While the SDGs now officially call for global reporting on learning outcomes, many institutions and scholars had noticed, at least since the mid-2000s, that many children were not learning much, and were starting to respond by, as a first step, advocating and developing assessments that, they felt, was perhaps more appropriate to learning at the bottom of the pyramid, or at the left end of the cognitive distribution. The GMR sounded a clarion with their estimate that there are some 250 million children in the world hardly learning. This paper addresses an issue that can be put simply but is extremely hard to answer: “Is the array of assessments emerging helping researchers, policy-makers, and implementers get a more accurate sense of how much or how little the poorest children in the world know, and is it helpful in remediating the situation?” The paper specifically is not addressed at the question of global reporting—although it does touch upon the issue. The problem of interest here is what is most useful for countries to generate movement along the bottom of the pyramid.

Under the USAID Partnership for Education: Testing activity, a teacher questionnaire was introduced to the 2015 national EGRA/EGMA survey in Ghana. This was in response to the 2013 EGRA/EGMA pupil data, which raised questions about how both pupils and their teachers experienced the language of instruction (LOI) policy, which stipulates that pupils should be taught in the Ghanaian language of the local area in the early grades and transition to English by P4. In an effort to learn more about how the LOI policy is implemented in schools, this teacher questionnaire was added in 2015 to collect more information about teacher preparation and instructional practices related to language use. The questionnaire was administered to 671 P2 teachers.

Tangerine overview in Spanish

USAID/Washington, via the All Children Reading (ACR)—Asia task order, commissioned RTI International to conduct research on whether lower and middle-income countries in Asia should invest in early grade reading. To do so, we consider the relationship between increased literacy and employment and social outcomes. We also investigate evolving job opportunities in developing Asian economies, their literacy requirements, and the relationship of Asian growth to the US economy. We then examine data on the current literacy levels among school-going and young-adult populations in Asian countries to see if they meet the needs revealed by job market trends in Asia. The analyses presented in this report show conclusively that it continues to be important for lower and middle income countries in Asia to invest in improving the teaching and learning of literacy skills in early grades. Emphasis should be placed not only on foundational skills, but also on applied skills, such as reading for comprehension across subject areas and applying information gleaned through reading various types of text to understand and solve increasingly complex problems. Education systems therefore must address the full continuum of reading skills development, beginning in the early years and throughout primary school.

The Early Grade Reading Assessment (EGRA) is widely used to assess reading proficiency in developing countries. Benchmarks were introduced to simplify EGRA results into a single indicator against which countries could measure their children’s reading progress. This report is about the process, rational and considerations for setting benchmarks (a desired level of performance on a reading task) and targets (the percent of students intended to reach the performance level). The report addresses three purposes of benchmarking: 1. Country purpose: Track progress in reading within a national education system and provide data to inform efforts to improve education quality. 2. Agency purpose: Help USAID monitor the progress of projects and countries working to reach specific children-reading goals. 3. The global purpose: Measure progress in reading for all; provide a basis for global advocacy; and provide

Final, validated instruments used in the 2017 Tanzania National EGRA. The EGRA and SSME were made possible with funding from USAID. The EGMA component was made possible by funding from Global Affairs Canada. The Life Skills component was funded by UNICEF Tanzania.

Background paper prepared for the 2016 Global Education Monitoring Report Education for people and planet: Creating sustainable futures for all With the adoption of the United Nations General Assembly’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), global education agencies are grappling with how quality can and should be measured for global reporting purposes. Several factors at the education system, school, and classroom levels shape education quality, including the limited information available at the global level about what is happening in the classroom. Such information can only come through observation-based measures that record teacher practices, either through routine monitoring conducted by system actors or through surveys. Classroom observation is used extensively in not only teacher education and professional development, but also in evaluation studies. However, there are fewer cases where classroom observations are used for system monitoring purposes—particularly in low- and middle- income countries. This paper reviews what has been learned from observation instruments in low- and middle-income countries and what opportunities (i.e., scope) there are to systematize these countries to that they can monitor quality at both the school and system levels.

This paper describes a 2016 pilot study undertaken in Uganda to document the real repetition rate in Primary 1 classes and to examine the relationship between repetition in Primary 1 and attendance in pre-primary education. The study explored knowledge and practice about the age of entry for children into pre-primary education and Primary 1. It also documented parents’ knowledge and expectations about participation in pre-primary education. The study was conducted in two purposefully selected districts in Uganda (a “high-risk” district—with higher rates of poverty and reported repetition—and a “low-risk” district—with lower rates of poverty and reported repetition) by RTI International, with support from the Development Research and Social Policy Analysis Center, a Ugandan data collection firm. In addition to answering research questions about early primary repetition and pre-primary attendance, the pilot aimed to test a methodology of triangulating information from the Education Management Information System, school records, and parents’ reports. The study confirmed that it is possible to compare data from teacher and classroom records with data from parent and teacher interviews; parents or caregivers were invited to come to school for an interview, and a large percentage did. The study also showed that according to teachers and parents, repetition rates in Primary 1 are much higher than perceived by the system. Repetition rates in Primary 1, as perceived by parents and teachers, are quite high—roughly 30% to 40%, depending on source and location. In addition, parents reported that early entry into Primary 1 (and the possible resulting repetition) is being used as a substitute for pre-primary education due to the lack of preprimary schooling options. Some parents send their children to school at an early age because they cannot afford pre-primary schooling, even though they realize the child might have to repeat the year or will learn less the first time through Primary 1. For children who attended pre-primary, the data demonstrate a strong “protective” effect on their chances of repeating Primary 1 (i.e., the children who attended pre-primary were less likely to repeat in Primary 1). Gender was not found to affect these issues to any significant degree.

As a result of Universal Primary Education (UPE) and reform efforts, primary school enrollment in Uganda doubled from 2.9 million in 1995 to 5.8 million by 1998. By 2016, enrollment had reached 8.3 million. Although enrollment gains have been dramatic, the completion rate has stalled for at least a decade, with only about 60% of learners completing primary school. RTI International conducted research that suggests this is due to problems that begin in the first few grades of primary school (and earlier). Primary 1 (P1) repetition is partially attributed to lack of access to early childhood educational opportunities. This brief summarizes these and other key findings of the research, “Repetition of Primary 1 and Pre-Primary Education in Uganda,” published in 2017.

The Institute for People’s Education (Institut pour l’Éducation Populaire, or IEP) designed the Read-Learn-Lead (RLL) program to demonstrate that the new official curriculum, if properly implemented and supported, can be a viable and effective approach to primary education, using mother tongue and a very specific pedagogical delivery approach. The RLL program sought also to demonstrate how the new Curriculum can be effectively implemented and supported, and what resources are needed to do so. RLL offers students and teachers carefully structured and systematic lessons, activities, and accompanying materials for instruction and practice on critical early reading skills in mother-tongue medium during the first years of elementary school. It is organized around three programmatic “results sets,” the first of which focuses on Grades 1 and 2 and is the subject of the present evaluation. This independent evaluation study, funded through a grant from the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation and carried out by RTI, explored the effectiveness of the RLL program’s Results Set 1 as applied over three school years (2009-2010 to 2011-2012) in the Bamanankan language and in other Malian national languages (Bomu and Fulfulde in all three years, and Songhai in 2009 and 2010).