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Learning and Doing Policy Analysis in EducationM

aria Teresa Tatto (Ed.)

Learning and Doing Policy Analysis in EducationExamining Diverse Approaches to Increasing Educational Access

Maria Teresa Tatto (Ed.)

Spine16.18 mm

C O M P A R A T I V E A N D I N T E R N A T I O N A L E D U C AT I O N : A D I V E R S I T Y O F V O I C E S

S e n s e P u b l i s h e r s C A I E 1 7

ISBN 978-94-6091-931-2

Learning and Doing Policy Analysis in Education

Examining Diverse Approaches to Increasing Educational Access

Maria Teresa Tatto (Ed.)Michigan State University

This book originated in a policy analysis class at Michigan State University taught during 2010. Using Professor Tatto’s unique approach to teaching policy analysis, the professor and students agreed to construct a class that represented a reflective and grounded experience in the policy analysis of a current and relevant issue with global ramifications; we began exploring policies that were developed at the global level and that were implemented locally. We investigated the surge of globally developed standards and regulations in an effort to improve education.

Our goal was to learn cross-nationally about policies that seek to reform curriculum and instruction under efficiency and global competitiveness arguments, such as Education for All (EFA) and its USA cousin No Child Left Behind (NCLB). We knew our work would be bounded by the time available in a one-semester class, and by resource constraints. We did exploratory inquiry supported by literature reviews, reports on rigorous research studies, and in one case an exploratory case study.

The policies we chose to explore, such as EFA and NCLB, offered us the opportunity to examine current reform tendencies that are intended to provide access to quality education for all children, the preparation of teachers to support diverse populations, the organization of schools to accommodate these children in response to vague policy mandates, and power issues affecting the different constituencies and stakeholders. The effects of these and other policies were difficult to track because research is scant and decisions are frequently made based on ideology or political persuasion.

Our purpose was to explore the critical issues that originated such policies, and to search for documented evidence regarding policy implementation and effectiveness. We investigated the factors that seemed to interfere with successful implementation, from conceptual, theoretical, and methodological perspectives. In this class we learned that there are not ready-set frameworks for policy analysis, but rather that these have to be constructed according to the issues that emerge as policies are conceptualized and implemented to fit local contexts and needs. The book pays particular attention to the contexts of policy, including the evolving conceptualization of global and local systems of governance, knowledge regimes, and policy spaces.

The book is designed for faculty and doctoral students in education who are interested in understanding diverse frameworks for policy analysis, and for those in the general public who are interested in the policies we analyze here.

C O M P A R A T I V E A N D I N T E R N A T I O N A L E D U C AT I O N : A D I V E R S I T Y O F V O I C E S

Learning and Doing Policy Analysis in Education

COMPARATIVE AND INTERNATIONAL EDUCATION: A Diversity of Voices Volume 16 Series Editors Allan Pitman University of Western Ontario, Canada Vandra Masemann University of Toronto, Canada Miguel A. Pereyra University of Granada Editorial Board Mark Bray, International Institute for Educational Planning, Paris, France Ali Abdi, University of Alberta, Canada Christina Fox, University of Wollongong, Australia Steven Klees, University of Maryland, USA Nagwa Megahed, Ain Shams University, Egypt Crain Soudain, University of Cape Town, South Africa David Turner, University of Glamorgan, England Medardo Tapia Uribe, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de Mexico Scope Comparative and International Education: A Diversity of Voices aims to provide a comprehensive range of titles, making available to readers work from across the comparative and international education research community. Authors will represent as broad a range of voices as possible, from geographic, cultural and ideological standpoints. The editors are making a conscious effort to disseminate the work of newer scholars as well as that of well-established writers. The series includes authored books and edited works focusing upon current issues and controversies in a field that is undergoing changes as profound as the geopolitical and economic forces that are reshaping our worlds. The series aims to provide books which present new work, in which the range of methodologies associated with comparative education and international education are both exemplified and opened up for debate. As the series develops, it is intended that new writers from settings and locations not frequently part of the English language discourse will find a place in the list

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A C.I.P. record for this book is available from the Library of Congress.

ISBN: 978-94-6091-931-2 (paperback) ISBN: 978-94-6091-932-9 (hardback) ISBN: 978-94-6091-933-6 (e-book)

Published by: Sense Publishers, P.O. Box 21858, 3001 AW Rotterdam, The Netherlands https://www.sensepublishers.com/

Printed on acid-free paper

All Rights Reserved © 2012 Sense Publishers

No part of this work may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, microfilming, recording or otherwise, without written permission from the publisher, with the exception of any material supplied specifically for the purpose of being entered and executed on a computer system, for exclusive use by the purchaser of the work.

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

Acknowledgement vii

1. On Constructing a Framework for Policy Analysis in the Global Era 1 Maria Teresa Tatto

2. Is Poverty Reduction Enough? 13 Justin L. Bruner

3. The Effectiveness of Policy and Practice for “Universal Primary Education” Within Education for All 41 Fida H Chang

4. School Capacity the Neglected Paradigm in EFA Movement 61 Andleeb Sharif

5. Achieving Education for All –Together 93 Nai-Cheng Kuo

6. The Effect of the No Child Left Behind Accountability Mechanisms on Middle School Mathematics Teaching and Student Performance 117 Tara Kintz

7. Teacher Perceptions of Curriculum Under No Child Left Behind 163 Sandra K. Pylvainen

8. The Implementation of Mathematical Literacy as a New Subject in the South African Curriculum 207 Corvell Cranfield

9. The Reach and Possibilities of Educational Reform for the Rural Poor in Mexico 233 Maria Teresa Tatto

10. Scholarly Teaching 253 Maria Teresa Tatto, Justin Bruner, Fida Hussain Chang, Corvell Cranfield, Tara Miyoko Kintz, Nai-Cheng Kuo, Sandra Pylvainen and Andleeb Sharif

Appendix 267

Notes on Contributors 295

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Acknowledgement

We acknowledge the valuable help of Dr. Douglas Campbell of the College of Education's Office of Student Writing Assistance for helping us improve our manuscripts.

Maria Teresa Tatto, (Ed.), Learning and Doing Policy Analysis in Education: Examining Diverse Approaches to Increasing Educational Access, 1–12. © 2012 Sense Publishers. All rights reserved.

CHAPTER 1

MARIA TERESA TATTO

On Constructing a Framework for Policy Analysis in the Global Era

The Effects Of The Global Introduction Of Performance Standards And Regulations To Promote And Improve Education For All

How is education policy made? What choices are preferable, for whom, in what context, and for what purpose? How are competing choices investigated before they are made into policy? In other words, how are current and potential policies analyzed to produce “usable knowledge”? How does policy analysis serve to enlighten current thinking, future policy studies, and prospective policy making?1 This book originated in a policy analysis class taught during 2010, “TE 919: Policy Analysis in Education2,” a course that seeks to engage doctoral students with the conception, generation, and analysis of educational policies in a number of contexts, such as diverse levels of governance across national settings, and it includes the examination of the ethics, uses and limitations of policy analysis. In this course the professor follows a “problem centered” approach to engage students individually and as a group with policy analysis. The approach is based on the idea that students learn better from their own experiences as they select a policy issue and then actively struggle to understand the complexity of designing, implementing, and assessing social policy, within the learning community of the class. The first day of class, the professor and students agree to create a course designed to represent a reflective and grounded experience in policy analysis on a current and relevant issue with global ramifications; we begin by exploring policies that have been developed at the global level and implemented locally. In this class in particular, we investigated the surge of globally developed standards and regulations in an effort to improve education for all. Our goal was to learn cross-nationally about policies that promote standardization in education such as the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), Education for All (EFA) and its cousin in the United States of America, No Child Left Behind (NCLB), and similar policies that seek to reform curriculum and instruction under efficiency and global competitiveness arguments. We knew our work would be bounded by the time available in a one-semester class, and by resource constraints. We did exploratory inquiry supported by

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literature reviews, reports of rigorous research studies, and in one case an exploratory case study. The policies we chose to explore, such as MDGs, EFA and NCLB, offered us the opportunity to examine current reform tendencies that provide access to quality education for all children, prepare teachers and organize schools to accommodate children in response to vague policy mandates, and affect different constituencies and stakeholders. The effects of these and other policies were difficult to track as the research on them is scant, and decisions are often made based on impressionistic information, ideology or political persuasion. Our purpose was to begin to explore the critical issues that originate such policies, and to investigate how much the effectiveness with which they have achieved their intended outcomes has been documented. Similarly, we worked to investigate the factors that seem to interfere with successful implementation. We began with the idea that policy analysis relies on the assumption that policy actors are rational, and that if available they would use valid and reliable information to design or improve policy, staying away from approaches that have proven untenable. Thus, this course explored what it takes to produce “usable knowledge” within the frameworks of the social sciences. We uncovered in examinations of the available literature that rigorous policy studies are scarce, and when they are available they often fail to assess comprehensively the effectiveness of the policy in question. Through engagement with on-going (or “living) policies, we learned that there are not ready-set frameworks for policy analysis but that rather these have to be constructed according to the issues that emerge from lived experiences as policies when implemented are adjusted to fit local contexts and needs. As waves of educational reform bring about the development of innovative ways to address the many shortcomings of schooling, there is increased public interest in understanding whether and how old and current policy have had the expected results, and whether the social investment in these innovations is cost-effective. The call to document the projected and actual effectiveness of policies at all levels of the system in the context of shrinking resources has rapidly evolved into systems of accountability and regulation, a global dynamic that is bound to increase over the next decade.

