The innovation laboratory for a cost-effective educational policy, or MineduLAB, is a tool that allows Peru's Ministry of Education (Minedu) to innovate and learn through the design, implementation and rigorous evaluation of cost-effective innovation pilots to enhance educational policy.
Innovations are defined as modifications to the Ministry of Education's (Minedu) existing interventions, or as new intervention proposals, that are based on principles of behavioral science or educational theory and characterized as low cost and high impact.
Minedu promotes the generation of timely and rigorous evidence to guide policy decisions and has been committed to MineduLAB since 2014. It is the first public institution in Latin America to institutionalize the use of evidence for the development of its sector.
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MineduLAB innovations are selected through a call for proposals that take place on a regular basis, referred to as its "Innovation Window". Later, prioritized innovations are developed, implemented and evaluated through the "Innovation Cycle".
The innovation cycle is a process through which innovation proposals are prioritized, piloted and evaluated using experimental methods and administrative data. The evidence is then used to decide whether to scale up the innovation to education policy.
Selects and prioritizes innovations.
Facilitates all of the activities of the Innovation cycle.
Through the use of low-cost experiments, it allows for learning about the effectiveness of innovations without interrupting the execution of Minedu's regular activities.
It allows for the scaling up of cost-effective innovations that are aligned with Minedu's institutional objectives and have been proven successful in the Peruvian context.
It generates and systematizes evidence on the effectiveness of educational policies, not only for Minedu but also for other entities in the region and world that face similar challenges.
MineduLAB starts the innovation cycle with a call for proposals organized by Minedu's Office for Monitoring and Strategic Evaluation (OSEE). This "Innovation Window" is aimed at identifying cost-effective innovation proposals from Minedu's offices/divisions, the academic community and/or the private sector.
In 2014, during MineduLAB's Pilot Phase, the first three low-cost innovations were identifed. These were based on behavioral theory and could be evaluated using adminstrative data
SMS PRONIED
Choosing a better future
Delivering School Report Cards
In 2015, during the first implementation of the innovation cycle, seven more projects were added to MineduLAB's portfolio. Three of them responded to ministerial priorities and the remaining four emerged as a result of the first diagnostic workshop on the problems faced by Minedu's offices/divisions.
SMS
to motivate teachers
Grow
your mind!
Raising Awareness
of teacher absenteeism
In 2017, during MineduLAB's institutionalization phase, more than 50 innovation proposals were received through the Third Innovation Window, from Minedu's offices/divisions, researchers in academia and the private sector. Four innovations, which are currently in the design phase, were prioritized
SMS to Parents
Reducing gender gap in STEM careers
Techniques for
tackling procrastination
The MineduLAB team is responsible for facilitating all of the activities that make up the Innovation Cycle. It is in charge of planning and accompanying the design, implementation and evaluation of cost-effective innovations, for the generation of rigorous and timely evidence that contributes to informed decision-making in the education sector
Sending SMS to personnel responsible for executing PRONIED's school maintenance funds, using different types of messages based on principles of behavioral science, in order to increase the timely expenditure and accounting of resources.
Provision of information (videos and interactive tablet app) to middle and high school students, about the benefits of culminating high-school, accessing/financing higher education and the returns to education in general, all with the purpose of reducing school dropout rates and increasing high school graduation rates.
Provision of information (article and poster) to 1st and 2nd year high school students about changing the way they perceive their own intelligence (growth mindset) and how valuable effort is, all with the purpose of improving students' learning outcomes.
Sending weekly SMS to public school teachers, using different types of messages based on principles of behavioral science, in order to increase their motivation and satisfaction.
Providing principals, teachers and parents with information about their school's ECE results (including how they compare to nearby schools), in order to increase parental involvement and principal/teacher effort so as to improve student learning outcomes.
Sending emails to teachers and principals that shines a light on teacher absenteeism and its associated costs, in order to promote the reduction of teacher absenteeism.
Providing public schools with feedback on teacher's attendance (letters and banners of appreciation) in order to improve other management indicators reported by Semáforo Escuela.
