TY - JOUR TI - Improving Literacy Instruction in Kenya Through Teacher Professional Development and Text Messages Support: A Cluster Randomized Trial AU - Jukes, Matthew C. H. AU - Turner, Elizabeth L. AU - Dubeck, Margaret M. AU - Halliday, Katherine E. AU - Inyega, Hellen N. AU - Wolf, Sharon AU - Zuilkowski, Stephanie Simmons AU - Brooker, Simon J. T2 - Journal of Research on Educational Effectiveness AB - 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 practices with effect sizes from 0.57 to 1.15. There was more instruction with written text and more focus on letters and sounds. There was a positive impact on three of four primary measures of children’s literacy after two years, with effect sizes up to 0.64, and school dropout reduced from 5.3% to 2.1%. This approach to literacy instruction is sustainable, and affordable and a similar approach has subsequently been adopted nationally in Kenya. DA - 2017/07/03/ PY - 2017 DO - 10.1080/19345747.2016.1221487 DP - DOI.org (Crossref) VL - 10 IS - 3 SP - 449 EP - 481 J2 - Journal of Research on Educational Effectiveness LA - en SN - 1934-5747, 1934-5739 ST - Improving Literacy Instruction in Kenya Through Teacher Professional Development and Text Messages Support UR - https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/19345747.2016.1221487 Y2 - 2020/05/16/10:54:50 KW - Africa KW - Classroom Observation Techniques KW - Dropout Rate KW - ERIC, Current Index to Journals in Education (CIJE) KW - Early Childhood Education KW - Effect Size KW - Elementary Education KW - Elementary School Students KW - Elementary School Teachers KW - Faculty Development KW - Foreign Countries KW - Grade 1 KW - Grade 2 KW - Handheld Devices KW - Improving Learning in Sub-Saharan Africa Using Rigorous Research Designs KW - Intelligence Tests KW - Intervention KW - Interviews KW - Kenya KW - Literacy Education KW - Maximum Likelihood Statistics KW - Pretests Posttests KW - Primary Education KW - Program Effectiveness KW - Promising Interventions Are Great, but Are They Enough? KW - Questionnaires KW - RCT KW - Randomized Controlled Trials KW - Raven Progressive Matrices KW - Rural Schools KW - Statistical Analysis KW - Teacher Improvement KW - Teaching Methods KW - Telecommunications KW - What We Are Learning About Early Education in Sub-Saharan Africa KW - __:import:01 KW - __:match:final KW - __:matched KW - __:study_id:2096051 KW - ___working_potential_duplicate KW - __finaldtb KW - early grade reading KW - literacy instruction ER - TY - JOUR TI - Practical Lessons for Phone-Based Assessments of Learning AU - Angrist, Noam AU - Bergman, Peter AU - Evans, David K. AU - Hares, Susannah AU - Jukes, Matthew C. H. AU - Letsomo, Thato T2 - BMJ Global Health AB - School closures affecting more than 1.5 billion children are designed to prevent the spread of current public health risks from the COVID-19 pandemic, but they simultaneously introduce education risks as well as new, longer run health risks, via lost education. While some studies measure student involvement in educational activities during the crisis through phone-based surveys, the literature on assessing learning by phone is almost nonexistent, despite the fact that learning loss has major implications for school dropout and rising inequality. In this article, we draw on our pilot testing of phone-based assessments in Botswana, along with the existing literature on oral testing of reading and mathematics, to propose a series of preliminary principles to guide researchers and service providers as they try phone-based learning assessments. We provide guidance to help teams (1) ensure that children are not put at risk, (2) test the reliability and validity of phone-based measures, (3) use simple instructions and practice items to ensure the assessment is focused on the target skill, not general language and test-taking skills, (4) adapt the items from oral assessments that will be most effective in phone-based assessments, (5) keep assessments brief while still gathering meaningful learning data, (6) learn from the speed and confidence of responses, (7) use effective strategies to encourage respondents to pick up the phone, and (8) build rapport with adult caregivers and youth respondents. DA - 2020/07// PY - 2020 DO - 10.1136/bmjgh-2020-003030 DP - Zotero VL - 5 IS - 7 SP - 16 J2 - BMJ Glob Health LA - en SN - 2059-7908 UR - https://www.cgdev.org/sites/default/files/practical-lessons-phone-based-assessments-learning-revised-jul2020.pdf KW - ___working_potential_duplicate KW - health economics KW - health services research KW - public health KW - ⛔ No DOI found ER - TY - RPRT TI - Practical Lessons for Phone-Based Assessments of Learning AU - Angrist, Noam AU - Bergman, Peter AU - Evans, David K. AU - Hares, Susannah AU - Jukes, Matthew C. H. AU - Letsomo, Thato CY - Washington D.C. DA - 2020/07// PY - 2020 SP - 16 LA - en PB - Center for Global Development ER -