Georgia Primary Education Project Monthly Report August 1-31, 2015

The project's primary objectives are to enhance community and public engagement, accountability, and transparency in these schools. To achieve this goal, the project focuses on improving teacher effectiveness in teaching reading and math, as well as in the use of formative assessment-based teaching approaches. This is accomplished through the development and implementation of school-based mechanisms for promoting professional development of math and reading teachers. The project's Task 1 involves developing a concept for improving teachers' instruction of reading and math through training and school-based professional development. This concept integrates with the Ministry of Education and Science's (MES) concept of state-provided professional certification and continuous professional development. The project has completed several key milestones, including developing a concept, discussing it with the MES, holding conferences with principals, and identifying teacher facilitators in pilot schools. The project has also identified 960 teacher circle (TLC) facilitators at 465 expansion schools, who will participate in training sessions to learn about their roles and responsibilities and strategies for leading e-courses. These facilitators will be introduced to the content of the reading and math e-courses and will have access to various professional development materials through the online resource portal. Task 2 of the project involves identifying national trainers of reading and math, designing a training of trainers (TOT) program for them, and providing teaching and guidance on training teachers and teacher facilitators. The project has created a working group with TPDC representatives and local and international experts to develop TOT manuals for national trainers in reading. The project has also made significant progress in developing resource materials, including the Teacher Resource Book in reading instruction for Georgian language (GL) and the Teacher Resource Book in reading instruction for Georgian-as-a-second language (GSL). These resource books will be merged into one book and printed and distributed to all GL and GSL teachers. In addition to these efforts, the project has implemented several other activities, including the development of e-session for electronic courses in reading and math, the distribution of trainers to training venues, and the preparation of supplementary reading materials. The project has also begun school visits to expansion schools, where trainers will observe TLC facilitators and provide feedback. Overall, the Georgia Primary Education Project is making significant progress in improving reading and math instruction for Georgian students, including ethnic minority students, and enhancing community and public engagement, accountability, and transparency in schools.