ON THE EMERGENCE OF PERFORMANCE STANDARDS AND REGULATIONS

The nature of policy making in the USA and globally is changing dramatically. Increasing requirements for accountability at all levels of education systems necessitate not only that policy be informed by valid and reliable data but that once implemented, policies be subject to scrutiny through systematic analysis, assessment, and evaluation. What we will call in this book the “new culture of accountability” in education, is emerging as a global phenomenon. A key tool for the implementation of accountability cultures in policy making is the assessment of outcomes; and assessment systems are also of a global character. For instance, a number of international evaluations of student progress have shown

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that high achieving countries also have a more knowledgeable teaching force and a more coherent and centralized curriculum. These results, however, also show that success is heavily dependent on context, culture and content. National policy in countries across the world has become increasingly reliant on these global trends that have been uncovered by IEA studies such as TIMSS, PIRLS, ICCS, and TEDS-M and by OECD studies such as PISA and TALIS, and policy makers have turned to the development of curriculum standards and regulations used by high achieving systems as policy tools to improve their educational system’s performance. But while these studies concentrate on measuring outcomes, the processes of policy implementation are not as readily documented (the IEA has taken an important step in that direction by sponsoring the TEDS-M study that explored both process and outcomes). Thus exploring processes and how these are linked with outcomes is an important and under researched area susceptible to policy study. The study of policy implementation—as the process of implementation is on-going—is a crucial step in producing “just in time useable knowledge” likely to provide feedback to policy makers as the study progresses, in what Tatto calls the production of reflective usable knowledge (Tatto, 2011).

ON THE ROLE OF POLICY ANALYSIS

Consultation of rigorous policy studies unfortunately has not always been considered a requirement to generate and inform policy development and implementation. But even if consultation were to be deemed a requirement, existing studies may fail to inform due to a variety of causes, which can range from the poor conceptualization of the study to its poor methodology and/or execution. In this class one important lesson we learned is that policy analysis is necessary not only prior to the development and execution of a policy but also prior to the full conceptualization and execution of a policy study itself. Three key ideas were pursued in this course: the conceptualization of policy analysis as producing useable knowledge to inform decision making, program implementation and improvement, and the design of future policy studies; the use of theory: institutional, governance, and global to frame policy analysis; and the notion that policy analysis must be based on rigorous policy studies that have used the methods of the social sciences.

THE FOCUS OF THIS BOOK

This book examines education access policies some see as “soft mandates,” such as EFA and others that are backed up by legislation, such as NCLB, and that operate in a context of increased accountability as a result of globalization influences mediated by the state, local institutions and individuals. While all these policies are concerned with increasing access to education or improving educational quality, they take different forms. Consistent with the influence of globalization, the chapters in this book explore the effects of introducing performance standards via the MDG, EFA, and similar policies such as the NCLB in the USA.

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This book is not a synthesis of the policy analysis literature. With the exception of the section that immediately follows this section and the course syllabus included in the appendix to this chapter, the book does not provide a detailed description on how to do policy analysis. Instead, the authors share the results of actually doing policy analysis and engaging with “living policies” while grappling with the available research and following the good advice from authorities in the field. Much can be learned from this book by studying how each contributor has engaged the analysis of a selected policy. Two important overall insights from the analysis presented in the chapters are worth highlighting. First, the policies under analysis represent ongoing challenges for many governments, consume a large amount of financial and human resources, and affect millions of people. Yet we know little about their effectiveness, as a sense of urgency built within these policies pushes for quick implementation, often lacking a deliberate evaluation process to monitor progress toward goals. Typically reports of progress are submitted to comply with funding agencies requests but these often are impressionistic and do little to provide useful feedback to those who are in charge of implementing the policy. Second, and paradoxically while the number of policy studies has increased as a result of accountability mandates, many of these do not follow rigorous methodologies to answer questions as to whether and how policies are having the desired effect. In sum, rigorous and valid formative and summative feedback on policy implementation is a problem. This book provides feedback on how to think about policy making and implementation—interestingly, a common conclusion of the analyses across the chapters in the book is that lack of policy specificity on the process of policy implementation should be a source of concern across these policies.

OUR APPROACH TO DOING POLICY ANALYSIS

In the course we follow a progressive approach to policy analysis in which each phase of the analysis materializes into a paper, which is then integrated into a full final paper (see syllabus in the appendix). We follow three key strands in our work.

Conceptualization of the Policy Problem and its Context

Students begin by identifying a policy that they are interested in analyzing, this task is followed by a more challenging task, namely, the identification of the social problem that the policy is designed to address. The guiding texts required to inform this task are Bardach (2000) and Weiss (1998), and students are required to collect documents describing the policy–and/or program that has resulted from the policy in question. A condition for policy selection is that students either have experience with the policy (many are foreign students who work in the ministry of education of their home country, and thus policy selection also means that they will find a more immediate use for their policy analysis paper) or are willing to engage in understanding the policy with enough depth during a semester course


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(e.g., some see the policy as an area that they would like to pursue in their doctoral work, such as in future course work or in their dissertation research). Achieving clear understandings of the history and social context of the policy is considered an essential part of the policy analysis process, and this includes finding answers to a series of questions such as (a): How did the policy come to be and what was happening (locally & globally) at the time that made it necessary for the policy to originate? (b) What are the social and political contexts in which the policy is operating? (c) How effectively (or not) has this policy addressed the problem so far (according to the research and other accounts that are readily available)? (d) What changes or adjustments have been made to the original policy? Relevant texts we use in this phase are Darling-Hammond (2010), Kingdon (2010), Brighouse (2006), and relevant policy documents describing the policy and/or program.

The Role of Theory in Policy Analysis

While establishing the origin, history, and context of the policy is a demanding and necessary task, the most challenging phase of the analysis begins with the identification of the policy-theory-in-action, or in other words, documenting how the policy is expected to work. This is a key contribution of policy analysis because policies are usually stated in vague and general terms, and with Lipsky (1980) we understand that policy only fully comes into being once it is implemented (e.g., when it becomes what Weiss, 1972, calls a program). Thus a policy may take different forms once on the ground, and it may indeed end up addressing problems different to those for which it was designed. Thus the identification of the policy’s theory-in-action becomes a normative task and the framework that will be used to judge its (potential or actual) effectiveness. The position in this course is that this normative task precedes a policy study (and should ideally precede policy implementation) and needs to gather input not only from official policy documents, but also from those who have and will participate in any of the stages of policy design, development, implementation, and evaluation. While in this course we are limited by time and resources and can rarely go to the field, students who use the course to develop their practicum or dissertation proposals do engage participants in the interactive process of exploring the policy’s theory-in-action. The guiding texts in this phase of the policy analysis process are Majchrzak (1984), Resnick et al. (2007), and Weiss (1998). In addition to the policy-theory-in-action, we explore the role of another kind of theory. While the literature on policy analysis rarely mentions the need to outline perspectives or theoretical frameworks used to analyze policies, the framework or view point of the analysis is essential because one important assumption in this course is that policy analysis is influenced by multidisciplinary perspectives which bring assumptions as to what is and is not relevant to the analysis task. Perspectives that frame the analysis may emerge from theories originating in disciplines such as sociology, economics, anthropology, and psychology, among others. Relevant texts we use for this theoretical section on

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policy analysis are: Anderson-Levitt (2003), Cummings (1999), Kjaer (2004), Stromquist and Monkman (2000), Tatto (2008), Tatto (2009), and Perrow (1986), among others.

UNDERSTANDING THE METHODS AND MODES OF INQUIRY OF THE SOCIAL SCIENCES

Because in this course we have limited time to implement an actual research study on the policies of interest, our source of data are findings from policy studies found in the relevant literature. This class therefore requires that students have a thorough understanding of the methods and modes of inquiry of the social sciences. In addition, it is necessary for them to understand the standards for what is an acceptable research report (see Shavelson and Towne, 2002) to be included as a “data source” or “evidence” to support the analysis. Relevant texts we use to guide us in this phase of the analysis are Booth, Colomb and Williams (2008), Shavelson and Towne (2002), Weiss (1998), and Pallas (1993), for examples of how to do a rigorous literature review. Students then undertake a literature review of rigorous policy studies with guidance from MSU librarian Kate Corby. The results of the policy analysis coalesce in the phase on reflection and recommendations for policy. Next to the definition of the policy problem, the definition of the policy-theory-in-action, and the collection of sound research studies, this phase of policy analysis is the most important contribution of the analysis. The recommendations for policy must emerge from valid and reliable information, such as the analysis of research reports within the frameworks provided by the policy-theory-in-action and by relevant theory. This section of the policy report that each student produces includes the description of the challenges to goal attainment and of the possible alternatives to the current policy. Relevant texts we use are Bardach (2000), Resnick et al. (2007), and Weiss (1998); we also use Shavelson and Towne (2002) and Tatto (2002) to describe the scientific or scholarly significance of the policy analysis. At the end students in this class have achieved remarkable progress in their growth as emergent policy scholars. As their papers will show they are able to conceptualize a policy problem, state researchable questions, develop a well grounded theory of action, find rigorous evidence in recognized databases, analyze critically the resulting studies according to the standards of the social sciences (e.g., possible threats to validity, sample representativeness, etc.), come up with viable policy alternative based on evidence from research studies existing in the field, and are able to conceptualize possible further research on specific and important yet under-studied issues.

