The purpose of the article "Teacher Researchers in Guatemala: Lessons from an action research experience to address educational gaps in the classroom" is to describe the learnings of primary school teachers in rural Guatemala as a result of an action research experience. This experience took place in the context of the “Basic Education Quality and Transitions” activity, or BEQT, funded by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and implemented by RTI International and its partners Funcafé, Funsepa, Wayfree, and the Universidad del Valle de Guatemala (UVG). UVG’s Centro de Investigaciones Educativas (CIE), as an RTI partner, developed and implements the “Teacher Researchers” program. The action research program engages teachers in identifying and bridging gaps in students’ learning of mathematics, reading, and/or writing with students in grades 1–3. During the portion of the program described in this paper, teachers reflected on the lessons learned and strengthened their research skills in an effort to identify gaps in content, as well as applying and reflecting on potential solutions that they then translated into adjustments in lesson planning and implementation of teaching strategies. A categorical analysis of the teachers’ reflections on these experiences showed how strengthened research skills helped teachers identify areas of opportunity in using teaching strategies to improve the quality of teaching, thus allowing them to reflect on their own teaching practices.

This blog was written for and originally published by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and CONFENMEN on the occasion of the "Apprendre pour Demain" conference in Dakar, Senegal (January 2025). It was published on the conference website (https://linktr.ee/apprendrepourdemain) document repository (https://sites.google.com/view/apprendrepourdemain/resources-ressources/others?authuser=3). This article describes how USAID's “Renforcement de la Lecture Initiale pour Tous” (RELIT, 2021-2026) activity has been working to strengthen the education system’s capacity to deliver bilingual education in the early grades, with structured pedagogy and institutional capacity-building as central pillars.

This toolkit is the product of ongoing collaboration among a large community of scholars, practitioners, government officials, and education development professionals to advance the cause of early reading assessment and acquisition among primary school children in low-income countries. Extensive peer review comments for this toolkit and suggestions for instrument development were provided by Marcia Davidson, Sandra Hollingsworth, Sylvia Linan-Thompson, and Liliane Sprenger-Charolles. Development of EGRA would not have been possible without the support of the nongovernmental organization and Ministry of Education EGRA Evaluation Teams of Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Egypt, The Gambia, Guyana, Haiti, Honduras, Jamaica, Kenya, Liberia, Mali, Nicaragua, Niger, Peru, Senegal, and South Africa. Our deepest gratitude goes to the teachers, the students, and their families for their participation and continued faith in the benefits of education. In repayment we will diligently seek to improve reading outcomes for all children around the world. Amber Gove is responsible for primary authorship of the toolkit, with contributions from Luis Crouch, Amy Mulcahy-Dunn, and Marguerite Clarke; editing support was provided by Erin Newton. The opinions expressed in this document are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the United States Agency for International Development or the World Bank. Please direct questions or comments to Amber Gove at agove@rti.org.

These Success Stories were prepared by the project team for the USAID Renforcement de la Lecture Initiale pour Tous program in Senegal in Calendar year 2023. SS005: "Improved listening comprehension in Pulaar garners enthusiasm from Grade 1 pupils and their teacher Mme Sané" SS011 " At the El Hadj Oumar Aidara school in Kédougou, student reading achievement in grade 1 is a milestone in adoption of bilingual education" and SS006: "RELIT helps students in remote areas of Senegal learn to read through effective early grade bilingual instruction" describe teachers' experiences using the newly-introduced RELIT materials in their classrooms. SS07 "Co-creation with the Ministry of Education results in capacity development plans to prepare personnel to provide Senegal’s children with high-quality bilingual education" describes the collaborative process of developing ministry capacity to provide sustainable and high quality bilingual education and SS08 "Language mapping of over 1,000 schools builds the capacity of the Ministry of Education staff to sustainably support implementation of bilingual instruction in Senegal" describes how talking to communities helped identify which of the local languages best serves classroom instruction.

