RTI International Education at CIES

8:00-9:30 am
Paper Session: Policy, Assessment, and Perceptions of Inclusion
Location: Hilton Reforma, Fourth, Don Emiliano

RTI Presentation: National scale assessments for the blind and deaf: Using technology to understand literacy performance in Kenya
RTI Participants: Salome Ong’ele, Benjamin Piper, Dunston Kwayumba

With: DED Lda; University of the West Indies Cave Hill Campus; School for International Training; State University of New York Potsdam; University of Hartford; Oxford Policy Management; University of Minnesota

 

Highlighted Session: I Don’t Know How To Do That Using Mathematics
Location: Fiesta Inn Centro Histórico, Room D

RTI Presentation: How problem solving is being implemented by RAMP trained teachers
RTI Participant: Aarnout Brombacher

With: USAID; Queen Rania Teacher Academy; Ministry of Education, Jordan

 

 

11:30am-1:00 pm
Paper Session: ICT4D Practice track IV: ICT4D and Teacher Professional Development
Location: Hilton Reforma, Second, Don Diego 1 Section B

RTI Presentation: Mobile resources to promote teacher efficacy in teaching children with disabilities in Ethiopia
RTI Participant: Carmen Strigel

With: IREX; National Center for Research in Advance Information and Digital Technologies; Digital Promise; Tokyo Institute of Technology; The Earth Institute, Columbia University

 

Panel Session: The Equity Initiative: Equity in the Social-Emotional Learning in the Wake of Adversity and Crisis
Location: Hilton Reforma, Second, Don Diego 1 Section C

RTI Presentation: The intersection of violence and SEL competencies: Implications for Equity
RTI Participant: Elizabeth Randolph

With: International Rescue Committee; Save the Children; New York University

 

 

1:15-2:45 pm
Panel Session: The Equity Initiative: Innovations and Challenges in Using Functionality Screenings with Children
Location: Hilton Reforma, Business Center, Business Center Room 3

RTI Participant: Carmen Strigel

With: Save the Children; FHI360; New York University

 

Panel Session: Using Data for Language in Education Decisions: Part 2: Programming in the Multilingual Context
Location: Hilton Reforma, Fourth, Don Emiliano

RTI Presentations: Experience implementing non-mother tongue reading: Tusome in Kenya; Linguistic differences in mother tongue reading performance
RTI Participants: Dunston Kwayumba; Rachel Jordan

With: FHI360; USAID; World Learning

 

 

3:00-4:30 pm
Panel Session: Implementing a Large Scale ECD Program in a Decentralized Context: The Impact and Policy Environment of Kenya’s Tayari Program
Location: Hilton Reforma, Suite 4

RTI Presentations: The Relationship Between Program Impact and Program Implementation Decisions; Implementing ECDE in Response to Policy Change and Research Evidence
RTI Participants: Benjamin Piper, Dunston Kwayumba, Samuel Ngariuya

With: Kenyan Ministry of Education, Science, and Technology

 

 

Tuesday, March 27

8:00-9:30 am
Panel Session: Learning About What Promotes Learning: Lessons from Pakistan, Jordan, and Bangladesh
Location: Hilton Reforma, Fourth, Doña Sol

RTI Presentation: Jordan RAMP initiative midline survey
RTI Participant: Aarnout Brombacher

With: Save the Children; Pakistan Reading Project; University of California, Davis

 

 

11:30am-1:00 pm
Panel Session: Public-Private Partnerships in International Education: Are PPPs Meeting Expectations?
Location: Hilton Reforma, Second, Don Diego 1 Section A

RTI Presentation: Public-Private Partnerships for Early Grade Reading: Exploring alignment of private sector and public sector interests
RTI Participant: Matthew Jukes

With: USAID Pakistan; Creative Associates International; Room to Read

 

Panel Session: Better “M” for better “E”: Advancing Local Ownership of Monitoring Solutions
Location: Hilton Reforma, Fourth, Don Alberto 3

RTI Presentation: National level classroom monitoring: the impact of Kenya Tusome on learning outcomes and accountability
RTI Participants: Benjamin Piper, Salome Ong’ele, Dunston Kwayumba

With: USAID; Education Development Center; FHI360; Room to Read, Kenyan Ministry of Education, Science, and Technology

 

Panel Session: The Equity Initiative: Creating an Environment for Gender Equity
Location: Museo de Arte Popular, Manita 2

RTI Presentation: Attitudes on gender norms in the school and home: Students, parents, and school staff
RTI Participant: Elizabeth Randolph

With: USAID; FHI360; Save the Children

 

 

1:15-2:45 pm
Panel Session: Data Transparency and Utilization: Re-thinking North-South Dialogue on Learning Outcomes Measurement and SDG Reporting
Location: Museo de Arte Popular, Manita 2

RTI Presentation: The Early Grade Reading Barometer: Increasing access to and use of data on learning outcomes
RTI Participants: Helen Jang, Amber Gove

With: USAID; World Bank; UNESCO Institute for Statistics

 

 

1:15-2:45 pm
Panel Session: A Critical Look at Northern Models of Aid to Education in the South
Location: Hilton Reforma, Second, Don Diego 2

RTI Participant: Luis Crouch

With: World Education, Inc.; International Institute for Educational Planning, UNESCO; Idara-e-Taleem-o-Aagahi; FHI360; Kenyan Ministry of Education, Science, and Technology

 

 

3:00-4:30 pm
Panel Session: Partnering with the Global South: Why Early Numeracy Skills Deserve an Equal Role in Early Grade Literacy Interventions – Part I
Location: Hilton Reforma, Business Center, Business Center Room 6

RTI Presentations: Letting go of the gradual release model in literacy instruction in Kenya; Instructional models in early mathematics: Can the “I Do, We do, You do” model support the development of mathematical thinking?
RTI Participants: Benjamin Piper, Jessica Mejia, Yasmin Sitabkhan

With: American Institutes for Research; Evans and Associates

 

Panel Session: Learning and Development: Debating Priorities
Location: Hilton Reforma, Fourth, Don Alberto 2

RTI Participant: Luis Crouch

With: University of Pennsylvania; Teachers College, Columbia University; World Bank; Instituto Nacional para la Evaluación de la Educación; Michigan State University; University College London

 

 

5:00-6:30 pm
Panel Session: Setting up Sustainable Systems for ECD in Low-Resource Contexts
Location: Hilton Reforma, Fourth, Don Emiliano

RTI Presentations: Tanzania early learning system diagnostic; System sustainability for quality early childhood development and education in Kenya
RTI Participants: Bidemi Carrol, Katherine Merseth, Samuel Ngaruiya

With: Ministry of Education and Vocational Training, Zanzibar; Education Development Center

 

Panel Session: The Equity Initiative: Traveling the Road of Expanding Access to Quality Pre-Primary Education Opportunities: Towards a Competent and Efficient Sub-sector
Location: Hilton Reforma, Second, Don Genaro

RTI Participant: Katherine Merseth

With: UNICEF; AfCEN; Yale University; DFID

 

Paper Session: Early Grade Literacy Instruction and Local Language Literacy
Location: Fiesta Inn Centro Histórico, Room B

RTI Presentation: The role of language instruction in schools as a tool among marginalized groups: Machakos County, Kenya
RTI Participants: Salome Ong’ele, Benjamin Piper, Tabitha Nduku

With: Global Literacy; South African Department of Basic Education; Stellenbosch University; UNISA; Earth Institute, Columbia University; University of Texas at Arlington; Universidad Iberoamericana; World University Service of Canada

 

Wednesday, March 28

8:00-9:30am
Panel Session: Measuring the Difficult to Measure: School Culture and Social and Emotional Learning
Location: Hilton Reforma, Suite 5

RTI Presentations: Assessing Social and Emotional Learning in Young Children in Tanzania; Using game-based assessment to measure soft-skills; Insights about how cultural differences condition student response on a survey of student perception of school climate
RTI Participants: Matthew Jukes, Lee Nordstrum, Peter Muyingo

With: International Rescue Committee; Save the Children

 

