Examples of Our Work

The co-founders of Paideia Research & Policy have been working together since 2020 and decided in 2026 to formalize their relationship and create this LLC. Below are some examples of our joint and individual work conducting applied research in education and early childhood development internationally.

International Organizations

World Bank

  • Education systems analytics, technical assistance, and advisory support to governments and World Bank country teams across multiple regions, with a focus on early childhood development, classroom quality, and foundational learning (Tamara Arnold, 2014–present)
  • Psychometric analysis and validity studies of the Teach and AIM-ECD classroom observation tools for measuring early childhood education quality in Morocco, Pakistan, and Bulgaria (Jonathan Seiden)
  • Policy research working paper on early learning in South Punjab, Pakistan, examining instructional quality and child development outcomes (Tamara Arnold & Jonathan Seiden)
  • Raising the Quality of Child Caregiving in Bangladesh: survey-based assessment of 19 government, private, and NGO childcare centers (Tamara Arnold)
  • Stepping Up Skills in Urban Ghana: STEP Skills Measurement Survey on labor market outcomes and education (Tamara Arnold)
  • South Sudan Human Capital Review: education and early childhood development components (Tamara Arnold)
  • Ethiopia Poverty Assessment 2019 (Saori Iwamoto)
  • Development Impact Evaluation (DIME) Analytics fellowship: development of Stata tools for impact evaluation analysis and reporting (Saori Iwamoto)

World Health Organization (WHO)

  • Global Scales for Early Development (GSED): member of the statistics team validating a unified D-score for children ages 0–3 across 12 countries; leading global norming study (Jonathan Seiden)
  • Creating an indicator of early learning environments: development and validation of a WHO-funded measurement tool (Jonathan Seiden)

UNICEF

  • Independent advisory engagements with UNICEF country offices on education systems analytics, quality assurance frameworks, and capacity building in Uzbekistan, Morocco, and Tajikistan (Tamara Arnold)

National Governments

Ministry of Finance of Tajikistan

  • Led a national household- and preschool-level early childhood development study across 14 priority districts, informing government investment in ECD services (Jonathan Seiden)
  • Contributed to national ECD data collection and analysis to strengthen evidence for policy decision-making (Saori Iwamoto)

Ministry of School and Preschool Education of Uzbekistan

  • Co-led a national ECD study across 250 preschools and 1,000 children to assess developmental outcomes and inform quality improvement (Jonathan Seiden)
  • Designed, adapted, and supported national piloting and rollout of education quality measurement frameworks, with capacity building to institutionalize data use for policy and planning (Tamara Arnold)

Ministry of Education of Chile

  • System-level analytics on early childhood education participation and a national early literacy program, examining impacts on cognitive and socio-emotional outcomes using longitudinal and administrative data (Tamara Arnold)
  • Led childcare system diagnostic assessments to inform policy dialogue, quality standards, and implementation strategies (Tamara Arnold)

Non-governmental Organizations

Save the Children

  • Principal investigator and lead analyst on multiple randomized controlled trials and impact evaluations of ECD interventions in India, Bhutan, the Philippines, Nepal, and other countries in Asia; led 15+ trainings on ECD measurement tools including IDELA and CREDI (Jonathan Seiden)
  • Post-earthquake Nepal: evaluation of two ECD interventions on child development outcomes (Jonathan Seiden)
  • Managed 10+ research and evaluation projects of education programs in Laos, Thailand, Nepal, Rwanda, Zambia, and Tanzania; provided technical assistance to local research partners across multiple countries (Saori Iwamoto)
  • Literacy program evaluations in Laos (Performance LEAPS II), Rwanda (School Readiness 4-6), and Thailand (Eat, Play, Love and Read) (Saori Iwamoto)

FHI 360

  • Senior Quantitative Research Lead on 10+ education research and evaluation projects, including longitudinal studies, quasi-experimental designs, and factor analyses using large multi-country datasets (Saori Iwamoto)
  • Evaluation of the Building a Financially Capable Generation Program (Saori Iwamoto)
  • Pennsylvania PASSHE GEAR UP: tracking postsecondary enrollment and persistence across multiple cohorts (Saori Iwamoto)

Previous Clients & Collaborators

World Bank
World Health Organization
Save the Children
Ministry of Finance
of Tajikistan
Ministry of School and Preschool Education
of Uzbekistan