Sector Results and Learning:
Education
This Education Sector Results and Learning page is a repository of evidence generated by all MCC-funded education interventions. To promote learning and inform future program design, this page captures monitoring data from key common indicators, showcases recent and relevant evaluations, includes all agency lessons from completed education evaluations to-date, and links to learning that has been aggregated across completed evaluations in the sector.
What Do We Invest In?
MCC has funded $812.4 million in education interventions as of August 2023. These interventions target the following levels of education: general education specific; technical and vocational education training/workforce development; and higher education; and fall into the following categories of investment: teacher/school administrator training; infrastructure and equipment; governance and management; and workforce training.
General Education Specific
Education that is designed to develop learners’ general knowledge, skills and competencies and literacy and numeracy skills, often to prepare students for more advanced educational programs and to lay the foundation for lifelong learning.
Technical and Vocational Education Training/Workforce Development
Education and training which provides knowledge and skills for employment. TVET uses formal, non-formal, or informal learning to provide practical and occupational skills at the secondary and post-secondary level, often as an alternative to university training.
Higher Education
Post-Secondary education leading toward an academic degree.
Teachers/School Administrator Training
Interventions that involve professional preparation for teachers (pedagogical and subject matter training), as well as training for school management and teacher mentors.
Infrastructure and Equipment
Includes new construction or rehabilitation of school facilities as well as the supplying of equipment for labs, gymnasiums, and other instructional facilities.
Governance and Management
Interventions related to accountability measures and incentives, including data management and assessments, education policy, and alignment of measures to more coherence in the system.
Workforce Training
Workplace based training, job placement programs, occupational training.
What Have We Completed So Far?
MCC and its country partners develop and tailor Monitoring and Evaluation Plans for each particular program and country context. Within these country-specific plans, MCC uses common indicators where appropriate to standardize measurement and reporting within certain sectors. See below for a subset of common indicators that summarize implementation achievements across all MCC Education investments as of June 2023. Note that these indicators are tracked and reported during program implementation, so do not reflect the continued attendance and graduation of students after MCC-funded programs end. However, such post-program results are included in our independent evaluation reports.
906
educational facilities constructed or rehabilitated
10,621
instructors trained
483,291
students participating in MCC-supported education activities
80,322
graduates from MCC-supported education activities
What Have We Achieved?
MCC commissions independent evaluations, conducted by third-party evaluators, for every project it funds. These evaluations hold MCC and country partners accountable for the achievement of intended results and also produce evidence and learning to inform future program decision-making. They investigate the quality of project implementation, the achievement of the project and other targeted outcomes, and the cost-effectiveness of the project. The graphs below summarize the composition and status of MCC’s independent evaluations in the Education sector as of August 2023. Read on to see highlights of newly published interim and final evaluations. Follow the evaluation links to see the status of all planned, ongoing, and completed evaluations in the sector and to access the reports, summaries, surveys, and data sets.
Go to our List of Evaluations to see the status of MCC’s education sector evaluations
Highlighted Evaluations

February 22, 2023 | Georgia Compact II
Supplying STEM trainees to meet market needs in Georgia
Trainees in new STEM courses outperform benchmarks but employment barriers remain
- Evaluation Type:
- Evaluation Status: Final
MCC’s $138.6 million Georgia II Compact (2014-2019) funded the $15.7 million Industry-Led Skills and Workforce Development Project, which aimed to improve the alignment between the skills of technical and vocational education and training (TVET) graduates and the skills demanded by the labor market. It provided larger grants to 10 TVET providers to establish 51 new or improved courses with industry support; awarded 27 smaller grants to document and disseminate best practices in the TVET sector; provided technical assistance to the government related to sector policy; and held three annual TVET conferences.
Read Evaluation Details or the Evaluation Brief

October 1, 2022 | Guatemala Threshold Program
Strengthening the Education System in Guatemala
Ministry support for teacher selection and recruitment reform facilitated change
- Evaluation Type:
- Evaluation Status: Interim
MCC’s $28 million Guatemala Threshold Program (2016-2021) aimed to provide quality educational opportunities for Guatemala’s youth that have relevance to the labor market, and mobilize additional government resources that are needed to address binding constraints to economic growth. The Education Project consisted of three activities: (1) Quality of Education in Support of Student Success; (2) Improving Technical and Vocational Education and Training; and (3) Strengthening of Institutional and Planning Capacity. This interim evaluation brief focuses on Activity 3.
Read Evaluation Details or the Evaluation Brief

December 15, 2020 | Georgia Compact II
Upgrading STEM Education at Universities in Georgia
Partners collaborated to offer American degrees and prepare for accreditation
- Evaluation Type:
- Evaluation Status: Interim
MCC’s Georgia II Compact (2013–2019), which disbursed $136 million, funded the $30 million STEM Higher Education Project, which aimed to improve science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) university education to give graduates better employment opportunities with higher incomes, leading to an increase in economic growth. Three public Georgian universities and one university from the United States worked to give Georgian students an opportunity to earn a high-quality STEM bachelor’s degree, improve the Georgian partners’ STEM-related infrastructure, and prepare the partners for international program accreditation.
Read Evaluation Details or the Evaluation Brief

August 11, 2020 | Namibia Compact
Namibian Communities Value Library Resources
Libraries supported learning and professional goals despite sustainability challenges
- Evaluation Type:
- Evaluation Status: Final
MCC’s $304.5 million Namibia Compact (2009–2014) funded the $145 million Education Project, including the $20.8 million Regional Study and Resource Center (RSRC) Activity. The RSRC Activity built three regional libraries and provided technical assistance and training based on the theory that expanded community access to information, training resources, and study facilities would improve educational and professional outcomes.
Read Evaluation Details or the Evaluation Brief
Go to our Evaluation Brief page to see all completed education sector evaluations
What Have We Learned from Our Results?
To link the evidence produced by the independent evaluations with MCC practice, project staff produce an MCC Learning document at the close of each interim and final evaluation to capture practical lessons for programming and evaluation. Use the filters below to find lessons relevant to your evidence needs.
How Have We Aggregated Learning Across the Sector?
In January 2023, MCC published Insights from General Education Evaluations, a paper that synthesizes evidence from completed evaluations of general education investments. MCC previously developed a Principles into Practice paper using evidence from other completed independent evaluations in the education sector – Principles into Practice: Training Service Delivery for Jobs and Productivity.
The Principles into Practice series offers a frank look at what it takes to make the principles MCC considers essential for development operational in the projects in which MCC invests. The learning captured in this paper informs MCC’s ongoing efforts to refine and strengthen its own model and development practice in the education sector. MCC hopes this paper will also allow others to benefit from, and build upon, MCC’s lessons.