THE CONTENTS OF THIS BOOK

The framework of the book is organized according to the main threads in the process of policy analysis described above: conceptual, theoretical, and methodological aspects. In this chapter, (Chapter 1) entitled On Constructing a Framework for Policy Analysis in the Global Era: the Effects of the Global


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Introduction of Performance Standards and Regulations to Promote and Improve Education for All, Maria Teresa Tatto introduces these strands and the overall approach to policy analysis she uses in her course. Each chapter applies the approach to a particular country case. In Chapter 2, entitled Is Poverty Reduction Enough? Lessons from Bolsa Familia in Brazil, Justin Bruner argues that while the improvement of the human condition, especially in developing countries, has been an explicit and universal policy aim (UDHR) for more than 60 years, we still know surprisingly little about ways to effectively impact the living conditions of the poorest citizens, as evidenced by the millions of people still living in poverty. The Millennium Declaration has renewed the global focus on human development by looking at conditions as they pertain to income, education, health, and discrimination. Many nations have now aligned their development programs in this vein, and Brazil is one such example with the program called Bolsa Familia, which seeks to leverage poverty reduction, increased education, increased health, and increased income all in a single program. This chapter reviews evidence available from policy documents and national statistics, and it concludes that while the program has been successful in poverty reduction, the other effects are muted at best. The results of this policy analysis suggest that before considering an additional expansion of the politically popular program, more research should be conducted around the program’s long run impact, quality of services, and the sustainability of Bolsa Familia in the Brazilian context. Analysis of the Brazilian case suggests that further research is needed on the comparative effects of conditional cash transfers programs in a global context. In Chapter 3 The Effectiveness of Policy and Practice for “Universal Primary Education” within Education for All: the Case of Pakistan, Fida Hussein Chang argues that amid the intense drive around the world to achieve education for all for close to a decade, Pakistan is still struggling to achieve significant success in providing “universal primary education”. Hence, to make well-informed future policy decisions and actions at this critical juncture, it is imperative to study what worked, what did not work, and why. This chapter presents the results of an analysis of the effectiveness of national policies and plans to achieve “universal primary education” within the framework of EFA goals in Pakistan, with the goal to inform future policy decisions and research. The data came from analysis of documents, including Government of Pakistan policy/plan documents, UNESCO reports and data bases, and published empirical sources. The analysis reveals low achievement on the target of “universal primary education,” as indicated by a net primary enrollment of 66%, and a primary completion rate of 56%, with remarkable disparities among urban and rural and male and female groups (2007–2008). It appears that different reasons account for low achievements, such as inefficiency to attend the poverty-stricken population, failure to address resistance to the aims of EFA from traditional segments of society, failure to devolve administrative power at the grassroots level, low allocation and under-utilization of the education budget, and bureaucratic governance of education dominated by political interest groups. The chapter concludes with recommendations for future policy and research within the Pakistani context.

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In Chapter 4, Andleeb Sharif continues the examination of the successes and challenges of EFA, this time in Bangladesh. The chapter, entitled The Impact of Education for All on Educational Development at the Primary Level: the Case of Bangladesh, outlines the two major policies developed by the government of Bangladesh, namely the National Plan of Action I (1990–2000) and the National Plan of Action II (2003–2015), to meet EFA’s goal of universal primary education in terms of access, retention, and quality of education for every child at the primary school level regardless of gender, ethnicity, and socio-economic class. Recent reports indicate that Bangladesh has made tremendous progress in achieving the target of increased enrollment (97.65%) with gender parity. However, increasing drop out ratios (50.5%) and evidence of poor educational quality, particularly in economically underprivileged areas, are still a challenge. The analysis presented in this chapter was aimed at evaluating the effectiveness of the National Plan of Action II (2003–2015) and identifying the factors which might have hindered attaining the goals of retention and quality of education at the primary level using the method of document analysis, policy documents issued by the government of Bangladesh and statistical reports from UNESCO, UNICEF, and the World Bank. The concept of School Capacity was used to frame the analysis presented in this chapter. The conclusion argues for the need to build school capacity as a key policy instrument to increase school enrollment while achieving the goals of retention and quality in Bangladesh. In chapter 5, entitled Achieving Education for All–together: A Comparative Study on Inclusive Education Policies in the United States and in Taiwan, N.C. Kuo argues that the goals of EFA are to provide education to all people, from children to adults, yet the question as to whether special populations are receiving inclusive education under EFA has not been fully explored. According to UNESCO (2010), inclusive education is “based on the right of all learners to a quality education that meets basic learning needs and enriches lives…[f]ocusing particularly on vulnerable and marginalized groups, it seeks to develop the full potential of every individual.” Inclusive education has been clearly identified as a strategy to reach the EFA goals in the Dakar Framework for Action. This chapter presents the results of an analysis of the formation and enforcement of laws for inclusive education under EFA. The data used included historical, theoretical, and policy documents concerning inclusive education in the U.S. and Taiwan. The analysis examined the inputs, process, outcomes, and context of inclusive education policies in the two countries. Three research questions are addressed in this chapter: 1) what are the historical and theoretical backgrounds underlying the policies of inclusive education in the U.S. and in Taiwan; 2) what are the practices that fulfill the requirements of the policies of inclusive education in the U.S. and in Taiwan; and 3) what are the challenges for policy-makers in inclusive education in the U.S. and in Taiwan? Recommendations for improving the effectiveness of inclusive education policies and for achieving the EFA goals in the U.S. and Taiwan are provided. In Chapter 6, on The Effect of No Child Left Behind Accountability Mechanisms on Middle School Math Teaching and Student Performance, Tara M. Kintz


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examines the No Child Left Behind policy in the USA. On March 13th, the Obama Administration released its blueprint for the revision of the Elementary and Secondary School Act (also known as the No Child Left Behind Act, NCLB), a policy that seeks to reform education using a standards-based model; it is based on the belief that setting uniformly high standards for all students will improve their performance. NCLB established the requirement for all states to create assessments aligned to challenging state standards in order to receive federal funding. This chapter analyzes the impact of the NCLB’s accountability mechanisms on middle school mathematics teaching and learning. The ultimate outcome of NCLB is to promote improved student achievement and to reduce the achievement gap among student groups. The reform aims to achieve this goal through aligning curriculum and instructional practices with standards and assessments. A review of the current academic research up to fall 2010, on the impact of NCLB accountability mechanisms on student scores in middle school mathematics, on teaching, and on the alignment of content with the standards, showed that it is difficult to determine the impact of NCLB on student learning, given the general rise in National Assessment of Educational Progress scores over time. The limited rigorous studies available show few changes in teaching practices; however, more specific evidence is presented on the importance of teacher knowledge and related proxies of teacher quality. Recommendations are made for policy and for further research on the influence of NCLB accountability mechanisms. In chapter 7, Sandra K. Pylvainen continues the examination of the No Child Left Behind policy by using a critical perspective and by asking a group of local teachers about their views. In her chapter, entitled Teacher Perceptions of Curriculum Reform under No Child Left Behind, she documents how the push to produce data to demonstrate compliance with NCLB mandates has resulted in test-aligned-curricula at the expense of teacher input on instruction tailored to pupils’ learning needs. This chapter looks at the theoretical basis for test-aligned curricula and follows the process from inputs to intended outputs: effective instruction and student learning. The chapter compares the reform’s intended outcomes to actual data results from one Michigan school district whose secondary schools have increasingly incorporated test-aligned curricula for the past five years. In addition, results from a survey on teachers’ perceptions of the test-aligned curriculum are analyzed. Findings indicate that the curriculum has not proven significantly effective, according to the state’s standardized Michigan Educational Assessment Program (MEAP) scores, in improving student learning. Furthermore, the survey of teacher perceptions indicates that the reform may be detrimental to teacher morale due to the pressure of prescribed curriculum that is tied to tests on a closely-paced basis. The results of this policy analysis suggest that the USA policy to increase quality must find a balance between developing lean standards and supporting highly proficient, educated teachers. In chapter 8, Corvell G. Cranfield discusses the introduction of an outcomes based mathematics curriculum and its implications in South Africa, in his chapter entitled The Implementation of Mathematical Literacy as a New Subject in the South African Curriculum. In 2008 the first cohort of matriculates from the

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National Senior Certificate (NSC) wrote the first Mathematical Literacy (ML) examination. The introduction of an Outcomes-Based Education paradigm via ML as a new subject in the South African curriculum in 2006 posed a range of challenges to both teachers and students. Two years after the introduction of this curriculum, many educators questioned the utility and academic value of ML and others remarked that teachers do not have the capacities to engage and teach this new curriculum. The analysis revealed that the structure of the ML curriculum (both in design and in mathematical content) focuses more on reaching the minimum achievable standards in the South African context for both teachers and students, than on providing students with the mathematical knowledge and skills required for equal access to a wide range of future career choices. The success of this policy to support the goals of providing better and equal education to all South African citizens is at best tenuous, given the narrow way in which it was conceptualized. The data for this chapter came from policy documents, and the analysis of the new curriculum used the NCTM standards. The chapter concludes with the recommendation that a systematic and rigorous study is needed to understand better the impact of the new curriculum against the goal of improving the mathematical proficiency of students to compete in a global economy. In Chapter 9, Maria Teresa Tatto reprints a chapter entitled The Reach and Possibilities of Educational Reform for the Rural Poor in México, which examines Mexico’s policies to provide education for all, in particular for children of the rural poor. She questions assumptions about education that apply more to urban populations and examines how these assumptions have failed to provide access to education for rural populations. She suggests that compulsory early childhood education is one obvious avenue for these children (complementing policies such as Federalizacion3 and others part of the National Agreement to Modernize Basic Education) to correct centuries of injustice and neglect. She discusses the implications of this analysis within the context of the decentralization of education and the growing discontent among the rural poor. In an addendum to this chapter, she points out that current research on cognition shows the importance of early childhood education, thus giving fresh support to her recommendations. In Chapter 10, Maria Teresa Tatto and her students present their collective reflections as a community of learners in TE 919 in their chapter entitled Scholarly Teaching: Learning and Doing Policy Analysis in Education. We document how this course and this book are attempts at contributing to developing both scholarly teaching, and a scholarship of teaching and learning (Shulman, 2000). According to Shulman “scholarly teaching is teaching that is well grounded in the sources and resources appropriate to the field. It reflects a thoughtful selection and integration of ideas and examples, and well-designed strategies of course design, development, transmission, interaction and assessment. Scholarly teaching should also model the methods and values of a field, avoiding dogma and the mystification of evidence, argument and warrant.” (2000, p. 50); further he argues that “we develop a scholarship of teaching when our work as teachers becomes public, peer-reviewed and critiqued, and exchanged with other members of our professional communities so they, in turn, can build on our work” (2000, p.50).


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AUDIENCE FOR THIS BOOK

The book is designed for faculty and advanced doctoral students in education who are interested in understanding diverse frameworks for policy analysis, and to those in the general public who are interested in the policies we analyze here. The book introduces important and current research on education policy as a shared context for learning, and it contributes to increasing the depth and breadth of understanding educational issues within the methods of the social sciences.

