From Sobral and Ceará to Latin America and the Caribbean: Lessons to Strengthen Literacy Across the Region

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Sustainable funding for education: Grenada, SUMMA and GPE present a collaborative funding model in Washington to implement a national literacy policy

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KIX LAC High-Level Educational Meeting: Leaders from Latin America and the Caribbean advance a regional agenda to promote educational transformation and social justice based on evidence

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Who we are ?

We are the Laboratory of Education Research and Innovation for Latin America and the Caribbean. We were created in 2016 by the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), with the support of the Ministries of Education in Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Mexico, Peru, and Uruguay. Since 2018, the Ministries of Guatemala, Honduras and Panama have also joined us.

To achieve its mission, SUMMA has organized itself in a work model that generates:

  • Knowledge and rigorous comparative evidence that identifies and addresses the main educational gaps in the region.
  • Effective and adapted high-impact innovations that can be scaled in partnership and coordination with different educational actors in the region.
  • Collaboration and dissemination of knowledge and innovation networks.
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Innovation and global knowledge platforms

Map of Innovations

It is an online tool that synthesizes high quality international and Latin American academic evidence on the effectiveness of educational interventions at the school level. Developed in conjunction with the EEF, one of the most important centres in the world in evidence synthesis, in order to be a relevant support for decision makers in public policy, teachers, principals and the educational community as a whole.

Effective Educational Practices

It is an online tool that synthesizes high quality international and Latin American academic evidence on the effectiveness of educational interventions at the school level. Developed in conjunction with the EEF, one of the most important centres in the world in evidence synthesis, in order to be a relevant support for decision makers in public policy, teachers, principals and the educational community as a whole.

Open

This is a SUMMA initiative, carried out with the support of the triangular cooperation fund, which makes available pedagogical resources to support the work of teachers and school communities in Latin America and the Caribbean, in order to improve student learning.

Edudata

It is a platform of educational, social, and economic indicators developed by the Knowledge and Innovation Exchange Centre for Latin America and the Caribbean (KIX LAC). This online tool aims to highlight the educational gaps in the countries that make up KIX LAC, their progress and provide policy alternatives that respond to the identified challenges.

Impacta+

Impact+ is an ecosystem of resources created to strengthen the culture of evaluation in Latin America and the Caribbean, promoting improvements in educational interventions. As a regional public good, it offers free tools and materials to support all stages of the intervention life cycle. (available in Spanish)

Our outstanding initiatives

Country support mechanism

This mechanism, used by SUMMA, is an additional component to complement existing methods of research, knowledge mobilization, and capacity building. Specifically, the mechanism addresses the call from national stakeholders for a tailored approach that focuses on and aligns with each country’s unique educational challenges and priorities.

EDU – LAC Impact Fund

The Global Fund for the Development of Pilot and Impact Evaluations was born in 2019 from SUMMA’s collaboration with the Education Endowment Foundation (EEF) under the initiative “Building a global ecosystem of evidence for teaching improvement”

Support for Curriculum Reform in the Caribbean

The new Associate Degree in Education (ADE) curriculum in the Caribbean is being developed by the University of the West Indies (UWI), with support from SUMMA. The initiative includes a diagnosis of the current curriculum, a mapping of global best practices in initial teacher training, and the design of a new teacher education curriculum through a new bachelor’s degree in basic pedagogy.

International Conference

SUMMA, together with the Education Endowment Foundation (EEF) and the Evidence for Education Network (EEN), held the International Conference “Evidence for Equity and Educational Transformation” in Santiago, Chile in 2024. SUMMA celebrated its 8th anniversary with this globally significant event, which aimed to reflect on the role and impact of evidence in transforming education systems and its capacity to reduce inequality and improve outcomes, both structurally and at the school level.

GEM 2020 Report for Latin America and the Caribbean

Prepared by the GEM Report, the Regional Bureau for Education in Latin America and the Caribbean (OREALC/UNESCO Santiago) and SUMMA, the GEM Report 2020 Latin America and the Caribbean – Inclusion and education: Everyone without exception, offers a deep dive into the central challenges and key solutions to achieve greater inclusion in education, in a region characterized by having the largest and most challenging socio-economic inequalities in the world.

PRISA Panama Programme

The Comprehensive and Socio-Emotional Learning Recovery Program (PRISA) is an initiative driven by SUMMA and the Panamanian Ministry of Education that sought to strengthen the country’s educational policy in the context of the return to in-person classes. Currently, the second phase of the program is underway, aimed at supporting and strengthening supervisory capacities in Panama. This phase includes, among other things, a diagnostic stage and a training course to be held in 2025.

KIX LAC HUB

The Knowledge and Innovation Exchange Hub (KIX) for Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) is a space for collaboration and exchange for innovation among educational leaders from Dominica, El Salvador, Grenada, Guatemala, Guyana, Haiti, Honduras, Nicaragua, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, and St. Lucia.

Empowering Teachers Initiative (ETI)

The Teacher Empowerment Initiative: Teacher Professional Development at Scale (ETI) is a 42-month research-for-development program that seeks to improve teaching practices in the Global South by improving equity, quality, and efficiency in teacher professional development systems.

SUMMA in figures

+70

Strategic partners and more than 10  local, regional and global networks of which SUMMA is a member with active participation.

10

Countries are part of the KIX LAC Hub, with 45 representatives.

USD 15,5 M

Mobilized in total since 2016; and USD 2.5 million mobilized in 2024.

+21

Partner countries and governments in Latin America and the Caribbean.

10

Countries and more than 20 strategic partners from all over the world in the Empowering Teachers initiative (ETI).

3

Countries are developing reforms to their educational financing systems supported by SUMMA: Chile, Costa Rica and El Salvador.

With whom and where

Radical collaboration is one of the fundamental principles guiding SUMMA’s work. We believe that by working collaboratively we can greatly amplify our impact. We work closely with Ministries of Education across Latin America and the Caribbean, and with dozens of leading public, private, academic and civil society institutions, locally, regionally and globally.

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Francesca Bonomelli Carrasco

Senior Researcher at SUMMA

About Francesca Bonomelli Carrasco

Francesca Bonomelli Carrasco is a Senior Researcher at SUMMA, with a background in project management, public policies, and applied research. She is interested in equity and justice which is reflected in her work and research on education, employment, inequality, migration, and gender issues.

Her previous work experience includes coordinating an educational transformation project in Paraguay, her work as a consultant for UNESCO and the ILO, and her key roles in the Ministry of Education of Chile. Currently, at SUMMA, she focuses on supporting the development of educational policies and connecting research, practice, and educational policy.

She got a master’s degree in international development studies from the University of Amsterdam, she obtained a master’s degree in labor economics for Development from the University of Turin, and her bachelor’s degree in Economics from the University of Chile. All of which provide her with skills, technical tools, and diverse perspectives to contribute to the important work that SUMMA is pushing forward.

Paula Salas

Evaluation Project Coordinator

About Paula Salas

Paula Salas is Coordinator of Evaluation Projects at SUMMA. Her main experience is in educational research and development of assessment instruments. She worked as an analyst at the Measurement Center of the Catholic University (MIDE UC) and for four years at the Department of Psychology of the University of Chile in various research projects, aimed at the development of psychoeducational assessment instruments to support high school students. High School Humanist Scientist and Professional Technician in the process of transition to higher education.

She is a psychologist from the University of Chile and has a master’s degree in Social Research Methods from University College London (UCL).