USAID Tusome Pamoja Phase 2 Report Decentralized Periodic Learning Assessment (DPLA)

The program is being implemented in four regions in Mainland Tanzania (Iringa, Morogoro, Mtwara, and Ruvuma) and in Zanzibar. The DPLA activity is designed to provide timely, accurate periodic knowledge of the teaching and learning progress at the local government authority (LGA) level. The methodology used in DPLA is a reduced sampling approach that allows for a relatively low-cost, routine, and rapid school monitoring that provides disaggregated, actionable, district-level data. This approach requires only 19 schools per district for district and regional level decision-making. The DPLA data collection tools were reviewed and adapted by a Technical Working Group (TWG) comprising of members from President's Office Regional Administration and Local Government (PORALG), Quality Assurance unit of Ministry of Education Science and Technology (MOEST) mainland, and the inspectorate from Ministry of Education Vocational Training (MOEVT) Zanzibar. The TWG reviewed the data collection tools, analysis and communication tools, and ensured that DPLA processes are technically sound, receive broad support, and results in the creation of a sustainability strategy for the Districts/zones. The DPLA Phase II report presents the main findings and lessons learned from the data collection activity conducted in four mainland regions and Zanzibar. The data collection focused on grade 2 reading and information was collected across a large range of indicators broadly falling into three categories: 1) School Inputs; 2) Teacher Practice; 3) Student Performance. The data were collected from a total of 589 schools in 31 Mainland districts and from 95 schools in five inspectorate zones in Zanzibar. The main findings from Phase II's data collection have been analyzed independently and in relation to Phase I results. The main purpose in comparing results across phases is to determine whether or not updates are needed to annual district enrichment plans. Phase II results showed apparent small to moderate gains across a number of indicators (for nearly all regions—with Ruvuma standing out as an exception). However, some of these gains are likely just natural variation and may return to baseline (i.e. Phase I) estimates during the next round of data collection. The main takeaways from the Phase II data are as follows: Student performance remains a major stumbling block across all regions. While there were increases in the proportion of schools/districts meeting standards for letters and invented words (as to be expected since this data collection occurred at the end of the school year, as compared with Phase I at the beginning of the school year), there was little to no improvement in reading comprehension and dictation across the board. One of the leading explanations for a lack of improvement in student performance comes from the continuing issues with teacher attendance, pupil attendance, availability of teacher materials, and the availability of pupil materials. If teachers and pupils are not in school and they do not have the standard materials required for teaching and learning, it is difficult to expect large improvements in student reading ability. In some districts, time on task, teacher preparedness and teaching practice continue to remain problematic as well. From a more holistic standpoint, head teacher satisfaction with parental involvement in schoolwork is low (66% in mainland; 49% in Zanzibar). This may stem in part from the misconception (held by the majority of teachers across all regions) that only parents who can read, can help their children with reading activities at home. Lastly, more than two-thirds of teachers continue to believe that the best way to learn to read is to have children memorize words, while half of sampled mainland teachers stated that the best students in their classes should receive the most attention. Combined with the fact that more than a quarter of teachers believe that students should not be expected to be able to write an original passage before standard 3, these beliefs may ultimately be undermining the progress being sought by the education system and should be addressed in future teacher trainings (as well as by school supervisors and mentoring programs). The final steps in Phase II include the Regional DPLA dissemination Meeting, District DPLA results dissemination meeting, and Technical Working Group meeting. The Regional DPLA dissemination Meeting will bring together Regional Program focal person, REO, Zonal Quality Assuror, DEOs and DCSQA regional team to discuss findings and plan the DPLA launch / dissemination for each LGA. The District DPLA results dissemination meeting will disseminate DPLA findings to WEOs/ subject advisers and agree on implementation of MKUUS in their respective districts/zones. The Technical Working Group meeting will review DPLA tools, review feedback from training, data collection, district and regional meetings and plan the year II DPLA implementation.