This study sought to identify the factors in the organizational culture and environment of a small sample primary schools in Malawi and Uganda that make them more (or less) conducive to children’s social and emotional development. The research team postulated that social and emotional learning are not products of the implementation of an “SEL” curriculum, but rather are inherently dependent on and result from the nature of the school climate.

RTI conducted a small pilot study in Malawi and Uganda to identify the factors in the organizational culture and environment of primary schools that make them more (or less) conducive to children’s social and emotional development. The research team postulated that social and emotional learning are not products of the implementation of an “SEL” curriculum, but rather are inherently dependent on and result from the nature of the school climate.

CIES presentation of Early Childhood Education landscape report for the Asia region under All Children Reading - Asia.

The Barometer offers a dynamic tool for interactive use of data on early grade reading outcomes. The ability to look at how the data are impacted by different parameters, like the level at which a reading benchmark is set, allows users to consider what benchmark and target for students achieving that benchmark in the near term may or may not be realistic. Furthermore, when such data are available, the Barometer also allows users to review the impact of interventions that have contributed to improving reading outcomes, and then factor in whether they can expect those kinds of improvements in the future, given the different investments and initiatives underway in their countries. The presentation is a short demonstration of these two features of the Barometer – target setting and considering the impact of previous or current interventions. Presented at CIES 2019.

The Government of Tanzania is in the process of implementing a policy of one year of free and compulsory pre-primary education for all children. The policy pronouncement was made within the context of limited resources for education and unclear implementation guidelines. Nonetheless, the declaration of fee-free and compulsory pre-primary led to an immediate increase in enrolment of 46% in the year after the policy was established. While access has improved, quality has not. A recent study of school readiness of children starting Standard 1 in Mainland Tanzania (78% of whom completed pre-school) found no difference between those who attended pre-primary school and those who did not (RTI International, 2017). The study also found weaknesses in the quality of early learning environments, such as high pupil-teacher ratios, poor pedagogy, and lack of high-quality teaching and learning materials. The key challenge facing the Government of Tanzania is how to develop an early learning system that can produce learning, not just broaden access, and to do so in a manner that is sustainable. Earlier experiences with the drive for universal primary education have shown that it is possible (and perhaps easier) to improve access to school without producing any learning. The current study uses a scale and sustainability framework proposed by Crouch and DeStefano (2017) to examine the extent to which the pre-primary (early learning) education system in mainland Tanzania is set up to provide quality pre-primary at scale and sustainably. They identified a core set of functions that education systems should be able to perform to produce learning: (1) set and communicate learning expectations; (2) monitor against expectations; and (3) provide minimum inputs to all schools, and targeted support to struggling schools and classrooms. We interviewed various actors at the national, district and school levels including government officials from the ministries responsible for education and local government; head teachers; teachers; parents of pre-primary aged children; and lecturers and administrators from teacher training colleges. In addition, we reviewed policies, plans, and strategies related to education and development. We found that the early learning system is still developing its capacity to perform the identified core functions. There are some learning goals outlined in a new curriculum, but most of the goals expressed in plans and policies relate to access, not learning, and are not known throughout the system. Monitoring against learning is weak as officials responsible for monitoring schools are unable to do so on a regular basis, and even when they do go, their observation protocols are not linked to learning or curricula expectations. Accountability mechanisms are weak as there is not enough data within the system to track performance against learning expectations. Finally, the Government of Tanzania struggles with providing basic instructional inputs – teachers, teaching and learning materials, continued professional development – to the pre-primary school system. This study and its findings are important because they point to priority areas for system reform for the Government of Tanzania and other countries facing the challenge of producing learning at scale sustainably.

