Home » Session related to reading in primary grades
1. Learning as a Pathway of Poverty
Learning is pivotal in breaking the cycle of poverty and social exclusion experienced by many worldwide. Panelists will discuss how better learning outcomes will result in greater equality and prosperity.
Key Takeaways
- There is a direct correlation between learning and poverty reduction enrollment is only part of the story. Reaching basic skills and raising the quality of education is one of the shortest pathways to ending extreme poverty.
- Economic growth drives poverty reduction, but inclusive growth is even better.
- Schooling matters for growth, but only if students are learning, according to seminal 2008 study by Hanushek and Woessmann.
- Schooling that creates skills makes growth more inclusive, by making people more productive. It is skills, as opposed to attainment (years of schooling) per se, that command higher wages.
- There are weak learning outcomes in many countries. In many developing countries, a large share of children never start school or drop out early, while many of those who graduate do not achieve even basic skills.
- Why does education matter? Education allows people to deal with novel situations. When people are trapped in a technologically stagnant environment, learning has limited value – the best way of doing things has already been handed down from one generation to the next. But doing things the traditional way means doing them at very low levels of productivity – just enough to survive but not enough to escape from extreme poverty.
- Timing is everything. Economic reforms can and do happen quickly, and spur increased demand for skills, higher wages for skilled workers, increased rural-urban migration, and increased political demand for improved schooling. By contrast, educational reforms take lots of time: new curriculum developed; teachers trained; and at least a decade before better-skilled students start joining the labor force.
- In education, it’s critical to focus on quality of primary schooling, including: standards; starting where poor children are (not necessarily with the official curricula); early investment in grades 1,2, and 3; accountability and teacher pedagogy; use of mother tongue which requires “logistics, coordination and creativity, teacher placement and support”; attention to funding and resources to achieve these goals; and systems, scale-up and sustainability.
- The Young Lives Study, a longitudinal study of childhood poverty in Vietnam, India, Ethiopia and Peru tracked students over 15 years. The study concluded: gaps are already large by age five, suggesting the need to start early with targeted (poverty, minorities) and multi-purpose interventions; primary schooling can make a difference for quality and equity; exclusion used to be linked with access – now it seems to be linked with school resources and pedagogical processes; and school segregation is a threat to the education of the poor, with one set of schools with less educated parents and the other with more educated parents.
Speakers
- Penelope Bender, USAID
- Don Sillers, USAID
- Luis Crouch, RTI International
- Santiago Cueto, GRADE
Presentations
- Ending Extreme Poverty: How Does Early Learning Matter? (PDF 729KB)
- Education Programming Against Poverty: Suggestions (PDF 2.8MB)
- Young Lives study: what we have learned about poverty and schooling across four countries (PDF 205MB)
2. Government Engagement: Building a Strong National Reading Agenda
Host country government representatives and USAID staff from Nepal, Cambodia, Philippines, and Haiti will share lessons learned and practical advice for making early grade reading a national priority.
Key Takeaways
- Building the agenda takes time.
- Having relevant, high quality early grade reading data is crucial.
- Having technical advice in reading from experts who understand current advances in early grade reading is important-not every ministry has these, external technical assistance may be needed.
- Assessment is important to guide government policy and changes to instruction; not in and of itself. Governments should constantly evaluate agenda with assessments/results.
- Not everything can change at once. Phasing is important.
- It is important to understand the current state of education to create the path forward. This includes honoring the long-term national plan from one donor strategy/award to the next.
- Dominant languages in country influence language policy but community languages are the ones easiest to teach, and build on what students know before entering the classroom.
Speakers
- Evelyn Rodriguez-Perez, USAID
- Dr. Awashti, Ministry of Education, Nepal
- Dr. Ocampo, Department of Education, Republic of the Philippines
- Dr. Pompilus, Ministry of Nation Education and Vocational Training, Haiti
- H.E. Sothea, Ministry of Education, Youth and Sport, Kingdom of Cambodia
- Sophea Chan, Ministry of Education, Youth and Sport, Kingdom of Cambodia
- Chinna Ung, Ministry of Education, Youth and Sport, Kingdom of Cambodia
3. Building Blocks of Successful Reading Programs
USAID staff will share recent experiences designing reading programs that incorporate improvements in instructional practice, materials, language, time, and assessment (the “5Ts”). They will also discuss design decisions used to determine balance among the T’s based on student and system diagnostics.
Key Takeaways
- USAID staff from five countries presented current country reading programs, each focusing on a specific “T”: Time,Tongue, Text, Teaching, and Testing.
- Lee Marshall from USAID/Rwanda presented the Literacy, Language and Learning (L3) activity, with a focus on its strategy for increasing instructional ‘Time’ for reading. He highlighted structural factors that inhibit instructional time, including: shifts and multi-level classrooms, class size, transition to language of instruction, blocks and pacing. Of the four hour school day, only a small portion of this time is dedicated to reading. He also noted that three activities increased Kinyarwanda oral reading fluency: students reading silently; students using worksheets; and individual students reading aloud.
- Antonio Mize from USAID/Mozambique addressed ‘Tongue’, noting how current program achieved significant, but insufficient impact. Oral Reading Fluency (ORF) rose from 4.9 to 13.4 correct words per minute (cwpm) compared to an increase from 4.4 to 5.2crpm in control schools, though only a few (7.4%) could read 45+ cwpm (full treatment, grade 3). He described the ‘watershed moment’ for Mozambique in its new May 2015 bilingual strategy that will scale nationwide in 2017, with the decision to use local languages in grades 1-4. He described the evidence behind this policy change, including teachers’ and pupils’ low level of spoken Portuguese. He also described how USAID/Mozambique is adapting its intervention to respond to this policy change since realizing that addressing “the missing T” is critical for greater impact.
- Wick Powers from USAID/Kenya focused on ‘Text’ and materials, demonstrating that a student-book ratio of 1:1 is critical for success. One key consideration is to ensure that books are in place before teacher training begins, and to design books according to the existing evidence base. He showed PRIMR impact evaluation showed that an intervention that combined Books and Training had greater impact than an intervention focused exclusively on teacher training. For the new program Tusome, he emphasized the importance of having all stakeholders on board, including Institutes of Curriculum Development and the Association of Publishers. He emphasized that the timing and sequencing of book development, endorsement, procurement, distribution and utilization are all critical stages of a methodical process. Through Tusome, approximately 12 million books will be distributed to benefit 5.4 million children. Future procurement and funding responsibilities will transition to the Ministry in year 4.
- Lisa Lahalih from USAID/Jordan focused on “Teaching” through the Early Grade Reading and Math Project (RAMP). She discussed the use of instructional approaches that provide deliberate, structured and developmentally appropriate daily practice in foundational skills for reading and mathematics. Reading with comprehension almost doubled from 13% to more than 24% in the treatment schools. Moreover, the percentage of non-readers decreased from 32% to 19% in RAMP schools (Jordan intervention impact analysis report, August 2014). One surprising finding was that that when asked whether the school should continue the approach, 82% said “no.” The program is currently devising ways to address this question of institutionalization of teacher pedagogy. One way is through the creation of a web-based community of practice which will include training videos, assessment resources, national school reports, and links to social media channels.
- David Bruns from USAID/Tanzania Mission discussed the use of ‘Testing’ to support the National 3Rs Reform agenda. He presented the findings of the 2014 EGRA Tanzania Kiswahili baseline assessment in Kiswahili which were disseminated in February 2014 in several venues and media outlets. The results validated early assessments conducted by civil society and served as a wake up call about the need to improve learning outcomes. In Tanzania, it is important to harmonize program delivery, as many actors and initiatives are aiming at national coverage, including DFID, UNICEF, USAID, GPE, CIDA, WB, DFID and Sweden. Now, all programs will be measured against their ability to deliver the 3Rs National Benchmarks. In addition, there was agreement to measure progress every two years with government-run EGRA and EGMA. The Global Partnership for Education (GPE) will coordinate lessons learned.
