Supporting Holistic & Actionable Research in Education: FY 20 Quarterly Progress Report

The initiative aims to advance global education learning priorities to improve learning outcomes. SHARE is funded through USAID's Higher Education Leadership, Innovation, and Exchange (HELIX) Annual Program Statement (APS) under the USAID New Partnership Initiative (NPI). SHARE is led by the Pulte Institute for Global Development at the University of Notre Dame, in partnership with the university's Institute for Educational Initiatives and its Global Center for the Development of the Whole Child. The initiative implements research studies in partnership with higher education and research institutions based in USAID geographic regions around the world. During the third quarter of the fiscal year 2020, SHARE made significant progress in finalizing the composition of the first installment of core research studies. The research areas were disseminated to communities of practice across each learning area, and feedback was received from 35 research and practitioner institutions. The research area questions were updated accordingly, and the prioritized list of research area questions was presented to the larger DDI/EDU community and Regional Bureaus. SHARE received a high degree of interest from USAID Missions, with approximately 21 Missions expressing a desire to be part of at least one of the proposed SHARE studies. The DDI/EDU team was able to identify two research areas for each learning agenda based on the expressions of interest by Missions. Joint calls were held with Missions to understand the local context and priorities for the research, and the technical and management teams convened to finalize the list of studies and corresponding countries. The following research studies were identified for the Foundational Skills learning agenda: RQ2, "How do different models/approaches to language of instruction transitions in the primary grades in USAID implementing countries relate to key learning outcomes?" in Senegal, Mozambique, Kenya, and the Philippines, and RQ3, "What has worked well in USAID implementing countries that has improved their primary level text and children's book supply chain and to what extent are there transferable lessons for other contexts?" in Honduras, Rwanda, and Cambodia. SHARE also made progress in other areas, including the refinement of diagnostic tools to identify critical cross-sectoral issues affecting education in and across countries, the exploration of Outcome Mapping resources to support measurement of progress from core studies, and the analysis and dissemination of findings from research on the effectiveness and sustainability of Low-Cost Private Schools (LCPS) in northern Ghana. The SHARE initiative is advancing USAID learning priorities in the education sector as a global good to improve education and learning outcomes. The initiative is expected to continue its research studies in the coming years, with a focus on improving learning outcomes in USAID implementing countries.