Quarterly Report 2016 Quarter 1: January 1 to March 31, 2016

The project focuses on monitoring and evaluating early grade reading and writing, as well as the M&E needs of the overall USAID READ program. READ M&E tracks progress and measures the performance and impact of key interventions supported by USAID through regular monitoring of READ projects and evaluating READ projects at defined intervals. The objectives of READ M&E are to assess student learning progress by analyzing and synthesizing nationally representative Early Grade Reading Assessment (EGRA) data collected for seven local languages, support National Learning Assessments (NLAs) at grades 4 and 8 for reading, comprehension, and writing aligned to the new national reading curriculum, support continuous assessment in schools, monitor the performance of USAID's READ projects, and conduct impact evaluations and research studies on issues aligned with USAID's global- and mission-level learning agendas. During the first quarter of 2016, READ M&E continued to work on assessment activities, evaluations, teacher support, and special research topics. Activities on evaluations included reporting to members of the Ministry of Education on the success of the evaluation of the Reading for Ethiopia's Achievement Developed Institutional Improvement (READ II) project. Assessment activities focused on analyzing results of the 2015 EGRA pilot, incorporating lessons learned from the pilot into the plan for the 2016 EGRA in seven languages, and creating a viable, cost-effective method of equating the 2014 and 2016 versions of the EGRA tests. READ M&E completed and delivered to USAID a literature review on Formative Continuous Assessment (FCA), which analyzed literature on FCA with a focus on Sub-Saharan Africa and specifically Ethiopia. The review looked at materials developed for Ethiopia by past programs and analyzed best practices. READ M&E also created a plan for measuring the number of students with hearing and vision challenges currently attending schools to assist USAID and the Directorate of Inclusive Education. READ M&E participated in the Emergency Education Cluster to assist the team think through and test a system for collecting data on hand-held devices to aid drought relief. The project works closely with directorates in the Ministry of Education and the National Educational Assessment and Examinations Agency (NEAEA) under the leadership of Ato Araya, Planning Directorate under the leadership of Ato Eshetu, and the Directorate of Curriculum Development and Implementation under the leadership of Ato Daniel. The AIR team works closely with these coordinating bodies to ensure that their work is of the highest quality and meets the needs of the Ethiopian people. READ M&E activities fall under sub-intermediate Result 4, which is Monitoring and evaluation conducted to ensure that implementation is on track and results are achieved. The project's implementation status is as follows: READ Intermediate Result: Improved reading achievement; Sub-Intermediate Result 4: Monitoring and evaluation conducted to ensure that implementation is on track and results are achieved. All READ M&E activities fall under sub-intermediate Result 4. The Mini-EGRA is a snapshot of the reading fluency and comprehension levels of Grades 2 and 3 students in three selected languages: Af Somali, Sidamu Affo, and Tigrigna. Data were collected from 45 schools (15 from each language) from November 21 to December 1, 2015. A total of 1,719 Grade 2 and 3 students were the subjects of the study. Approximately equal numbers of girls and boys were selected. Electronic data were collected using Nexus Tablets with Tangerine Software. The Mini-EGRA was conducted parallel with the pilot study whose main purpose was field testing e-data collection. The data collecting tool for each language was composed of timed (letter name knowledge, familiar words reading, invented words reading, and passage words reading) and untimed subtasks (phonemic awareness, reading comprehension, and listening comprehension). The data collected will be used to assess student learning progress and inform the development of the 2016 EGRA in seven languages.