Presentation delivered at CIES 2017 (Atlanta). Ethiopia is a diverse country, with a population of over 90 million, and over 83 local languages. Many of the mother tongue languages (MTs) are taught in schools and used as instructional languages in primary schools. However, it is an enormous challenge to address all local languages in the education system as studies indicate that students are struggling to read and write in their mother tongue. While the USAID-funded READ TA Project has been working over the past four years on improving the reading and writing skills of students in seven Ethiopian MT languages it has also seen the effects of its work extending to other local languages with smaller populations of speakers. The seven languages under READ TA were chosen by Ethiopian Ministry of Education (MoE) as they have the largest populations of students. READ TA has been providing technical assistance for the MoE and Regional State Education Bureaus (RSEBs) on revising the grades 1-8 curriculum materials for the seven MTs, in the provision of in-service training for MT teachers, in revising the pre-service teacher training curriculum materials, and in building the capacity of leaders and experts working in the general education system. In providing this technical assistance, READ TA has been creating a collaborative environment where a large number of experts with diverse background and professional experience work together throughout the process. Among the major actors are international literacy/reading experts, local reading/language experts working in teacher training colleges and universities, primary school teachers, MoE and RSEB language experts, experts in cross-cutting issues (gender, inclusive education, ICT), curriculum and instruction experts. There was huge capacity building through the provision of a number of trainings, through professional dialogues and collaborative engagements, and from engaging in the different activities. Observing the MT curriculum revision process and seeing products, speakers of other, less commonly spoken MT languages which were not included in the READ TA project are now demanding the MoE and RSEBs for a similar opportunity. Some regions have to respond to the requests and are taking their own initiatives to revise the curriculum materials of minority languages. These engagements are reflections of the developed technical capacity as well as the impact of the quality of work READ TA has been doing. Projects like READ TA may not address every need a country has; however, the local capacity built enables countries to fill those untouched gaps.

Presentation delivered at CIES 2017 (Atlanta). CIES Panel title: Measuring regional progress toward early grade reading and mathematics targets in a national application of LQAS as part of the RAMP Initiative in Jordan. RTI International (RTI) and its partners are implementing the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and United Kingdom’s Agency for International Development (UKAID) funded Early Grade Reading and Mathematics Initiative (RAMP). RAMP is a nationwide initiative of the Jordanian Ministry of Education (MoE) designed to improve the reading and mathematics skills of students in kindergarten 2 through grade 3 (K2–G3). RAMP, which will be carried out over five years, expects to deliver improved reading and mathematics instruction to all public school students in Jordan in grades K2–G3—about 400,000 students. Central to the RAMP approach is developing reflective practice at all levels of the education system. At the classroom level, teachers use screening and diagnostic tools developed by the initiative for reading and mathematics to gain a better sense of the developmental level(s) of the students in their class and in response, to use research based pedagogical approaches and materials to respond to these needs. At the national level the MoE uses biannual national surveys that include the Early Grade Reading Assessment (EGRA) and Early Grade Mathematics Assessment (EGMA) to measure progress toward national benchmarks. RAMP is exploring the efficiency of the Lot Quality Assurance Sampling (LQAS) methodology in providing regional structures (Field Directorates) with regular information on the progress by schools and Field Directorates toward achieving the national benchmarks for early grade reading and mathematics. In addition, the LQAS based assessments will also contribute to the development of school reports. This panel will discuss the first national implementation of the LQAS based assessment conducted in May 2016 (Brombacher, 2016). The first presentation will provide background to the RAMP initiative, the centrality of reflective practice at all levels of the system to improving performance in early grade reading and mathematics, and the role that the LQAS based assessments will play in providing regional structures with the information that they need to monitor and support progress toward the national benchmarks. The second presentation will describe the development of the instruments used in the LQAS assessment activity, the implementation of the first national LQAS based assessment, the findings of the study, and a range of important lessons learned. The third and final presentation will describe the response of the MoE to the national implementation. The presentation will also deal with the anticipated institutionalization of the approach into the roles and responsibilities of the ministry supervisors. The panel contributes to the conference theme, “Problematizing (In)Equality: The Promise of Comparative and International Education”, as it examines the implementation of an efficient and cost-effective mechanism for national and regional education structures to identify the schools and regions that are in greatest need of support – allowing the structures to deploy limited resources in a cost effective way.

