The rapidly changing climate is a threat that sees no borders and its impact on the education sector is severe. Yet, often in the wake of climate disasters, the education sector is widely overlooked and underfunded. The purpose of this group panel presentation is thus to explore different examples of research and programming which aim to improve the education sector’s resilience to the impacts of climate change. The panel is comprised of stakeholders from USAID and international educational research and implementing organizations from around the globe which have experience with how education systems can become more resilient to such disasters. This panel will draw from new global frameworks and strategies on climate resilience, as well as research and implementation examples from the case study of Pakistan, where unprecedented 2022 flooding severely impacted an already beleaguered education system. Further, the panel will explore the intersection of climate change impact and marginalized communities.

This report presents the findings of a deep dive impact evaluation of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) Uzbekistan Education for Excellence Program (The Program), which was initiated on December 9, 2019, and originally scheduled to end on December 8, 2023, then extended through March 31, 2024. The Program is implemented by a consortium of partners including RTI International (RTI) as the consortium lead and Florida State University and Mississippi State University as partners. For this report, the Program used a comparative analysis of Early Grade Reading and Mathematics Assessments (EGRA and EGMA, respectively) administered at baseline in 2021 and at endline in 2023. The Program evaluation focused on students in grades 2 and 4. In November and December of the 2021-22 school year, the baseline EGRA and EGMA were administered to students who completed grades 2 and 4 and had been in grades 3 and 5 for three months. The endline assessments were administered to students in grades 2 and 4 in May of 2023, a few weeks prior to the end of that school year. This meant that students at endline were being assessed after having completed 68 fewer days of schooling than those who were assessed at baseline.

The Uzbekistan Education for Excellence Program(the Program) is a 4-year program (December 9, 2019–December 8, 2023) funded by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and implemented by the RTI International Consortium1 in collaboration with the Uzbekistan Ministry of Public Education. The Program conducted baseline Early Grade Reading and Mathematics Assessments (EGRA and EGMA, respectively) in November and December 2021. The purpose of the baseline was to measure the pre-intervention levels of mathematics and Uzbek language reading achievement for students at the end of grade 2 and grade 4. The baseline was originally planned to assess students completing grades 2 and 4 at the end of the 2019–2020 school year in May 2020. However, the baseline was postponed to the beginning of the following school year—November–December 2021—because of COVID-19, and grades 3 and 5 students were assessed as proxies for students completing grades 2 and 4, respectively.

Primary Mathematics Skills Assessment Tool: 2021 Stimulus Sheet.

Primary Mathematics Skills Assessment Tool: 2021 Assessor Protocol.

Primary Reading Skills Assessment Tool: 2021 stimulus sheet.

Primary Reading Skills Assessment Tool: 2021 Assessor Instructions Form.

Kindergarten Classroom Observation Student Sheet.

Kindergarten Classroom Observation Assessor Sheet.

Group administered mathematics assessment student sheet.