Teacher Coaching at National Scale: Insights into Using Technology and Data for Decision- Making in Kenya
This presentation summarizes qualitative data from user observations and semi-structured interviews with teachers and coaches, as well as Kenyan education officials on their use of Tangerine:Coach (previously Tangerine:Tutor) data for decision-making and teacher support. Tangerine:Coach is open-source software developed by RTI International that has been deployed in support of over 25,000 schools nationwide in Kenya since 2015, and is currently being introduced or scaled up also in Cambodia, Jordan, Liberia, Sierra Leone, West Bank, and Uganda.
In Kenya, a typical coach visit to a school includes taking stock of classroom conditions, observing teacher practice, appraising student ability, and providing pedagogical support to teachers. Tangerine:Coach is designed with the intent of supporting this process - the software applies logic to combine data from surveys, classroom observations, and student assessments into a feedback report tailored for each coaching conversation. Coaches regularly upload their data to a central server which are then published to an online dashboard and sent by email to education officials.
In theory, this data-sharing enables ongoing monitoring of coach activities and student progress and allows for timely targeted support (e.g., through additional school visits or professional development) to schools, teachers, or coaches as needed. Yet, how are these different actors actually using the data and dashboards? What changes are they making in their coaching or resource allocations? What data format is most accessible to actors across the different levels of the education system?
This prevention was developed by Lucy Wambari, Timothy Slade, and Carmen Strigel for the 2018 mEducation Alliance Symposium.