For many children in low-income countries, schools are danger zones and places to be feared. Policy makers, funders and implementers lack accurate information regarding the prevalence of school-related genderbased violence (SRGBV) and the way it manifests in the lives of children. RTI funded a study in March 2018 in Uganda that tested a new model of SRGBV data collection—the ACASI method—that shows promise in generating more accurate data.

EF Touch is a tablet-administered assessment designed to measure children’s three key executive function skills: working memory, inhibitory control, and cognitive flexibility. These functions are important for organizing information, planning, solving problems, sustaining attention, and coordinating action and thoughts in support of goal-directed behaviors. Consequently, these functions are integral to children’s ability to learn how to learn. Most of what we know about executive functions has been gathered from studies in high-income countries. However, EF Touch is now being adapted and tested with young children living in LMICs, including Kenya and Liberia.

Students’ experiences of school life play an important role in their ability to benefit from their education. When children feel safe and welcome at school, are encouraged in the classroom and have the confidence to seek assistance when challenged socially or academically, they will be in a good position to reach their potential. Unfortunately, many schools around the world are not positive or encouraging. Bullying, corporal punishment, sexual harassment and assault are the norm. Until recently, the measurement tools to assess many of the non-cognitive factors that mediate learning have not existed for the international education context. Since 2014, RTI has been working to fill these gaps and has developed valid and reliable instruments for measuring school climate and culture, gender norms, social and emotional learning competencies and school related gender-based violence (SRGBV) in low- and middle-income countries.

Quality inclusive education for children with disabilities is now a requirement in development work. However, many governments struggle not only with how to strengthen and adapt instruction to meet the needs of children with disabilities, but also in assessing what those needs are. This is particularly true for children who are blind or have profoundly low vision and those who are deaf or profoundly hard of hearing. Under USAID funding, and drawing upon ground-breaking work conducted by USAID, Perkins International, and School to School, RTI has developed early braille and sign language assessments and used them to establish a national baseline of proficiency in these languages in Kenya.

GALA is an assessment tool for measuring early literacy skills in a group setting. It consists of two main components: student booklets with multiple choice questions and a tool providing assessors with a complete protocol for test administration.

Tangerine:Class is easy-to-use software that assists teachers to systematically collect, analyze, and use students’ results from continuous curriculum-based assessments to inform instructional decisions on grouping, pacing, and materials use. It is optimized for Android devices and offline use.

12277_International_Education_Event_OnePager_CurrantMobile

Indonesia 2014: The National Early Grade Reading Assessment (EGRA) and Snapshot of School Management Effectiveness (SSME) Survey Instruments

Through the support of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), Research Triangle Institute (RTI) is implementing the Early Grade Reading and Mathematics Initiative (RAMP) (2015–2019). The objective of RAMP is to improve the reading and mathematics skills of students in Jordan from Kindergarten 2 through grade 3 (K2–G3). The inclusion of students with disabilities is a crosscutting theme of this project. To address this theme, RTI engaged a team of international and local experts in special and inclusive education to conduct a situational assessment on the education of students with disabilities in Jordan. The assessment took place between December 2016 to May 2017. Findings from this assessment will help to compare the current situation in Jordan with international standards and best practices, determine gaps in services, strengthen RAMP’s inclusion efforts, and further enhance future efforts and initiatives conducted by the Ministry of Education (MoE).

This report, from the All Children Reading-Cambodia project, documents the results of the teacher survey, desk review and compilation of assessment data and communicates the implications of that research in the form of recommended updates to the syllabus, curriculum and materials for grades 1-2