Piper, B.

Article published in the Journal of Development Effectiveness, Volume 8, 2016 - Issue 3. Published Abstract: To improve learning outcomes, an intervention in Kenya called the Primary Math and Reading (PRIMR) Initiative provided pupil learning materials, teachers’ guides and modest teacher professional development in mathematics. This paper presents the causal impact of PRIMR’s mathematics intervention on pupil achievement indices for procedural and conceptual numeracy, using a differences-in-differences analytic strategy. The mathematics intervention produced modest, statistically significant results: generally similar results for males and females, a larger impact in grade 2 than grade 1, a larger impact in nongovernment schools than public schools, and smaller outcomes in mathematics than for English or Kiswahili. These findings have relevant policy implications in Kenya given an impending national mathematics programme.

Article published in Comparative Education Review. Published abstract: Research in sub-Saharan Africa investigating the effect of mother tongue (MT) literacy instruction at medium scale is limited. A randomized controlled trial of MT literacy instruction was implemented in 2013 and 2014 as part of the Primary Math and Reading (PRIMR) Initiative in Kenya. We compare the effect of two treatment groups—the base PRIMR program teaching literacy in English and Kiswahili and the PRIMR-MT program, which taught literacy in English, Kiswahili, and mother tongue—in two different language environments. Implementation of the MT program faced challenges because many educators were not speakers of the languages, some communities resisted mother tongue instruction, and some areas were more language heterogeneous. Effect sizes on MT literacy averaged between 0.3 and 0.6 standard deviations. The base PRIMR program also increased MT learning outcomes in some measures but had smaller effects than the PRIMR-MT program in oral reading fluency and comprehension.

Article published in Writing Systems Research. Published Abstract: Reading research suggests that script type and writing systems have a relationship with children’s ability to recognise letters, syllables and words. In Ethiopia, the scripts used for writing language differ by visual complexity and the psycholinguistic grain size of the script. The Ge’ez-script languages have alphasyllabic-based writing systems, while the Latin-script languages have phoneme-based writing systems. These differences in script and the differences in aspects of the writing system influence early reading acquisition. We exploited a large, regionally representative data set assessing a variety of early reading tasks in six Ethiopian languages to estimate the impact of script and aspects of writing system differences on early reading outcomes in the areas of letter identification, word reading, non-word decoding and story reading. We made comparisons between language outcomes using Ge’ez and Latin scripts, controlling for student background and school socio-economic status (SES). Additional analyses compared across-script and writing system differences within regions and gender. We found that Ethiopian script and writing system differences have implications for instructional methods for letter identification and word decoding.

Article published in the International Journal of Educational Development, Volume 49, July 2016, Pages 204–214. Published abstract: Education policymakers are investing in information and communications technology (ICT) without a research base on how ICT improves outcomes. There is limited research on the effects of different types of ICT investments on outcomes. The Kenya Primary Math and Reading (PRIMR) study implemented a randomized controlled trial comparing the effects and cost of three interventions – e-readers for students, tablets for teachers, and the base PRIMR program with tablets for instructional supervisors. The results show that the ICT investments do not improve literacy outcomes significantly more than the base non-ICT instructional program. Our findings show that cost considerations should be paramount in selecting ICT investments in the education sector.