This success story outlines the co-creation process for the Uzbekistan Education for Excellence Program in From February 2020. RTI held a collaborative, interactive Co-Development Workshop to 1) affirm the shared vision for the Program, 2) clarify the Program’s overall mandate and scope, and 3) produce outlines of planned activities with associated implementation strategies, resource needs, and roles and responsibilities.

The Government of Uzbekistan’s Ministry of Public Education embarked on an ambitious set of education reforms within the general secondary education system that covers grades 1 to 11. Among these reforms are the development of high-quality Student Standards that will give a solid foundation for all other curriculum products and instruction. In partnership with the Ministry of Public Education, the U.S. Agency for International Development-funded Uzbekistan Education for Excellence Program conducted the Product Review Orientation Workshop for Student Standards to prepare approximately 50 educators from across Uzbekistan to undertake a formal review of the new Student Standards for Uzbek Language Arts and Mathematics grades 1–4 and Information and Communications Technology grades 1–11 produced by the Program

The Inclusive Education Study explored the status of, drivers of, and barriers to inclusive education in Uzbekistan, particularly as they pertain to students with disabilities. The study respondents included 2,560 students in grades 1, 4, 5, 9, and 11 from 10 purposefully selected schools in Namangan and 10 schools in Sirdaryo, as well as 93 teachers, 19 school principals, and 25 caregivers, and 96 community members. The study used Bronfenbrenner’s Ecological Systems Theory along with an adapted Ajzen’s Theory of Planned Behavior as guiding frameworks. The study employed a mixed methods design including screening of students for visual and hearing impairments, qualitative interviews, quantitative surveys, and classroom observations focusing on students screened for potential hearing and vision impairments.

In Year 2 (October 2020–September 2021), the Program designed and implemented a Status of Instruction Study (SIS) to shed light on teachers’ knowledge, attitudes and beliefs, skills, and behaviors; the resources available at the school level and for the targeted subjects; and how these resources are used. The Program also designed a Teacher Support System Study (TSSS) to examine the existing teacher support system and identify teacher support challenges and opportunities. The TSSS results will be used to create a Program TPD approach. The TSSS data collection process was integrated into the second phase of the SIS data collection process, which occurred in mid-2021. This was done because both studies targeted the same respondents: teachers, school directors, and methodologists. The TSSS, like the SIS, was originally intended to include in-person interviews. However, because of the prolonged difficulties caused by the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, data collection was done remotely. This report presents the TSSS methodology and findings from online surveys administered to more than 4,100 teachers, 183 school directors, and 131 methodologists from all regions of Uzbekistan, including the Republic of Karakalpakstan and Tashkent City.

The Status of Instruction Study (SIS) aims to shed light on teachers’ knowledge, attitudes and beliefs, and skills and behaviors; the resources available at the school level and for the targeted subjects; and how these resources are used. The SIS was designed to inform the customization and development of student textbooks, teacher guides, and TPD approaches. Originally, the SIS was to have a school-based data collection component that would include classroom observations and parent and teacher interviews. Given the protracted challenges resulting from the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, data collection was conducted remotely and focused on garnering feedback directly from teachers. As such one limitation of this study is that all data are self-reported without additional means of triangulation or confirmation at this point in time. This report presents the SIS methodology and findings from online surveys administered to more than 9,400 teachers from all regions of Uzbekistan, including the Republic of Karakalpakstan and Tashkent City.

This study is Phase II of a two-part Teacher’s Guide Uptake Study (TGUS) for ICT and EFL. Phase I was conducted in December 2021 and field tested the above-referenced ICT TGs and the addendum to the EFL TGs to determine, within a short period of time, what changes and adaptations in terms of content, instructional strategies, and design needed to be made before revising the books and submitting them to MoPE for nationwide printing and rollout at the end of Year 3 of the Program (beginning of 2022/2023 school year). TGUS Part I also served to test TGUS data collection tools, built team capacity to use Tangerine, RTI’s opensource data collection platform, and determine the current level of use of student-centered instructional strategies by ICT and EFL teachers. The purpose of Phase II of this study, conducted in May 2022, was to continue to track teachers’ use of the new TGs and their application of selected student-centered teaching strategies in the classroom. Findings from Phase II also informed the overall design of the ULA and Mathematics TPD approach employed to support teachers during the pilot of the ULA and Mathematics TGS and STBs in the 2022/2023 school year. For comparative purposes and to show levels of uptake over time, this report combines select Phase I findings with Phase II findings.

This first phase of this Teacher Guide Uptake Study (TGUS I) examines teachers’ use of TGs and application of student-centered teaching strategies to provide targeted feedback for the revision of the TGs. The second phase of the TGUS will continue to examine the adoption of the new ICT and EFL teaching materials as part of the pilot process. PURPOSE- The purpose of this first phase study is to determine what changes and adaptations, in terms of content, classroom instruction, and design, should be made to ICT and EFL TGs.

This report presents the findings of a deep dive impact evaluation of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) Uzbekistan Education for Excellence Program (The Program), which was initiated on December 9, 2019, and originally scheduled to end on December 8, 2023, then extended through March 31, 2024. The Program is implemented by a consortium of partners including RTI International (RTI) as the consortium lead and Florida State University and Mississippi State University as partners. For this report, the Program used a comparative analysis of Early Grade Reading and Mathematics Assessments (EGRA and EGMA, respectively) administered at baseline in 2021 and at endline in 2023. The Program evaluation focused on students in grades 2 and 4. In November and December of the 2021-22 school year, the baseline EGRA and EGMA were administered to students who completed grades 2 and 4 and had been in grades 3 and 5 for three months. The endline assessments were administered to students in grades 2 and 4 in May of 2023, a few weeks prior to the end of that school year. This meant that students at endline were being assessed after having completed 68 fewer days of schooling than those who were assessed at baseline.

The Uzbekistan Education for Excellence Program (the Program) is funded by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and implemented by the Ministry of Public Education (MoPE) in partnership with the RTI International Consortium, including Florida State University and Mississippi State University. Between May and October 2021, the Program conducted the Status of Instruction Study—Phase 2 (SIS2) to answer the following research questions: -- What resources do teachers use, and how much time do they invest in lesson planning? -- What resources are available at the school and in the classroom to support instruction in the subject areas under study? -- What instructional techniques are commonly used by Uzbek teachers for questioning, student engagement, student grouping, and student formative assessment and performance feedback? -- Do teachers engage in school-based community of practice activities? What opportunities and support are currently available to teachers

The Uzbekistan Education for Excellence Program funded by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), conducted the Teacher Support System Study (TSSS) to examine the existing teacher support system in Uzbekistan and identify teacher support challenges and opportunities. The Program is implemented by the RTI International Consortium, which includes Florida State University and Mississippi State University.