Speakers
- Rebecca Rhodes, USAID
- Lee Marshall, USAID/Rwanda
- Antonio “Mize” Francisco, USAID/Mozambique
- Robert “Wick” Powers, USAID/Kenya
- Lisa Lahilah, USAID/Jordan
- David Bruns, USAID/Tanzania
Presentations
- All T's are not Equal: Perspectives from USAID/Rwanda (PDF 624KB)
- “Tongue” in Mozambique (PDF 236KB)
- Kenya Tusome: The Importance of Text (PDF 429KB)
- How “Teaching” Worked in Jordan (PDF 230KB)
- Testing and Reading, Writing and Arithmetic (3Rs) Reform in Tanzania (PDF 2.4MB)
4. Increasing the Impact of Parent and Community Engagement to Improve Reading Outcomes
During the last five years, USAID has invested heavily in parent and community engagement to improve reading outcomes. Learn how mission programming and new approaches are improving effectiveness.
Key Takeaways
- Knowledge is necessary, but not sufficient, for behavioral change. Social and Behavior Change Communication (SBCC) is the systematic application of interactive, theory-based, and research-driven communication processes and strategies to address tipping points for change at the individual, community and social levels. SBCC Experiences gained in health may be able to be applied to engage communities around education.
- Steps in successful SBCC programs include: Inquiry, Strategy Design, Creating and Testing of Strategy, Mobilizing and Monitoring and Evaluating and Evolving the Strategy.
- A SBCC pilot to promote family and community support for early grade reading was launched in Senegal in October 2015 in the Senegalese NGO ARED’s French-Wolof bilingual program for grades 1 to 3. The communication objectives were to (1) enhance perception of the value of reading for children's success in school and to ensure a better life in the future (behavioral belief > attitude); (2) promote reading and literacy of children as a pleasure and a shared responsibility, with benefits for individuals and families (normative belief > norms); and (3) strengthen the confidence of parents in their ability to improve children's success in reading, even if they are not literate (control belief > self-efficacy).
- NORC presented a literature review of parental and community involvement in early grade reading, including home reading programs, family literacy programs, peer/community tutoring programs, and other community-based Interventions.
- The NORC study concluded that skills, attitudes and resources can be effectively mobilized to address barriers to participation for parents and community members.
Speakers
- Christine Beggs, USAID
- Alicia Menendez, NORC at the University of Chicago
- Karen Schmidt, Independent Consultant, Global Health and Communication
- Antigona Mustafa and Mary Tyler Holmes, Discussants from Kosovo
Presentations
- Parental and Community Involvement in Early Grade Reading: A Literature Review (PDF 2.2MB)
- Social and Behavior Change Communication to Support Early Grade Reading (PDF 1.7MB)
5. Reading Lesson Design: Trends and Debates
Panelists and participants will discuss effective lesson design for high performing early grade reading programs. The session will open with a review of research supporting explicit instruction and will continue with discussion of theoretical and practical reasons for differences in lesson design across countries and partners.
Key Takeaways
- The purpose of scripted lessons is to provide effective explanations of new concepts, offer examples of skills being taught, provide practice activities that directly reinforce instruction, provide models for appropriate scaffolding and error correction, and help with pacing.
- Scripted lessons help focus instruction by providing consistent language and maintaining fidelity to lesson’s objectives.
- Scripted lessons provide quality standardization for reading programs. They are interactive, engaging and support student learning at all levels.
- Higher order skills and explicitly instruction are not mutually exclusive. Rather, higher order thinking requires strongly established basic skills and a lot of factual knowledge.
- Scripted lessons can be very effective for more experienced teachers and for advanced students in the upper elementary grades as well.
- Scripted lessons do not take the ‘creativity’ out of teaching. Rather, teachers follow a scope and sequence of instruction provided by the curriculum, but teachers often have more time to add creative elements to their teaching when using scripted lessons, as instructional routines are designed to be time-efficient.
- Readsters presented recent work in Niger under the project Apprentissage Systematique de la Lecture (ASL) to revise reading curriculum in 150 pilot schools in 4 local languages: Fulfulde, Hausa, Kanuri, and Zarma. The importance of importance of “pre-reading” skill acquisition highlighted (about books, letter song, letter names, oral syllable, letter sounds, blending letter sounds into syllables). It was a new concept for the teachers. Lesson examples were provided. Preliminary results show that students who know 20 letters are ready and able to read. After two months, the average Grade 2 was ready to read, and the average Grade 1 student was close to being ready to read.
- Successful strategies for preparing teachers of grades 3 and above to graduate from reliance on daily scripts to different templates for lesson preparation were presented. Common errors were presented including: too much text on the page; too much language about setting the tone; failure to support teachers’ use of guides; no field testing or pilots, etc.
Speakers
- Fabiola Lopez-Minatchy, USAID/Haiti
- Marcia Davidson, USAID
- Michael Hunter, Readsters
- Peggy Dubeck, RTI International
Presentations
- Scripted reading lessons and evidence for their efficacy (PDF 466KB)
- Scripted Lessons: An Example- ASL (PDF 1.9MB)
- Scripted lessons for Early Literacy Instruction (PDF 728KB)
6. Improving Teacher Preparation and Coaching
In this session, we will explore theoretical models and practical approaches proven effective for teacher in-service training and coaching in early grade reading. Panelists will also describe how to introduce coaching in countries where it is not a common practice.
Key Takeaways
- It’s important to begin where teachers and coaches are. Consideration: What do they know about reading and writing? What do they believe children can do? What do they actually do in the classroom? What support do they have for learning and experimentation? What financial resources are available to cover coaching costs?
- Practical steps for improving coaching in low-resourced environments include: (1) beginning where teachers are (2) building on structures that promote learning (3) distinguishing coaching from supervision (4) making new skills easy to apply, and (5) giving relevant and user-friendly examples.
- Train for new skills in ways that make it easy to apply them. Start with things that are easy to change, and provide predictable routines.
- Coaching isn’t supervision or inspection – it’s collegial and builds on trust.
- Coaching isn’t static – it evolves over time.
- Coaching isn’t optional.
- Coaching can help improve the quality of lesson delivery in a large scale instructional program. Modest ICT can support coaching. Outcomes are higher for pupils supported by coaches with 10 rather than 15 schools.
- In Pakistan’s Reading Program (PRP), Usman from USAID/Pakistan discussed the use of low-cost and localized Teacher Inquiry Groups (TIGs) or cluster-based teacher meetings. Teachers from schools in close proximity to each other gather regularly to hold consultations on the use of the material. TIG members try techniques and then receive immediate, constructive feedback in a non-threatening setting. Hearing about challenges reduces feelings of incompetence. Hearing about successes spurs positive competition. In the second year of implementation, teachers become ‘peer coaches’ for one another.
- Kevin Roberts from USAID/Malawi discussed the Concerns-Based Adoption Model (CBAM), a framework and set of tools for understanding and managing change in people, as applied to teacher preparation and coaching. It reminds us to base our coaching decisions on the stage at which we find any particular teacher (“Stages of Concern”), and that teachers are not the only ones that need to adapt – coaches need to as well.
Speakers
- Rebecca Rhodes, USAID
- Rachel Christina, Education Development Center (EDC)
- Ben Piper, Tusome (National literacy program in Kenya)
- Usman Qureshi, USAID/Pakistan
- Kevin Roberts, USAID/Malawi
Presentations
- Elevating Teacher Preparation and Coaching: Lessons from the Field (PDF 286KB)
- Instructional Change through Coaching in Kenya (PDF 1MB)
- Teacher Coaching in the Pakistan Reading Program (PDF 255KB)
- Theories of Change: Concerns Based Adoption Model (PDF 2MB)
7. Enabling Writers: Bloom Software Demonstration
Learn how Bloom software enables writers to easily create or adapt simple leveled and decodable books (both fiction and nonfiction) in multiple scripts.
Key Takeaways
- Presenters demonstrated the Enabling Writers prize winning Bloom software, noting the ease with which one can create decodable and leveled readers in any language.