This presentation describes the USAID/Indonesia PRIORTIAS program (2012-2017), including the development of leveled reading books for 13,000 schools.

Presentation at CIES March 2017 (Atlanta).

Presentation delivered at CIES 2017 (Atlanta). The Tayari intervention’s randomized controlled trial design is structured to allow for causal inference of Tayari’s impact on school readiness. Previous research has shown how similar ECD programs have affected learning outcomes, but the literature remains silent on how individual children’s skills transition over time. The Tayari longitudinal research design allows us to estimate growth trajectories of individual children. This is particularly salient as the literature lacks models for how literacy and numeracy skills interact with the executive functioning and socioemotional skills that Tayari investigates interact with each other over time. The Tayari longitudinal study follows more than 3100 learners across three rounds of data collection and a wider range of sills than is available in the Tayari impact evaluation. Given how little is known about how children’s core ECD skills grow, the Tayari longitudinal intervention estimates first how the skills grow in the normal control condition, and then how the Tayari program affects growth rates and relationships between learning elements. Finally, the Tayari longitudinal study will continue to develop an understanding of how children transition skills between the two levels of pre-primary in Kenya to the primary education sector where the Tusome literacy program is being implemented at national scale.

Workshop delivered at CIES 2017 (Atlanta). The workshop will begin with introducing participants to accessible online educational survey data from EGRA and EGMA. Participants will be introduced to two different early grade reading surveys and the data sets associated with them. They will be given the opportunity to review the original research questions, sample methodology, and instruments in order to understand the context of the survey. Participants will then explore the data to better acquaint themselves with the data’s: structure, content, abilities, and limitations.

Presentation delivered at CIES 2017 (Atlanta). A systematic way to use baseline evaluation studies to help define and identify disadvantaged schools in an intervention program.

Presentation delivered at CIES 2017 (Atlanta.) In 2004, the Federal Government of Nigeria passed the Universal Basic Education Act. In order to support State governments to implement this Act, a Federal Intervention Fund was established and financed by a 2% deduction from the Consolidated Revenue Fund. This UBE fund allocates funds equally to States, on a matching basis, to fund school construction, textbook provision, teacher training and other equity activities. This presentation looks at evidence from the 2010 and 2015 national household surveys on education to examine whether this Federal fund has improved educational opportunities for the poorest quintile and whether the fund has affected household expenditures on education. The presentation concludes that the middle quintiles have benefited most from the fund, that the richest quintile has opted out of Government education and into private education, whilst the poorest quintile remains financially unable to meet basic requirements of school uniforms and school supplies.

[Presentation delivered at CIES 2017]. Education system data has indicated a pattern of over-enrollment in the early grades in some low-income countries. One factor that may influence the observed enrollment bulge is access to pre-primary education programs, as children who do not enter school prepared could be more likely to repeat leading to more children enrolled than are of enrollment-age. This presentation reports on a research study undertaken in Uganda to better understand pupil enrollment and repetition in Primary 1 as it relates to pre-primary access. Data was collected from schools in a district with high reported repetition, lack of or low preprimary access, and high apparent dropout between grade 1 and 2, and a district with low reported repetition, high preprimary access, and low apparent grade 1 dropout. School records were reviewed to collect ages of enrolled pupils and repeater status, in order to calculate age patterns and repetition rates in Primary 1 for each district. In addition, parents of randomly sampled pupils were interviewed about their child’s preprimary attendance, repetition of primary one or other grades, and access to preprimary education programs. Teachers of the sampled pupils were also interviewed regarding pupil age and repetition history. Overall, data was collected on 1,909 pupils in 80 schools, and 1,792 parents were interviewed. The presentation will focus on the following research questions: 1) What are the estimated repetition rates as reported by parents and schools in Primary 1 in schools in the sampled low- and high-risk districts in Uganda; 2) What are the ages of the pupils attending Primary 1 in our sample of Uganda schools and how does this relate to repetition; 3) How do the reported repetition rates relate to parent report of ECD attendance and access; and 4) What is the discrepancy between school-reported and parent-reported repetition rates. Data collection methods, measurement of repetition and ECD attendance and access, and policy conclusions will also be discussed.