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We present results from early learning programs in six African countries: Ethiopia, Kenya, Liberia, Malawi, Tanzania, and Uganda. In partnership with ministries of education, RTI International has worked within government systems to support the design and deployment of locally contextualized materials, training, and assessment tools, with the goal of improving outcomes for early learners in primary schools, and in Kenya and Tanzania preprimary as well. Here we report on the experience and...

This paper uses difference-in-difference and multivariate analyses procedures to examine the effects of two community-based intervention packages on mathematics achievement of primary school girls from low-income urban households in Kenya. The data involved in this study were collected between 2013 and 2015 from 748 12–19 years old primary school girls residing in two major Nairobi slums of Viwandani and Korogocho. These data were part of a larger intervention study that sought to improve...

This research is one of the few attempts to employ the conceptual framework of "technology transfer" to analyze the extent that participation in cross-national learning assessments has had on capacity development, particularly in the development of official public structures, by equipping educationists and influencing teachers’ competency in Kenya, Tanzania and South Africa. The researchers conducted semi-structured interviews with key informants drawn from the Ministries of Basic Education,...

This research is one of the few attempts to employ the conceptual framework of "technology transfer" to analyze the extent that participation in cross-national learning assessments has had on capacity development, particularly in the development of official public structures, by equipping educationists and influencing teachers’ competency in Kenya, Tanzania and South Africa. The researchers conducted semi-structured interviews with key informants drawn from the Ministries of Basic Education,...

This article discusses the impact of literacy programmes on those who learned to read and write in their own African languages. It draws on adult learners' reflections on the significance of literacy and numeracy in their everyday lives as evidenced in interviews conducted in 2014 and 2015 in rural sites in five African countries: Ethiopia, Kenya, Cameroon, Burkina Faso and Ghana. The research approach was influenced by the Most Significant Change (MSC) method of monitoring and evaluation,...

This article discusses the impact of literacy programmes on those who learned to read and write in their own African languages. It draws on adult learners' reflections on the significance of literacy and numeracy in their everyday lives as evidenced in interviews conducted in 2014 and 2015 in rural sites in five African countries: Ethiopia, Kenya, Cameroon, Burkina Faso and Ghana. The research approach was influenced by the Most Significant Change (MSC) method of monitoring and evaluation,...

This article discusses the impact of literacy programmes on those who learned to read and write in their own African languages. It draws on adult learners' reflections on the significance of literacy and numeracy in their everyday lives as evidenced in interviews conducted in 2014 and 2015 in rural sites in five African countries: Ethiopia, Kenya, Cameroon, Burkina Faso and Ghana. The research approach was influenced by the Most Significant Change (MSC) method of monitoring and evaluation,...

This study examines how an English language learner ( ELL) educator negotiated conversations about the intersectional nature of race in an elementary ELL classroom using a critical literacy framework. Few studies examine the ways in which teachers of young children negotiate conversations about the complexities of race with their students. Even fewer address the way in which African refugee children can explore the contested nature of racial labeling as a part of language instruction in the...

This study examines how an English language learner (ELL) educator negotiated conversations about the intersectional nature of race in an elementary ELL classroom using a critical literacy framework. Few studies examine the ways in which teachers of young children negotiate conversations about the complexities of race with their students. Even fewer address the way in which African refugee children can explore the contested nature of racial labeling as a part of language instruction in the...

Background/Context: The UN Sustainable Development Goals include a renewed commitment to inclusive and equitable education for all and will maintain pressure on governments in lowincome countries to ensure this provision. A range of prominent researchers and institutional actors continue to explore and to promote low-fee private schools (LFPSs) as a viable option for achieving universal access to basic education. The emphasis on LFPSs can be seen as part of the push for education policies...

Background/Context: The UN Sustainable Development Goals include a renewed commitment to inclusive and equitable education for all and will maintain pressure on governments in lowincome countries to ensure this provision. A range of prominent researchers and institutional actors continue to explore and to promote low-fee private schools (LFPSs) as a viable option for achieving universal access to basic education. The emphasis on LFPSs can be seen as part of the push for education policies...

We evaluated a program to improve literacy instruction on the Kenyan coast using training workshops, semiscripted lesson plans, and weekly text-message support for teachers to understand its impact on students' literacy outcomes and on the classroom practices leading to those outcomes. The evaluation ran from the beginning of Grade 1 to the end of Grade 2 in 51 government primary schools chosen at random, with 50 schools acting as controls. The intervention had an impact on classroom...

To throw light on the challenge of providing education to pastoral households in the context of social and economic change, this study investigates the effects of herd migration on child schooling in Northern Kenya. Specifically, the analysis uses both household panel data and community-level focus-group data to identify the barriers to schooling, which include an insufficient number of schools, nomadism and communal conflicts. The results also reveal that herd migration has a significantly...

The article presents a review of the consequences of conflict-related trauma for children in Sub-Saharan Africa. It tested a classroom-focused intervention that infused reading instruction with social-emotional learning principles and supported teachers in the adoption and use of these principles. It suggests that infusion of social-emotional learning principles can improve academic outcomes.

Previous large-scale education technology interventions have shown only modest impacts on student achievement. Building on results from an earlier randomized controlled trial of three different applications of information and communication technologies (ICTs) on primary education in Kenya, the Tusome Early Grade Reading Activity developed the National Tablets Program. The National Tablets Program is integrated into the Tusome activity by providing tablets to each of more than 1,200...

The paper uses multilevel analysis procedures to examine individual- and group-level learning barriers that have the greatest impact on pupil achievement in Uganda. The data for this study were collected in 2014 among 2711 Grade 6 pupils attending 82 schools in two rural districts of Iganga and Mayuge in Uganda. Data used in this paper are part of a larger study which sought to examine the schooling patterns, as well as the quality of education received by children living in rural...

School outcomes and good performance in different subjects depends on children's ability to read. Thus teaching children on how to read during early grades is critical in promoting learning to read. More advanced skills acquired in later grades depend on early grade learning, so children who do not acquire these reading skills in their early grades struggle to acquire more advanced skills usually absorbed through reading. This article report findings of a study conducted in rural public...

Objective: Drawing on the concepts of the cosmopolitan person and democratic health education, this article explores the merits of primary school-based, cross-cultural dialogues for global health education. Design: A qualitative study of the learning outcomes of the Move/Eat/Learn (MEL) project. MEL facilitates cultural meetings, primarily Skype-based, between students from Kenya and Denmark, with the aim of promoting reflection on differences and similarities in everyday living conditions...

This article examines the changes occurring in learning and literacy in the age of ubiquitous mobile phone use. Focusing on rural Kenyan women's use of mobile phone technologies in civic education programs, mobile banking, and to contact family members, the article explores how these women's use of mobile phones, based on their everyday needs, has facilitated the development of a literacy. The women learned to read on their phones to receive money, civic education information, and to...

Since 2008, the Ministries of Education in Liberia and Kenya have undertaken transitions from small-scale pilot programs to improve reading outcomes among primary learners to the large-scale implementation of reading interventions. The effects of the pilots on learning outcomes were significant, but questions remained regarding whether such large gains could be sustained at scale. In this article, the authors dissect the Liberian and Kenyan experiences with implementing large-scale reading...