100 INNOVATIONS AND CAPABILITIES
ECONOMICS
OF EDUCATION KNOWLEDGE HUB
UNSW RESEARCH
High-quality education is both a human right and a key driver of economic growth. Improving education requires rigorous quantitative analysis.
The mission of the Economics of Education Knowledge Hub is to provide robust evidence on educational interventions that improve student outcomes. For instance, in one of its projects( Cultural Context in Standardised Tests), the hub conducted a randomised controlled trial and found large effects of cultural context on performance in standardised reading tests in NSW schools.
The difference in performance on contextualised reading tests represents 33 per cent of the rural / urban gap and 50 per cent of the Indigenous / non- Indigenous gap.
> Real-world impact via closing education gaps.
> Improved academic performance.
> Established solid links with AECG and NSW DoE.
> Extensive media coverage.
In another project( Is fun a complement or a substitute in the education production function? An RCT) The Hub explores the impact of injecting pure fun / leisure in the education experience( like the choice of hats or pets for one’ s avatar in an online assignment) and find that female students can benefit from it educationally, while males instead get distracted. • 35