Unlocking the potential of middle-tier education governance for scaling impact in low- and middle-income countries

For those working to strengthen education in low- and middle-income countries by scaling promising education innovations, the “middle tier” of education systems represents a critical but underutilized opportunity. While central governments often have the power to set policy and allocate resources, and schools operationalize innovations into daily practice, it is the middle tier that serves as a bridge between the two. These regional, district, and local authorities support schools to translate policies into application, identify and adapt innovations to meet local needs, and communicate assets and challenges from the schools up to the central level. In this way, a strong and well-supported middle tier ensures that reforms are coherent, contextually grounded, and sustained over time—at least in theory.

Despite increasing attention over the past few years, however, the middle tier is not well-understood and its potential remains largely untapped. Increased understanding of its nuances, strengths, gaps, and opportunities is required to identify recommendations that will strengthen and leverage it for improved education systems in countries around the world.

On December 11, the Center for Universal Education (CUE) hosted a discussion on current and potential roles of the middle tier in scaling innovation and strengthening learning outcomes and share findings from the Research on Scaling the Impact of Innovations in Education (ROSIE) project, part of the Global Partnership for Education’s Knowledge and Innovation Exchange (KIX). Drawing on just-completed research and four case studies from El Salvador, the Kyrgyz Republic, Malawi, and Nepal, CUE Senior Fellow Brad Olsen presented findings from his new report, “Unlocking the potential of middle-tier education governance for scaling impact in low- and middle-income countries.” Following that, a panel discussion explored how to more fully engage mid-level officials in the work of identifying, adopting, piloting, contextualizing, and scaling innovations. This is important because recognizing and leveraging the middle-tier’s knowledge, expertise, and proximity to schools will help drive improvement in learning outcomes.

This event was held online in both English and Russian.

Русская запись доступна здесь.