What have we learned about impact from a grand challenge - what does this “sandbox for innovation” teach us?

• In Event: How does an EdTech innovation fund support innovators to promote reading for children? What lies ahead?

Proposal

The All Children Reading Grand Challenge for Development (ACR GCD) is in its third round of support for innovative programs that use educational technology to improve early grade reading outcomes. This grand challenge started in 2011 with Round 1 (2011-2014). During this first round, ACR GCD provided support for innovators using EdTech with a wide range of populations. During Round 2 (2014-2019), the grand challenge focused its support more specifically on innovators developing EdTech solutions to advance mother tongue instruction and reading materials, family and community engagement, and children with disabilities (CWDs). In its current Round 3 (2019-2023), it continued the focus on the development of electronic materials and support for CWDs while adding support for reading at the pre-primary level. Over the course of these three rounds, ACR GCD community has derived a number of types of lessons. One set of lessons concerns the funding of projects at different stages of development – proof of concept, piloting, and preparation for scaling - and the advantages and challenges of each type of support. Another set of lessons concerns the fit between educational technology, specific populations, and what kinds of progress in reading ability are possible, especially over a 12 to 24 months period – the typical life span of these projects. A final set of lessons concerns questions about which monitoring, evaluation and learning (MEL) frameworks best serve the needs of project implementers on the ground as well as funders across projects. This session will draw conclusions from each of these sets of lessons, with implications for funding future prize rounds, considerations about education with specific populations, and suggestions for structuring MEL frameworks to enhance learning for both implementers and funders.

Author

• Mark Mark Lynd Lynd, School-to-School International