Educational Technology (EdTech) Evaluations

Using Edtech Solutions and Expert Mentoring to Improve Mental Health and Learning for Students in Armenia

• Country: Armenia
• Evaluation design: Randomized controlled trial to test interventions aiming to mitigate the adverse effects of displacement and conflict on students’ mental health and learning by equipping teachers with specialized training, an online platform and referral system to foster supportive classroom environments.
• Team: Lelys Dinarte-Diaz (World Bank), Renata Ramos (World Bank), Rony Rodriguez (Harvard University)

Optimal Design of Digital Early Childhood Development Interventions

• Country: Brazil
• Evaluation design: A multifactorial cluster RCT to evaluate the impacts of an AI chatbot providing activity suggestions to low‑income parents alongside
• Brazil’s home visiting program in Ceará on parenting practices and child development outcomes.
• Team: Julieta Trias (World Bank), Dana McCoy (Harvard University), Kenji Kitamura (Harvard University), Chika Ezeugwu (Harvard University), Jimmy Oliveira (Instituto de Pesquisa e Estratégia Econômica, State of Ceará, Brazil)

Leveling the Playing Field: Can Optimized Exam Preparation Boost Achievement on Burkina Faso's Primary School Exam?

• Country: Burkina Faso
• Evaluation design: Randomized controlled trial to examine the impacts of a scalable EdTech solution with a traditional paper-based approach on improving participation and performance in end-of-primary exam (CEP) and supporting the transition to lower-secondary school. Schools will be randomly assigned to: (1) Paper-based test prep (40 schools), receiving printed, context-tailored materials; or (2) Broadcast test prep (40 schools), offering similar content via pre-recorded segments projected in the classroom.
• Team: Damien de Walque (World Bank), Carolina Lopez (World Bank), Noah Yarrow (World Bank), Kaliope Azzi-Huck (World Bank), Hamidou Diallo (World Bank), Salamata Ouedraogo Sawadogo (World Bank)

Tech-Driven Parenting Support in Fragile Contexts

• Country: Colombia
• Evaluation design: Randomized controlled trial to evaluate a digital parenting program in Colombia to improve adolescents’ socioemotional skills, focusing on migrant families and conflict-affected internally displaced households. Parents complete an 18-hour self-paced course with multimedia content and optional coaching. A lighter WhatsApp-based version is also tested to compare effectiveness and scalability, especially for vulnerable, conflict-affected families, using flexible, low-cost delivery methods.
• Team: Sandra Rozo (World Bank), Lelys Dinarte-Diaz (World Bank)

Building targeted instruction into national personal learning platform

• Country: Cambodia
• Evaluation design: Randomized controlled trial evaluating impacts of different teacher-support models for implementing an online competency-based targeted instruction app, including structured in-person training alone and in-person training combined with virtual monitoring and structured implementation support from a central team.
• Team: Marla Spivack (World Bank), Sharnic Djaker (What Works Hub for Global Education & Blavatnik School of Government), Noam Angrist (What Works Hub for Global Education & Blavatnik School of Government), Fata No (World Bank), and Shwetlena Sabarwal (World Bank)

Digital tools for preschool educators and caregivers in rural areas

• Country: Ecuador
• Evaluation design: Randomized controlled trial evaluating impacts of digital behavioral supports layered onto an existing home-visiting program: (1) motivational messages and performance feedback for educators delivered through a tablet-based monitoring system, (2) SMS reminders of home stimulation activities for caregivers, or (3) both interventions combined.
• Team: Gabriella Conti (University College London), Alonso Quijano-Ruiz (University of Minnesota Twin Cities), Helena Rovner (World Bank), and Antonella Novali (World Bank)

Innovative Support for Children with Disabilities: High- and Low-Tech Approaches in Guinea

• Country: Guinea
• Evaluation design: Randomized controlled trial to test three interventions to support middle-school students with moderate auditory impairments: (1) no-tech front-row seating to improve access, (2) low-cost hearing aids to amplify speech, and (3) high-tech tablets with Whisper AI for real-time transcription.
• Team: Juan Baron (World Bank), Melissa Adelman (World Bank), Sophia M. D’Angelo (World Bank), Lauren Dahlin (World Bank)

