Youth Impact at CIES 2025

We are excited to once again be participating in the Comparative and International Education Society Conference in Chicago, USA from 22nd - 26th March 2025. We always look forward to learning from others doing similar work and in the same breath are excited to share our learnings from the past year. The conference presents an opportunity to collaborate with other experts in the sector to help grow our shared impact. This year’s theme – Envisioning Education in a Digital Society – resonates, as we scale our education programming globally using widely available and locally relevant technology (basic cellphones, Whatsapp, and AI).

At this year’s conference our team will be sharing their knowledge on various topics ranging from applying behavioural science to improve teacher uptake to reaching remote learners through tech-enabled assessments, and many more. But perhaps what we are looking forward to the most is our workshop on “Using A/B testing to optimize education programming.” This workshop is ideal for implementers who are looking for insights to take their work to the next level using rapid, rigorous and iterative testing methods. The workshop features the full Youth Impact CIES team as well as experts from Jacobs Foundation, PAL Network, Pratham, FCDO, What Works Hub for Global Education, Building Tomorrow, and Brink.

Here’s a look at all of our sessions:

Saturday 22nd March

The Case for Locally-driven Implementation Research and the Shift It Demands from Funders (Panel)

🕒Time: 2.45 - 4.00 pm

📍Location: Palmer House, 3rd Floor, Salon 6

Sunday 23rd March

Using A/B testing to optimize your education programming: A “jump-start” workshop to help you get started (Workshop)

🕒Time: 9.45 - 11.00 am

📍Location: Palmer House, 3rd Floor, Salon 3

Learning in groups, learning in loops: How to start using data for development in implementation research

🕒Time: 2.45 - 4.00 pm

📍Location: Palmer House, 3rd Floor, Salon 7

Monday 24th March

Applying Behavioural Science to Improve Teacher Uptake of Pedagogical Best Practices for Foundational Literacy and Numeracy in Sub-Saharan Africa and India (Panel)

🕒Time: 9.45 - 11.00 am

📍Location: Palmer House, 7th Floor, La Salle 4

Implementation Science? Decoding the complexity and contextual nature of system change work in large scale government-nonprofit collaborative programs in India (Panel)

🕒Time: 9.45 - 11.00 am

📍Location: Palmer House, 3rd Floor, Salon 5

Innovations in Digital Support for Education in Low-Resource Contexts: Case Studies from West Africa (Panel)

🕒Time: 2.45 - 4.00 pm

📍Location: Palmer House, 3rd Floor, Salon 5

Delivering Quality Education During Emergencies: Evidence and Potential for Scale (Panel)

🕒Time: 4.30 - 5.45 pm

📍Location: Palmer House, 3rd Floor, Salon 2

Learning in groups, learning in loops using data for development: Evidence-based action and implementation-informed iteration (Panel)

🕒Time: 4.30 - 5.45 pm

📍Location: Palmer House, 7th Floor, Dearborn 2

Wednesday 26th March

Educational technology and implementation science: Using A/B testing to iteratively improve and scale educational interventions (Panel)

🕒Time: 11.15 am - 12.30 pm

📍Location: Palmer House, 7th Floor, La Salle 1

Reaching remote or independent learners through tech-enabled assessments of learning and development (Panel)

🕒Time: 1.15 - 2.30 pm

📍Location: Palmer House, 3rd Floor, Salon 6

Improving learning equity outcomes and policies: Concepts, methods and empirical findings from India, Nigeria and Malawi (Panel)

🕒Time: 1.15 - 2.30 pm

📍Location: Palmer House, 3rd Floor, Salon 7

If you are attending #CIES2025 we hope to see you at our sessions and would love to connect! You can set up a meeting with us: