Jordan's RAMP initiative, funded by USAID and UKAID, conducted an evaluation study of a pilot project that aimed to implement the 'School's Guide for Parental Engagement in Supporting their Child's Literacy Learning.' This guide contains a collection of 31 tools designed to enhance overall student learning and specifically improve reading and writing skills in Arabic during the early grades. Among these tools, five are mandatory: 1. Model and Example of Implementation Plan. 2. Parent Volunteering Form: We Love Parent Volunteers. 3. Presentation to Foster the Love of Reading Habits in Your Children. 4. Presentation on the Most Important Activities that Enhance Reading and Writing Skills in Your Child. 5. Guide for Providing Sustainable, Needs-Based Support. The remaining tools are optional, with schools encouraged to adapt them to meet their specific needs. The primary objective of this study was to assess the effectiveness of the guide in engaging parents to support their children's literacy development. The Queen Rania Foundation for Education and Development implemented the study during the 2021/2022 academic year, involving 35 supervisors across various MOE directorates to evaluate the guide's content and usage in 84 schools from different regions in Jordan. Data collection methods included questionnaires and focus groups. The study's findings regarding parent engagement revealed the following: In the quantitative aspect of the results: • All trained teachers and school staff found the guide practical and effective, with 100% of them reporting significant positive engagement with parents as a result of using the guide and its tools. • The application of these tools proved effective, with all educational supervisors and over 90% of school principals and teaching staff confirming a noticeable positive change in the level and quality of parental involvement with the school after implementing the program and its tools. This strengthened the relationship between the school and the local community, leading to increased communication through social media, more visits to participating schools for activities, and greater contributions within the classroom to improve children's reading and writing skills. • Nearly all schools implemented both the mandatory (96%) and optional (98%) tools based on their specific needs. Parental involvement was deemed beneficial and effective by all participants, including supervisors, school principals, and parents themselves. These results indicated that the application of the tools effectively increased parental interaction and engagement with the school, resulting in a stronger relationship between the school and the local community. Parental involvement manifested through increased communication via various channels, more school visits, and voluntary participation inside the classroom to support students' reading and writing skills. However, the effective community engagement and parental involvement programs faced some challenges, including content confusion and overlap. Previous studies conducted by the Queen Rania Foundation in high-achieving schools highlighted the importance of successful school-parent interaction and engagement in supporting children's learning. It was acknowledged that some parents may face difficulties in providing the necessary support for their children's reading skills and lack confidence in their interactions with the school. In light of the positive results of the 'School's Guide for Parental Engagement in Supporting their Child's Literacy Learning,' it was deemed essential to integrate and standardize various program elements into a unified parental engagement program with the school. To address the challenge of busy parents unable to attend school physically, the program increased remote participation through virtual meetings and online communication channels. Several recommendations were made to address these challenges. 1. Work with the Ministry to coordinate community engagement programs, avoiding duplication, and integrate this guide's content into existing programs to benefit all schools. 2. Provide unified team training for school staff during program implementation. 3. Develop flexible programs for schools to tailor to their needs, and periodically review and determine mandatory tools. 4. Distribute hard copies of the guide to schools for use in case of internet unavailability or lack of smart devices or skills. 5. Improve training with a focus on practical aspects, extended duration, suitable timing and locations, revised trainer criteria, and school supervisors conducting training. 6. Add mobile download feature, create a tool index, clarify terminology, distinguish between tools and resources, and merge some tools to reduce overlap. 7. Boost teacher motivation to participate despite busy schedules due to program significance and positive results. 8. Assist schools in providing computer devices and internet connectivity. 9. Maintain electronic resources for content sharing with parents, relieve financial burdens, and encourage schools to involve parents using the "We Love Parent Volunteers" tool.

The Kingdom of Jordan’s Human Resource Development (HRD) Strategy mandates the universal provision of kindergarten (KG2) by 2025. The HRD Strategy emphasizes using partnerships between the Ministry of Education (MoE) and other governmental and nongovernmental actors to assure expanded provision of kindergarten services. The strategy further emphasizes the need to improve the quality of kindergarten services, while reaching every child. To fully understand how the MoE can increase access, improve quality, and assure equitable provision of KG1 services, more accurate information is needed, especially about other, as yet unrecognized service providers who may be offering KG or KG-similar services to five-year-old children. The MoE needs a more complete picture of the current provision of KG2 to determine the best strategy to achieve the HRD goal that every child in Jordan receives a high-quality kindergarten experience.

