RTI International and our partner AMIDEAST are pleased to submit this Inventory of Non- Governmental Organizations (NGOs) and Community-Based Organizations (CBOs) to the US Agency for International Development’s (USAID) for its Early Grade Reading (EGR) activity. EGR will assist the Palestinian Authority’s Ministry of Education and Higher Education (MOEHE) to improve early grade reading and writing outcomes. EGR will: • Develop leveled readers, decodables, and supplemental materials and stock these materials in ~3,000 government basic preschool, Grade 1, and Grade 2 classrooms in the West Bank; • Train ~10,000 preschool and Grade 1 and 2 teachers on best practices for literacy instruction; • Mobilize supervisors, coaches, teacher mentors, and school principals to deliver and support early grade teacher coaching and peer learning; and • Foster cooperation of schools, teachers, and communities, drawing on the energy and inspiration from parents, volunteers, and local organizations to support reading enrichment activities.

Education interventions and decisions should be justified. This time-on-task study is an example of gathering evidence with applicable tools to inform subsequent activities. The study was designed to use direct observations, track the use of time, and conduct interviews to inform Arabic literacy instruction and decisions in the West Bank. The following research questions were generated to guide this line of inquiry conducted by the West Bank Early Grade Reading (EGR) team, in partnership with the MOEHE. • Research Question 1: How much time is allocated in the school day on the school calendar for Arabic instruction? • Research Question 2: How is instructional time used that is designated for Arabic? How much of the lesson focuses on reading/writing? What instructional approach is used? What activities are students involved in? What is their level of engagement? Research Question 3: Which effective literacy instructional pedagogical behaviors are seen? • Research Question 4: In addition to the Arabic lesson, how much time in the school day is the teacher instructing? Does this time focus on instruction in reading, writing, and/or language development? • Research Question 5: What are the barriers to instruction and time on task?

This report presents the results of a baseline assessment of upper preschool and grade 1 student performance in pre-literacy and early grade reading. The assessment included samples drawn from three provinces in Cambodia: Kampong Thom, Siem Reap, and Battambang (control). The results will serve as a baseline for comparing the impact of early grade reading interventions being implemented in Kampong Thom and Siem Reap. The data reveal lower than expected levels of oral language ability among students in upper pre-school, especially given that Khmer is the mother tongue for nearly all students in the areas covered. For example, students responded correctly to only 3 out of 5 questions concerning a short passage that had been read to them. And in terms of their pre-literacy skills, when shown the letters they were supposed to learn in upper pre-school, students identified them with only 28% accuracy. Performance of grade 1 students on early literacy skills was also much lower than should be expected for the period during which the test was administered. For example, grade 1 students who were almost three-quarters of the way through the school year could only correctly identify letters 34% of the time and were identifying fewer than 10 letters per minute. When simpler forms of consonants and vowels were tested separately, grade 1 students performed better, but still correctly identified letters with less than 50% accuracy. Reading of familiar words in isolation or reading of a short grade-level passage were essentially non-existent.

This "At A Glance" guide presents an overview of the Kenya Tayari program in Kenya. This four year program has supported the Kenyan Ministry of Education and County Governments to improve quality of early childhood development and education (ECDE) for over 240,000 young children.

This brochure describes the CIFF-funded Kenya Tayari program, which aimed to improve the quality of pre-primary education in four counties in Kenya.

This brochure describes the CIFF-funded Kenya Tayari program, which aimed to improve the quality of pre-primary education in four counties in Kenya.

‘Tayari’, a Swahili word meaning ‘ready’, aims to increase the proportion of pre-primary children transiting to primary school with requisite school readiness competencies. The expected result of the Tayari pilot program is improved learning outcomes. The program impacts approximately 130,000 children in 2,200 early childhood centers in Kenya within four selected counties, namely: Uasin Gishu, Laikipia, Nairobi and Siaya. Tayari implemented the pilot program over four years by working with government officers to strengthen the existing pre-primary system. This compilation of Tayari success stories has been documented by the staff who implemented the program implementing staff. The success stories demonstrate the impact the program has had on its beneficiaries and highlights their experiences. It contains stories from teachers (who are the real classroom implementers), coaches and Sub-County Early Childhood Development and Education officers that have seen how Tayari has positively influenced teachers, learners and the larger community.

This concept paper is targeted at Ministries of Education in developing countries, without an existing policy for Open Educational Resources (OERs), that are considering open licensing of early reading materials developed, in whole or in part, with USAID funding. The purpose of the paper is to: a) provide further background on the rationale for open licensing; b) explain what open licensing is and how Creative Commons licenses operate; and c) answer ministries’ most pressing questions about the implications of open licensing.

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.

Cultivating Dynamic Educators: Case Studies in Teacher Behavior Change in Africa and Asia responds to growing recognition by international education professionals, policy makers, and funding partners of the need for qualified teachers and interest in the subject of teacher professional development (also referred to as “teacher behavior change”). The book responds to important questions that are fundamental to improving teaching quality by influencing teaching practice. These questions include: How do we provide high-quality training at scale? How do we ensure that training transfers to change in practice? What methods are most cost-effective? How do we know what works? The book includes case studies from seven countries--Ethiopia, India, Indonesia, Malawi, Nigeria, Philippines and Zambia--describing different approaches to teacher behavior change and illustrates how specific implementation choices were made for each context. Individual chapters document lessons learned as well as methodologies used for discerning lessons. The key conclusion is that no single effort is enough on its own; teacher behavior change requires a system-wide view and concerted, coordinated inputs from a range of stakeholders.