About

Prashant Loyalka is an Associate Professor at the Stanford Graduate School of Education and a Senior Fellow at the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies at Stanford University. His research focuses on examining and addressing inequalities in the education of children and youth, as well as understanding and improving the quality of education received by children and youth in multiple countries including China, India, Russia, and the United States. He conducts large-scale evaluations of educational programs and policies aimed at enhancing student outcomes. Loyalka's work encompasses assessment, testing and measurement, diversity and identity, higher education, immigrants and immigration, international and comparative education, poverty and inequality, and teachers and teaching.

Research topics

• Economics
• Political Science
• Economic growth
• Medicine
• Computer Science
• Operations management
• Environmental health
• Management
• Geography
• Socioeconomics
• Business
• Sociology
• Nursing
• Medical education
• Finance
• Marketing
• Labour economics
• Demography
• Microeconomics
• Industrial organization
• Mathematics
• Engineering
• Psychology

Selected publications

• Off the COVID-19 Epicentre: The Impact of Quarantine Controls on Employment, Education and Health in China's Rural Communities

  UNC Libraries · 2025-04-18

  articleOpen access

  This study documents the COVID-19 disease-control measures enacted in rural China and examines the economic and social impacts of these measures. We conducted two rounds of surveys with 726 randomly selected village informants across seven provinces. Strict disease-control measures have been universally enforced and appear to have been successful in limiting disease transmission in rural communities. The infection rate in our sample was 0.001 per cent, a rate that is near the national average outside of Hubei province. None of the villages reported any COVID-19-related deaths. For a full month during the quarantine, the rate of employment of rural workers was essentially zero. Even after the quarantine measures were lifted, nearly 70 per cent of the villagers still were unable to work owing to workplace closures. Although action has been taken to mitigate the potential negative effects, these disease-control measures might have accelerated the inequality between rural and urban households in China.

  PublisherDOI

• Job Training, English Language Skills, and Employability: Evidence from an Experiment in Urban India

  SSRN Electronic Journal · 2025-01-01

  articleOpen access
  PublisherDOI

• The Effects of Sustained Teacher Training and Coaching on Student Learning: Evidence from a Cluster Randomized Controlled Trial in India

  SSRN Electronic Journal · 2025-01-01

  preprintOpen access1st authorCorresponding
  PublisherDOI

• Job Training, English Language Skills, and Employability: Evidence from an Experiment in Urban India

  SSRN Electronic Journal · 2024-01-01

  articleOpen access1st authorCorresponding
  PublisherDOI

• Education without Formal Schooling through Tablets and Tutors: Evidence from Out-of-School Children in Bangladesh during the COVID-19 Pandemic

  2024-03-01 · 1 citations

  preprintOpen access

  This paper shares insights from a randomized control trial in Bangladesh that provided tablets with educational software and private tutoring for out-of-school children. The paper finds positive effects on math and Bangla language scores, with an increase of approximately 0.25 standard deviations in math and 0.17 in Bangla. The intervention had a stronger impact on girls and rural children. The findings could help inform programs targeting out-of-school children and distance education during crises like pandemics.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Generalizable evidence that computer assisted learning improves student learning: A systematic review of education technology in China

  Computers and Education Open · 2024-01-20 · 10 citations

  reviewOpen access

  Despite the proliferation of education technologies (EdTech) in education, past reviews that examine their effectiveness in the context of low- and middle-income countries are few and rarely seek to include studies published in languages other than English. This systematic review investigates the effectiveness of educational technology on primary and secondary student learning outcomes in China via a systematic search of both English- and Chinese-language databases. Eighteen (18) unique studies in 21 manuscripts on the effectiveness of EdTech innovations in China met the eligibility criteria. The majority of these evaluate computer aided self-led learning software packages designed to improve student learning (computer assisted learning, CAL), while the rest evaluate the use of education technology to improve classroom instruction (ICI) and remote instruction (RI). The pooled effect size of all included studies indicates a small, positive effect on student learning (0.13 SD, 95% CI [0.10, 0.17]). CAL used a supplement to existing educational inputs – which made up the large majority of positive effect sizes – and RI programs consistently showed positive and significant effects on learning. Our findings indicate no significant differences or impacts on the overall effect based on moderating variables such as the type of implementation approach, contextual setting, or school subject area. Taken together, while there is evidence of the positive impacts of two kinds of EdTech (supplemental computer assisted learning and remote instruction) in China, more evidence is needed to determine the effectiveness of other approaches.

  PublisherDOI

• Heterogeneity of Item-Treatment Interactions Masks Complexity and Generalizability in Randomized Controlled Trials

  Journal of Research on Educational Effectiveness · 2024-07-10 · 13 citations

  article
  PublisherDOI

• Education without Formal Schooling through Tablets and Tutors: Evidence from Out-of-School Children in Bangladesh during the COVID-19 Pandemic

  SSRN Electronic Journal · 2024-01-01

  articleOpen access
  PublisherDOI

• Job Training, English Language Skills, and Employability: Evidence from an Experiment in Urban India

  SSRN Electronic Journal · 2024-01-01

  articleOpen access1st authorCorresponding
  PublisherDOI

• Job Training, English Language Skills, and Employability: Evidence from an Experiment in Urban India

  Economic Development and Cultural Change · 2024-12-17

  article1st authorCorresponding

  Low-income individuals in developing countries are often inadequately prepared for employment because they lack key labor market skills. We explore how employability and wage outcomes are related to English language skills in a novel, large-scale randomized field experiment conducted in Delhi, India, involving 1,260 low-income individuals. Experimental estimates indicate that a job training program that emphasizes English language skills training substantially increases English language skills as well as employability and estimated wages (as assessed by hiring managers through interviews) for regular jobs and employability for jobs that specifically require English language skills. Program effects hold regardless of gender, social class, or prior employment. We furthermore find that participants enjoy improved employability and estimated wage outcomes because the program improves their English language skills. Taken together, our results suggest that English language skills training, which is surprisingly underutilized in developing countries, may provide considerable economic opportunities for individuals from low-income backgrounds.

  PublisherDOI

Frequent coauthors

• Hongmei Yi

  Fuzhou University

  75 shared

• James Chu

  Columbia University

  69 shared

• Yaojiang Shi

  Shaanxi Normal University

  62 shared

• Linxiu Zhang

  62 shared

• Scott Rozelle

  Stanford University

  60 shared

• Yingquan Song

  Peking University

  48 shared

• Jianguo Wei

  47 shared

• Xiaoting Huang

  34 shared

Education

• Ph.D., Education

  Stanford University

• M.A., Global Comparative Education

  Stanford University

• M.S., Education Data Science

  Stanford University

• B.A., International and Comparative Education

  Stanford University