The idea of the literacy and numeracy advisory committee started with “literacy” specifically, to offer advisory support on sustainability of EGR activities of Projects funded by USAID. During Basic Education Working Group meetings, members agreed to add numeracy, on the premise that developing children’s foundation skills of both literacy and numeracy is vital during the formative years. The purpose of the advisory committee is to ensure that organizational, systemic, and institutional capacity gaps and needs are identified and relevant organs receive guidance to act on measures to fill the gaps and ensure cost effective EGR/Numeracy activities are sustained. It is composed of senior and mid-level MoES official responsible for successful implementation of primary curriculum, with a specific focus on EGR and numeracy, drawn from BE and SE, DES, NCDC, TIET, SNE, Districts, Kyambogo University and development partners. The committee reports to the MoES PS and has authority to make recommendations for policy review and formulation of a new set of policy documents contributing to a new Sector Strategic Plan, including EGR and Numeracy. It also monitors programming, provides oversight and offers related guidance on interventions and strategies. The project supported MoES to develop a Terms of Reference to create a structure for the work of the Advisory Committee.

This information pack is based on the data pack developed and used by the MoES, UKAID and Cambride Education for their design confultation workshop held in April 2018. Many of the slides here were taken directly from that pack, with permission from Cambridge Education. We sincely appreciate being able to use their data pack as a starting point for this information pack. Selection of Data and Resources for the UKAID/Cambridge Education SESIL slides Data sources have been taken from a variety of sources and are referenced on each slide in the bottom left-hand corner. The dates referenced in the source information relate to when the data was collected (rather than published) to provide the most accurate picture possible of currently available and accessible information. Only data that was externally collected, validated from multiple sources and nationally or internationally published was included. Data for the USAID/RTI and GPE slides Data are from program monitoring records and other evaluative and survey efforts and provide more Uganda specific data to support and provide more depth to the national and international data.

In December 2019, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation convened a workshop examining four education systems that have worked to build coherence across their systems, as viewed by “insiders” who played a significant role in carefully studying, designing, or maintaining the systems. This information note summarizes the knowledge shared at the workshop and was produced at the request of key stakeholders at the meeting. It is intended for the benefit of the participants and those who may be designing systems interventions or research, especially around the issue of the "instructional core" and the coherence among the various elements of the instructional core. The note is presented as an informal contribution.

This report presents a cross-country analysis of three qualitative case studies completed in Jordan, Uganda, and Bangladesh in late 2019. It reflects a snapshot of information about the refugee experience of early childhood services, based on interviews, focus group discussions, site visits and policy document review. The crosscountry analysis investigates individual and group stories and experiences to synthesize common themes with the goal of identifying recommendations to improve the provision of early childhood services for young refugee children and their families.

This qualitative case study describes the experiences of young refugee children and their families accessing early childhood development (ECD) services in Uganda in late 2019. The study team collected data through key informant interviews with representatives of the Ugandan government, national non-governmental organizations, humanitarian agencies and service providers. Focus group discussions were held with refugee families living in Bidi Bidi and Nakivale settlements. The study team supplemented key informant interviews and focus group with policy document review. Analysis is presented along the lines of policy and practice, with a focus on the respective roles of the government and international agencies in delivering ECD services to refugee families.

This qualitative case study describes the experiences of young refugee children and their families accessing early childhood development (ECD) services in Bangladesh in late 2019. The study team collected data through key informant interviews with representatives of the Bangladesh government, national non-governmental organizations, humanitarian agencies and service providers. Focus group discussions were held with refugee families living in both older and newer (post-2017 influx) camps near Cox's Bazar. The study team supplemented key informant interviews and focus group with policy document review. Analysis is presented along the lines of policy and practice, with a focus on the respective roles of the government and international agencies in delivering ECD services to refugee families.

This qualitative case study describes the experiences of young refugee children and their families accessing early childhood development (ECD) services in Jordan in late 2019. The study team collected data through key informant interviews with representatives of the Jordanian government, national non-governmental organizations, humanitarian agencies and service providers. Focus group discussions were held with refugee families living in the host community in Amman, as well as families in Za'atari and Azraq refugee camps. The study team supplemented key informant interviews and focus group with policy document review. Analysis is presented along the lines of policy and practice, with a focus on the respective roles of the government and international agencies in delivering ECD services to refugee families.

The presentation summarizes a paper by Tim Slade and Luis Crouch on the measurement of learning inequality before and after a successful reading project. The paper concludes that at least for the case studied, the project improved not only the averages but also reduced the inequality. The paper was prepared under the auspices of a conference on "Learning at the Bottom of the Pyramid" organized by IIEP and Dan Wagner of U Penn. This is the presentation that was delivered at vCIES 2020.

The Early Grade Reading Barometer is an interactive dashboard that lets you: - SEE an overview of how well students are reading, the percentage of struggling readers, and how comprehension is associated with reading fluency. - VIEW information about student performance on EGRA subtasks. See how outcomes vary by key student and school characteristics. - EXPLORE how different EGRA subtasks are related to one another. View graphic displays of these relationships. - CHOOSE a target oral reading fluency benchmark, and see information on how many students are meeting the targeted benchmark now and how the percentage of students meeting the benchmark value could change over time. - SEE how countries compare with each other with respect to student outcomes on EGRA assessments and progress towards meeting UN SDG Goal 4. - REVIEW the impact of interventions aimed at improving the fundamental reading skills of students. - COMPARE how the distributions for selected EGRA subtasks have changed or remained the same over time.