NOTES

1 According to the Oxford English Dictionary (2011) the following terms are used: policy: “a. The art, study, or practice of government or administration; the conduct of public affairs; political science; A principle or course of action adopted or proposed as desirable, advantageous, or expedient; esp. one formally advocated by a government, political party, etc. Also as a mass noun: method of acting on matters of principle, settled practice; policymaker: n. a person responsible for or involved in policy-making; policy-making: n. and adj. (a) n. the devising of policies, esp. by a government or political party; (b) adj. that makes or is associated with the making of policy” (Oxford English Dictionary Online [http://www.oed.com; consulted 11/26/2011]. According to Hambrick (1998), policy studies could be defined as the combination of policy analysis and program evaluation, and according to Nagel (1980) it “involves systematically studying the nature, causes, and effects of alternative public policies, with particular emphasis on determining the policies that will achieve given goals” (p. 391).

2 The official description in the MSU catalogue reads: “Conception, generation, and analysis of educational policies [in] contexts such as governance levels, national setting, and legislative forms; [u]ses, limitations, and ethics of policy analysis.”

3 In 1992, the President of the Republic, the Secretary of Education, the governors of each of the 31 Mexican states, and the teachers’ union signed the National Agreement to Modernize Basic Education (ANMEB). The signing of this agreement formally initiated the movement to “federalize” or decentralize the basic and normal education systems to the states. The major assumption of the decentralization reform was that a local level management of education would be more effective in addressing local needs, managing resources, and improving education. For a full account of the decentralization policy in Mexico see Tatto (1999).

REFERENCES

Anderson-Levitt, K. (2003). Local meanings, global schooling. New York, NY: Palgrave McMillan. Bardach, E. (2000). A practical guide for policy analysis: the eightfold path to more effective problem

solving. New York: Chatham House Publishers. Booth, W.C., Colomb, G.G., & Williams, J.M. (2008). The craft of research. Chicago: The University

of Chicago Press. Brighouse, H. (2006). On education. New York, NY: Routledge. Cummings, William K. 1999. The Institutions of Education: Compare, Compare, Compare!

Comparative Education Review 43 (November): 413–37. Darling-Hammond, L. (2010). The flat world and education: How America’s commitment to equity will

determine our future. New York, NY: Teachers College Press. Hambrick, R. (1998). Building the policy studies enterprise: A work in progress. Public Administration

Review, 58, 6 (p. 533–539). Kingdon, J.W. (2010). Agendas, alternatives, and public policies. New York, NY: Longman. Kjaer, A.M. (2004). Governance. Cambridge, UK: Polity Press.

MARIA TERESA TATTO

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Lipsky, M. (1980) Street-level bureaucracy: Dilemmas of the individual in public services. New York: Russell Sage Foundation.

Majchrzak, A. (1984). Methods for policy research. Newbury Park, CA: Sage Publications. Nagel, S. S. (1980). The policy studies perspective. Public Administration Review, 40, 4 (391–396). Oxford English Dictionary Online (2011). “Definition of policy” [http://www.oed.com; consulted

11/26/2011]. Pallas, A. (1993). Schooling in the course of human lives: The social context of education and the

transition to adulthood in industrial society. Review of Educational Research, 63, 4. Perrow, C. (1986). Complex organizations: a critical essay. New York: Random House. Resnick, L., Besterfield-Sacre, M., Mehalik, M., Sherer, Z. J., & Halverson, E. (2007). A framework for

effective management of school system performance, in Yearbook of the National Society for the Study of Education, 106 (1), 155–185.

Shavelson, R. J., Towne, L., & the Committee on Scientific Principles for Education Research. (Eds.). (2002). Scientific research in education. Washington, DC: National Academy Press. http://www.nap.edu/catalog.php?record_id=10236; at the MSU Library: this is an online book http://catalog.lib.msu.edu/record=b3907220. Paper copy is also available QA11. S35 2002 http://catalog.lib.msu.edu/record=b3912776

Shulman, L. (2000). From Mink to Pinsk: Why a scholarship of teaching and learning? Journal of Scholarship of Teaching and Learning 1 (1), 48–53.

Stromquist, N. and Monkman, K. (2000). Globalization and education. Langham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield.

Tatto, Maria Teresa. 1999a. Education Reform and State Power in México: The Paradoxes of Decentralization. Comparative Education Review 43: 251–82.

Tatto, M. T. (2008). Teacher policy: a framework for comparative analysis. Prospects: Quarterly Review of Comparative Education, XXXVIII (38), 4 / 148, p. 487–508.

Tatto, M.T. (2007). Reforming teaching globally. Oxford, UK: Symposium Books. Reprinted in 2009 by Information Age Publishers.

Weiss, C. (1972). Evaluation research: Methods of assessing program effectiveness. Englewood Cliffs, N.J., Prentice-Hall.

Weiss, C.H. (1998) Evaluation: Methods for studying programs and policies. 2nd edition. Upper Saddle River: Prentice Hall (digitized 2007).

Maria Teresa Tatto, (Ed.), Learning and Doing Policy Analysis in Education: Examining Diverse Approaches to Increasing Educational Access, 13–40. © 2012 Sense Publishers. All rights reserved.

CHAPTER 2

JUSTIN L. BRUNER

Is Poverty Reduction Enough?

Lessons From Bolsa Familia In Brazil

“… deeper analysis of the surprisingly weak relationship between economic growth and improvements in health and education and careful consideration of how the multidimensionality of development objectives affects development thinking are just two examples [of challenges facing human development policy makers].”

(UNDP Human Development Report 2010)

The improvement of the human condition, especially in developing countries, has been an explicit and universal policy aim (UDHR) for more than 60 years, yet we still know surprisingly little about ways to effectively impact the living conditions of the poorest citizens, as evidenced by the millions of people still living in poverty. The Millennium Declaration has renewed the global focus on human development by looking at conditions pertaining to income, education, health, and discrimination. Many nations have now aligned their development programs in this vein, and Brazil is one such example with the program called Bolsa Familia, which seeks to leverage poverty reduction, increase education, improve health, and increase income all in a single program. This chapter reviews evidence available from policy documents and national statistics and concludes that while this program has been successful in poverty reduction, the other effects are muted at best. The results of this policy analysis suggest that before considering an additional expansion of the politically popular program, more research should be conducted around the long run impact, quality of services, and sustainability of Bolsa Familia in the Brazilian context. Further, research is needed on the comparative effects of conditional cash transfer programs in a global context. The concept of human development and poverty alleviation is by no means a recent idea, it dates back to the end of World War II. However despite this long-term focus our world still contains a “bottom billion” living on less than a dollar a day to survive. The Millennium Declaration has brought about a renewed focus on the idea of human development. Reaffirmed in 2000 by all UN members, the Millennium Declaration considers all aspects of poverty, not just income, and in 2001 the Millennium Development Goals (MDG) were officially adopted as a

JUSTIN L. BRUNER

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metric to track progress at the national level. The United Nations Development Program (UNDP) puts out an annual report related to development to allow for monitoring on an annual basis by interested stakeholders. The result of this framework has been realignment in national policies for combating poverty and increasing development. Programs are now being designed at a national level in the frame of the Millennium Declaration. Funding for these programs is provided by large organizations such as the World Bank to assist developing nations in getting development programs started. But the alarming question is: Will all this be enough to alleviate poverty and increase development? The objective of this chapter is to explore this question in greater detail, using Brazil as a national case study. The Federative Republic of [B]razil is considered a transitioning nation, often cited as a ‘BRIC nation’ for the growth in its economy that resembles other transitioning nations such as the [R]ussian Federation, Republic of [I]ndia, and People’s Republic of [C]hina which are all moving toward more developed economies. To further this transition, Brazil is seeking to tackle the poor living conditions that many of its citizens face. In 2003 Brazil created a landmark policy tool known as the Bolsa Familia Program (BFP) to meet their development obligations under the Millennium Declaration. This innovative idea is a conditional cash transfer (CCT) program that pays qualifying low-income households a monthly stipend, provided that their children attend school at an 85% rate and receive routine health check-ups. “The program has two main areas: cash transfer programs and additional conditionalities. The income transfer promotes immediate poverty relief. Conditionalities are designed at enhancing access to basic social rights in education, health and social care. The programs aim to further the development of families, so that beneficiaries can overcome the situation of vulnerability” (Bolsa Familia, 2010). The World Bank estimates that there are now 28 nations with some type of CCT program in place, whereas in 1997 there were only three programs, in Mexico, Bangladesh, and Brazil (Fiszbien and Schady, 2009). Mexico’s PROGRESA (later renamed Oportunidades) program is perhaps the most researched because it was the first mainstream program of its kind. While it was very successful in reducing poverty and transferring income, Santiago Levy (2009), the creator, has noted that the program struggled to break through some of the bureaucracy in Mexico and suffered from a lack of institutional quality in delivering services to the Mexican people. Levy noted that CCT programs are not a silver bullet and that impact evaluations are needed. As this analysis unfolds it will be clear that similar findings are present in Brazil, suggesting improved program design may be needed and that Mexico’s problems may not be context specific. This policy analysis paper explores three questions: First, how is the global Millennium Development Policy implemented at a national level in Brazil through Bolsa Familia? Second, how do these findings relate to the decision by the new Brazilian Government and The World Bank to expand Bolsa Familia into a second phase? Third and more specifically, on what basis was this expansion made and, as this chapter’s title suggests, will this expansion be enough? Since there are several actors in place, this paper will be organized along two tracks throughout the analysis: (1) the international level, which includes the

IS POVERTY REDUCTION ENOUGH?

15

UNDP, World Bank, and global development policies; and (2) the national level, which includes the Federal Government of Brazil, the municipalities of Brazil, and the Bolsa Familia CCT program. The chapter will start by providing a description of what is taking place at the national and international levels, using literature, primary documents, and national indicators. Once a description is in place, the analysis will move to an evaluation phase by examining what worked, what did not work, and what can be learned. Finally, some areas for future research and policy recommendations will be suggested based on the analysis.

