Family and Community Engagement

Large poster created by USAID/Uganda's Literacy Achievement and Retention Activity (LARA) as part of their Social and Behavior Change Communication (SBCC) materials to reduce primary teachers' use of corporal punishment in school.

Toolkit created by USAID/Uganda's Literacy Achievement and Retention Activity (LARA) as part of their Social and Behavior Change Communication (SBCC) materials to reduce primary teachers' use of corporal punishment in school.

Forum Theatre / Community Theatre Drama Skit Script titled "Break Time is Over!" created by USAID/Uganda's Literacy Achievement and Retention Activity (LARA) as part of their Social and Behavior Change Communication (SBCC) materials to reduce primary teachers' use of corporal punishment in school.

3 Corporal Punishment Posters from the USAID/Uganda Literacy Achievement and Retention Activity's (LARA) Social and Behavior Change Communication (SBCC) campaign in Uganda.

Children’s development is significantly attributed to their experiences at home, from birth through the early years of schooling, and responsive caregiving from early on has a significant impact on later learning outcomes. Interventions aimed at increasing parental engagement in children’s early learning can be expensive, however, and there is limited evidence as to what works best for parenting programs in low- and middle-income countries. This report presents the findings from a parent engagement pilot intervention conducted by the Tayari program in three counties in Kenya that tested two methods of providing parents with home-based responsive play activities to promote children’s holistic development.

Under the Tusome-Nakuru County Youth Bunge Forum (NCYBF), the program sought to engage the youth in improving early literacy skills among Grades 1-3 children in Nakuru County in Kenya. The Nakuru County Youth Bunge Forum (NCYBF) signed a memorandum of agreement with the local public library, the Kenya National Library Services (KNLS), Nakuru Branch to provide enhanced literacy activities. This CIES 2019 presentation will share the outcomes of the partnership, the effect on children’s literacy skills and the long term benefits to the program implementation and its sustainability.

RTI conducted a small pilot study in Malawi and Uganda to identify the factors in the organizational culture and environment of primary schools that make them more (or less) conducive to children’s social and emotional development. The research team postulated that social and emotional learning are not products of the implementation of an “SEL” curriculum, but rather are inherently dependent on and result from the nature of the school climate.

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

The Tayari Program – Getting Children Ready for School is a Children’s Investment Fund Foundation (CIFF) funded early education program in Kenya with a goal to increase school readiness skills of pre-primary children in Kenya, including sufficient cognitive, physical, social, and emotional well-being. As of 2018, Tayari has reached 145,000 children 1,500 early childhood centers in four selected counties in Kenya. Tayari’s activities include development of learning materials for students and teachers, teacher training and instructional support, and integrated technology solutions for tracking child development outcomes. Additionally, one component aims to reduce illness-related school absenteeism by promoting improved hygiene practices, water treatment, and health record-keeping in schools. To better understand parental involvement and the feasibility and cost of scaling up a parental component within the project, the Tayari program tested two different approaches to engaging parents in play-based activities at home to promote their child’s learning and development, with an aim to see which modality was more effective in getting parents to engage in their children’s learning and development at home. Reaching over 1200 pre-primary families in 3 counties, Treatment Group 1 parents received weekly face to face meetings, with a new activity introduced each week (for a total of four weeks). Treatment Group 2 parents, received the same activities, but instead of meeting face to face, the activity sheets and materials were sent home with their child from school. The four selected activities are the same for both Treatment Groups, and include a memory card game, a counting game, a read aloud, and a letter recognition game. The content of the four activities was designed to align with the Tayari curricular content. All materials were designed to be low cost and illustrated locally. Data and feedback on the pilot was collected through weekly SMS messages sent to the mobile phones of the represented parent in both treatment groups. We used the program, “Gooseberry” to request response from parents regarding each activity, including attendance to the meeting (for treatment group 1) and whether they received the materials (for treatment group 2), how often parents played the game with their children over the course of the week, and their level of satisfaction or enjoyment with the activity. Both treatment groups also participated in a conclusion workshop, at the end of the pilot, to receive qualitative feedback from parents via small group focus groups and interviews.

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.