Costs and benefits of different approaches to measuring the learning proficiency of students (SDG Indicator 4.1.1)

The purpose of the current report is to advance policy debates around how countries and international organizations such as the UNESCO Institute for Statistics (UIS) measure learning outcomes and define proficiency levels in order to achieve the Sustainable Development Goal for education (SDG 4). This paper synthesises the recent debates and highlights issues which may not have received sufficient attention to arrive at informed proposals and recommendations. The report focusses on Indicator 4.1.1, which deals with children’s proficiency in reading and mathematics across three education levels.