FRAMEWORK AND PERSPECTIVES

Framework

On the surface the idea of human development appears to be a simple concept – help improve the lifestyles of our most disadvantaged citizens so they can enjoy a minimum standard of living. However, reducing development to this single phrase is a gross oversimplification. Within the field of international development are multiple actors, policies, programs, and theories. The framework developed below (figure 1) shows how these different dynamics interact within the scope of this analysis. This analysis will view the Millennium Development policy from the perspective of the theory of human capital, that investments in people will increase the capacity of a nation. An extensive explanation of human capital theory is in the next section and is shown in the process stage of figure 1. Influencing this process are the UNDP and the World Bank. The UNDP is responsible for the creation, implementation, and measurement of MDGs. The World Bank is the lender that provides loans for developing nations to implement their development programs. Both the UNDP’s and the World Bank’s roles are explained in more detail as well. Finally, as seen in Figure 1, the government of Brazil must create and implement the Millennium Declaration with the assistance of these international actors and using the idea of human capital to invest in its citizens. Unlike the World Bank and the UNDP, Brazil has responsibilities at all stages of the process whereas the World Bank and the UNDP play a role at the input and measurement stages only.

Human Capital Theory and Investments in People

Theodore Schultz began the idea of human capital by arguing in the 1960s that “…human capital accounts for most of the rise in the real earnings per worker” (Schultz, 1961). On the surface, the idea of human capital is very simple: investments by a Government in health, education, and infrastructure will give its citizens a greater worth, both monetarily and intellectually, which allows them to make better contributions to the economy. The key assumptions are that these investments will provide a future return by foregoing present consumption, and that these investments produce something of value. Not surprisingly, the Millennium Development Goals (MDG) include elements of health, education, and infrastructure within their analysis in a nod to the idea of human capital.

JUSTIN L

16

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L. BRUNER

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17

fewer opportunities for disadvantaged people. In other words, there is often a disincentive to attend school if you are a person subject to some type of discrimination in the labor market. For example in many developing contexts, girls are frequently discouraged from attending school because their job prospects are less than those of boys in many cases. Another amendment is the idea of “correspondence theory”, created by Bowles and Gintis that argues that schooling does not just add cognitive skills but rather prepares kids for the workplace by socializing them through rewards and punishments to the conditions they will face (Bowles and Gintis, 1976). By taking this stance, investments in human capital are limited as to how much they impact a student’s abilities, and factors outside of education play a role, such as a family’s Social-Economic Status (SES), because students are socialized to external conditions. This stance brings into the fold the idea of measurements and how the return on an investment in human capital can be both measured and traced back to the investments. Currently, international exams such as TIMMS, PIRLS, and PISA are used to compare national achievement as measured by testing, but the relationships of these exams and investments in human capital are much more complicated. How can we link back a human capital investment to a test score? Questions arise such as what drives the scores: Money? Teachers? Resources? Policy? The idea of tracing knowledge to investments in human capital has also been questioned by Weiss, who argued that more consumption of education does not mean more productivity (Weiss, 1995). Weiss argued that people with more education are not necessarily smarter but they are ‘signaling’ certain qualities to their employer. Weiss contended that educational attainment is what signals these qualities. For example, a person who consumes more schooling is signaling they are more motivated than an individual who consumed less schooling. This, according to Weiss, creates a sorting mechanism, by which individuals sort themselves based on the amount of education they consume, and it explains why rates of return to education exceed cognitive skills (Weiss, 1995). Despite some of the externalities to investing in human capital, such as distortions in the labor market, socializing rather than educating children, and the sorting of children, they do not mean that these investments are not worth making in developing countries such as Brazil. In fact, George Psacharopoulos, in his extensive work linking the returns of education to investments, found that returns to education are highest in developing countries and that primary education offered higher returns than secondary or tertiary education (Psacharopoulos, 1985). According to Psacharopoulos, the rate of return to educational investments declines with national income producing diminishing returns. As a result, primary education is a major focus in the educational strategy of developing countries, not only because of the need for a starting point for citizens but also because primary education offers the highest rate of return. Consequently, the next question for a developing nation such as Brazil is where to invest money within primary education to get this high rate of return.

JUSTIN L. BRUNER

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Furthermore, what combination of investments will provide the optimal outcome? The findings of research have so far been inconclusive, and as a result there is no blueprint that can be used. This makes determining human capital investments more difficult for developing countries. Further complicating these decisions is the fact that there are great inequities present within societies as well as spillover effects from other sectors, such as health and labor markets. Human capital theory is very simple on the surface: invest in people to increase productivity. However, as the theory is unpacked and exposed to complex realities, it raises several questions as to who, what, where, and when that are not easily answered. Exploring the actors involved in executing elements of human capital theory will shed some light on these questions.

International Actors – UNDP and World Bank

The UNDP is a branch of the larger United Nations body that “is the UN’s global development network, an organization advocating for change and connecting countries to knowledge, experience and resources to help people build a better life” (UNDP, 2010). The UNDP is also responsible for overseeing the Millennium Development Goals, including their implementation, providing annual progress reports, and supplying representatives in each member nation with technical assistance. The Millennium Development Goals (MDG) consist of 8 goals, 18 targets, and 48 assessment metrics (see Appendix 1). The Millennium Development Goals were officially introduced in 1990, and in 2000 the Millennium Declaration officially affirmed the global commitment to the MDG (UNDP, 2010). The MDG lend support to Carnoy’s argument that there are distortions within labor markets that limit opportunities for disadvantaged citizens. To account for this, the MDG include metrics for reducing inequality, empowering women, and combating diseases (UNDP, 2010). As noted in the outputs and evidence boxes in Figure 1, the UNDP puts out annual progress reports that provide a global snapshot of development trends as well as country level data on the development indicators. These annual reports serve as a global accountability mechanism, and many nations now align their development programs within the UNDP framework. The case study here of Brazil is one such example, as Brazil has aligned their Bolsa Familia program within this scope and tracks the progress of Bolsa Familia using UNDP indicators. The other multi-national actor within this analysis is the World Bank, which is not as much involved in policy formulation like the UNDP, but rather is more focused on funding development initiatives and reporting on their progress. The World Bank describes itself as “a vital source of financial and technical assistance to developing countries around the world. Our mission is to fight poverty with passion and professionalism for lasting results and to help people help themselves and their environment by providing resources, sharing knowledge, building capacity and forging partnerships in the public and private sectors” (World Bank, 2010).


19

Since the World Bank relies on external donor funding, the idea of accountability is becoming very important to the bank. To revisit Schultz, investors want to know how well their money is performing. This has led to an increasing number of country reports, lending documents, and program guides, all of which are designed to make the loan process more transparent. The World Bank has issued two phases of loans to Brazil for their Bolsa Familia program. The first phase ran from 2004 until 2009, to help launch the Bolsa Familia program, and the second phase has been authorized to run from 2010 until 2015, to expand the Bolsa Familia program (World Bank 2004, 2010). What drove this expansion will be explored later in the analysis.

National Actor – Brazil

With the international framework in place, the Brazilian national context can now be explored as it pertains to how Bolsa Familia came about. As noted in the introduction, Brazil is becoming a larger player on the global stage as its economy continues to grow. However, one of the greatest problems facing Brazil as it begins to expand is the massive inequality present in the country. According to the Gini index, which measures inequality, Brazil is one of the most unequal societies in the world, ranking the 10th most unequal, with 26% of the population living below the poverty line (CIA Factbook, 2008). Most of the wealth in Brazil is concentrated in the urban southeast, while the rural north contains the greatest population of poorer Brazilians. Because of this inequality, not all of Brazilian society is able to participate in the labor market, so Brazil is attempting to tackle this problem and continue growth by investing in health and education and by reducing income inequality. The Workers Party in Brazil has just been elected to the presidency for a third consecutive term. The Brazilian Constitution only allows for two consecutive terms by an individual. The first two, terms from 2002–2006 and 2006–2010, were served by Luis Ignacio Lula da Silva, while the most recent term will be served by his former Chief of Staff, Dilma Rousseff. The Workers Party draws much of their support from the poorer citizens of Brazil. This dynamic contributes to the popularity of Bolsa Familia because the program is aimed at the poorer citizens of Brazil. Table 1 from Fenwick (2009) illustrates the breakdown of voters from the 2006 election by income. As can be seen, the majority of President Lula’s support came from the poorer community, so Bolsa Familia has become a popular program for Workers Party politicians who can use the carrot of expanding Bolsa Familia to garner support from their base. The constitution of Brazil specifically creates a legal framework for creating a more equitable society, while there are specific laws (10.836/04) and decrees (5.209/04) that use this constitutional provision to implement Bolsa Familia (Government of Brazil, 2010). The constitution of Brazil also requires each new administration to institute a “Multi-year Plan” for approval to the new assembly. Since the new administration has not taken office yet, the new plan is not available, but indications from Ms. Rousseff are that Bolsa Familia will continue to be expanded.

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Table 1. Brazilian Election Results by Income.

Family income Lula (%) Alckmin {%)

Until R$ 350 >1 min. salary 55.6 18.5 R$ 350–700: 1–2 min. salaries 63.2 11.4 R$ 700–950: 2–3 min salaries 71.3 16 3–5 min. salaries 47.4 30.9 5–10 min. salaries 62.2 26.7 10–20 min. salaries 18.8 62.5 20–30 min. salaries 0 66.7

Region Northeast 69.3 11.9 North/Center-West 70.4 16 Southeast 51.7 26.7 South 34.4 36.4 Source: Fenwick, 2009.