- Software applications like Bloom are important to providing books for all underserved language communities.
- Bloom is designed for NEW computer users and low-bandwidth environments.
Speakers
- Dr. Paul Frank, SIL Lead, Inc.
- Dr. Catherine Young, SIL International
Presentations
- Bloom Software Demonstration (PDF 170KB)
- Bloom “Let’s Grow a Library” (PDF 325KB)
8. Changing the Debate: Successful Approaches to Language of Instruction
Practitioners and experts (including MOE/DepEd) will share experiences designing and implementing reading programs in languages children know. Using case studies, panelists will outline steps and tools that participants will adapt to increase effectiveness of their program.
Key Takeaways
- The key steps for planning for mother-tongue based-multi-lingual education (MTB-MLE) were discussed. The success of different approaches to MLE were discussed, including the early exit, late exit, and dual/additive models.
- Evidence supports that people cannot learn to read (with reading defined as making meaning from text) languages they do not speak or understand.
- Evidence supports that the first language (L1) facilitates acquisition of a second language (L2).
- Common barriers to scaling up the use of local languages in all classrooms were discussed. The steps and processes that can accelerate that scale-up were discussed.
- The debate is no longer whether or not to teach reading in mother tongue, but rather when to introduce the second language (L2). In other words, what do children need to know in their first language to successfully acquire a second language (L2)? Evidence was presented from India on competencies necessary for successful language transition.
- An AIR FRAME study in India notes that the tipping point is 60% in L1 sub-skills are necessary for success in both L1 and L2, which is applicable to most of South Asia, Southeast Asia and part of Sub-Saharan Africa. Introducing L2 after the threshold is met increases the probability of success in all languages.
- The success of multilingualism (MTB-MLE) is greatly dependent on the quality of the transition process of the bridging program.
Speakers
- Rose Villaneza, Department of Education, Philippines
- Agatha van Ginkel, SIL Lead, Inc.
- Pooja Nakamura, American Institutes for Research (AIR)
- Dr. Lava Deo Awashti, Ministry of Education, Nepal
Presentations
- Changing the Debate: Successful Approaches to Language of Instruction (PDF 449KB)
- Language Transitioning in Multilingual Contexts (PDF 546KB)
- Medium Of Instruction And Language Of Education – Experiences From Nepal (PDF 502KB)
- The Bridging Process: The Philippine Experience (PDF 1.5MB)
9. Developments in Early Grade Reading Assessment
Panelists will discuss major developments in early grade reading assessment, including civil society-led, household-based assessments such as ASER, UNICEF’s MICS household-level assessment, plans for EGRA 2.0 and the development of a global learning metric to track progress towards the SDGs.
Key Takeaways
- Trends in assessments include getting more out of existing tools by using them to measure new things), using citizen-led assessments (now being conducted in thirty languages in India, Pakistan, Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, Mali, Senegal, Mexico and Nigeria), and using Multiple Indicators Cluster Survey (MICs) (a collaborative, household based survey that includes interaction with children and youth).
- The new push is for for measurement tools that capture learning growth, span a broad range of learning stages, capitalize on current assessments, provide data that can be compared globally, and take into account differences across languages.
- Status of EGRA including current scope of use, planned revised toolkit release, and an increased ability to measure subtasks in reading comprehension and writing/spelling.
- The importance of global monitoring tools for reading and mathematics, including a ‘global metric’ for learning, was discussed.
Speakers
- Kate Anderson, Brookings Institute
- Modupe Adefeso-Olateju, The Education Partnership Center (Nigeria)
- Manuel Cardoso, UNICEF
- Ross Turner, Australian Council for Educational Research
Presentations
- Assessment and Beyond (PDF 2MB)
- Beginning with the end in mind: Citizen-led Assessments in Nigeria (PDF 2.4MB)
- Developing the MICS survey of early skills (PDF 2MB)
- Monitoring Reading Progress: Towards a Global Approach (PDF 1MB)
- EGRA: Progress and Updates (PDF 205KB)
10. Creative Commons Licensing: What is it and Why Does it Matter?
Creative Commons provides a simple, standardized way to give public permission to share and use creative works. Presenters will provide information about USAID-wide initiatives in open licensing and details about CC BY licenses. Creative Commons, USAID, and practitioners will answer questions about CC BY.
