AID contract no. DPE-5836-C-00-1042-00 with the Institute for International Research to support the development of improved educational technologies in developing countries

The project will be implemented by the Institute for International Research (IIR) in three developing countries. To begin implementation, IIR will review promising educational innovations, building and maintaining a data base on the subject throughout the project, to include information on educational achievements, practices, costs, and administrative requirements. Three cooperating countries will be chosen from an initial list of six countries, of which four will be in Africa and two in the Latin America and Caribbean region. For each of the selected countries, IIR will establish host country research and innovation teams, composed of host country and expatriate personnel. These teams will implement the project"s key activities, which are to: (1) conduct observation research on classroom-level behavior and student achievement; and (2) on the basis of this research, supplemented by IIR"s ongoing survey of educational innovations, to develop, pilot test, and assess teaching and learning interventions, with explicit attention to gender-related issues. Successful interventions will be replicated on a wider scale as appropriate. Throughout this effort, IIR will maintain close liaison with host country policymakers through the National Advisory Committees to be established under the project. Also under the project, IIR will: (1) publish, on a biannual basis, a document on improving educational quality, including a synthesis of promising educational approaches and an annotated bibliography of key publications; (2) provide substantive assistance to the annual meeting of the International Coordinating Group on Educational Quality; and (3) establish linkages with key U.S. education research institutions, such as the U.S. Department of Education-funded Education Laboratories and Research and Development Centers.