Supporting Holistic & Actionable Research in Education FY20 Q2 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 SHARE in partnership with higher education and research institutions based in USAID geographic regions around the world. During the second quarter of the first year, SHARE focused on several key tasks. The initiative engaged stakeholders and USAID senior leadership around Year 1 priority research areas across USAID's Education Learning Agendas. SHARE also developed diagnostic tools to identify critical cross-sectoral issues affecting education in and across countries, as well as bottlenecks to the research ecosystems specific to each research question. In addition, SHARE assisted the USAID Ghana Mission to proceed with research on the effectiveness and sustainability of Low-Cost Private Schools (LCPS) in northern Ghana. The initiative finalized the Year 1 Activity Monitoring Evaluation and Learning Plan (AMELP) and its application in the ecosystem diagnostics process and CBLD-9 monitoring. SHARE also finalized the Activity's Gender Plan and its application across SHARE tasks to date. Furthermore, SHARE initiated the subaward process for its principal regional partner covering Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). The initiative finalized SHARE's Branding and Marking (B&M) Plan and subsequent communication pieces geared to continue generating awareness of SHARE's functions. SHARE's efforts during the second quarter focused on facilitating the USAID Center for Education (USAID/EDU) Learning Agenda Working Group (LAWG) and its teams in "refreshing" their respective learning agendas. The initiative consulted with external consultants and subject matter experts to inform and refine the short-listed research areas further. SHARE involved several UND students to initiate literature reviews around the draft research areas, which enabled the initiative to hone further the language of the research areas, consider various research methodologies, and identify individuals to consult on future cross-national research efforts. The preliminary research study areas were passed on to USAID senior management for their review and input. The review process resulted in several sound suggestions on ways to reframe several areas, which were incorporated into a survey and circulated more broadly among COPs for each Learning Area to comment on priorities, language, research methodologies, and potential interest partners. SHARE expects to receive input from these COPs in early April, after which it will be well placed to present a final iteration of the research areas to USAID Missions in order to launch actual studies. The research study areas for the Foundational Skills Learning Agenda include RQ1: What are the range of approaches to multilingual education policy and practice in USAID implementing countries and what are key factors that influence their design, implementation, and perceived efficacy? (includes 5 sub-questions) and RQ2: How do different models/approaches to language of instruction transitions in the primary grades in USAID implementing countries relate to key learning outcomes? The research study areas for the Higher Education Learning Agenda include RQ1: What are the key factors that influence the quality and equity of higher education in USAID implementing countries? and RQ2: How do different models/approaches to higher education quality assurance in USAID implementing countries relate to key learning outcomes? The research study areas for the Education in Crisis and Conflict (EiCC) Learning Agenda include RQ1: What are the key factors that influence the quality and equity of education in crisis and conflict-affected contexts? and RQ2: How do different models/approaches to education in crisis and conflict-affected contexts relate to key learning outcomes?