Pilot Research to Large Scale Practice: Kenya’s Path to a National Literacy Program Underpinned by Evidence

• In Event: Roundtable Session (Wednesday II)
  In Refereed Round-Table Session: Cumulative experimental research programs and the advancement of knowledge about sustainable system-wide gains in literacy learning

Proposal

Kenya is implementing revised literacy and numeracy programs at a national level in every public primary school and 1500 low-cost private schools. These programs support more than 3.4 million children with a package of 1:1 student books, structured teachers’ guides with daily lesson plans for teachers, and instructional support provided by coaches (called CSOs in Kenya) using tablets with lesson observation tools. This package of support has been shown to have meaningful impact on learning outcomes, doubling the percentage of children reaching Kenya’s literacy benchmarks within the first year of implementation (Piper et al, 2018). This paper will examine two areas: first, what was the process of sharing research evidence that led Kenya to implement these programs, and two, what research is currently being undertaken to improve implementation in the complex environment that is national scale implementation.

Kenya’s Tusome Early Grade Reading Activity, with support from USAID, was designed based on the results of a set of randomized control trials of various elements of the instructional support package. Tusome’s coaching system was built on the findings from an RCT examining the ratio of schools to coaches that was most appropriate (Piper et al, 2015). Tusome’s utilization of technology by coaches was built on results from an RCT comparing different ICT interventions (Piper et al, 2016). The package of training materials, coaching, and student books was built on cost-effectiveness evidence from another RCT (Piper et al, 2018). The design of initial versions of the numeracy intervention were structured to respond to a mathematics RCT (Piper et al, 2016). Using a retrospective view, we will examine how the package of research and evaluations that underpinned the Tusome design can be utilized in other contexts.

Designing a scaled-up program based on research is important, but just as critical is utilizing research that examines effectiveness at scale while large scale implementation is occurring. Large scale implementation is notoriously difficult, so the Tusome research story is also an example of using rapid monitoring processes to determine whether and how the scaled-up program is being implemented effectively. We apply the core functions framework (Crouch and Destefano, 2017) to examine how the national system in Kenya is responding to the Tusome intervention (Piper et al, 2018), and in particular how the national ICT system is working at changing behavior (Piper et al, 2017).

This presentation will provide details on the literacy and numeracy improvement pathway in Kenya has occurred and will be transparent about the missteps and missed opportunities. The process of using ongoing targeted research for design and for implementation management is what is unique about the Kenya Tusome experience. We recommend a range of practical research suggestions for other projects and research programs at different levels of maturity, so that regardless of what stage a program is, there are practical things that can be done to improve implementation quality.

Authors

• Salome Ong'ele, RTI International

• Benjamin Piper, RTI International

• Joseph Destefano, RTI International