Key Takeaways
- USG agencies retain a nonexclusive and irrevocable license to reproduce, publish or otherwise use grant-funded project materials for governments.
- The Creative Commons Copyright licenses and tools give everyone from individual creators to large companies and institutions a simple, standardized way to grant copyright permissions to their creative work.
- Creative Commons licenses are the global standard for open content licensing. There are over 880 million CC-licensed objects available on the web. CC licenses have been adopted globally by governments and public sector bodies, scientific publishers, and cultural heritage institutions such as national museums and libraries. CC licenses are the legal standard for collaboration on the web, used by businesses like Microsoft to communities like Wikipedia to philanthropy like the Ford Foundation.
- It is important to easily share and re-purpose USG-funded materials/deliverables across projects, regions, countries, etc.
- Pratham Books provides an excellent example – noting the open source CC BY license and digital book platform is the new direction of publishing. For example, one book has been adapted into 36 languages, using CC By Licensing. It benefits publishers, authors and gets a book into the hands of the last child. Pratham Books entire catalogue is no CC BY licensed.
Speakers
- Penelope Bender, USAID
- Gayle Girod, USAID
- Michael Carroll, American University
- Meredith Jacob, American University
- Bala Venkatachalam, Pratham USA
Presentations
- Creative Commons 1 - Continuation of the USAID Education Strategy (PDF 73KB)
- Creative Commons 2 - Increasing Access to the Results of Federally Funded Scientific Research (PDF 53KB)
- Creative Commons 3 - Notice of proposed rulemaking (PDF 140KB)
- Creative Commons 4 - Open Licensing Policy Rationale (PDF 45KB)
- Creative Commons 5 - K-12 OER Collaborative Curriculum vs. Published Curriculum (PDF 209KB)
- Creative Commons 6 - About The Licenses (PDF 101KB)
- Creative Commons 7 - Attribution 4.0 International (PDF55KB)
- Creative Commons 8 - The Future is OPEN (PDF 74KB)
- Creative Commons 9 - Agreement (PDF 227KB)
- Creative Commons 10 - Agreement (PDF 191KB)
- Creative Commons 11 - Versions (PDF 151KB)
11. Developing Next Generation Reading Programs Using Neuroscience
Neuroscience has started building bridges between the basic science of cognitive processes and application of those findings to reading acquisition. In this session neuroscientists will present findings to demonstrate that by understanding cognitive processes supporting the acquisition of knowledge and skills, we can develop effective techniques for improving reading outcomes.
Key Takeaways
- Introduced latest research in brain activity while reading, including how different parts of the brain are engaged for processing different languages.
- Brain research indicates oral language facilitates reading acquisition. When children have vocabulary, they can learn to read.
- Learning to read changes the brain anatomy according to MRI scans, with more gray matter volume in literate compared to illiterate adults.
Speakers
- Marcia Davidson, USAID
- Guinevere Eden, Georgetown University Medical Center
- Haitham Taha, Sakhnin College for Teacher’s Education in Israel
Presentations
- Brain Imaging Studies of Reading (PDF 1MB)
- From EEG to ERPs and Visual Word Recognition! (PDF 1MB)
12. Comprehension: The Key to Reading to Learn
Experts will discuss successes and challenges faced in moving a child from basic reading to reading with comprehension. In a roundtable discussion, we will review evidence on student performance on comprehension, obstacles to comprehension instruction and approaches to increase comprehension.
Key Takeaways
- Insufficient background content knowledge and oral vocabulary (‘word poverty’) are two barriers to comprehension. The meaning one gleans from a text involves the interaction of the knowledge and skills of the reader and the message conveyed by the text (schema theory).
- If students were to practice daily reading, their word diet would increase from 8,000 additional words per year (1 minute or less); 282,000 words per year (5 minutes); and 1,800,000 words per year (20 minutes).
