Book Launch and Webinar: Improving National Education Systems after COVID-19

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Harry Patrinos, head of the Department of Education Reform, has co-authored a new book that provides a systematic and empirical assessment of COVID-19’s impact on education systems worldwide.

“We explore key actions taken to mitigate losses and suggest reforms that can help improve education in the future,” said Patrinos, the 21st Century Endowed Chair in Education Policy. “The book seeks to disentangle the effects of the pandemic from the long-term trends in education.”

The book, Improving National Education Systems After COVID-19 — Moving Forward After PIRLS 2021 and PISA 2022, will officially launch with an online webinar at 11:30 a.m. CST on Monday, Nov. 4. The event will be an opportunity to reflect on the state and challenges of education. Registration is now open.

Joana Pais, vice president of ISEG at the University of Lisbon, will serve as moderator. Panelists are Patrinos; Nuno Crato, research professor at CEMAPRE/ISEG at the University of Lisbon; Distinguished Professor of Education Policy Patrick Wolf from the University of Arkansas, and other co-authors of the book.

The book analyzes the statistical results of the International Progress in International Reading Literacy Study 2021 and the Programme for International Student Assessment 2022, which measured the reading, mathematics and science performance of students in 12 countries, including Chile, Ecuador, England, Estonia, Italy, the Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, South Africa, Spain and the United States.

Based on recently released statistics, the book examines the impact of the pandemic on student learning, highlighting significant variations across countries in learning losses and education policy effectiveness. It offers an overview of the approaches that have proven most effective in overcoming educational challenges and suggests data-driven strategies to guide future advances in education.

The book is open access and can be downloaded for free here: Improving National Education Systems After COVID-19.

Patrinos co-edited the book with Crato, the former minister of education in Poland. Patrinos is an internationally recognized expert in K-12 education policy and has three decades of leadership experience across various fields, including management, international organizations, research, economic analysis and government. He joined the College of Education and Health Professions on Aug. 12, following a successful career at the World Bank, where he served as a senior adviser for education.

Patrinos said this is one of the first, or maybe the first, published volumes to provide a global assessment of the devastating impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on student learning as measured by independent international comparative surveys. It compiles diverse scenarios, including countries that are high performers, countries that perform at the OECD mean, and countries that are struggling to attain the OECD average.

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