Curriculum Review and Development

Animated video developed by the Uganda Literacy Achievement and Retention Activity under RTI International describing the 5 Ts - Time, Teaching, Text, Tongue and Testing.

CIES presentation of Early Childhood Education landscape report for the Asia region under All Children Reading - Asia.

Improving early grade reading and writing outcomes has implications more far-reaching than simply raising scores on national and international assessments. Reading is a fundamental tool for thinking and learning, which has an integrated and cumulative effect on comprehension in all subject areas. Providing students with a strong foundation in reading increases the likelihood of future academic and workforce success. By providing Palestinian teachers with additional strategies and resources to build essential primary students’ reading and writing skills, the US Agency for International Development (USAID) Early Grade Reading (EGR) Project supported the goal of the USAID mission in the West Bank/Gaza of “providing a new generation of Palestinians with quality education and competencies that would enable them to thrive in the global economy and empower them to participate actively in a well-governed society.” Specifically, EGR addressed USAID’s strategic Sub-objective 3.1.5 to improve “service delivery in the education sector through increased access to quality education, especially in marginalized areas of the West Bank; a higher quality of teaching, learning and education management practices; and improved quality and relevancy of the education system at all levels.” EGR also directly supports USAID’s global goal to improve early grade reading skills. In support of the overarching goals, EGR’s project goal was to facilitate change in classroom delivery of early grade reading and writing instruction through three inter-connected component areas including evidence-based standards and curriculum revisions, instructional improvements, and parental engagement activities designed to improve student reading and writing competencies in Kindergarten (KG)–Grade 2 in the West Bank. EGR offered a scalable model of early grade reading instruction in 104 West Bank public schools among 351 teachers who taught 9,679 students. EGR collected data through reviews of curricular and standards’ documents, studies in schools, and assessments of students’ reading competencies. The project developed book leveling criteria to ensure the age- and grade-level appropriateness of reading materials, which facilitated the development or procurement of over 100,000 books for schools. EGR provided the Ministry of Education and Higher Education (MOEHE) with training modules in early grade reading and writing skills, a reading remediation manual, and a school-based professional development model. The project created innovative materials for parents to use to enhance their children’s reading skills. Despite its abbreviated timeframe, the project provided the MOEHE with a wealth of educational data, materials, and resources, including many interventions offered for the first time in the Palestinian educational system.

This report is part of EGR’s contractual task C.5.1.2: Updated National Standards for Early Grade Reading and Writing Adopted. The review of standards with recommendations for future revisions defines the skills required for students to have a solid foundation in early grade reading and writing. EGR chose to combine the standards report with the curriculum review (C.5.1.3: Opportunities for Strengthening Early Grade Reading and Writing Instruction in the Grade 1-2 Curriculum Identified and C.5.1.4 – Kindergarten curriculum) because the MOEHE has only curricula rather than fully- developed standards. Reviewing the standards documents and curricula together provides a comprehensive picture of the status of KG-Grade 2 instruction in early grade reading and writing.

Given the dearth of research on early numeracy interventions in low- and middle-income countries, this paper presents the instructional methodology and impact results of the Tayari program. Tayari is a preprimary intervention in Kenya (2014–2019) that prepares children aged four and five for entry into primary school by providing materials for students, training for teachers, and continuous in-classroom support. The Tayari methodology was built on the Kenyan government’s preprimary syllabus to produce instruction that was developmentally sequenced, linked to out-of-school experiences, and supportive of children’s number sense. Tayari was evaluated using a randomized controlled trial (RCT) and collection of longitudinal data from 2,957 children in treatment and control schools at three time points. Pupil assessment items were drawn from a growing body of research on preprimary numeracy in developing contexts, plus instruments and techniques from the Measuring Early Learning and Quality Outcomes (MELQO) program (UNESCO, UNICEF, Brookings Institution, & World Bank Group, 2017). The impact evaluation of the longitudinal RCT results showed statistically significant effects in the numeracy tasks of producing sets, identifying numbers, and naming shapes, while revealing no initial effects in the areas of oral and mental addition. We present recommendations for Tayari’s improvement in terms of mathematics instruction, as well as preprimary policy implications for Kenya and similar contexts.

This is Part 4 of a four-part comprehensive evaluation of the public textbook procurement system in Morocco. This final section of the Strengthening the Textbook Production Chain in Morocco series addresses the issue of how to ensure a long-term, sustainable system of textbook financing for all students in government schools. It also explores options available to the Ministry of Education of Morocco, based on examples from countries that have responded to the same challenges.

This is Part 1 of a four-part comprehensive evaluation of the public textbook procurement system in Morocco. It offers recommendations on how to improve textbook quality, how to strengthen the procurement system --including budgeting and financing--, and developing a policy for digital textbooks.

This document focuses on the instructional materials for early reading in Hausa developed under Nigeria RARA. It documents the process through which the materials were conceptualized. The intention is to provide guidance to similar projects implemented by donors, ministries of education, non-government organizations (NGOs), and private publishers. The lessons documented are most applicable in contexts in which existing materials do not adequately support early reading instruction or are very scarce. While Nigeria RARA materials are exemplars of a research-based approach to materials development, they are pilot versions. Similar initiatives are encouraged to build upon this model and make improvements of their own.

The United States Agency for International Development, the Department for International Development and the government of Malawi, through the MoEST, are collaborating to implement a National Reading Programme (NRP). This reading programme aims to improve early grade learners' literacy skills. Central to achieving this goal is building teachers' capacity to teach foundational reading skills that are key for successful reading and comprehension abilities needed for learning content across the curriculum. The NRP introduces teachers to effective reading instruction through the five essential components of Phonological Awareness, alphabetic principle, vocabulary, fluency and comprehension. The NRP also includes oral language development and writing as part of reading instruction. The NRP aims to provide teachers and head teachers with training in how to better teach children in the early primary grades to read and write in Chichewa and English. The NRP focuses on strengthening teachers' skills and knowledge of how to teach literacy by providing them with opportunities for training and ongoing professional development through coaching.

The United States Agency for International Development, the Department for International Development and the government of Malawi, through the MoEST, are collaborating to implement a National Reading Programme (NRP). This reading programme aims to improve early grade learners' literacy skills. Central to achieving this goal is building teachers' capacity to teach foundational reading skills that are key for successful reading and comprehension abilities needed for learning content across the curriculum. The NRP introduces teachers to effective reading instruction through the five essential components of Phonological Awareness, alphabetic principle, vocabulary, fluency and comprehension. The NRP also includes oral language development and writing as part of reading instruction. The NRP aims to provide teachers and head teachers with training in how to better teach children in the early primary grades to read and write in Chichewa and English. The NRP focuses on strengthening teachers' skills and knowledge of how to teach literacy by providing them with opportunities for training and ongoing professional development through coaching.