The Malawi Early Grade Reading Activity (MEGRA) is a multifaceted educational development approach intended to enable sustained literacy among children, promote a literate community, and help the country increase economic growth and reduce poverty. The USAID/Malawi funded program was implemented starting August of 2013, by RTI (Research Triangle Institute) International. The MEGRA educational program was implemented alongside a Feed the Future project called Integrating Nutrition in Value Chains (INVC) and a Global Health Initiative project called Support for Service Delivery Integration (SSDI), both of which were also expected to affect the success of learners in school. Through this interconnected strategy, USAID/Malawi aimed to have a greater impact on outcomes of interest (such as learning reading scores) than would otherwise be possible through one project alone. The key elements of the MEGRA reading intervention involved: • Conduct teacher training, including practicums • Provide scripted lesson plans to teachers • Provide in-service teacher support and mentoring (or coaching) • Provide rewards for high-performing teachers and schools • Develop and distribute books, story cards, letter cards, and bookshelves • Organize reading fairs and other events to engage parents, caregivers, and the community in learner learning • Invite parents to participate in their learners’ classrooms and/or become engaged in extracurricular activities • Ensure a supportive policy environment by attending the Basic Education Technical Working Group and writing Memorandums of Understanding (MOUs) to gain necessary Ministry of Education, Science, and Technology(MoEST) support and buy-in • Facilitate the extension of school instructional time In order to test possible complementary or multiplier effects of the MEGRA reading intervention and the INVC and SSDI activities, all three interventions were implemented in and evaluated for four distinct treatment levels: • Treatment Level 1: Three focus districts (Balaka, Machinga, and Lilongwe Rural) that provide an opportunity to evaluate the impact of a fully-integrated development approach with multiple activities across sectors, including MEGRA, INVC, and SSDI, on early grade reading outcomes. • Treatment Level 2: The district (Salima) where MEGRA overlaps with only the SSDI intervention. This serves as a test ground for the hypothesis that synergies between education and health initiatives catalyze changes that are greater than the sum of their parts. • Treatment Level 3: The district (Ntcheu) where MEGRA overlaps with only the INVC intervention. This serves as a test ground for the development hypothesis that synergies between education and agricultural livelihood and nutrition initiatives catalyze changes that are greater than the sum of their parts. • Treatment Level 4: Five districts (Blantyre Rural, Mzimba North, Ntchisi, Thyolo, and Zomba Rural) that only receive the MEGRA initiative. These districts are used to test the MEGRA theory of change that education support leads to improved literacy and general education outcomes. MEGRA was implemented at the zonal level, at baseline in 2013, where zones were randomly selected in each of the four levels to implement the MEGRA intervention (taking into account areas where INVC and SSDI were already working). However, since INVC and SSDI were not randomly assigned at baseline, the evaluation can only be able to determine whether EGRA is better than no EGRA and whether EGRA plus INVC and SSDI is better than no treatment. While MEGRA expected to include both treatment and comparison schools in each district at each level, at baseline, it was unable to because the SSDI and INVC activities were already underway. As such, the program found that in the Level 2 district, Salima, it was impossible to select comparison zones that were not already contaminated with the SSDI intervention because SSDI was already work