So what exactly is Bolsa Familia and what does it aim to do? Bolsa Familia is a nod to the human capital work by Schultz, Carnoy, and others, as well as a nod to the Millennium Declaration Policy put out by the UNDP. Brazil is attempting to invest in its most disadvantaged citizens by giving them access to income, education, and health, with the larger hope that improving their access to the economy can help Brazil continue to grow. Brazil is targeting these investments in line with the MDG. The overarching aim of Bolsa Familia is to reduce poverty. Brazil accomplishes this through a Conditional Cash Transfer (CCT) program. While Brazil started conditional cash transfers in 1996, Bolsa Familia was created in 2003 by combining four separate programs: Bolsa Escola, Bolsa Alimentação, Cartão Alimentação, and Auxilio Gas (Brazil Ministry of Social Development, 2010). Bolsa Familia provides a monthly cash transfer to low-income families, provided that the children attend school at an 85% rate and that children are current on their vaccinations (Lindert et al. 2007). As seen in Figure 1, the rationale is that forcing families to invest in their children will help to reduce the generational cycle of poverty by raising incomes of households and allowing children the chance to get an education and have a healthy life. The next section provides greater detail as to how this exactly works.

METHODS, TECHNIQUES, AND MODES OF INQUIRY

Inputs

As can be seen in Figure 1, the inputs to implementing the Millennium Declaration Policy in Brazil are very simple – conditional cash transfers. The cash transfer from the World Bank to Brazil is conditional on using it for Bolsa Familia (World Bank, 2010). Within Brazil the cash transfer to their citizens is conditional on recipients being within the two lowest income brackets (see Table 3 from Lindert et al. 2007) and having children attend school and receive current health care.


21

Brazil is using Bolsa Familia as the policy tool to implement the Millennium Declaration policy.

Table 2. Phase 2 Loan Allocations for Bolsa Familia.

Percent of Total World Bank Contribution

Conditional Cash Transfer 97.7% $510M Governance 0.5% $3M

Graduation 1.0% $5M

Monitoring 0.8% $4M Total 100% $522m

Source: World Bank Phase 2 Loan Documents.

A portion of the cash for Bolsa Familia comes from the Brazilian Government and a portion comes from the World Bank. Table 2 highlights the breakdown of how the phase two loan (2010–2015) from the World Bank is being spent, as well as how the Brazilian Government matches the loan amounts with its own contributions. As can be seen, almost all of the money for Bolsa Familia is allocated for the citizens who receive the CCT.

Process

How is Bolsa Familia actually implemented within Brazil? There are two main levels of implementation of the program: at the federal level and at the municipal level. One of the interesting elements of Bolsa Familia is that the program largely bypasses the states in an attempt to eliminate bureaucracy and waste. Both the federal and municipal governments have a very large role to play in the implementation of Bolsa Familia. At the federal level Brazil created the Ministry of Social Development to oversee and carry out Bolsa Familia (Brazil Ministry of Social Development, 2010). This was done to prevent fighting between ministries as happened in Mexico with a similar program. Since Bolsa Familia contains elements of education, health, and finance, each ministry is competing for resources and has to coordinate its efforts with the other ministries. By having a single ministry, these conflicts can be reduced. The Brazilian Ministry of Social Development is mainly charged with organizing, collecting, and reporting data related to the program. There is a central database called the Cadastro Único (Unified Register), in which all of the information and transactions within Bolsa Familia are recorded, which allows for better monitoring, targeting, and evaluation by the Federal Government. The Cadastro Unico database is essential for coordinating between levels of government as well as allowing for the identification of eligible Bolsa Familia citizens. The municipalities are mostly charged with screening and giving the actual payouts. The monthly payout to families depends on two levels of income: poor and extreme poor. Then families can receive an additional payout for each child they have, up to three. The Government of Brazil caps the payout of children at

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three to help assist in slowing population growth. Table 3 highlights the actual amounts available. What is interesting to note is that families can literally double their income through Bolsa Familia.

Table 3. Bolsa Familia Payouts.

Level of poverty

Monthly per capita family

income

Number of children 0–15, pregnant or

breast-feeding mothers

Quantity and type of benefit

Bolsa Familia benefit received

Poor R$ 60-120 1 (1) variable R$15

2 (2) variable R$ 30

3 or more (3) variable R$ 45

Extreme poor

Up to R$ 60 0 Base benefit R$ 50

1 Base + (1) variable R$ 65

2 Base + (2) variable R$ 80

3 or more Base + (3) variable R$ 95

Source: Lindert et al., 2007 from Federal Government of Brazil.

Each municipality has a program officer who reports directly to the Ministry of Social Development and acts as the liaison between the municipality and the Federal Government. Within each municipality are program offices where the residents of Brazil can go to update their information, provide proof of meeting conditions, and collect their payout. Information is entered into the Cadastro Unico by the municipality, and the payout is given to residents. The Government of Brazil reports that 93% of the recipients of the CCT are women, and that the money is generally used for primary household goods rather than alcohol or cigarettes (Ministry of Social Development, 2010).

Outputs

More detailed analysis of outputs will be done in the evaluation stage of this chapter (see Part 3 below) but a few observations stand out. First, income shows by far the greatest gains in terms of percentage, which is most likely a result of the cash transfer to the poorest citizens. Second, education and health also show gains, but in a smaller comparative proportion than income. Finally, school enrollment actually dipped between 2003 and 2009. This is a worrisome trend because increasing enrollment in schools is one of the conditions stipulated by Bolsa Familia for the cash transfer.

DATA AND EVIDENCE

With Bolsa Familia being such a new program within Brazil, there has been very little empirical policy research on the program. Most of the work available comes


23

from the UNDP, the World Bank, and other NGOs. However, there is some available monitoring research that provides snapshots of different aspects of the program, such as the structure or targeting metrics, but none of these studies evaluates the long-term impact or is able to link Bolsa Familia to changes in the development environment within Brazil. These two elements will need to be explored in future research. However, as noted earlier in the case of Mexico, there are some similar struggles around quality and sustainability in Brazil, but Brazil’s creation of a development ministry may have bypassed the bureaucracy trap Mexico encountered. Fenwick (2009) attributed a great deal of the success of Bolsa Familia to the ability of the program to bypass the states, eliminating the bureaucracy. Fenwick illustrated how the majority of the funding for different elements of the Bolsa Familia program is almost entirely allocated to the Federal Government or to the local Municipalities, with the States getting the lowest percentage of funding in each case. The decentralization of Bolsa Familia is one of the highlights of the program, and it allows for the very precise targeting that would not otherwise be possible at the federal level. Barientos and DeJong (2006) focused on Bolsa Familia along with Oportunidades in Mexico and South Africa’s CCT program, addressing how well these programs have impacted child poverty. As has been the case in both Mexico and Brazil, the authors confirmed the findings that poverty in both countries has been reduced as a result of the CCT programs (Barientos and DeJong, 2006). However, just as Levy noted in Mexico, and will be discussed for Brazil later, Barientos and DeJong noted that these types of CCT programs are not effective on their own; they need additional supporting programs to succeed (Barientos and DeJong, 2006). Finally, Hall (2006) exclusively explored the impact of Bolsa Familia in the first Lula administration (2003–2006). His findings mirror those of other CCT studies across the globe. First, while there was a reduction, it is unclear as to how much of the poverty reduction can be directly attributed to the Bolsa Familia program (Hall, 2006). Second, the program needs greater assessment as to the larger social and economic impacts within Brazil (Hall, 2006). Finally, there is an absence of the long-term prospects of Bolsa Familia for promoting development or creating expensive government dependence (Hall, 2006). While the focus of this study is on Brazil, similar arguments of dependency and sustainability have been made for other programs and countries as well. Based on available data, what has worked well within the Bolsa Familia program? As noted in the literature, one of the consistent praises for Bolsa Familia is how well the program has identified and targeted the highest-need citizens. This targeting can largely be attributed to two main aspects: the decentralized implementation and the Cadastro Unico database that allows for two-way sharing of information. The municipalities have largely been responsible for qualifying citizens for the Bolsa Familia program, using the parameters established by the Federal Government. This allows for local responsibility in identification and citizen monitoring, which is more responsive to local needs than the Federal

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L. BRUNER

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JUSTIN L

26

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L. BRUNER

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JUSTIN L

28

Carnoy Universiwell for affluent Whenthe educFamilia requiremshow upmother iwill havbecause Familia is seen chance fand child BraziPIRLS, UnfortunreceivingBrazil nproficienBrazilianin line wBrazil isSES imp

L. BRUNER

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29

more likely to perform well in school. This is manifested in the high concentration of low-performing students, because over 40% of students are performing at the lowest level.

RESULTS

Four main lessons have been learned from this policy analysis:

Lesson One – Complementarities in Development Matter

The first main lesson is that development is more than just a single field or theory, and Bolsa Familia is representative of that. As Levy noted (2007) in his experiences in Mexico, one of the biggest successes was being able to exploit complementarities within different fields. This approach appears to have been more successful than attempting to tackle problems in isolation, a common development program problem of the past. For example, children will not attend school if they are not healthy enough or if their family cannot afford it. Instead, Bolsa Familia recognizes that none of the issues within development happen in isolation. Children may not attend school because their family cannot afford it, creating a relationship between income and access to education. A disease may also keep a child out of school, creating a relationship between health and education. While it is difficult to attribute these changes directly to Bolsa Familia, Brazil has clearly improved some elements of health care, income, and education. Bolsa Familia is the primary program for each of these fields and is designed to exploit these inter-related elements.

Lesson Two – Quality Matters

The second takeaway from this study is that quality matters. Going to a health clinic or a school will not improve conditions if there are not good doctors and teachers present. Bolsa Familia has a long way to go in this regard, and there are serious economic impacts of not addressing this element of quality. Consider Figure 10 from Hanushek and Woessmann (2007). The first figure shows the relationship between test scores and economic growth within nations from 1960–2000, while the second figure shows the relationship between years of schooling and economic growth during the same 40-year period. The first figure, using test scores as they pertain to economic growth, shows a much stronger relationship. The second figure shows a much weaker relationship between years of schooling and economic growth. This is of importance to Brazil because this finding reinforces concerns about the lack of an educational quality component in Bolsa Familia. As Bolsa Familia and the larger Millennium Development Policy stand, the focus is on years of schooling (primary completion), which translates into the lower growth seen in the second figure. A focus on quality, as represented in test scores, shows much greater long-term economic growth, but current policy is devoid of school quality metrics.