 

10:00-11:15am
Business Meeting: Early Childhood Development SIG
Location: Hilton Reforma, Second, Don Diego 1 Section A

RTI Participant: Katherine Merseth

With: Michigan State University

 

Business Meeting: Global Mathematics Education SIG
Location: Hilton Reforma, Second, Don Diego 1 Section B

RTI Participant: Yasmin Sitabkhan

With: San Francisco State University

 

Panel Session: Ready for School? Persistence and Fadeout of Preschool Effects in the Global South
Location: Hilton Reforma, Fourth, Don Julián

RTI Presentations: Persistence of pre-primary program effects in Kenya: Evaluating how Tayari’s program impacts change over time and into primary school; Persistence and fadeout of preschool participation effects on early reading skills in low- and middle-income countries
RTI Participants: Amber Gove, Salome Ong’ele, Benjamin Piper, Eileen Dombrowski, Jennifer Pressley, Tara Weatherholt

With: American Institutes for Research; Education Development Center

 

 

11:30am-1:00pm
Panel Session: Contextualizing Social and Emotional Learning: Part I – Assessment
Location: Fiesta Inn Centro Histórico, Room B

RTI Presentation: Developing Culturally Appropriate Measures of Social and Emotional Learning in Tanzania
RTI Participants: Matthew Jukes, Kellie Betts

With: Save the Children; New York University; Room to Read; International Rescue Committee

 

Panel Session: Unequal Educational Opportunities and Unjust Inequalities of Outcomes: Lessons from Ethiopia, India, Peru, and Vietnam on Equity in Education
Location: Hilton Reforma, Second, Don Diego 4 Section B

RTI Participant: Luis Crouch

With: Group for the Analysis of Development; University College London; Grupo de Análisis para el Desarrollo; REAL Centre, University of Cambridge; Young Lives/University of Oxford

 

Panel Session: Adapting Reading Instruction to Context: Rethinking Reading Research According to Language Structure and Cultural Norms
Location: Hilton Reforma, Suite 4

RTI Presentation: Balancing linguistic and contextual factors: Lessons learned from supporting reading in three alpha-syllabic languages
RTI Participant: Wendi Ralaingita

With: Room to Read, FHI360, URC, SIL-LEAD

 

 

1:15-2:45pm
Panel Session: Influencing ECE Policy Around the World: Four Country Case Studies of Civil Society Engagement to Promote Early Childhood Education
Location: Hilton Reforma, Suite 5

RTI Presentation: How Civil Societies Influence ECE Policies: Experiences with Data-driven decision making in Jordan
RTI Participants: Manar Shukri, Katherine Merseth

With: Basic Education Coalition; Catholic Relief Services Malawi, Save the Children; Mott MacDonald, Inc.

 

Essentials Workshop: Planning a Non-academic Career
Location: Hilton Reforma, Suite 4

RTI Participants: Yasmin Sitabkhan

With: University of Toronto, Inter-Agency Network for Education in Emergencies, Education Development Center, Miske Witt and Associates, FHI360, UNESCO

 

Panel Session: The Equity Initiative: Advancing Equity at the Classroom Level
Location: Hilton Reforma, Business Center, Business Center Room 1

RTI Participant: Benjamin Piper

With: FHI360; Brigham Young University; Universidad Autónoma de Aguascalientes; Save the Children

 

 

3:00-4:30pm
Panel Session: The Future of Research and Evaluation Methods in International Education

Location: Museo de Arte Popular, Auditorium

RTI Presentation: The illusory quest for rigour and certainty: Improving decision-making from messy data
RTI Participant: Matthew Jukes

With: Abt Associates; Itad; Room to Read; DFID

 

 

3:00-4:30pm
Panel Session: What Makes Education Development Work? Bridging the Gap Between Theory and Practice
Location: Hilton Reforma, Second, Don Diego 1 Section B

RTI Presentation: The process of “getting it right:” evidence from early education activity in Jordan
RTI Participant: Katherine Merseth

With: School-to-School International; The Brookings Institution; FHI360; James Madison University

 

