., Hompashe, D.M., Smith, A. and Schutte, A.E., 2019. Use of simulated patients to assess hypertension case management at public healthcare facilities in South Africa. Journal of hypertension.
Qu, H., Steinberg, R. and Burger, R., 2019. Abiding by the Law? Using Benford’s Law to Examine the Accuracy of Nonprofit Financial Reports. Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Quarterly, p.0899764019881510.
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