This episode of the RISE Podcast features Luis Crouch, a member of RISE Research Directorate, and the Senior Economist at RTI’s International Development Group. In conversation with RISE Research Fellow Yue-Yi Hwa, he shares perspectives from his 30-year-career across development and education. They discuss the relationship between education and national development goals; socioeconomic development; the importance of purpose in education systems change; the interplay between national priorities and international agenda-setting in education; and the challenges of coordination and unintended consequences, including the effects that these can have in complex education systems. Links:  ‘How to Rapidly Improve Learning Outcomes at System Level?’ (Blog) by Crouch: https://riseprogramme.org/blog/improve-learning-outcomes-system-level (https://riseprogramme.org/blog/improve-learning-outcomes-system-level) ‘Systems Implications for Core Instructional Support Lessons from Sobral (Brazil), Puebla (Mexico), and Kenya’ (Insight Note) by Crouch: https://riseprogramme.org/publications/systems-implications-core-instructional-support-lessons-sobral-brazil-puebla-mexico (https://riseprogramme.org/publications/systems-implications-core-instructional-support-lessons-sobral-brazil-puebla-mexico) ‘Addressing Learning Inequality in Educational Systems Through Foundational Skills’ (Blog) by Rodriguez-Segura et al: https://riseprogramme.org/blog/learning-inequality-educational-systems-foundational-skills (https://riseprogramme.org/blog/learning-inequality-educational-systems-foundational-skills) ‘Looking Beyond Changes in Averages in Evaluating Foundational Learning: Some Inequality Measures’ (Working Paper) by Rodriguez-Segura et al: https://riseprogramme.org/publications/looking-beyond-changes-averages-evaluating-foundational-learning-some-inequality (https://riseprogramme.org/publications/looking-beyond-changes-averages-evaluating-foundational-learning-some-inequality) ‘Eliminating Global Learning Poverty: The Importance of Equalities and Equity’ (Working Paper) by Crouch, Rolleston and Gustafsson: https://riseprogramme.org/publications/eliminating-global-learning-poverty-importance-equalities-and-equity (https://riseprogramme.org/publications/eliminating-global-learning-poverty-importance-equalities-and-equity) ‘Using Learning Profiles to Inform Education Priorities: An Editors’ Overview of the Special Issue (Schooling Without Learning: Implications of Learning Profiles for the Global Learning Crisis’ by Crouch, Kaffenberger and Savage: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0738059321001309 (https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0738059321001309) ‘Special Issue: Schooling Without Learning: Implications of Learning Profiles for the Global Learning Crisis’ edited by Crouch, Kaffenberger and Savage, International Journal of Educational Development:https://www.sciencedirect.com/journal/international-journal-of-educational-development/special-issue/1035CNWP9N3 (https://www.sciencedirect.com/journal/international-journal-of-educational-development/special-issue/1035CNWP9N3) RISE Podcast episode with Dzingai Mutumbuka, Zimbabwe’s first post-independence Minister of Education and Culture: https://riseprogramme.org/podcast/dzingai-mutumbuka (https://riseprogramme.org/podcast/dzingai-mutumbuka) 

Guest biography: Luis Crouch is a member of RISE’s Research Directorate and Intellectual Leadership Team, and the senior economist at RTI’s International Development Group. He specialises in education policy, decentralised finance (e.g., funding formulas), political economy of reform, education statistics, planning, and projections. He has experience in all key areas of education data analysis, from the generation of primary data via surveys and citizen input, to statistical and econometric analysis, to evidence-based, Cabinet-level policy dialogue. He has previously worked at the World Bank and at the Global...