Limited rigorous evidence is available from sub-Saharan Africa regarding whether children who learn to read in their mother tongue will have higher learning outcomes in other subjects. A randomised controlled trial of mother-tongue literacy instruction, the Primary Math and Reading (PRIMR) Initiative, was implemented in Kenya from 2013 to 2014. We compared the impacts of the PRIMR mother-tongue treatment group in two languages with those of another group that did not use mother tongue, but utilised the same instructional components. Results showed that assignment to the mother-tongue group had no additional benefits for English or Kiswahili learning outcomes beyond the non-mother-tongue group, and that the mother-tongue group had somewhat lower mathematics outcomes. Classroom observational analysis showed that assignment to the mother-tongue group had only small impacts on the usage of mother tongue in other subjects. Advocates for mother-tongue programmes must consider such results alongside local implementation resistance in programme design.

Management Systems International (MSI) led the Tusome baseline study using multiple data collection methods, including an early grade reading assessment (EGRA); surveys of pupils, teachers, head teachers, curriculum support officers (CSO) and households; and classroom observation. The EGRA assessment tool was developed during the baseline and includes eight subtasks in English and six subtasks in Kiswahili. The midline included developing additional data collection tools, revising the baseline surveys, recruiting and training supervisors and enumerators, administering the tool and surveys in the same sample schools as the baseline, ensuring quality control, establishing the reliability of the assessment tool and analyzing the data. For the midline, the evaluation team assessed pupils from the same 204 schools sampled for the baseline. Through discussions with USAID, MOE and RTI, the evaluation team created the sampling frameworks and set up the design for a national sample in 2015. Using a three-stage cluster sampling procedure from a sampling frame of 22,154 formal public schools and 1,000 non-formal (or Alternative Provision of Basic Education and Training – APBET) schools, the evaluation team drew a clustered, random sample, resulting in a target of 4,896 total pupils comprising 2,448 boys and 2,448 girls divided equally between Class 1 and Class 2. The evaluation team reached the following conclusions: • The Tusome approach is having a strong, positive influence on reading outcomes, with relationships between project implementation and reading outcomes. • Reading outcomes for Class 1 and 2 pupils greatly improved during the one-year period between the baseline and midline evaluations. While impressive gains have been made, continuing with the Tusome approach will be critical to sustaining or improving on those gains. The Tusome project has achieved a high level of national implementation of the activities at each level of the education system. Given that project activities such as CSO observations, in-service training and access to materials are associated with higher ORF scores, the high level of implementation across all schools appears to be a key part of its success. The effect sizes seen during the PRIMR pilot have been at least sustained, and in most cases strengthened, in the national scale-up of Tusome. • The evaluation methodology and implementation resulted in valid, reliable data for the midline evaluation, including the changes from baseline to midline.

Presentation delivered at CIES 2017 (Atlanta). Instructional support is essential in the process of creating and supporting instructional change. Educational quality improvement is the elusive goal for many recent literacy improvement programs and strategies. Many programs focus on the inputs of improved textbook ratios, rapid and massive teacher professional development provision, and the provision of ICT support for this system. The Tusome Early Grade Reading Activity, implemented in Kenya from 2014 through 2019, is designed to fundamentally depend on the power and quality of the existing government personnel that were ostensibly assigned to provide instructional support to teachers. The Curriculum Support Officer function, in place in Kenya for decades, was structured to help teachers improve the quality of teaching by providing classroom based support, cluster based training, and ongoing instructional feedback. As is common in many countries in the region who suffer from limited human resources at the local level, these officers are often assigned administrative duties both at odds and distracting from their core instructional support function. Tusome’s work to support the Government of Kenya to revitalize this function and do so in a national manner was both ambitious and somewhat risky. This presentation share the results of Tusome’s efforts with the government to utilize the curriculum support officers as coaches within Tusome with a frank assessment of what process was most effective and which strategies were less effective. It also shares the experiences in Tusome of how a targeted ICT investment in tablets and a structured tool for the officers to use in classrooms created an environment where instructional support was both possible but also more exciting than it previously was. The Tusome National Tablet Program, utilized on a daily basis by these coaches, was designed over several years to integrate within government systems, to be easily implementable by coaches, but also to provide actionable real time data to the education system’s leadership on how teachers were implementing Tusome. The coaching system has provided each of Kenya’s more than 1200 coaches and curriculum support officers with tablets and training how to use them, to support classroom observation and feedback. The presentation shares the results of this over the 2015 and 2016 academic years. Not only have these officers supported up to 20,000 classrooms in a month, but they have also collected structured literacy assessment data from up to 60,000 students at a national level on a monthly basis. This data is collected on an interactive dashboard that Kenyan education leadership is able to use on a consistent basis to change behavior and support large scale instructional reform. The presentation focuses on the possibilities that this instructional support system has for Tusome, increased accountability within the system, and overall quality improvement at the national level for Kenya.