To support the Ministry of Public Education (MoPE) in achieving its reform agenda, USAID initiated the Uzbekistan Education for Excellence Program (UEEP) to improve the quality of education and enable all students to be proficient in 21st century skills such as problem solving and critical thinking. UEEP is implemented by a Consortium of partners including RTI International, Florida State University, and Mississippi State University. The Program aims to achieve three overarching results: improved Uzbek language (UL) reading and mathematics outcomes in grades 1–4; enhanced information and communication technology (ICT) instruction for grades 1–11, and improved English as a foreign language (EFL) instruction in grades 1–11. In this presentation, we will describe the process of revising the student standards for Grades 1-4 in mathematics, led by Florida State University and UEEP math experts, with ongoing review and feedback from MoPE representatives. The revision of student standards was the first step of the country’s curricular reform, followed by the creation of TLMs and a corresponding teacher professional development package. This process consisted of several stages, beginning with comparing current MoPE standards with the GPF, student math standards from South Korea and the TIMSS framework for assessment. These three resources were chosen for specific purposes. The TIMSS framework reflected the Government of Uzbekistan’s priority to prepare children in Grade 4 to take TIMSS assessment and perform well. This framework only reflected Grade 4 learning, so it was used primarily to backwards map other standards in Grades 1-3 to ensure that all content on the TIMSS framework was adequately covered by the end of Grade 4. The GPF was the most detailed reference, and was used to map the current standards and identify gaps in the progression. However, there was concern from the Government of Uzbekistan that the GPF might be targeting skills that are too easy for children in Uzbekistan. Because of this, we also brought in the South Korea standards, which provided us with a reference from a country that is seen as a model in Uzbekistan, and we were able to use the South Korea standards to make decisions about certain skills. This process allowed us to ensure that the standards development process met national priorities (i.e. Presidential Decree on Improving Math Education, 2020), reflected best international practices in mathematics, created standards that were age appropriate and measurable, and was logically organized. We will discuss how we used a quantitative comparative analysis of Uzbekistan's existing standards for different grade levels with the GPF and South Korea standards to identify revisions needed to facilitate more alignment. The rigor of that exercise allowed us to revise and to create a set of standards that could be approved by MoPE. The rigorous student standards development process described in this presentation allowed us to create a set of standards that were approved by MoPE. These standards were the cornerstone of further reforms including creating a scope and sequence and Teacher/Learning Materials (TLMs) for Grades 1-4, currently being piloted with 10,000 teachers across Uzbekistan.

The Mathematics Knowledge for Teaching (MKT) is a short survey (23 items) that measures primary grade teacher knowledge by a) math domains and b) pedagogical and content knowledge. Math domain included Number Sense, Operations, Geometry, and Measurement. Pedagogical knowledge was measured by problems that measured teacher understanding of Developmental Progression, Scaffolding, and Content knowledge. In this presentation, we will discuss the process of developing the MKT survey, highlight exemplary results from the Kyrgyz Republic, and then discuss the various uses of this survey. The MKT survey build from previous work in measurement of teachers’ MKT in the United States and other countries (Ball et.al., 2008; Cole, 2012). Our goal was to create an instrument that focused on the early primary grade and was easily adaptable to multiple contexts. To do this, we created an initial instrument, conducted cognitive interviews with math and learning experts form several countries, and then conducted a pilot in the Kyrgyz Republic and Nepal. In Kyrgyz Republic, the MKT test was administered to 323 primary grade teachers in 30 pilot schools as a pre-post training survey as part of the USAID Okuu Keremet! The survey was administered online in two languages. Analysis of pre-post test showed that the survey was effective in detecting changes in teacher knowledge across all math domains and pedagogical and content knowledge areas. In Nepal, we conducted cognitive interviews with teachers, providing additional insights into how teachers were thinking about early math knowledge. Finally, we conclude with the different potential uses for this survey, such as diagnosing and measuring changes in teacher knowledge over time and using it as professional development tool to develop teacher knowledge. We will discuss implications for the use of this tool for the wider development audience.

This presentation focused on learning through play-based pedagogies in Kenya, Rwanda and Ghana. Some key findings discussed are: (1) Teachers in general support the concept of play and employing play-based teaching in the classroom, but far fewer are okay with students directing their own learning. (2) In practice, teachers spend the most time explaining/lecturing and monitoring the class. (3) At midline, significant changes were detected in some aspects of teacher practice in Kenya and Ghana, but overall, the frequency of play-based approaches is low.

