Interest inmeasuring executive function skills in young children in lowand middle-income country contexts has been stymied by the lack of assessments that are both easy to deploy and scalable. This study reports on an initial effort to develop a tablet-based battery of executive function tasks, which were designed and extensively studied in the United States, for use in Kenya. Participants were 193 children, aged 3–6 years old, who attended early childhood development and education centers. The rates of individual task completion were high (65–100%), and 85% of children completed three or more tasks. Assessors indicated that 90% of all task administrations were of acceptable quality. An executive function composite score was approximately normally distributed, despite higher-than-expected floor and ceiling effects on inhibitory control tasks. Children’s simple reaction time (β = –0.20, p = .004), attention-related behaviors during testing (β = 0.24, p = .0005), and age (β = –0.24, p = .0009) were all uniquely related to performance on the executive function composite. Results are discussed as they inform efforts to develop valid and reliable measures of executive function skills among young children in developing country contexts.

This brief presents Early Grade Reading Assessment (EGRA) data from a randomized control trial conducted in conjunction with the USAID/Uganda School Health and Reading Program (SHRP). SHRP supports reading in 3,700 government schools working through the systems that support these schools and was the catalyst for reform efforts which now cover 80% of Uganda's government primary schools. The assessment collected baseline data at the beginning of Primary 1 for 12 language cohorts and follow up at the end of every school year. These data collected in October, 2017 track progress at the school level (and differences between program and control schools) until the end of Primary 4, Primary 5 or Primary 6 (depending on the year the language was phased into the program). Learning for Uganda and beyond • Registering significant programmatic gains in reading achievement takes time. In the case of Uganda, this is partially attributable to the low baseline levels of reading (94% of learners across the 12 languages could read no words in English at the beginning of P1) and other systemic challenges within Ugandan schools not uncommon in other settings including teacher and learner absenteeism. • When learners learn to read in a local language, the gains realized in the local language are transferred to learning to read in English Major messages - When children learn to read (decode) in their local language, they are able to transfer this skill to decoding English. However, more work needs to be done to improve English comprehension. - Although SHRP has been able to move more learners to higher reading levels and they are on their way to becoming fluent readers, there are still too many learners not acquiring foundation skills. - It takes more time to move children from the foundation threshold than anticipated but when you move them from that level, the gains take off as can be seen from P3 onwards. - Reading gains in large scale interventions working through government structures take time due to systemic and contextual challenges.

CIES 2018 Presentation, given by Scholastica Tiguryera. While in-service training is an essential component of early grade reading (EGR) projects, it only addresses the current force of teachers and is usually a one-time, resource intensive undertaking. In these efforts, pre-service teacher education is often not addressed overlooking the next generation of teachers who will also need to know how to teach the new reading curriculum. This presentation will discuss how the Uganda Ministry of Education and Sports (MoES) has worked with two USAID-funded EGR projects (School Health and Reading Program [SHRP] and Literacy Achievement and Retention Activity [LARA]), a government-run EGR project funded by the Global Partnership for Education (GPE), Kyambogo University, and other local partners to develop an addendum to the Primary Teacher Education Curriculum to ensure the early grade reading initiatives introduced by the projects are incorporated into the pre-service teacher training program.

CIES 2018 Presentation, given by Ben Piper. While there has been recent evidence pointing to the efficacy and cost-effectiveness of pre-primary interventions, there remains little known about how those interventions might work at medium or national scale, nor whether the theoretical impacts of the programs increase, decrease or remain steady over time, nor whether the gains persist into primary school. The endline results from two years of Tayari’s intervention provide longitudinal data on nearly 2500 children who have been evaluated across a range of early learning skills (literacy, numeracy, socio-emotional) at three data points, including their first year of Grade 1. The results presented will explain how Tayari program impacts change over these three data points and determine whether Tayari’s impact persists into Grade 1.

CIES 2018 Presentation, given by Ben Piper. Tusome is supporting the Ministry’s systems to increase the utilization of monitoring data, and to expand the accountability structures of the government using the data provided by the national literacy program. Of particular interest is the classroom observation data collected by government-paid coaches, in Kenya these officers are called Curriculum Support Officers (CSOs). The data presented in this panel shows how the instructional support structures in Kenya have worked over time, with particular interest in the availability and usage of classroom support data.

CIES 2018 Presentation, given by Ben Piper. This paper examines the influence of Mother Tongue (MT) as a medium of instruction in lower primary schools in 4 zones of Machakos County based on the PRIMR program. The relationship between MT implementation at the classroom level and its impact on pupil’s literacy outcomes are explored.

CIES 2018 Presentation, given by Ben Piper. To improve the quality of preprimary education in Kenya, the Ministry of implemented the Tayari program in collaboration with four county governments. The program works with government officers to train teachers and support them in the classroom on a daily basis. Teachers rely on Teachers’ Guides developed to guide them in their lessons and are encouraged to expand children’s learning through two core strategies: the use of materials and extended learning. This presentation details one way in which reading and mathematics can be intertwined on a project through consistent instructional messages in trainings, materials for teachers, and support visits.

CIES 2018 Presentation, given by Ben Piper. The Tusome national literacy program has been implemented in each of Kenya’s more than 22,000 public primary schools and 1500 low cost private schools in the slums since 2015. In addition to showing the comparisons between before and after Tusome’s implementation, this presentation will examine Tusome implementation data to reveal key characteristics of the scale-up framework that Tusome was designed to respond to. In particular, we share the extent of classroom utilization of the Tusome materials, the size of the classroom observational structures that Tusome tried to revitalize, and the responses of the community to the Tusome intervention. The findings suggest that Tusome had a substantial impact on literacy outcomes in both Kiswahili and English, in both Grade 1 and 2, in both public and low cost private settings, and in both urban and rural settings. This means that the program’s effect meant that nearly 1 million more children were able to be considered readers by the midterm intervention.

CIES 2018 Presentation, given by Ben Piper. The Kenyan Ministry of Education (MoE) in collaboration with RTI International and the county Governments of Laikipia, Nairobi, Siaya and Uasin Gishu have been piloting the Tayari Early Childhood Development and Education (ECDE) model since 2014. Built on a Randomized Controlled Trial (RCT), RTI has been tracking a cohort of learners from both treatment 2 and control schools over the last two years: The baseline data was collected in January 2016; midline in October 2016, at the end of the academic school year; and endline a year later in October 2017. The overall effect of Tayari showed a larger effect at midline – after ten months of implementation – than was expected at end line, i.e. after two years of implementation. The gains in the Tayari group was about 50% higher than in the control group.

CIES 2018 Presentation, given by Sam Ngaruiya. This study explores the role of the Tayari program in promoting a viable and quality ECDE system that county governments in Kenya can sustainably deliver. Tayari is a three year pilot implemented by the national Ministry of Education and four county governments. The program is designed to help the government develop a cost effective and scalable ECDE model. The pilot program is implemented in public schools and ECDE centers in low resource settings. Utilizing data from a qualitative study conducted in 4 pilot and 3 non-pilot counties’ decision-making, the presentation outlines three key aspects of sustainability: the extent to which collaborative implementation has improved ownership and resource allocation and how the Tayari instructional approach has impacted on process quality and teacher retention in the program. The findings and discussion are critical in helping county governments prioritize investment in a quality and sustainable ECDE model for improved school readiness.