Presentation delivered at CIES 2017 (Atlanta). The Malawi Early Grade Reading Activity (EGRA), funded by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and implemented by RTI International, is designed to support the Malawi Ministry of Education, Science and Technology (MoEST) in improving the reading performance of Malawian learners in Standards 1–3. One of the primary goals of the Activity is improving the quality and availability of pedagogical materials for early grade reading; to do so, EGRA developed a teacher’s guide with scripted lessons plans (SLPs) for classroom teachers to follow when teaching lessons in both Chichewa and English. A goal of this study was to investigate teacher use of the SLPs in Standard 1 and 2 classrooms. EGRA included teacher training and in-class support for teachers as they used the SLPs. Teachers received several days of specific, targeted training each year regarding phonics-based reading instruction and the gradual release of responsibility model (I do, We do, You do). They also received theory- and practice-based training in the use of the SLPs to deliver high-quality instruction and practicum sessions during which they delivered lessons to groups of current Standard 1–3 learners. The purpose of this study was to shed light on how teachers were using the SLPs in their classrooms to better understand the ways in which the trainings and the materials themselves were supporting teachers, and the ways in which the trainings could be modified.

Presentation delivered at CIES2017 (Atlanta). Providing teachers guidance, mentorship and encouragement in between formal, face-to-face trainings or coaching sessions is challenging. While school directors and other peers may offer teachers support in some contexts, others may experience difficulties, isolation or discouragement in incorporating new practices into their classroom instruction. This paper presents new research from a controlled study in Malawi that sought to extend in-person professional development trainings with a targeted communication campaign over a familiar, low-cost and ubiquitous medium: SMS text messages.

Presentation delivered at CIES2017 (Atlanta). As part of the USAID-funded Nigeria Reading and Access Research Activity (RARA) (2014-2015), RTI International developed and evaluated, through a randomized control trial, an approach to improving early grade literacy instruction and reading outcomes in Hausa in Northern Nigeria. The intervention package included the provision of teaching and learning materials, teacher training, and periodic support to teachers by pedagogical coaches. This presentation will focus on the role of the coach support; 24 reading coaches were trained to support 72 teachers in 60 public primary schools in two states over a period of six months during the 2014-2015 school year. The coaches provided support in the form of recurring site visits, lesson observations, and a coach-teacher discussion after the lesson. The underpinning theoretical framework for this research assumes that ongoing engagement with a pedagogical mentor promotes positive changes in teachers’ instructional practices over time. The research activity collected data on the frequency, duration, content, and nature of the coach-teacher interactions during the intervention and tracked changes in the teachers’ instructional practices from baseline to endline. This presentation will share findings on the relationships between changes in teachers’ instructional practices and the degree and nature of support they received from their coaches. The objective of the presentation is to add to the body of knowledge about effective ways to use and improve pedagogical coaching to influence teacher instructional practices in similar low-resource contexts.

Presentation delivered at CIES 2017 (Atlanta). A number of linguistically diverse countries are embarked on providing their children with Mother Tongue (MT) instruction to enhance educational quality. Providing MT instruction in multi-lingual environments is not an easy task for governments as it entails choosing the MTs among many, reinforcing their policy, and mobilizing resources. Ethiopia, a country with speakers of over eighty languages, has implemented MT instruction by adopting positions and conventions in the international forums into its constitution and education policy. Currently, it is providing education in about fifty MT languages through developing curriculum materials and capacity building. Scaling up these practices has benefited considerable opportunities articulated in the system. On the other hand, it also came with its own challenges in the process of implementing the policy in its multi-lingual context. The objective of this presentation is to discuss the prospects existing in Ethiopian education system emanating from its constitution and articulated in the Education and Training Policy and frameworks. Besides it highlights core challenges faced in the process of scaling up MT curriculum development and implementation in line with government’s policy promises and provisions in the international conventions in pedagogy, politics and children’s right. Finally, the presentation outlines possible recommendations for future actions.

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.

Measurement of learning is central to the Sustainable Development Goals for education, both in early primary (grade 2/3) and in early childhood (under the age of 5) (IAEG 2016). Of particular concern is the ability of global measurement approaches to reflect the social and linguistic differences of a diverse range of societies, including traditionally marginalized groups. This presentation relies on literacy assessment data to answer the following question: can results from non-equated national assessments be used to report against global goals?

This presentation is an overview of the Assistive Technology Capacity Building Initiative (ATCBI) implemented by RTI International under the USAID-funded READ TA project in Ethiopia. The presentation was given by Wykia Macon and Stephen Backman at the 2017 CIES conference on behalf of also Carmen Strigel and Habtamu Mekonnen.

Student literacy assessments contribute to identifying the U.S. Agency for International Development’s (USAID’s) progress toward Goal 1: improving reading skills for 100 million children by 2015. Tracking progress toward this goal is challenging, and information regarding literacy assessments across sub-Saharan Africa has yet to be fully coordinated. Accordingly, the purpose of this study is to advance knowledge of which select countries in sub-Saharan Africa have and have not conducted early grade reading assessments, while also providing information regarding where literacy issues remain critical and where improvement is underway. Twenty countries were selected because of USAID’s presence and continued interest in working to improve educational opportunities within these countries. The 20 countries are as follows: Benin, Côte d’Ivoire (Ivory Coast), Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), Djibouti, Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, Liberia, Malawi, Mali, Mozambique, Nigeria, Rwanda, Senegal, Somalia, South Africa, South Sudan, Tanzania, Uganda, and Zambia.

This study primarily provides USAID and the GDRC with information regarding the ability of Grade 3 children to read in three of the DRC’s national languages (Lingala, Kiswahili, and Tshiluba), those same pupils’ receptive and productive oral French skills, and Grade 5 children’s ability to read in French. Other elements of the study provide insight into the numeracy skills of Grade 3 children in one district in Katanga as well as the French reading and numeracy skills of Level 3 pupils in the Accelerated Learning Programs (ALPs). The study also provides background context and data related to key pupil, teacher, head teacher, and school variables that are hypothesized to be good predictors of pupil performance in early grade literacy and numeracy. This diagnostic information will help policymakers make data-informed decisions regarding remediation strategies that can improve the quality of instruction and pupil learning outcomes in early primary grades. English and French versions are available for download.

This study primarily provides USAID and the GDRC with information regarding the ability of Grade 3 children to read in three of the DRC’s national languages (Lingala, Kiswahili, and Tshiluba), those same pupils’ receptive and productive oral French skills, and Grade 5 children’s ability to read in French. Other elements of the study provide insight into the numeracy skills of Grade 3 children in one district in Katanga as well as the French reading and numeracy skills of Level 3 pupils in the Accelerated Learning Programs (ALPs). The study also provides background context and data related to key pupil, teacher, head teacher, and school variables that are hypothesized to be good predictors of pupil performance in early grade literacy and numeracy. This diagnostic information will help policymakers make data-informed decisions regarding remediation strategies that can improve the quality of instruction and pupil learning outcomes in early primary grades. English and French versions of the report are available for download.