What information does it provide?

For each strategy the platform shows the expected level of impact on educational attainment. The platform responds to the following key questions about the strategies: what is the strategy?; how effective is it?; what are the main research findings for Latin America and the Caribbean?; how secure is the evidence?; what are the costs?; and what should be considered before implementing the intervention?

1. What is the strategy? This section provides a general definition and/or description of the strategy. This information allows a better understanding of the actions that are covered under this type of intervention.
2. How effective it is? This section provides information on the average impact that can be expected from the strategy, based on robust evidence. Where there is good evidence to suggest that the impact could be different for certain groups of students, or particular types of interventions, this is also included. Impact is usually described in terms of the months of additional progress a student could be expected to make in a year, on average, as a result of the strategy, compared to students who did not experience it.

• What are the research findings for Latin America and the Caribbean?  This section synthesizes robust research conducted in Latin America and the Caribbean in relation to each strand. In this first phase, this section reviews and synthesizes more than 250 studies carried out in the region in order to contextualise the global evidence, taking into consideration the local reality.

1. How secure is the evidence?  This section summarizes the quality, quantity and consistency of the available international evidence.
2. What are the costs?  This section offers a general estimation of the necessary financial resources needed to implement a given strategy. Costs are expressed on a five point scale to allow simple communication of the level of resources needed to successfully implement the strategy.
3. What should I consider?  This section suggests points for schools to consider before implementing a specific strategy. Any action to improve the teaching-learning process requires a careful discussion about the relevance, conditions and goals of the intervention.

The platform, and each individual strand, provides information on the likely impact of different strategies. However, this cannot be seen as a magical recipe to solve the challenges and issues that every school faces day to day. It must be kept in mind that long run improvement depends not only on school-level interventions, but also on structural system-level reforms that make the former possible. Thus, a holistic approach, which considers both macro and micro level strategies, should be promoted when designing long-run improvement strategies.

Finally, it is vital that decision makers take into serious consideration the problems, capacities and challenges existing in each school and local community, before deciding about specific interventions to take forward.Key stakeholders should discuss which approaches and strategies to adopt having in mind the benefits, costs and risks generated by each intervention. In this sense, it is important to think about:

• Mechanisms and resources that make an intervention or programme successful.
• Best ways to adapt the interventions and practices to fit the context of each school and the individual pupil´s needs.
• Specific implementation and monitoring requirements needed by each intervention
• The regulations and macro education policies that may foster or hinder the implementation of specific interventions.
• The set of questions provided in the platform to consider before implementing any specific intervention.