Providing winners of Bono Escuela with a virtual diploma recognizing their achievement, as a complement to the financial award, in order to improve teachers' performance and, ultimately, students' learning outcomes.
Random assignment of students with different levels of sociability and academic performance to dormitories of schools in the COAR network, in order to maximize their potential and contribute to the development of their skills.
Delivery of informative and motivational letters to gifted and talented students in public high schools, with the purpose of reducing school dropout rates and improving students' learning outcomes.
Sending SMS to parents to encourage their participation in their children's education, in order to improve students' learning outcomes.
Provision of information to encourage female students to pursue a career in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) and thus increase their admission to and enrollment in higher education institutions.
Tutoring sessions for public high school students, in which self-control techniques are imparted and practiced in order to improve study habits and contribute to better student outcomes.
In 2016, MineduLAB won the PODER Award for Think Tank of the year, in the category "Greatest Promise of the YearIn 2016, MineduLAB won the PODER Award for Think Tank of the year, in the category "Greatest Promise of the Year" and was recognized by Minedu as a "Best Practice in Public Management and Anti-Corruption in Education". and was recognized by Minedu as a "Best Practice in Public Management and Anti-Corruption in Education".
In 2017, the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) presented MineduLAB as a case study in its book "Learning better: public policy for skills development", highlighting it as a leading example in the generation of cost-effective policy solutions and in the use of evidence for educational policy design.
In 2018, MineduLAB won the Best Practices in Public Management award, granted by Ciudadanos al Día and Pacifico University, in the category of "Education - Educational Management and Transfer of Knowledge".
"Having quality information is a distinguishing element when it comes to making decisions. In the public sector, this element is even more important when it comes to policy formulation, especially in the field of social policy. In this respect, institutional management and society require more and more information that allows them to understand the realities of different human groups, their preferences, behaviors and trends, among other things, and in this way be able to make appropriate decisions for institutional development and to formulate and develop relevant public policies in all fields, especially that of social policy within which lies education. In this sense, the work carried out by MineduLAB ensures this quality, verifiable in the product of their work; they also share a sense of solidarity with these issues, helping institutions such as the one I represent so that we can achieve these same objectives, making the use of resources more efficient with their transfer of knowledge."
Andrea Paz
Vice Dean of Research and Postgraduate Studies
Salomé Ureña Higher Institute of Teacher Education
Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic
"MineduLAB has positioned Peru on the frontier of innovation in public policy, to date there is no other similar experience in the region, and there are very few worldwide. It is the reflection of MINEDU's commitment to modern management, and with the use of evidence to ensure that educational policy is cost-effective. One of the main virtues of MineduLAB is that it allows to think "outside the box" about public policy, creating teams of academics and policy designers, who propose innovative interventions that are rigorously evaluated. For researchers, it is a great opportunity to contribute to two objectives: on the one hand, contribute to scientific progress, testing new hypotheses about human behavior and what works in educational policy; on the other hand, supporting MINEDU in the development of effective policies that raise educational indicators, and improve the lives of millions of Peruvians. MineduLAB has created a formal channel that allows these alliances to happen and to grow, proposing an innovation model with a high impact potential, and whose results are public goods that benefit other sectors inside and outside the country."
Juan Manuel Hernández - Agramonte
Country Director, Perú, Bolivia, & Paraguay
Innovations for Poverty Action (IPA)
Lima, Perú
"I have worked with MineduLAB in Grow Your Mind! a socio-emotional innovation for high school students, designed to improve the socio-emotional and cognitive skills of Peruvian adolescents. MineduLAB supported us in all phases of the study (design, implementation, evaluation, analysis of results). Normally working with the government can be complex. What MineduLAB is doing is developing a new model of how to do things from the public sector, working together with the academy and the private sector. Hopefully, most ministries can learn from this model and implement their own innovation units."
Alan Sánchez Jiménez
Main researcher
Analysis Group for Development (GRADE)
Lima, Perú
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