These Success Stories were prepared by the project team for the USAID Renforcement de la Lecture Initiale pour Tous program in Senegal in Calendar year 2022. SS001 : "Fifty resource persons from the MEN and the implementing partner put in place, together, the mechanisms for implementing RELIT." Describes the collaborative and locally-led co-launch of the program in 2022. SS002: "At Boly Diaw elementary school in Saint Louis, the RELIT program mobilizes a community of parents around reading and bilingual education." Describes a school that created a community-wide celebration for the launch of the RELIT program in 2022. SS003: "Innovations in the teaching of early grade reading: RELIT designs early learning materials for three new national languages" Describes the process and outputs of the first Grade 1 materials in 5 national languages that were developed in time for the new school year in Senegal. SS04: "A participatory approach to assessing the institutional capacity of Senegal’s education system" describes the approach to capacity assessment using the "Core Components" model of System Strengthening.

The research on first language learning is the premise for the Philippines Mother-Tongue-based Multi-Lingual Education (MTB-MLE) Policy which requires schools to deliver the Kindergarten to Grade 3 curriculum in the mother tongue (home language) of the school’s community (Corder, 1983; Walter & Dekker, 2011. Salmona, 2014; Yadav, 2014). Considering that the national curriculum requires children to transition to and learn in Filipino and English at the start of Grade 4, the question of mother tongue’s effect on second and third language acquisition is not academic, but central to the policy debate on MTB-MLE efficacy. The MTB-MLE policy consists of five discrete areas: curriculum, learning resources, assessment, teacher recruitment and training, and community support. MTB-MLE has proven challenging with respect to the myriad languages and dialects. Out of the 180 plus languages spoken, only 19 have been formally supported with an official orthography, standard learning resources and teacher professional development materials. In communities with non-supported languages, teachers contextualize the teaching and learning materials, often translating and adapting from the linguistically nearest mother tongue to their own. In a 2019 study on MTB-MLE, the Philippines Institute of Development Studies found inconsistent implementation across schools, including teachers’ negative attitudes toward MTB-MLE, linguistic diversity of learners and classrooms, and lack of teaching and learning materials being key factors hindering its implementation (PIDS, 2019). The Bicol Region poses a particular challenge. In an area slightly larger than Connecticut with a population of just under 4 million, thirteen different languages plus numerous dialects are spoken in the various provinces, cities and towns that dot this volcanic region (Lobel, 2019). The standard language of Central Bikol, which is the mother tongue of approximately half the population consists of six different local dialects depending on the locale. Wedged in the middle of the Central Bikol-speaking area is a cluster of five distinct languages: Rinconada, Buhi-non, Bikol Libon, West Albay Bikol, and Miraya, with only one or two municipal communities each that speak these languages. Under the USAID Advancing Basic Education in the Philippines (ABC+), RTI conducted a longitudinal study that provides new evidence on the efficacy of MTB-MLE. The study tracked the language and literacy acquisition of four groups of learners: those Central Bikol learners who are learning in a fully supported language; Buhi-non speaking learners who are learning in an unsupported language (ie, Buhi-non); Central Bikol speakers who’s language of instruction is Tagalog and Tagalog learners who’s language of instruction is Tagalog. The findings show evidence that the Central Bikol learners whose LOI is Tagalog are performing at par or worse in nearly all domains of reading in their first (Central Bikol), second (Tagalog/Filipino) and third languages (English). The findings show a flattening of their trajectory in terms of the pace of language and literacy acquisition, as well as significant equity gaps in comparison to their Tagalog peers. The evidence points toward continued support to MTB-MLE, despite the challenges in implementation.

The rise in popularity of the Nurturing Care Framework, which describes the enabling conditions for a child to thrive in the first several years of life, has resulted in an increase in global attention on parenting and child development. The Framework includes children’s need for good health, adequate nutrition, safety and security, opportunities for early learning, and responsive caregiving. While this holistic approach to nurturing young children is surely beneficial, the implementation of Nurturing Care should be considered through a cultural lens. According to McGillicuddy-De Lisi and Subramanian (1996), beliefs about parenting and child development are developed through three means: (1) beliefs come directly (and unquestioned) through the culture; (2) beliefs are formed through the holder’s own childhood, family, and parenting experiences; and (3) beliefs are influenced by the exchange of ideas and assumptions of people from different cultures. Since these beliefs inform parenting behaviors (Bornstein, 2012), we must be thoughtful in any efforts to change parenting and caregiver behaviors which are the result of the culture and the childhood experiences of parents. Changing behavior without an adequate consideration of the underlying cultural beliefs could be at risk of perpetuating colonial legacies and destabilizing cultural ways of being. This presentation focuses on the risks and rewards of taking an approach to shaping caregiving behaviors that considers the importance of cultural continuity. The presentation will use cross-national examples from work with two Native American tribes, the Blackfeet and the Lac Courte Oreilles Ojibwe, as well as traditional international development work in Senegal and Liberia to illustrate opportunities and challenges of foreign technical “expertise.” The differences between efforts to shape parental behaviors, which are clearly culturally-influenced, versus teacher or ECE caregiver behaviors, which may be more subtly cultural, will be examined. Finally, this presentation will offer some practical considerations for other individuals seeking to further Nurturing Care outside their own communities.

