CEEE Holds Conference on Impact Evaluation in the Field of Education

From October 19th to 22nd, REAP's partner at Shaanxi Normal University, the Center for Experimental Economics in Education (CEEE), held a conference gathering representatives from 10 universities across China and more than 20 foundations, NGOs, and government education departments to exchange experiences regarding education development programs and impact evaluation in China. Founded in January of 2014, CEEE aims to raise the quality and effectiveness of education policy and projects throughout China not only by conducting action research, but also by leading training sessions to help other academic research teams, government officials, and NGO and foundation members understand the importance of evidence-based action and the core principles and basic methodology of impact evaluation.

During the conference, CEEE led the participants through a comprehensive training in impact evaluation and provided a forum for participants to share their own diverse experiences in the field of education development. Participants also visited a field site for one of REAP's Computer Assisted Learning projects in order to understand how impact evaluation is conducted in the field. Recalling the four day conference, one participant said, "Before, we all went out to look for the disease believing we already had the prescription in hand. Now we finally understand how to analyze the causal chain underlying a problem in order to find a real solution."

The first in a series of workshops, this conference marks a step forward in REAP's overarching goal to promote evidence-based action in China and bring about effective and cost-efficient education policies and programs for the benefit of rural China's children.