Education Data Literacy Summer School: From Indicators to Infrastructure

Curricula & convenings · Education Reform Initiative · Friedrich Naumann Foundation · 2020

Across three days and 20 hours, a summer school reframed data from a technical skill into a mode of public reasoning. Twenty-three participants and nine experts challenged the limits of existing indicators and designed new measures. The temporary gathering then became a bilingual, reusable monitoring infrastructure built around 20 education indicators.

The summer school treats its three days not as disconnected expert talks, but as a progressive learning arc. Day one establishes a shared data language; day two opens existing indicators to critique through a children's-rights lens and four parallel laboratories; day three connects findings to advocacy, communication, and social impact. Every laboratory follows the same production protocol: frame the field with an expert, test two indicators, name the blind spot, design a new measure, and specify the data it would require. Rather than delivering knowledge in one direction, the program creates a distributed space of co-production among nine experts, 15 civil-society organizations, and 23 participants. Recordings, newsletters, and the bilingual indicator booklet give this temporary learning environment a public afterlife. MYRA designed the publication identity, charts, and pages; the booklet is shown here only as an output of the program.

One system, two public editions

The Turkish and English publications preserve the same indicator sequence, provenance, and visual grammar, turning local monitoring knowledge into a comparable and shareable reference.

Turning three days into one learning arc

The program begins with foundational data skills, moves into political and rights-based critique of indicators, and ends with advocacy and social impact. Each day prepares the threshold for the next.

Moving participants from indicator consumers to indicator authors

Beginning with an expert's framing, each group tests two existing indicators, names their blind spots, and then specifies both a new measure and the data required to make it possible.

Building a learning ecosystem where expertise circulates

Nine experts are positioned not as a single broadcasting center, but as nodes activating the experience of 23 participants from 15 organizations. Sessions, laboratories, and collective discussion feed one another.

Giving a temporary program a public afterlife

The bilingual booklet is one of the durable outputs carrying the summer school's indicator debate to a wider public. MYRA created its identity, charts, and page design; Özgenur Korlu led the program, research, and authorship.