The ability of citizens to think critically and take a well-considered position in life is influenced by their ability to read with comprehension and by the content of what they read. WordCalc is an instrument that contributes to a body of children’s literature that is an important step to building this skill. This abstract introduces WordCalc, an advanced computer program designed to analyze linguistic features of texts. It was developed and improved in the context of two USAID-funded reading projects in the Kyrgyz Republic – Time to Read and Okuu Keremet! The very first version was produced as an Excel program under another USAID reading project in Georgia. The program addresses the lack of children’s books written in local languages, specifically Kyrgyz, Russian, and Uzbek, in the Kyrgyz Republic. By analyzing large amounts of text, WordCalc provides local authors and publishers with language patterns that are attractive and engaging to young readers, leveled according to reading ability. The project conducted a market analysis of children’s books in 2020, revealing the scarcity of modern, locally inspired storybooks for children in schools, libraries, the market, and elsewhere. The available books predominantly consisted of outdated fairy tales and folklore, lacking consideration for the local context and culture as well as contemporary realities and topics. The majority of existing books were imported from Russia and other countries. The limited spectrum of topics highlighted the urgent need for accessible and age-appropriate literature that resonates with children’s interests, language preference and social background. Using WordCalc entails collecting as much text as possible, in different languages and for different age groups, in order to analyze text size, word and sentence counts, word length, high-frequency words and phrases for each language. Through these analyses, the program provides insight into the linguistic characteristics of text read by readers at different levels. The patterns per language and reading level enable authors to tailor their writing to the various reading levels of young readers so that children have a variety of text at the right level for them to develop their reading skill. The refinement of WordCalc resulted in the creation of a comprehensive dictionary comprised of the most frequently used words for grades 1-4 in Kyrgyz, Russian, and Uzbek, totaling 10,000 unique words. This dictionary serves as a foundational resource for creating age-appropriate content that appeals to young readers. In collaboration with linguists, the project team identified and incorporated difficult and rare words specific to grades 1-4, ensuring comprehensive coverage of a rich vocabulary. The Kyrgyz and Uzbek languages in particular face a shortage of text-based resources, including scientific papers, articles, and standardized textbooks for grades 1-4. Therefore, the project team employed a meticulous approach to creating the dictionary, leveraging the expertise of linguists to compensate for the limited resources available for compiling the dictionary. The aim was to ensure that the final product was accurate and useful. To validate the effectiveness of WordCalc as an instrument, the team conducted several reviews of more than 1,000 texts in the three languages. In Okuu Keremet!, around 40 authors and illustrators were trained to use WordCalc, and so far, it has facilitated the production of more than 1,200 new titles, specifically tailored to children’s reading levels and their linguistic context. Moving forward, WordCalc will be introduced to a wider audience, including educators, authors, publishers, and the general public. Its usefulness for creating leveled literature for children will be encouraged among other players such as publishers, textbook writers and others. For example, two big local publishing companies want to use WordCalc as a tool for quality assurance and are already using it in the book production process. WordCalc also serves as a valuable resource for analyzing existing literature for children. By applying the program to previously published books, authors and publishers can gauge whether the books are appropriately aligned with specific ages or grades; they can refine their storytelling techniques and enhance the cultural authenticity of their work. This ensures that the existing literature is adapted to meet the needs and expectations of young readers in the Kyrgyz Republic. In conclusion, WordCalc has proven to be a valuable tool to create new texts for grade 1-4 children that builds not just reading skill but comprehension and critical thinking skills which have been consistently weak in the reading assessment of children. The expansion of genres among children’s books, including information books which are very popular, expands the range of topics that children are thinking about and exposes them to new knowledge, ideas, and feelings. By redressing the lack of literature in local languages such as Kyrgyz and Uzbek, WordCalc is also contributing to the strength of these languages as it codifies a rich vocabulary among young readers across an expanding range of topics. Engaging stories in mother tongue foster a love for reading among young readers. WordCalc’s ability to sift through and analyze text in different languages is a gift to local authors and publishers who can now create “just right” books for children in the Kyrgyz Republic.