In June 2020 the Philippines Department of Education (DepEd) adopted the Basic Education Learning Continuity Plan (BE-LCP), a framework to guide the 2020–2021 school year in light of school closures that started in March 2020, during the final weeks of the 2019–2020 school year. The plan introduced an adjusted and condensed curriculum, the Most Essential Learning Competencies, to support schools and teachers in delivering learning through alternative modalities in lieu of face to face classes. DepEd also modified the 2020–2021 school calendar to start October 5, 2020, and end in June 2021. The school year typically runs from June through March in the Philippines, but regions, divisions, and schools needed additional time to prepare and operationalize the BE-LCP. For example, regions were tasked with determining appropriate remote learning1 delivery modalities based on local context. Approaches were further adapted and defined at the individual school level as schools contextualized the learning continuity plan. Given DepEd’s decentralized approach to contextualizing and ensuring learning continuity for learners, it became clear that remote learning would look vastly different across regions, divisions, and within schools. Subsequently, this mixed-methods study was designed to take an in-depth look at schools and families across the country to understand their experiences with teaching and learning during school closures—and particularly to understand how early language and literacy learning can best be supported in the distance learning context.

Read this brief to learn more about Read Liberia's community engagement component and the data from its evaluation.

Motivated teachers are vital for successful and effective classroom instruction. They show up consistently and inspire and engage their students. Enthusiastic teachers assess students’ abilities, give feedback, and collaborate with other teachers. They are passionate about the important role they play and enjoy what they do. Many factors affect a teacher’s motivation to work. Read this brief to find out what Read Liberia learned about motivating and inspiring teachers.

In the past two years, the COVID 19 pandemic and the ensuing and repeated school closures has caused an unprecedented upheaval to the education of children world-wide. With the onset of the pandemic, actors in education systems responded in myriads of ways to ensure children continued to learn while at home and when schools reopened. The purpose of this case study is to explore how educational stakeholders in the federal and provincial governments in Pakistan – Balochistan, Islamabad Capital Territory (ICT), Kyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP), and Sindh, responded to school closures and re-openings during the COVID 19 pandemic in 2020 and 2021. As such, the research questions for the study are 1. How did actors in education respond to the COVID 19 pandemic in Pakistan? 2. What types of resilience capacities did actors in education exhibit? To answer these questions, the case study delves into how the education actors - communities, parents, teachers, federal and provincial government education officials, private schools, non-governmental organizations, and international development partners responded and collaborated to support children’s learning, psycho-social support and well-being. The case study draws on resilience, and social ecological frameworks to explore the response of Pakistani education system to the pandemic. A social ecological lens enables the examination of the interaction and relationships of the individual, the community, the learning environment and educational systems and policies (Bronfenbrenner, (1986). Resilience frameworks explore the practices of education actors which promote resilience during and after disasters. (Reyes, 2013; Shah, Paulson, Couch, 2020; Shah, 2019). A qualitative case study method was best suited for this research study as it allows for an in-depth, descriptive and analytical study of how these education stakeholders responded to the challenges of the pandemic (Merriam, 1998). Data collection comprised semi structured interviews with purposive sampling of 34 individuals and 11 focus groups with public and private school teachers and parents. Emerging themes include the digital divide, strength in community, parent engagement and a lack of focus on marginalized populations. The emerging themes give examples of resilience capacities of stakeholder responses and illustrate positive, and promising practices as well as areas which need considerable reflection, and change in and implementation of federal and provincial policies. References Bronfenbrenner, U. (1986) Ecology of the family as a context for human development. American Psychologist.32:513–531. Merriam, S. B. (1998). Qualitative Research and Case Study Applications in Education. Revised and Expanded from" Case Study Research in Education." Jossey-Bass Publishers, 350 Sansome St, San Francisco, CA 94104. Reyes, J. (2013). What matters the most for education resilience. A framework paper. World Bank Shah, R. (2019). Transforming systems in times of adversity. White Paper, USAID Education and Conflict Network.

The Remote Learning Study was conducted during the 2020–2021 school year to investigate how mother-tongue-based multilingual education reading instruction proceeded in 20 schools around the country while classrooms were closed. The school head, 2 teachers, and 4 home learning partners from each school in Grades 1 and 3 were interviewed to gain insights on school administration, teaching and learning, and the home environment. Data was collected at three time points—November, March and June—from 20 school heads, 37 teachers of and 79 parents. Not all respondents were available at each time point. No parents were interviewed in November as recruitment was still underway. Children were also asked to fill out a literacy assessment worksheet, but very few parents returned this worksheet at each occasion. These briefs describe essential themes that emerged from this activity. #1 - Strategies for Assisting Home Learning Partners, #2 - Use of Teaching and Learning Materials, #3 - Use of Technology, #4 - Student Engagement Strategies, #5 - Challenges and Solutions to Remote Learning, #6 - School Leadership, #7 - Literacy Instructional Practice.

Learning Community Innovations, an Emerging Good Practice Digest. March 2021 Digest No. 1. Includes parent engagement successes.

Tusomere Wamu Uganda Learning Campaign Toolkit

Runyankore Rukiga Story Cards