Panel Session: Constructing Global Metrics of Learning: Are They Relevant, Fit for Purpose, and Sustainable?
Location: Hilton Reforma, Fourth, Don Alberto 2

RTI Presentation: Can learning be measured universally?
RTI Participant: Luis Crouch

With: Tshwane University of Technology; University at Albany-SUNY; Arizona State University; Kyoto University; Toronto University

 

 

5:00-6:30pm
Panel Session: Establishing Schools and Model Kindness and Nurture Social and Emotional Development: A Crucial Addition to Academic Programming
Location: Hilton Reforma, Suite 5

RTI Presentation: Shifting the school norm in Uganda: The Journeys Initiative
RTI Participants: Geri Burkholder

With: University of Toronto; Raising Voices

 

 

6:45-8:15pm
Panel Session: Best Practices for Material Development to Support Early Grade Reading
Location: Hilton Reforma, Second, Don Diego 4 Section A

RTI Presentation: How Scripted is Too Scripted? A Mixed-Methods Analysis of Literacy Teachers’ Guides

RTI Participants: Jessica Mejia, Benjamin Piper, Yasmin Sitabkhan
With: URC, Room to Read; The Asia Foundation; Creative Associates International

 

 

Thursday, March 29

11:30am-1:00pm
Panel Session: Can Rigorous Research Inform the Implementation of the Scale-Up of Literacy Programs? Evidence from South Africa, Uganda, and Kenya
Location: Hilton Reforma, Business Center, Business Center Room 8

RTI Presentations: Large-scale reading reform in Uganda: The importance of linguistics differences, implementation, and socio-economic factors in explaining impacts in 12 languages; Understanding whether and how the Tusome program worked: Evidence from the national scale-up of a tested literacy program in Kenya

RTI Participants: Rehemah Nabacwa, Benjamin Piper, Salome Ong’ele

With: University of Witwatersrand; South African Department of Basic Education; Kenyan Ministry of Education, Science, and Technology

 

Panel Session: The Equity Initiative: Expanding Access to Quality Pre-Primary Education Opportunities: Using Data and Research to Document Inequity
Location: Hilton Reforma, Suite 2

RTI Presentation: Understanding pre-primary quality in Tanzania: Data from the national MELQO study
RTI Participant: Tara Weatherholt

With: Chinese University of Hong Kong; Save the Children

 

Round-Table Session: North-South Tensions for Africa
Location: Hilton Reforma, Fourth, Don Alberto 4

RTI Presentation: North-South and South-South dialogues for improving the quality of pre-primary education in Tanzania
RTI Participant: Raymond Harris

With: George Washington University; Peking University; Penn State University; University of Oslo

 

 

1:15-2:45pm
Panel Session: Examining a Sustainability Framework for Early Grade Reading
Location: Hilton Reforma, Second, Don Diego 4 Section A

RTI Presentations: Strengthening Systems to Sustain Early Grade Reading Initiatives in Uganda; Enhancing Pre-Service Teacher Education in Uganda to Sustain Early Grade Reading Initiatives; An EGR Sustainability Framework RTI Participants: Scholastica Tiguryera, Hank Healey

With: FHI360; Creative Associates International; Education Development Center; Ministry of Education and Sports, Uganda

 

Panel Session: What do Youth Need to Succeed? Multi-Country Evidence on the Efficacy of Skill Development for Youth Livelihood Success
Location: Hilton Reforma, Business Center, Business Center Room 6

RTI Presentation: Why should Asia invest in early grade reading?
RTI Participant: Lee Nordstrum

With: Save the Children, Search Institute, BRAC USA

 

 

3:00-4:30pm
Panel Session: Benchmarking for Proficiency in Reading and Mathematics: Improving Methods for Data Analysis and Stakeholder Engagement

Location: Fiesta Inn Centro Histórico, Room E

RTI Presentations: Review of Benchmarking Processes in 12 Countries and almost 40 Languages; Analyzing the effectiveness of fluency benchmarking methods
RTI Participants: Chris Cummiskey, Matthew Jukes, Luis Crouch

With: Room to Read; School-to-School International