The Ministry of Preschool and School Education (MoPSE) in Uzbekistan has set the goal of transforming the education system and improving English proficiency among secondary school graduates by 2030. To support this initiative, the Uzbekistan Education for Excellence Program, in collaboration with MoPSE, conducted a study in 2023 to assess the adoption and use of new English language teaching and learning materials in public schools during the 2022-2023 academic year. The study aimed to gather data to inform teacher professional development and effective utilization of the new textbooks for English language instruction in grades 1-11. To collect the necessary data, an online survey was administered from April 25 to May 20, 2023, targeting English teachers in grades 1-11 across all regions of Uzbekistan. The survey focused on teaching practices, instructional approaches, and the utilization of new materials and digital resources. The survey responses from 2,363 English teachers in public schools were analyzed using qualitative and quantitative descriptive statistics techniques. However, the survey process faced methodological challenges such as internet and computer access for some participants, varying levels of familiarity with responding to online surveys, and potential language barriers due to respondents' limited English proficiency. Additionally, the self-reported nature of the data introduced potential biases in the responses. The survey results revealed several important findings. Participating teachers expressed satisfaction with the new textbooks and reported positive changes in their teaching practices, as well as perceived improvements in student learning. However, challenges were identified, including limited textbook availability, time constraints in delivering certain activities suggested in the textbooks, technological barriers, and limited access to audio-visual equipment in classrooms. The integration of real-life contexts in the textbooks enhanced the overall learning experience. Based on these findings, recommendations were made to address the identified challenges and improve the adoption process, including providing guidance, addressing textbook availability, offering comprehensive teacher training, and establishing mechanisms for continuous review and student feedback. Implementing these recommendations might support the enhancement of English language instruction in Uzbekistan. In conclusion, the adoption of the Guess What! and Prepare series as new English language instructional materials in Uzbekistan's public schools has yielded positive results, as reported by participating teachers. The integration of these textbooks has brought about changes in teaching practices and perceived achievements of student learning outcomes. The survey results indicated a high level of teacher satisfaction with the Student's Books, Workbooks, and Teacher's Books, with the Workbooks receiving the highest satisfaction level at 83%. Moreover, over 67% of teachers acknowledged that the new textbooks had brought about a change in their approach to teaching English. Overall, the study highlights the positive influence of new instructional materials on English language instruction in the Republic of Uzbekistan. The successful integration of the Guess What! and Prepare series sets the stage for continuous progress in English language learning and teaching. It is crucial to build upon these findings and recommendations to further improve teaching practices, support teacher professional development, and ensure ongoing enhancement of English language instruction throughout the country.

Title: Philippine local governments using local solutions to tackle literacy and numeracy through the Education Sector Mechanism Presenter: Mayor Krisel Lagman of Tabaco City Launched under USAID funded Advancing Basic Education (ABC+) in the Philippines, the Education Sector Mechanism (ESM) brings stakeholders (private sector, government units, teachers, school leadership, parents and community) together at the local level to assess the education landscape using data and evidence. This process is led by local governments, but includes all stakeholders and aims to identify key issues and their underlying causes, agree on effective strategies to tackle these challenges, and translate the solutions into well-defined programs, projects, and activities. This process puts local leadership and ownership at the forefront of problem solving based on data, investment programming and results-based monitoring and evaluation. The local governments of Victorias City and Tabaco City in the Philippines lead the way in utilizing ESM, bringing private sector, local government units, and community together to look at education issues. This presentation will discuss the ESM process based on their experience and the results they are seeing, highlighting locally led and locally funded solutions and commitments.