Reflecting on the feasibility of ed tech solutions for out-of-school children, authors Jasmine S. Turner, Karine Taha, Nisreen Ibrahim, Koen I. Neijenhuijs, Eyad Hallak, Kate Radford, Hester Stubbé-Alberts, Thomas de Hoop, Mark J.D. Jordans, and Felicity L. Brown report significant effects on numeracy and self-esteem among 390 children in Lebanon who took part in a digital game-based intervention.

Authors Maria Paulina Arango-Fernández and Stephanie Simmons Zuilkowski share insights from 20 Colombian ex-combatants engaged in TVET. They find that some forms of TVET may support social cohesion while other forms reinforce exclusion, but few TVET experiences addressed ex-combatants’ feelings of stigmatization. They recommend pairing TVET with economic support to encourage reintegration.

Authors Liliana Angélica Ponguta, Kathryn Moore, Divina Varghese, Sascha Hein, Angela Ng, Aseel Fawaz Alzaghoul, Maria Angélica Benavides Camacho, Karishma Sethi, and Majd Al-Soleiti uncover root causes behind low ECD access in EiE settings: low prioritization across sectors, little systematic mapping of the institutional and programmatic landscape, and limited consensus on strategic advocacy.

Authors Elizabeth Buckner, Daniel Shephard, and Anne Smiley examine how EiE professionals use data and what makes data “useful” to them. While global-level actors emphasized strategic data uses and local-level actors, operational uses, respondents at all levels elaborated on nontechnical factors (e.g., the politics of data) that influence the availability and perceived usefulness of EiE data.

In this editorial note, JEiE Editor-in-Chief Dana Burde and Senior Managing Editor Heddy Lahmann introduce the key themes, trends, and novel contributions to evidence on education in emergencies offered in JEiE Volume 8, Number 1.