This CIES 2018 presentation is an overview of findings from classroom observations of teachers implementing the Jordan RAMP initiative problem-solving technique in teaching early grade mathematics. The presentation was given by Aarnout Brombacher, RTI's Senior Technical Advisor for the Jordan RAMP initiative.

The Uganda Early Years Enrolment and Repetition Study presentation references the work undertaken by RTI International to examine repetition rates and over-enrolment in primary 1 in Uganda, to analyze the financial impact of these inefficiencies in the education sector, and present a cost projection model to examine the impact of investments made to pre-primary and early primary.

The Uganda Early Years Study policy brief describes the findings and presents policy recommendations from the associated research study funded by the British Department for International Development. The study investigates the magnitude of repetition in primary 1 in Uganda, examines the financial impact of repetition, and presents a cost-projection model which underscores the importance of investing in pre-primary and early primary education in reducing inefficiency.

The British Department for International Development (DFID) has partnered with the Ugandan Ministry of Education and Sports (MoES) to conduct empirical research on inefficiencies in the Ugandan education system. This research will help the Ministry better understand the severity, causes, and consequences of an enrolment bulge in early primary classes in Uganda. Specifically, this study is investigating the magnitude of repetition in primary 1. It encompasses a nationally representative sample of pupils, and uses information from interviews with pupils, parents/guardians, and teachers.

This presentation was prepared for UNESCO Mobile Learning Week, 2018. It describes an RTI International internal research program to learn whether mobile gaming can be used to assess soft skills important for employability. The presentation was created by Lee Nordstrum and delivered by Sarah Pouezevara.

While the SDGs now officially call for global reporting on learning outcomes, many institutions and scholars had noticed, at least since the mid-2000s, that many children were not learning much, and were starting to respond by, as a first step, advocating and developing assessments that, they felt, was perhaps more appropriate to learning at the bottom of the pyramid, or at the left end of the cognitive distribution. The GMR sounded a clarion with their estimate that there are some 250 million children in the world hardly learning. This paper addresses an issue that can be put simply but is extremely hard to answer: “Is the array of assessments emerging helping researchers, policy-makers, and implementers get a more accurate sense of how much or how little the poorest children in the world know, and is it helpful in remediating the situation?” The paper specifically is not addressed at the question of global reporting—although it does touch upon the issue. The problem of interest here is what is most useful for countries to generate movement along the bottom of the pyramid.

This is a list of select peer-reviewed publications by International Education staff between 2015 and 2018. For some of the publications, links to information about the documents and related resources can be found on this websiate. Where possible, the DOI has been included in the attached brief.

The primary 4 English lessons are structured around a genre that is explored in reading and writing activities. Activities are provided for word study, vocabulary, grammar, oral language, and the writing process. Transition lessons are a distinct section to support learning academic language. They use informational text structure, glossaries, graphics and bold terms which will be helpful when engaging with textbooks in other subjects.

The United States Agency for International Development, the Department for International Development and the government of Malawi, through the MoEST, are collaborating to implement a National Reading Programme (NRP). This reading programme aims to improve early grade learners' literacy skills. Central to achieving this goal is building teachers' capacity to teach foundational reading skills that are key for successful reading and comprehension abilities needed for learning content across the curriculum. The NRP introduces teachers to effective reading instruction through the five essential components of Phonological Awareness, alphabetic principle, vocabulary, fluency and comprehension. The NRP also includes oral language development and writing as part of reading instruction. The NRP aims to provide teachers and head teachers with training in how to better teach children in the early primary grades to read and write in Chichewa and English. The NRP focuses on strengthening teachers' skills and knowledge of how to teach literacy by providing them with opportunities for training and ongoing professional development through coaching.

Under the USAID Partnership for Education: Testing activity, a teacher questionnaire was introduced to the 2015 national EGRA/EGMA survey in Ghana. This was in response to the 2013 EGRA/EGMA pupil data, which raised questions about how both pupils and their teachers experienced the language of instruction (LOI) policy, which stipulates that pupils should be taught in the Ghanaian language of the local area in the early grades and transition to English by P4. In an effort to learn more about how the LOI policy is implemented in schools, this teacher questionnaire was added in 2015 to collect more information about teacher preparation and instructional practices related to language use. The questionnaire was administered to 671 P2 teachers.