1. The trouble with incentives for student attendance - stopping incentives in India not only led to a decline in attendance, but a decline greater than baseline levels.
2. The FT highlights India's learning crisis using data from the ASER 2014 report, PISA 2009, and interviews from education experts Rukmini Banerji, Yamini Aiyar, and Esther Duflo. 
3. New paper using the SDI Africa data. Higher teacher knowledge is linked to higher student achievement. 
4. The Economist sums up recent UK school reforms, including a massive increase in school autonomy. A working paper by Machin & Vernoit (2011) at the LSE found some tentative positive impacts from an earlier pilot, but the key question remains unanswered - will [the impact] scale? 
5. Despite the buzz about high teacher turnover in the US, actually just ten percent of teachers leave teaching after a year. 
6. John Oliver goes to town on standardized testing in the US.  
7. RISE team members met at CGD in DC last week for lots of stimulating discussion and even an art project.

This blog originally appeared on the CGD Website 8 May 2015