The Malawi Early Grade Reading Activity (MEGRA) is a multifaceted educational development approach intended to enable sustained literacy among children, promote a literate community, and help the country increase economic growth and reduce poverty. The USAID/Malawi funded program was implemented starting August of 2013, by RTI (Research Triangle Institute) International. The MEGRA educational program was implemented alongside a Feed the Future project called Integrating Nutrition in Value Chains (INVC) and a Global Health Initiative project called Support for Service Delivery Integration (SSDI), both of which were also expected to affect the success of learners in school. Through this interconnected strategy, USAID/Malawi aimed to have a greater impact on outcomes of interest (such as learning reading scores) than would otherwise be possible through one project alone. The key elements of the MEGRA reading intervention involved: • Conduct teacher training, including practicums • Provide scripted lesson plans to teachers • Provide in-service teacher support and mentoring (or coaching) • Provide rewards for high-performing teachers and schools • Develop and distribute books, story cards, letter cards, and bookshelves • Organize reading fairs and other events to engage parents, caregivers, and the community in learner learning • Invite parents to participate in their learners’ classrooms and/or become engaged in extracurricular activities • Ensure a supportive policy environment by attending the Basic Education Technical Working Group and writing Memorandums of Understanding (MOUs) to gain necessary Ministry of Education, Science, and Technology(MoEST) support and buy-in • Facilitate the extension of school instructional time In order to test possible complementary or multiplier effects of the MEGRA reading intervention and the INVC and SSDI activities, all three interventions were implemented in and evaluated for four distinct treatment levels: • Treatment Level 1: Three focus districts (Balaka, Machinga, and Lilongwe Rural) that provide an opportunity to evaluate the impact of a fully-integrated development approach with multiple activities across sectors, including MEGRA, INVC, and SSDI, on early grade reading outcomes. • Treatment Level 2: The district (Salima) where MEGRA overlaps with only the SSDI intervention. This serves as a test ground for the hypothesis that synergies between education and health initiatives catalyze changes that are greater than the sum of their parts. • Treatment Level 3: The district (Ntcheu) where MEGRA overlaps with only the INVC intervention. This serves as a test ground for the development hypothesis that synergies between education and agricultural livelihood and nutrition initiatives catalyze changes that are greater than the sum of their parts. • Treatment Level 4: Five districts (Blantyre Rural, Mzimba North, Ntchisi, Thyolo, and Zomba Rural) that only receive the MEGRA initiative. These districts are used to test the MEGRA theory of change that education support leads to improved literacy and general education outcomes. MEGRA was implemented at the zonal level, at baseline in 2013, where zones were randomly selected in each of the four levels to implement the MEGRA intervention (taking into account areas where INVC and SSDI were already working). However, since INVC and SSDI were not randomly assigned at baseline, the evaluation can only be able to determine whether EGRA is better than no EGRA and whether EGRA plus INVC and SSDI is better than no treatment. While MEGRA expected to include both treatment and comparison schools in each district at each level, at baseline, it was unable to because the SSDI and INVC activities were already underway. As such, the program found that in the Level 2 district, Salima, it was impossible to select comparison zones that were not already contaminated with the SSDI intervention because SSDI was already working across the entire di

The Malawi Early Grade Reading Improvement Activity (MERIT) is a five-year USAID activity designed to provide technical assistance and resources to the GOM to strengthen the reading performance of Malawian learners in Standards 1–4. Key to the Activity’s design is the USAID/Malawi education strategic plan of 2012 that aims to increase the reading skills of 5.58 million Malawi primary school students through: (i) improving reading instruction in the primary grades; (ii) increasing parental and community support for student reading; and, finally, (iii) improving the policy environment for reading. That strategic plan was the basis for the USAID/Malawi Early Grade Reading Project and the design of MERIT, its current flagship activity in support of early grade reading. MERIT directly supports the CDCS Development Objective 1, Social development improved through enhanced quality and availability of essential social services as indicated by sustained improvement of reading gains of students enrolled in Standards 1 to 4.

Strengthening Early Grade Reading (SEGREM) was a three-year USAID Malawi-funded activity aimed at improving literacy levels of learners in Chiradzulu, Dedza, and Mchinji districts. The Program reviewed existing supplementary readers to be used in standards 1-4. It also used literacy instruction, teacher training and community mobilization models that have been tested in Malawi and have helped to improve literacy levels of learners, improve large class management, provide quality and relevant supplementary readers, and ensure community support. In January 2015, a baseline study was conducted to determine the baseline on the student reading abilities. During the reading assessment, learners were asked to name letters of the alphabet, identify initial sounds, read familiar words, read a passage and answer comprehension questions orally; for Chichewa, learners were also asked to read syllables.

This data file contains student, teacher, and headteacher data from the project's 2015 baseline. The Tusome Early Grade Reading Program involves a national effort in Kenya to scale up a proven model for improved results in early grade literacy. Based on positive findings during a rigorous impact evaluation of a pilot test of this intervention, the Government of Kenya (GOK) asked USAID/Kenya to assist with the nationwide rollout of an activity to improve reading skills and increase the capacity of educators and the GOK to deliver and administer early grade reading (EGR) programs modeled on the pilot activity’s success. Tusome, which means “Let’s Read” in Kiswahili, targeted 28,000 formal and nonformal public and low-cost private primary schools in the 47 counties in Kenya (nationwide). About 1,000 of these are informal schools that exist mostly in urban “slums,” while the vast majority of the remaining 27,000 schools are in rural areas. Roughly 5.4 million children who entered primary school between 2014 and 2017 are expected to benefit from this scaling-up initiative. Intermediate beneficiaries include: 1) approximately 60,000 class 1 and 2 teachers, 2) 28,000 primary school head teachers, 3) 1,052 Teacher Advisory Center (TAC) tutors, plus “coaches” for nonformal schools and 4) 300 senior education personnel. Tusome also assisted the GOK at the technical and policy levels to sustainably improve reading skills beyond the span of the activity.

