Wellbeing and Student Achievement: Evidence from refugee students in Syria, Lebanon, Gaza, Jordan and the West Bank

背景：联合国近东巴勒斯坦难民救济和工程处(近东救济工程处)管理五个地区(加沙、约旦、黎巴嫩、叙利亚和西岸)的难民营，这些地区目前有150多万人居住(Berg等人，2022年)。近东救济工程处提供的主要服务之一是教育，其中包括700多所学校、20 000名教育工作者和545 000名学生(Fiddian-Qasmiyeh，2019年)。2022年，桑多瓦尔-埃尔南德斯是一个咨询委员会的成员，该委员会负责监督近东救济工程处全系统学习成果评估的创建、执行、初步分析和传播。随后与五个领域的教育主任进行的讨论显示了学生福祉的重要性、作出有经验证据支持的政策决定的必要性以及近东救济工程处小组的技术限制。该项目将以先进的量化方法和政策理论补充近东救济工程处的专门知识(深入了解情况和目前的政策气候)，以提供证据，为近东救济工程处教育系统的政策制定提供信息。研究问题：本研究将分析ALO数据，以评估福祉服务对教育成果的影响。从政策制定的角度来看，了解公共投资的影响至关重要，以确保政策有效地改善学生的福祉水平。本研究试图解决以下研究问题：1.投资于改善学生幸福感是否对学生教育结果有因果影响？2.性别或年级(小学/S初中)的影响是否存在异质性？3.与近东救济工程处教育系统中其他微型教师/学生层面的干预措施在改善教育结果方面的影响相比，这些影响如何？高资本投资比低成本干预更具成本效益吗？研究设计：这项研究将由两部分组成。首先，将分析来自ALO研究的数据，以了解幸福感对学生成绩的影响。2019年和2022年将提供这一数据，2024年将有更多数据，在近东救济工程处系统一级和五个外地均具有代表性。这包括入学人数、辍学情况、阿拉伯语和数学的学生成绩以及各种家庭和学校变量。第一部分将利用差异法分析ALO数据。这将有助于在控制可能/可用的特征后，确定学生幸福感对各种感兴趣的结果的影响。这项分析还将使用项目反应理论(IRT)(Kean和Reilly，2014)设计学校幸福感可获得性指数，用于与近东救济工程处学校幸福感倡议有关的感兴趣变量。第二部分是定性研究，包括与学校系统五个领域的利益攸关方进行的半结构化、开放式、深入访谈。访谈的主题将根据有目的的抽样技术进行选择。合作和影响这项研究将包括与国际教育研究与评估研究所(INERI)合作进行的一次海外访问，INERI将提供关于数据二次分析的先进量化方法培训和实质性知识交流。此外，在本研究期间还将访问教科文组织统计研究所(UIS)。这是为了学习统计研究所现有的大量技术经验，并分享我的研究成果，以帮助统计研究所应对联合国向所有人提供优质教育的可持续发展目标带来的挑战。

Background:The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) manages refugee camps across five Fields (Gaza, Jordan, Lebanon, Syria, and the West Bank), where there are currently more than 1.5 million people residing (Berg et al., 2022). One of the key services provided by UNRWA is education, which includes more than 700 schools, 20,000 educators, and 545,000 pupils (Fiddian-Qasmiyeh, 2019). In 2022, Sandoval-Hernandez was a member of an advisory board that oversaw the creation, implementation, preliminary analyses, and dissemination of UNRWA's system-wide Assessment of Learning Outcomes (ALO). Subsequent discussions with the Directors of Education for each of the five Fields demonstrated the importance of students' well-being, the necessity to make policy decisions that are supported by empirical evidence and the technical limitations of the UNRWA team. This project will supplement UNRWA's expertise (in-depth understanding of the situation and the present policy climate) with advanced quantitative methods and policy theory to produce the evidence to inform policy development in the UNRWA education system.Research Questions:This study will analyse ALO data to evaluate the impact of well-being services on educational outcomes. From the lens of policymaking, it is crucial to understand the impact of public investment to ensure policies effectively improve the well-being levels of students. This study seeks to address the following research questions:1. Does investing in the improvement of student well-being have a causal effect on student educational outcomes? 2. Is there any heterogeneity in the effects based on gender or grade (primary v/s lower secondary)? 3. How do the impacts compare to other micro-teacher/student-level interventions in the context of the UNRWA education system in improving educational outcomes? Are high-capital investments more cost-effective than low-cost interventions?Study Design:This study will consist of two components. First, data from the ALO study will be analysed to understand the impact of well-being on student achievement. This data is available for 2019 and 2022, with further data becoming available in 2024, and is representative at the UNRWA system level, and for each of the five Fields. This captures enrolment, dropout status, student achievement in Arabic and Mathematics and various family and school variables.The first component will utilise a difference-in-difference approach to analyse the ALO data. This will help to identify the impact of student well-being on various outcomes of interest after controlling for possible/available characteristics. This analysis will also design a school well-being availability index, using item response theory (IRT) (Kean and Reilly, 2014) for the variables of interest pertaining to well-being initiatives in UNRWA schools.The second component is qualitative research consisting of semi-structured, open-ended, in-depth interviews conducted with stakeholders of the school system across the five Fields. The subjects for the interviews will be chosen based on the purposive sampling technique.Collaboration and Impact This research will involve an overseas visit that will be conducted to collaborate with INERI (International Educational Research and Evaluation Institute), which will provide training in advanced quantitative methods and substantive knowledge exchange regarding the secondary analysis of the data. Additionally, a visit to the UNESCO Institute of Statistics (UIS) will take place during this research. This is to learn from the vast technical experience available at UIS, as well as to share results of my research to assist UIS with addresses the challenge posed by the UN's sustainable development goals of providing quality education to all.