There is growing demand for policy based on rigorous evidence. Many consider the strongest evidence to come from studies that identify causality with high internal validity - such as RCTs - and systematic reviews of these studies. If policies are based strictly on such rigorous evidence there is a risk of bias towards simple, discrete, measurable interventions and away from complex interventions. Rigorous evidence is also better suited to some questions than others. Evaluations may provide stronger conclusions about impact than about the mechanisms, implementation, context, generalisability and scaling of interventions. For these reasons, policy-making does – and should – consider issues for which there is no conclusive evidence. However, there is little guidance as to how and when such inconclusive evidence can be used. We present a framework for considering inconclusive evidence applied to examples from evidence-based education in low- and middle-income countries. The framework involves a systematic consideration of the estimated costs, benefits and potential harm of a policy, along with the uncertainty in those estimates. This analysis is conducted using standard decision theory and an examination of the utility of policies. We argue that it is rational to pursue a policy with uncertain outcomes if there is a reasonable probability of large positive utility (compared to the cost of the intervention) and a low probability of negative utility. The decision to act under uncertainty is influenced by a number of other considerations including: the potential to improve the evidence base, the urgency of the decision and the analysis of alternative options. The framework also calls for systematic analysis of uncertainty associated with all components of a policy decision. For example, some interventions may have robust evidence of impact but considerable uncertainty associated with the generalisability of the evidence to a new context, or with the scalability of the intervention. We discuss our approach to measuring and reducing uncertainty in policy decisions and its implications for evaluation and research. The overall aim of this work is to make evidence-based decision-making more effective and applicable to a wider range of problems.

This presentation is based on an activity that was designed to apply lessons learned and best practices from the recent EGRA Benchmarks and Standards Research Report (RTI International, 2018) to a five-language benchmarking activity for early grade reading in India.

The Tayari Program – Getting Children Ready for School is a Children’s Investment Fund Foundation (CIFF) funded early education program in Kenya with a goal to increase school readiness skills of pre-primary children in Kenya, including sufficient cognitive, physical, social, and emotional well-being. As of 2018, Tayari has reached 145,000 children 1,500 early childhood centers in four selected counties in Kenya. Tayari’s activities include development of learning materials for students and teachers, teacher training and instructional support, and integrated technology solutions for tracking child development outcomes. Additionally, one component aims to reduce illness-related school absenteeism by promoting improved hygiene practices, water treatment, and health record-keeping in schools. To better understand parental involvement and the feasibility and cost of scaling up a parental component within the project, the Tayari program tested two different approaches to engaging parents in play-based activities at home to promote their child’s learning and development, with an aim to see which modality was more effective in getting parents to engage in their children’s learning and development at home. Reaching over 1200 pre-primary families in 3 counties, Treatment Group 1 parents received weekly face to face meetings, with a new activity introduced each week (for a total of four weeks). Treatment Group 2 parents, received the same activities, but instead of meeting face to face, the activity sheets and materials were sent home with their child from school. The four selected activities are the same for both Treatment Groups, and include a memory card game, a counting game, a read aloud, and a letter recognition game. The content of the four activities was designed to align with the Tayari curricular content. All materials were designed to be low cost and illustrated locally. Data and feedback on the pilot was collected through weekly SMS messages sent to the mobile phones of the represented parent in both treatment groups. We used the program, “Gooseberry” to request response from parents regarding each activity, including attendance to the meeting (for treatment group 1) and whether they received the materials (for treatment group 2), how often parents played the game with their children over the course of the week, and their level of satisfaction or enjoyment with the activity. Both treatment groups also participated in a conclusion workshop, at the end of the pilot, to receive qualitative feedback from parents via small group focus groups and interviews.

This panel shared presentations from Uganda government officials and development partners which are collaboratively engaged in the efforts to improve and assess EGR in Uganda’s primary schools. Panel participants will discuss the process of gradually scaling up program activities to reach the majority of the nation’s schools by working with and through government structures. The Uganda MoES which has led the process from the begin will discuss how it has worked with donors and other development partners to mobilize resources and technical assistance by incorporating EGR in the ministry’s overall strategic plans. The Uganda National Examinations Board and the Uwezo Uganda initiative will discuss how they have been able to scale up assessment of Ugandan children’s reading skills through government ownership and civil society engagement in conducting early grade reading assessments. The GPE, SHRP, and LARA projects will share how they have worked through government structures at both the national and district levels to develop instructional materials in 12 local languages plus English and improve EGR instruction and learning in schools in a sustainable way. The panel will illustrate that attaining measurable improvements in reading scores at scale takes considerably more time and effort than smaller scale and pilot programs because interventions at scale require working through government structures and personnel, requiring systems strengthening and capacity building while also implementing program activities. This requires enormous effort and constant collaboration among government and development partners with sustainability as the ultimate objective.

This presentation introduces the panel of authors who presented at CIES 2019 about their chapter of the book.