This data asset contains the data from the baseline, midline, and endline data collection for an impact evaluation of the Makhalidwe Athu project (MA), an 18-month intervention aimed at improving the reading skills of 1,200 students in 2nd and 3rd grades in the Chipata and Lundazi districts of Zambia’s Eastern province. Baseline data were collected between November 2015 and January 2016, and endline data collection occurred in January 2017. To collect data, NORC fielded a parent/caregiver survey, a student survey, and an Early Grade Reading Assessment (EGRA) at baseline and endline. In addition, in June 2016 a midline survey on a subsample of treatment caregivers was fielded to document program uptake. To construct the sample frame, Advanced Teams of enumerators were sent to the field to survey all students in 1st and 2nd grades in 80 sampled schools and ask if anyone in their home had a cell phone, which was a requirement to participate in the study. The caregiver survey was developed by NORC and INESOR, and was intended to determine the respondent’s eligibility to participate in the study and to assess the home literacy environment and household assets. The student questionnaire assessed student reading practices at home and in school. The EGRA includes five tasks that measure the following capacities: Orientation to Print, Letter Sound Identification, Non-Word Reading, Oral Reading Passage, Reading Comprehension, and Listening Comprehension. In total 1,942 caregivers, corresponding to 2,019 children, were surveyed at baseline and endline: 965 in the treatment group and 977 in the control group.

This dataset contains baseline Early Grade Reading Assessment (EGRA) data conducted under the USAID/Zambia Education Data activity between November – December 2018. Over 15,000 Grade 2 learners were assessed in one of the seven Government of the Republic of Zambia (GRZ) languages of Instruction (LoI) (Chitonga, Cinyanja, Icibemba, Kiikaonde, Lunda, Luvale or Silozi) as well as in English. The EGRA was conducted in five target provinces (Eastern, Muchinga, North-Western, Southern and Western Provinces). The purpose of the 2018 baseline EGRA is to establish a baseline level from which changes in Grade 2 learners’ performance in the core reading skills can be tracked over time. Each assessment contained seven subtasks, which included; (1) listening comprehension in both the LoI and in English; (2) letter sound identification in the LoI; (3) syllable sound identification in the LoI; (4) non-word reading in the LoI; (5) oral reading fluency in the LoI; (6) reading comprehension in the LoI and; (7) English vocabulary. In addition, assessors also administered a Snapshot of School Management and Effectiveness (SSME), which included head teacher, teacher, and learner questionnaires, along with a school inventory, to establish school characteristics and learner demographics in the sampled schools. The 2018 Baseline EGRA used a stratified sampling methodology to randomly select a representative sample of 816 schools from the five target provinces. Of the 816 schools, 630 were Government of the Republic of Zambia (GRZ)-run primary schools and 186 were community-run schools.

The Ethiopia TEACH II activity aimed to strengthen the provision of equitable basic education services by implementing alternative basic education for children and youth, functional literacy for adults and improving the capacity of Woreda Education Offices (WEO) to manage non-formal educational programs. The activity operated in eight regions and provided instruction in four languages. The target population of the study were Level II learners from selected woredas in the SNNP, Tigray, Amhara, Benishangul, Oromia, Afar, Gambella, and Somali regions where PACT-Ethiopia and its partners operated. Students were randomly selected to measure basic literacy skills targeted at the Grade 2 level using EGRA assessments in eight different languages. The EGRA assessment sub-tasks measuring basic literacy skills were incremental in their complexity. Each sub-task was presented to the child on a one–to-one basis. Questionnaires were also administered to understand the background of the students. This data file contains the project's 2013 baseline EGRA.

In September 2017, USAID commissioned RTI and Pratham Education Foundation’s (Pratham) Annual Status of Education Report (ASER) Centre to conduct the Analysis of Early Grade Reading Assessment (EGRA) in India activity. Together, RTI and Pratham developed a research plan and modified standard ASER and EGRA instruments to serve the research objective. The five largest education projects from the Mission’s portfolio were selected for inclusion into the assessment. Projects use different approaches and strategies to achieve similar goals – some work through government systems while others are working directly with schools to improve learning outcomes.

The Eu Leio activity is focused on improving the reading competencies of 1st and 2nd grade students through the distribution and use of learning and reading materials to target primary schools. Furthermore, the activity seeks to improve capacity building of school councils to increase social auditing and monitoring of education services, empower communities and parents to monitor early grade reading outcomes, and hold education personnel accountable to local communities for learning outcomes. The activity aims to reach close to 110,000 1st and 2nd grade students to grade level reading competence, allowing them to easily understand what they are reading and master future knowledge. By the end of the activity, it is expected that over 27,000 of these students will be reading with fluency. Recent accomplishments include: 116 School Councils actively participating in and monitoring annual school plans and teacher/student tardiness and absenteeism; 116 school libraries established within existing school structures with 70 titles of books provided, and 144 teachers trained in library management and reading information; Increased number of community users of the Olavula SMS platform that enables parents and communities to ask questions and demand solutions from schools and school directors; and 116 District Education Plans elaborated based on critical gaps identified by School Councils and local Civil Society Organizations.