While there is growing evidence of the impact of learning through play (LtP) on student outcomes in high-income countries, there is little research linking LtP to learning outcomes in low-and middle-income contexts in primary schools. This presentation focuses on the midline evaluation findings from an education improvement initiative that is seeking to expand playful pedagogies into primary schools in five low and middle-income countries (LMICs). In this presentation, we examine the different approaches taken by projects to support teachers to test, adapt, and adopt LtP in their classroom. We link these findings to classroom observation data on the frequency with which teachers employ more collaborative, interactive, creative, exploratory, and student-driven play-based approaches. We also discuss the impacts of these activities on student outcomes (EGRA, EGMA and SEL).

The purpose of this formal group panel presentation is to hold an in-depth discussion on USAID’s investments into system strengthening across Asia over the past decade and how these efforts are situated within the broader global move to focus more intentionally and coherently on education system strengthening. The panel will discuss a 2022 empirical research study (the USAID System Strengthening Review, hereafter “the Review”) conducted by two international research organizations for the USAID Asia Bureau which reviews USAID system strengthening work in 11 Asian countries. This Review offers a qualitative evidence-based analysis relevant to the field of comparative and international education (CIE) and analyzes new data collected from a desk review of relevant project documents, reports, and evaluations, key informant interviews, multi-stakeholder survey, and three deep-dive case studies in Nepal, Cambodia, and the Philippines. The group panel will include three presentations on different aspects of the Review and include discussant commentary and critique to elicit group and audience discussion. The first panel presentation discusses a theoretical framework drawn from the RISE Programme (Pritchett 2015 and Spivak 2021) and recent analysis from the Brookings Institution’s Center for Universal Education. The Review’s central research questions are guided by these broader global trends, as well as its own analysis framework developed specifically for this study, discussed in Presentation 3. Conclusions are drawn based on this framework, and the overall discussion in Presentations 2 and 3 considers the context of USAID programming in Asia and how new knowledge provides new insights.

The method used is a historical analysis of the route through which education in Japan and South Korea was framed, and then implemented, in the period starting in 1870 (approximately) in the former and 1945 (approximately but especially after the Korean war) or so in the latter. We analyze both policy intention as in various laws, decrees, and policies, as well as implementation. Debates around equality, the interpretation of Western ideas as filtered by each country’s history, are covered. Original policy documents are analyzed as well as literature on the educational history of both countries, including educational and pedagogical issues. Long-term historical statistics and cliometrics are also employed mostly to compare context and results, rather than methods. South Korea and Japan are chosen because they are, today, high performers both in terms of average achievement and, even more importantly, equality, who went about their reforms with clear intentionality and purpose, and where there were distinct historical pivots that can be pinned to a specific decade or even a single pivotal year. Other high-achieving countries in the West more or less evolved into their systems. Even countries that are often cited as examples for the lower-income countries to emulate, such as Finland, did not set about fundamental reforms with the clear purpose and intentionality that South Korea and Japan did. Side references are made to other cases where intentionality was key, and where there was a clear purpose and bureaucratic organizational effort, such as Prussia. Similar insights are raised through an analysis of speeches and writings of pan-African independence leaders in the 1960s regarding the centrality of education to the nation-building project. Emerging themes that could be of interest to lower-income countries today include: a) the focus on education as fundamental to national purpose, not just as an abstract commitment to numerical goals such as the MDGs and SDGs (without denying the utility of such goals), b) an intense focus on education as a way of redressing class (as in “education should not just be for the samurai class”) and colonization issues (as in “education is key to help us resist undue economic and military power from the West”) from the past, and hence a focus on equality, c) an intense questioning of what could be learned from the West rather than just acceptance and simple borrowing, and d) a relentless focus on bureaucratic efficiency, planning, and investment discipline in terms of not expanding higher levels until lower levels are universalized (for the sake of equality and quality). The focus is largely narrative and qualitative, but historical statistics are used to document the results obtained, such as the very high degree of equality and also efficiency achieved (in fact, signaling how efficiency and equality may have been helpful to each other), whereby even low-income segments of the population benefit from quality education. The contexts, not just the results, are analyzed both qualitatively and quantitatively.