Demand and supply side interventions to improve math skills

• Country: Indonesia
• Evaluation design: Randomized controlled trial evaluating impacts of complementary teacher- and parent-focused approaches to improving early-grade mathematics: (1) hybrid teacher training and mentoring on integrating real-world examples into instruction, (2) WhatsApp delivery of structured math activities for parents to use with their children, or (3) both interventions combined.
• Team: Emily Beam (University of Vermont), Gumilang Aryo Sahadewo (FEB Universitas Gadjah Mada), and Rigissa Megalokonomou (Monash University).

Addingschool-based access to nationwide AI-personal assistant

• Country: Jordan
• Evaluation design: Randomized controlled trial evaluating impacts of school-based access to and facilitation of the national AI tool (Siraj) for students, with an additional treatment arm providing teachers with student-learning analytics, suggested pedagogical activities, and a requirement to implement a follow-up activity, compared with home access to Siraj through parental devices.
• Team: Shwetlena Sabarwal (World Bank), Zaina Dawani (World Bank), and Surayya Masood (World Bank)

AI-assistance for winter school teachers in Baluchistan

• Country: Pakistan
• Evaluation design: Randomized controlled trial evaluating impacts of AI-assisted customized lesson planning, assessment, grading support, and coaching based on teachers’ lesson recordings in remote, multi-grade winter-school classrooms, compared with the status quo of limited or no winter-school attendance.
• Team: Saher Asad (World Bank), Siddharth Sharma (World Bank), Jonah Rexer (World Bank), Jishnu Das (Georgetown University), Ali Hamza (Georgetown University), and Inga Afanasieva (World Bank)

PK Tech for Teacher Support: A study of technology take-up and effectiveness to scale-up Targeted Instruction in Pakistan

• Country: Pakistan
• Evaluation design: Randomized controlled trial to test impacts of a low-cost, smartphone application (tech tool) designed to reduce the administrative burden of classroom management on student learning outcomes. The application was randomly assigned to teachers as a mandatory tech tool or an optional supplementary aid.
• Team: Juan Baron (World Bank), Tahir Andrabi (Pomona College), Tomoya Murakawa (Harvard Center for International Development), Zainab Qureshi (Beaj Education), and Isabel Macdonald (Irrational Labs).

Building meta-cognition into AI-assisted tutoring

• Country: Peru
• Evaluation design: Randomized controlled trial evaluating impacts of an AI-adaptive math tutor and AI career coach, with one treatment arm providing teachers access to a student analytics dashboard and another prompting students to engage more with the material by predicting and identifying errors.
• Team: Carolina Lopez (World Bank), Ezequiel Molina (World Bank), and Germán Reyes (Middlebury College)

Replacing in-school math block with AI-enabled adaptive practice once a week

• Country: Uzbekistan
• Evaluation design: Randomized controlled trial evaluating impacts of replacement of one Grade 5 math lesson per week with an AI-enabled adaptive practice session supervised by the teacher in a computer lab, with an additional treatment arm that trains and prompts teachers to use platform-generated student analytics.
• Team: Daniel Rodriguez-Segura (World Bank), Carolyn Pelnik (World Bank), Cristobal Cobo (World Bank), Yves Jantzem (World Bank), Tigran Shmis (World Bank), and Victoriya Babakhodjaeva (World Bank)

The Impact of digital supplemental education services on cognitive and social emotional learning: Evidence from Vietnam

• Country: Vietnam
• Team: Quy-Toan Do (World Bank)

Online tutoring during conflict-induced school disruptions

• Country: West Bank & Gaza
• Evaluation Design: Randomized controlled trial evaluating impacts of small-group online tutoring, delivered for three hours per week over 12 weeks, with additional treatment arms incorporating activities to strengthen shared identity and collective purpose or group-based performance evaluation and rewards.
• Team: Lelys Dinarte-Diaz (World Bank), Renata Lemos (World Bank), Maja Capek (World Bank), and James Gresham (World Bank)