JUSTIN L

30

Figure

L. BRUNER

10. Economic ggrowth versus tesand W

st score and yearWoessmann 2007

rs of schooling. 7.

Source: Hanushhek


31

Why does this matter? Bolsa Familia is a very expensive and high stakes intervention, so the long-term consequences of ignoring quality could greatly hamper opportunity and economic growth within Brazil. The evidence presented so far shows that Bolsa Familia represents more of the quantity aspect (such as going to school), which fosters low growth, as compared to the quality aspect (such as doing well in school), which fosters greater economic growth.

Lesson Three – Equality Matters

The third part of the lesson is that equality matters. Brazil will need to address its very severe problem of inequality. The targeting of Bolsa Familia has been repeatedly lauded for how well it identifies disadvantaged citizens, but clearly the impact in leveling the playing field has not been enough to equal out resources. Also from Hanushek and Woessmann (2007), Figure 11 shows how inequality in income leads to inequality in educational outcomes. While the figure contains OECD nations, there is clearly a relationship between inequality in earnings and in schooling. This relationship is important for Brazil because of its unequal society as it stands. As shown by Gini metrics and Figure 6, this is also born out in the PISA statistics that highlight the inequalities in Brazilian schools, so the impact of this in terms of earnings should be noted. Couple this inequality with the impact of poor schooling (from Figure 9) on growth, and the problems for disadvantaged citizens are quickly compounded.

Lesson Four – Accountability Matters

The final lesson is the importance of having an end-goal and long-term assessment. Bolsa Familia explicitly states it is committed to the cause of poverty alleviation. The question becomes, what does that entail? If Bolsa Familia is expanded to all the citizens in Brazil, it would be true that they would be out of poverty, but would such a program be sustainable or realistic? Bolsa Familia has done well to raise the poverty floor, but the ceiling remains largely in place. One critique of Bolsa Familia is that it is creating a dependency on the government, and while this situation may be a bit over-stated, it is worth addressing. The incoming administration in Brazil is talking about expanding Bolsa Familia, but it is silent about expanding opportunities for Bolsa Familia eligible citizens to provide for themselves. The “final mile” of the road should be built to allow disadvantaged citizens a way out of Bolsa Familia and a chance to provide for themselves. An open-ended commitment from Bolsa Familia is not sustainable or desirable.

CONCLUSIONS

It is almost impossible to have a conversation about international development without the Millennium Development Goals being a part of that conversation. The influence of the UNDP and the World Bank is evident in national policies, international funding agreements, and annual development progress reports.

JUSTIN L

32

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The imaddresseenough, Clearly economicomplemhuman d Bolsaimplemedevelopmmeasurebypassinpoverty,Bolsa Faaccompl

L. BRUNER

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33

The question remains: Is this enough? As the small body of work to date suggests, the long-term impact of the Bolsa Familia program has yet to be seen. However, as Levy (2007) noted in Mexico, “The distortions in the labor markets are a cause for concern” and “CCT programs are not a long term solution.” The same appears to hold true for Bolsa Familia; although it is too early to say, questions around the long-term sustainability of Bolsa Familia should be investigated under the question of “what next?” If Bolsa Familia has really reached the high proportion of citizens as it claims, then future policy should look to move from eliminating poverty to creating opportunities and empowering citizens. The World Bank has already issued its phase two loan for Bolsa Familia, and the new administration in Brazil is already on record to expand the program. The administration will have a four-year term and the World Bank loans are until 2015, so corrective action for now is too late. However before considering a further expansion beyond 2015, some very serious questions need to be answered in this small window of opportunity around sustainability, quality, and opportunity. Bolsa Familia is an extremely large commitment in both time and money. It now is of the utmost importance that all stakeholders be sure that this large commitment becomes sustainable and not wasted as many development initiatives of the past have been.

REFERENCES

Barrientos, Armando and DeJong, Jacelyn. (2006). Reducing Child Poverty with Cash Transfers: A Sure Thing? Development Policy Review, Vol. 24, No. 5, pp. 537–552.

Brazil Ministry of Social Development (2010). Bolsa Familia Program. Available at: http://www.mds.gov.br/bolsafamilia

Bowles, Samuel and Gintis, Herbert. (2002). Schooling in Capitalist America Revisited. Sociology of Education, Vol. 75, No. 1, pp. 1–18.

Carnoy, Martin. (1996). Race, Gender, and the Role of Education in Earning Inequality: An introduction. Economics of Education Review. Vol. 15, No. 3, pp. 207–212.

Carnoy, Martin (2007) Speech to Center for Latin American Studies at Berkley. Available at: http://www.clas.berkeley.edu/Events/fall2007/10-11-07-carnoy/index.html

De La Briere, Benedicte and Rawlings, Laura B. (2006). Examining Conditional Cash Transfer Programs: A Role for Increased Social Inclusion? The World Bank Social Protection Paper No. 0603.

Federal Republic of Brazil (2010). Portal Brazil. Available at: http://www.brasil.gov.br/ Fenwick, Tracy Beck. (2009). Avoiding Governors The Success of Bolsa Familia. Latin American

Research Review, Vol. 44, No. 1, pp. 102–131. Fiszbien, Ariel and Schady, Norbert. (2009). Conditional Cash Transfers: Reducing Present and Future

Poverty. World Bank Policy Research Report. Government of the Federated Republic of Brazil. (2004). Brazilian Monitoring Report on the

Millennium Development Goals. Institute for Applied Economic Research (coordinated by). Hall, Anthony. (2006). From Fome Zero to Bolsa Familia: Policies and Poverty Alleviation under Lula.

Journal of Latin American Studies, Vol. 38, pp. 689–709. Hanushek, Eric and Woessmann, Ludger. (2007). Role of School Improvement on Economic

Development. Lindert, Kathy, Linder, Anja, Hobbs, Jason, and de la Briere, Benedicte. (2007). The Nuts and Bolts of

Brazil’s Bolsa Familia Program: Implementing Conditional Cash Transfers in a Decentralized Context. The World Bank Social Protection Paper No. 0709.

JUSTIN L. BRUNER

34

Levy, Santiago. (2009). IFPRI Forman Lecture. Given April 17th, 2009. Morgan, Richard (Chair). (2009). MDG Good Practices. United Nations Development Group Task

Force on the MDGs. Psacharopoulos, George. (1985). Returns to Education. Journal of Human Resources. Vol. 20, No. 4,

pp. 583–604. Schultz, Theodore. (1961). Investments in Human Capital. The American Economic Review. Vol. 51,

No. 1, pp. 1 – 17. Soares, Fabio Veras, Ribas, Rafael Perez, and Osorio, Rafael Guerreiro. (2007). Evaluating the Impact

of Brazil’s Bolsa Familia: Cash Transfer Programmes in Comparative Perspective. United Nations Development Program International Poverty Center.

Soares, Fabio Veras, Soares, Sergei, Medeiros, Marcelo, and Osorio, Rafael Guerreiro. (2006). Cash Transfer Programmes in Brazil: Impacts on Inequality and Poverty. United Nations Development Program International Poverty Center.

UNESCO, (2010). Education and the Millennium Development Goals. Available at: http://www.unesco.org/en/efa/education-and-the-mdgs/

UNDP, (2010). United Nations Development Program. Available at: http://www.undp.org/ Weiss, Andrew. (1995). Human Capital vs. Signaling Explanations of Wages. Journal of Economic

Perspectives. Vol. 9, No. 4, pp. 133–154. The World Bank, (2010). Bolsa Familia First Phase. Available at: http://web.worldbank.

org/external/projects/main?pagePK=64283627&piPK=73230&theSitePK=40941&menuPK=228424&Projectid=P087713

The World Bank, (2010). Bolsa Familia Second Phase. Available at: http://web.worldbank. org/external/projects/main?pagePK=64283627&piPK=73230&theSitePK=40941&menuPK=228424&Projectid=P101504

The World Bank, (2007). Control and Accountability Mechanisms in Conditional Cash Transfer Programs: A Review of Programs in Latin America and the Caribbean. The World Bank Social Protection and Human Development Department.

The World Bank, (2010). Country Profile: Brazil. Available at: http://web.worldbank.org/WBSITE/ EXTERNAL/COUNTRIES/LACEXT/BRAZILEXTN/0,,menuPK:322347~pagePK:141159~piPK:141110~theSitePK:322341,00.html

ANNOTATED BIBLIOGRAPHY

Barrientos, Armando and DeJong, Jacelyn. (2006). Reducing Child Poverty with Cash Transfers: A Sure Thing? Development Policy Review, Vol. 24, No. 5, pp. 537–552.

In this journal article Barrientos and DeJong analyze three different CCT programs globally using economic analysis. They argue that CCTs are an effective tool in reducing childhood poverty when targeted appropriately. More specifically, Barrientos and DeJong show that more schooling is consumed by children in the presence of CCTs than without CCTs present.

Brazil Ministry of Social Development (2010). Bolsa Familia Program. Available at: http://www.mds.gov.br/bolsafamilia

This is the website of the Bolsa Familia Program which is administered through the Brazilian Ministry of Social Development. This webpage contains several resources which will allow for a full review of the program. There is access to the laws and decrees creating Bolsa Familia, FAQs for citizens, and a library section to gain information about how the program works and is administered.

Bowles, Samuel and Gintis, Herbert. (2002). Schooling in Capitalist America Revisited. Sociology of Education, Vol. 75, No. 1, pp. 1–18.


35

This paper fosters the creation of what the authors call “correspondence principal” in which they argue that schooling is merely a socialization of students for the workplace. In other words, schooling does help children build knowledge as much as it teaches them the rules and norms for society.

Carnoy, Martin. (1996). Race, Gender, and the Role of Education in Earning Inequality: An introduction. Economics of Education Review. Vol. 15, No. 3, pp. 207–212.

Carnoy makes an amendment to the theory of human capital arguing that simply investing in people through training is not the only determinant of earnings. If this were true race, gender, and university would not drive wages but clearly these factors matter. As a result human capital investments must also take these factors into account.