The Uzbekistan Education for Excellence Program conducted a multi-phased Status of Instruction Study (SIS1 and 2) to understand the resources available and in use by schoolteachers in Uzbekistan. In the SIS2, the Program applied a descriptive quantitative design, considering the contextual realities resulting from COVID-19. The study was designed in an online survey system and the link to the survey was shared through the Ministry of Preschool and School Education via Telegram channels. This presentation examines elements of primary and secondary English teachers’ planning and preparation, their teaching skills, and ability to create a positive learning environment that fosters student engagement active learning. The implications of the two studies enabled the Ministry to generate and implement a number of recommendations including, but not limited to: 1) development and provision of teacher guides with sample lesson plans and explicit teaching strategies, 2) development of online learning courses for teachers on teaching strategies and techniques, 3) enhancing guidance on summative and formative assessment, 4) enhancing teachers’ skills in incorporating meaningful independent and group work and 5) upgrading of teachers’ content knowledge in selected subjects. This presentation explores, from the Ministry’s perspective, the importance of education system research. The Ministry presents and elaborates on their recommendations to maximize opportunities for co-creation of research – beginning with identification of research questions, design, implementation, analysis and dissemination.

This presentation featured an SEL Guidebook, which builds on the USAID-commissioned systematic review of SEL. The authors reviewed and researched the emerging evidence for integration of SEL into the school and classroom, including evidence-based approaches that target three categories of SEL: (1) SEL in the classroom and curriculum (i.e. pedagogical interactions that foster SEL and well-being); (2) explicit student-focused activities, and (3) School Climate (what contributes to a context that supports, welcome and nourishes SE development). The findings from this review informed a Guidebook that provides : o Comprehensive set of SEL approaches and activities, with practical examples of each; o Guide for SEL contextualization; o Series “how-to” scenarios for designing and implementing SEL programs based on a context’s needs, culture and policy context. This guidebook serves as a significant contribution to the field in that it identifies the evidence for SEL in LMICs and synthesizes into actionable and digestible information for the busy program designer, donor and/or implementing partner.

In 2014, the Nepal Ministry of Education, Science, and Technology (MOEST) developed a National Early Grade Reading Program (NEGRP), aimed at improving the reading achievement of early-grade students throughout Nepal. USAID has supported the government’s efforts to improve early-grade reading under NEGRP through both Government-to-Government funding and through the Early-Grade Reading Program (EGRP) I & II from 2015-2022. The NEGRP focused on evidence-based pillars for foundational literacy: Curriculum and materials, Teacher training and ongoing support, Community Mobilization, Assessment, and Systems strengthening. This paper will focus on the teacher ongoing support pillar of NEGRP and describe how processes of Monitoring, Evaluation, Research, Learning and Adaptation informed the evolution of the Ministry’s Teacher Professional Support System. EGRP & EGRP II were implemented in the context of Nepal’s transition to federalism, which began following the ratification of its constitution in 2015. This resulted in a situation where roles and responsibilities within the education system were in flux and authority for decision-making and funding shifted to the local level. Thus, implementation decisions had to recognize and adjust to a context in-flux. From the outset of NEGRP, the model for ongoing teacher support was based on evidence in the field on what works, with a heavy reliance on external coaches who could provide feedback and support to teachers on a regular basis. Challenges in the Nepal context, including the diversity of contexts within Nepal, as well as the changes taking place due to federalism, made it apparent that adjustments would be needed. As a result, EGRP supported the MOEST to undertake the first implementation research study, which supplemented Monitoring and Evaluation data to identify the strengths and weaknesses of the teacher support model, as well as to identify possible alternatives. A second iteration of the government’s model for Teacher Professional Support was developed based on the findings from this learning and joint reflection by stakeholders, government officials, and project staff – together with the continuing evolution around teacher learning and support in the field more broadly. A second round of monitoring, learning, and operational research enabled EGRP and MOEST to further hone the model – as well as to provide needed further adjustments to align with the newly federalized system as it evolved. Based on those findings and joint reflection, GoN developed a Teacher Professional Support that incorporates a flexible menu of options that enables local authorities to determine the combination of approaches that will be most suitable for their local context and to address local challenges. This paper will briefly present the iterations to the NEGRP ongoing teacher support model, explore the MERLA approaches that were used in this adaptive process and discuss lessons learned. The authors would then seek to engage the audience in discussion around the broader implications and pose the question: how can program design build in opportunities for this type of iterative learning from the outset?

This presentation on development of an assessment system under Senegal's new bilingual policy includes an explanation of the bilingual policy in Senegal and plans for development of a national assessment system including use of the ANLAS methodology (Analysis of National Learning Assessment Systems)