A whole-child approach to early-grade primary school learning assessment in Haiti

• In Event: Interventions to promote resilience throughout the life course of children in adversity

Proposal

Currently, learning assessment in Haiti focuses almost exclusively on literacy and numeracy outcomes. This approach neglects to measure other key aspects of child development and learning, including socioemotional competencies and socio-ecological influences outside of the classroom, such as child health, household economic
status and community factors. Measuring these non-traditional factors can generate important insights for educators and policymakers seeking to develop whole-child interventions.

Three separate measurement tools were identified or created to inform the development of an innovative socioemotional learning curriculum for early-grade primary school students in Haiti: (1) the DESSA-mini, a teacher-facing socioemotional evaluation tool; (2) Save the Children’s ISELA, a child-facing socioemotional evaluation tool; and (3) a new caregiver-facing household survey tool to understand students’ social, economic, familial, and community context. Alongside these quantitative measures, the study team is also engaging local parishes in community asset-mapping to mobilize effective, locally-implemented initiatives that address key socioemotional and socioecological concerns as they are identified.

Data collection will be rolled out in two phases. The first phase of research consists of cognitive interviews to refine and adapt the three measurement tools to the Haitian context. Specifically, the cognitive interviews aim to answer questions about (1) How socioemotional competencies and socioecological influences on learning in Haiti can be measured? (2) To what extent do respondents accurately understand the questions in the tools? (3) Who are the best respondents to provide information about a given construct? The second phase of research will be the application of the three contextualized tools to the evaluation of the socioemotional learning curriculum. The evaluation will be conducted in nine pilot schools during the 2018-19 calendar year and will be based on a pre-test, post-test design. In addition, during Phase II, asset mapping will be launched in the nine pilot school communities. Stakeholder meetings and other community engagement activities will also be implemented throughout the evaluation timeline.

The first phase of data collection has been completed. In total, 113 cognitive interviews were conducted with teachers, parents, and students from three different school communities (urban, semi-urban, and rural). At the CIES 2019 conference, results and lessons learned from the cognitive interviewing process will be presented, along with key learnings from the nine school pre-test (baseline), as well the asset-mapping and community engagement activities. The anticipated findings are critical for the introduction of sustainable and effective interventions geared towards the whole child around the world.

Authors

• Jessica Zhang, Columbia University

• Beth L Rubenstein, Columbia University, Earth Institute

• Hannah Chandler, Columbia University

• Neil Boothby, Columbia University