1 - Did we reach the 2015 global education goals? The UNESCO Education for All Global Monitoring Report just launched their final 2015 report (complete with slick data viz and video). There was acceleration in progress after 2000, but still some countries have a way to go, and we still don’t know enough about what kids are actually learning. 

2 - Great news from Nigeria, where a new citizen-led household education survey is being launched. If you’re in London next week you can hear in person at ODI about how these surveys are done in India and East Africa from some key players in the movement.

3 - Less good news from Tanzania, where, as Justin highlights, a new data law would criminalize publishing stats that are not endorsed by the National Bureau of Statistics (including those Uwezo surveys highlighting the learning crisis).

4 - In Pakistan, the group that runs citizen-led learning assessments is coordinating with government to explore how to implement the Brookings Learning Metrics Taskforce (LMTF) recommendations (see here for background on the LMTF).

5 - In the US, where standardized tests are increasingly being used for teacher and school accountability, 11 teachers and educators in Atlanta have been convicted of racketeering for supporting cheating on a test — a sentence with up to 20 years in prison.

6 - Looking at the outcomes of education, while it might be able to raise average earnings, education can't cut income inequality by much, at least in the United States, because inequality is being driven by the top 1 percent.

7 - The Global Partnership for Education (GPE) is accused of having "not substantively engaged with the issue of private education” because it is too controversial (unlike some of us, Justin). 

8 - Finally, for those of you on Twitter, we thought we’d share our lists of interesting education policy and research accounts to follow — Amanda’s is here and Lee’s is here. 

This blog first appeared on the CGD Website, 10 April 2015.