- Comprehension scores are low. If we were to work on student’s oral vocabulary and background content knowledge, scores would likely rise.
- The way to increase comprehension is to choose texts that align with content knowledge and build upon student background knowledge (in any language) so learners can make connections to text.
Speakers
- Carol da Silva, Save the Children
- Mohammad Shahidul Islam, USAID/Bangladesh
- Diane Prouty, Creative Associates International
Presentations
13. Early Grade Reading Research: Policy, Landscape and Data
Presenters will discuss the direction of early grade reading research, its potential impact on program design, and its influence on the next iteration of the education strategy.
Key Takeaways
- Florida State University Landscape study underway to present lessons learned in early grade reading over the last 10 years and knowledge gaps for future research. The result will be a user-friendly information and resource guide for multiple audiences (e.g., MoE, education NGOs, donors, etc.). Topics to be addressed include emergent literacy skills, reading for meaning, promoting literacy in literacy acquisition, language of instruction and its impact on literacy acquisition, teacher education policy, research gaps, etc.
- Question regarding whether more assessments = improved learning outcomes; need for national “systems” to implement lessons learned as opposed to one-off EGRAs; need for increased global coordination.
- How is the educational agenda set? Researchers from American University presented methodology and scope for a study which applies an agenda-setting framework used in Global Health to the global learning agenda. Questions addressed in this study include: the status of learning in the global education agenda; explanations for the patterns of attention to learning; and the implications for raising its agenda status. Emerging hypotheses were presented:
- This framework looks at Actor Power, Ideas, Political Contexts, and Issue Characteristics as key determinants in agenda setting.
Speakers
- Colette Chabbott, George Washington University
- Young-Suk Grace Kim, Florida State University
- Helen Boyle, Florida State University
- Jean-Marc Bernard, Global Partnership for Education
- Jeremy Shiffman, American University
Presentations
- Landscape Report (PDF 2.7MB)
- What’s Next for Learning Assessment? (PDF 5MB)
- Learning in the Global Education Agenda (PDF 2.2MB)
14. The Global Book Fund: Transforming the Book Chain
The Global Book Fund is a coordinated set of activities that aims to transform book development, procurement, and distribution to improve reading outcomes for all children. Panelists will discuss the Fund’s plan to use innovative financing strategies to support the book chain, lower costs, and increase quality.
Key Takeaways
- The book chain is broken, with challenges at various points including: content development, content access, procurement, licensing, distribution, and use. Traditional approaches to fix this chain are not working.
- The key aim of the Global Book Fund is to bring books and reading materials into the hands of every child.
- R4D presented preliminary results from forthcoming January 2016 report on lessons learned from the health sector, including the Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunization (GAVI) and The Global Fund (to fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria)
- Identified key solutions offered by the set of initiatives known as the “Global Book Fund”. Initiatives include materials inventories, the World Bank-managed Reach Trust Fund, but also existing open-source technology like SIL’s Bloom Software (winner of Enabling Writers prize), Track and Trace, and the Global Reading Repository.
Speakers
- Penelope Bender, USAID
- Charles North, USAID
- Shubya Jayaram, Results for Development Institute (R4D)
- Rob Hecht, Results for Development Institute (R4D)
- Anthony Bloome, USAID
Presentations
- Solving the Global Learning Crisis: A Global Book Fund (PDF 1.8MB)
- R4D Org (PDF 509KB)
- Technology Helping Transform the Book Chain (PDF 1MB)
- Books For Every Child (PDF 2MB)
- A Global Book Fund (PDF 2.3MB)
15. Vision for the Global Reading Network
Understand the Global Reading Network’s core mission and learn of its progress to date and future direction. Determine how you can participate and leverage GRN expertise to improve your reading program.
Key Takeaways
- Explanation of GRN core mission and introduction of the GRN website. Feedback from audience including questions about current functionality and suggestions for additional functionality
Speakers
- Luis Benveniste, World Bank
Presentations
- Global Reading Network (PDF 1.2MB)
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