How does education evidence actually move from research to policy, and ultimately into classrooms? The path is rarely linear.

On the VoxDev blog, Juan Manuel Hernández-Agramonte, IPA's Senior Director of Embedded Evidence Labs, together with Samuel Kembou (Global Lead for Learning and Evidence, Jacobs Foundation) and Aashti Zaidi Hai (Founder and CEO, Global Schools Forum), unpacked why the growing volume of global education research has not translated into faster progress on the learning crisis—and what can be done differently. They argue that producing more evidence is not enough. What’s needed are systems that learn: sustained, locally grounded approaches that embed evidence directly into government decision-making processes. This includes:

• Embedding Evidence Labs in Education (EdLabs) within ministries to support continuous learning
• Working alongside governments, not just for them
• Bridging evidence and day-to-day decision-making through permanent structures and processes

By rethinking how evidence is generated, shared, and used, governments and partners can move from one-off pilots to scalable, system-wide change.