Carnoy, Martin (2007) Speech to Center for Latin American Studies at Berkley. Available at: http://www.clas.berkeley.edu/Events/fall2007/10-11-07-carnoy/index.html

Carnoy shares his findings of a comparative study between Cuba, Brazil, and Chile to understand why Cuban students outperform their Latin American counterparts. Carnoy argues that the centralization of Cuba helps to equal out the delivery of educational services while more decentralized systems in Brazil and Chile tend to be more beneficial for more affluent families.

De La Briere, Benedicte and Rawlings, Laura B. (2006). Examining Conditional Cash Transfer Programs: A Role for Increased Social Inclusion? The World Bank Social Protection Paper No. 0603.

De La Briere and Rawlings present an analysis of CCTs by looking at programs in Mexico, Brazil, Jamaica, and Colombia. They find that CCT programs do stimulate demand from the targeted populations but only when a supply is present such as education or health services. They argue that CCTs can be improved by having less centralized control and improve employment prospects of recipients.

Federal Republic of Brazil (2010). Portal Brazil. Available at: http://www.brasil.gov.br/

This is the webpage of the Brazilian Government which will be used to gain an overview of how the Brazilian Government is structured, what policies are in place, and gain access to official Government statistics around Bolsa Familia.

Fenwick, Tracy Beck. (2009). Avoiding Governors The Success of Bolsa Familia. Latin American Research Review, Vol. 44, No. 1, pp. 102–131.

Similar to the findings of De La Briere and Rawlings, Fenwick specifically argues that the success of the implementation of Bolsa Familia was that it allowed for local implementation and federal administration. Fenwick argues that the minimal role of Brazilian States is important in fostering a bottom-up push in policy implementation where local governments have been able to influence federal policy.

Fiszbien, Ariel and Schady, Norbert. (2009). Conditional Cash Transfers: Reducing Present and Future Poverty. World Bank Policy Research Report.

This is a comprehensive exploration of conditional cash transfer programs globally. Details are provided as to the arguments for, structures, and impact of different CCT programs globally. The authors conclude with policy and design suggestions.

Government of the Federated Republic of Brazil. (2004). Brazilian Monitoring Report on the Millennium Development Goals. Institute for Applied Economic Research (coordinated by).

This is an extremely detailed report that was put out by the Government of Brazil to comment of how the nation has progressed around the MDGs. There is a chapter detailing progress on each goal within Brazil. The fact that the Government puts out this report is useful to gain an inside perspective as well as access Government data.

Hall, Anthony. (2006). From Fome Zero to Bolsa Familia: Policies and Poverty Alleviation under Lula. Journal of Latin American Studies, Vol. 38, pp. 689–709.

JUSTIN L. BRUNER

36

In this Journal article Hall takes a much more cautious approach toward the success of Bolsa Familia. Specifically Hall looks at how much Bolsa Familia has reduced poverty, the political aspects of the program, and the criticism that the program creates government dependency at the expense of development. Hall also expresses concerns with the implementation of the program with respect to how effective it has been.

Hanushek, Eric and Woessmann, Ludger. (2007). Role of School Improvement on Economic Development.

In this work the authors uses economic analysis to highlight the relationship of economic growth to school quality and years of schooling. Using longitudinal data from 1960 to 2000 the authors highlight how school quality has had a much greater impact on economic growth then years of schooling.

Lindert, Kathy, Linder, Anja, Hobbs, Jason, and de la Briere, Benedicte. (2007). The Nuts and Bolts of Brazil’s Bolsa Familia Program: Implementing Conditional Cash Transfers in a Decentralized Context. The World Bank Social Protection Paper No. 0709.

A detailed analysis of the Bolsa Familia program that begins at the history of the program, how it was designed, how it is implemented, monitored, and financed. This is designed to be an introductory survey for anyone interested in the Bolsa Familia program.

Levy, Santiago. (2009). IFPRI Forman Lecture. Given April 17th, 2009.

This is a reflective lecture given by Levy as he highlights what he has learned during his management of the PROGRESA program in Mexico. Levy talks about successes of the program as well as limitations of CCT programs in general.

Morgan, Richard (Chair). (2009). MDG Good Practices. United Nations Development Group Task Force on the MDGs.

This is chapter 2 in the series put out by the UNDP that outlines best practices around the MDGs. Chapter 2 specifically focuses on achieving universal primary education. The chapter uses examples from different nations around the world to identify problems and solutions to create the best practice framework.

Psacharopoulos, George. (1985). Returns to Education. Journal of Human Resources. Vol. 20, No. 4, pp. 583–604.

Dr. Psacharopoulos is well known for his human capital work, specifically as to how levels of education impact lifetime earnings. His work is done within an international context. In this paper returns for primary, secondary, and tertiary investments in education are explored. Primary education offers the highest rate of return on education so developing countries should initially invest in primary resources.

Schultz, Theodore. (1961). Investments in Human Capital. The American Economic Review. Vol. 51, No. 1, pp. 1 – 17.

This work is the foundational piece for human capital theory that sparked the idea. The premise is that workers productivity will increase with increased investments in their education and health. This creates a multiplier effect where the increased productivity increases efficiency and earnings leading to greater economic contributions.

Soares, Fabio Veras, Ribas, Rafael Perez, and Osorio, Rafael Guerreiro. (2007). Evaluating the Impact of Brazil’s Bolsa Familia: Cash Transfer Programmes in Comparative Perspective. United Nations Development Program International Poverty Center.

This is a quick program evaluation paper that contains a heavy concentration of statistics around Bolsa Familia. The paper finds that Bolsa Familia has impacted poverty and kept families afloat


37

however it needs to be matched with supply-side aspects such as quality of schooling. This is another finding in support of the idea that Bolsa Familia needs supply-side support.

Soares, Fabio Veras, Soares, Sergei, Medeiros, Marcelo, and Osorio, Rafael Guerreiro. (2006). Cash Transfer Programmes in Brazil: Impacts on Inequality and Poverty. United Nations Development Program International Poverty Center.

This paper examines all the CCT programs in Brazil not just Bolsa Familia. The research confirms that Brazil has experienced a reduction in inequality as measured by the Gini Index as a result of these programs. However in attempting to use some Government data the authors noted some gaps which limited some of their analysis.

UNESCO, (2010). Education and the Millennium Development Goals. Available at: http://www.unesco.org/en/efa/education-and-the-mdgs/

This website contains information about the Education For All Program including links to the eight Millennium Development Goals and the six Education for All Goals. The primary uses of this website will be to define the Education for All goals and access the statistics and reports at a country level around Education for All progress.

UNDP, (2010). United Nations Development Program. Available at: http://www.undp.org/

The UNDP is the UN body that oversees the Millennium Declaration Policy and Millennium Development Goals. There are eight MDGs, all of which are defined through the UNDP. UNDP statistics can be used to track nation-level progress over time on MDG indicators. UNDP reports will present a more detailed analysis of region and nation performance around the MDG.

Weiss, Andrew. (1995). Human Capital vs. Signaling Explanations of Wages. Journal of Economic Perspectives. Vol. 9, No. 4, pp. 133–154.

In another modification to the idea of Human Capital Theory, the author argues that in addition to education workers are also signaling their employers by how much education they are choosing to consume. For example, a person who consumes greater amounts of education is signaling their levels of motivation and determination. This signaling also drives wage and hiring decisions with education.

The World Bank, (2010). Bolsa Familia First Phase. Available at: http://web.worldbank.org/ external/projects/main?pagePK=64283627&piPK=73230&theSitePK=40941&menuPK=228424&Projectid=P087713

This is the official page of what the World Bank defines as the First Phase of funding for the Bolsa Familia Program. This phase lasted from June 2004 until December 2009. Here there is access to all official World Bank documents related to this phase of the program such as: Overviews, appraisals, safeguards, financial statements, and implementation reports.

The World Bank, (2010). Bolsa Familia Second Phase. Available at: http://web.worldbank.org/ external/projects/main?pagePK=64283627&piPK=73230&theSitePK=40941&menuPK=228424&Projectid=P101504

This is exactly like the phase one program of Bolsa Familia but for phase two which started in September 2010 and runs until December 2015.

The World Bank, (2007). Control and Accountability Mechanisms in Conditional Cash Transfer Programs: A Review of Programs in Latin America and the Caribbean. The World Bank Social Protection and Human Development Department.

This paper is less an analysis on the worthiness of CCT programs and more a look at the best ways to implement and manage CCT programs across Latin America. The main elements of the review are around design, targeting, payment, and auditing of various CCT programs in Latin America.

JUSTIN L. BRUNER

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The World Bank, (2010). Country Profile: Brazil. Available at: http://web.worldbank.org/WBSITE/ EXTERNAL/COUNTRIES/LACEXT/BRAZILEXTN/0,,menuPK:322347~pagePK:141159~piPK:141110~theSitePK:322341,00.html

This is the World Bank’s country profile page for Brazil. This page contains World Bank reports and statistics related to Brazil. It also contains press releases and summaries of projects within Brazil. Most of the data used for this paper will be related to country statistics and Bolsa Familia specific reports.

Source: UN

UNDP, 2010.

Ap

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ppendices

APPENDIX 1

S POVERTY REDDUCTION ENOUUGH?

JUSTIN L. BRUNER

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APPENDIX 2

Literature Sources Institution Evidence World Bank Phase 1 Loan Documents

Phase 2 Loan Documents Brazil Country Strategy Papers Bolsa Familia Loan Reports

UNDP Millennium Declaration Policy Paper Annual Human Development Reports Brazil Country Profile Human Development Indicators

Government of Brazil Bolsa Familia Program Page Government Action Plans Ministry of Social Development Data Ministry of Social Development Reports

APPENDIX 3

Brazil 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2008 2.1 Net enrolment ratio in primary education Total net enrolment ratio in primary education, both sexes

92.4 92.5 94.5 92.9 91.5 94.5 95.6 95.1

Source: UNDP, 2010.

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