1. 1 For further information e-mail lcrouch@rti.org EdData II Project

2. 2 Main characteristics  5-year project  Funded through task orders from interested bodies  Main contract is with USAID, but other bodies can contribute  Main aim: provide innovation in the collection of education data in developing countries  Not all areas of work provide innovation—some carry out traditional empirical work

3. 3 Main areas of work  Snapshot of School Management Effectiveness (SSME)  Early-Grade Reading Assessment (EGRA)  Capacity-building assessment  Traditional household surveys on determinants of schooling access  Epidemiology of “special needs” and reasons for non- enrollment in “last 10%”

4. 4 Taking each one…

5. 5 Snapshot of School Management Effectiveness  Education sector (and donors) worldwide lack a simple, effective tool that can optimize rigor versus cost, and provides a quick overview of how schools are managed  Health sector has, and uses to good effect  Education sector has not had  EdData is piloting an instrument that can be applied in a one-day visit per school, in some 50 schools in a country, to provide a serious snapshot of school management issues  First pilots: Peru and Jamaica  Can be used by countries or donors in loan design, project design, sector reviews in sector-wide approaches (SWAps), etc.

6. 6 Early Grade Reading Assessment - 1  World has been relatively successful in expanding access to schooling  Many are calling for minding the quality issues better  Quality proxied by learning achievement  There is huge resurgence of interest in education community worldwide, suddenly, in “whether kids are learning”  Some calling for Millennium Learning Goal  EdData II has been working on establishing a simple but scientifically defensible “Early Grade Reading Assessment” that can be used to quickly see whether children in a country (or school) are learning the most basic skill: reading

7. 7 Early Grade Reading Assessment - 2  Unlike achievement tests in later grades, does not use pencil and paper or multiple choice, can be applied by teachers and community members (more or less), and is inexpensive (in cash costs)  Being piloted in many countries, in one way or another, including Kenya, The Gambia, Senegal, South Africa, Peru, Jamaica.  Evidence is that when measurement is capable, and simple, if the base is very poor, and instruction is tightly focused, improvements in learning achievement in simple skills (e.g., reading) of as much as 50% to 200% are possible  Also important to try rigorous measurement of remediation efforts!! (Control-treatment studies.)

8. 8 Capacity assessment census/surveys  Decentralization of education systems is probably one of the strongest trends in education in developing countries  Yet almost no one studies whether lower-level governments have the capacity to absorb the “duties and powers” that decentralization gives them  Serious, detailed, and universal skills and capacity assessment, via a census or combination of census/surveys, can tell donors and governments what and where to invest in, with detail and rigor  Can also debunk some long-held beliefs, such as the utility of targeting capacity development funding based on poverty indices  Being piloted in Kenya

9. 9 Traditional household surveys  This is “standard” area of work aimed at large-scale sample surveys  Purpose: determinants of access to and demand for education; reasons for drop-out, etc.  From purview of household, so school-based determinants (which are hugely important in the ed sector) tend to be left out; but can provide detailed household perspectives  Several of these have been done by EdData prior to EdData II. EdData II likely to update study in Nigeria

10. 10 Epidemiology of “last 10%”  Reasons for non-attendance of “last 10%” are poorly understood  Methods for improving understanding of non- attendance by children with extreme vulnerabilities (orphans, street children, institutionalized children) are needed, including non-household, non-school surveys  Important also to test methods to get these kids in schools, innovatively, such as using some kids to get other kids to school (tried in Kenya)

11. 11 Status  EGRA: being piloted in many countries, tentative results in, planning measurement of interventions  SSME: being piloted in Peru and Jamaica; first data in, no reports yet  Capacity Assessment: being piloted in Kenya, draft report in  Traditional household surveys: well-known from previous EdData project  Epidemiology of “last 10%”: only a proposal