Measuring literacy outcomes from a condensed literacy training component of youth livelihoods training in Liberia.

• In Event: How specialized literacy assessments inform program adaptation and implementation in alternative education and livelihood-skills projects in Sierra-Leone, Liberia, and Uganda.

Proposal

In Liberia a youth livelihoods activity supports local youth-serving local organizations (YSLOs) to implement a modular, adaptable version of an integrated basic education and work readiness curriculum that provides diverse youth populations with the right level of educational assets needed to take their next step toward achieving employment goals. Youth fit into one of three Pathways; Pathway 1 targets youth with marginal literacy skills and supports them with condensed modules on basic literacy and numeracy skills and competencies to acquire these foundational skills in addition to modules for work readiness. In 2022, the program enrolled its first cohort of Pathway 1 youth and administered an adapted version of the Out of School Youth Literacy Assessment (OLA) to a sample of youth at the beginning and end of their training. This paper will present the project’s process of collaborating, learning, and adapting based primarily on analysis of OLA data, but also consulting with supplementary qualitative and monitoring data.

To begin, we will describe the various ways that OLA pre and post-test data were analyzed, and some critical findings that emanated from that analysis. For example, when analyzing data around words per minute they were able to read, we saw substantial improvements, but particularly so among learners who came into the program with less literacy to begin with. This raises the question: are the higher literacy learners being ignored in the classroom? What does this mean for our retention? For their longer-term outcomes?

The next part of the paper will describe our process of trying to learn more about why we may have seen gains among lower literacy youth but not higher literacy youth, given our aim was to benefit all types of youth who were self-declaring to have little to no literacy. We first consulted other data sources from our project. Classroom observation, attendance records, and coursework review, showed, for example, that even those youth whose literacy was not improving were not dropping out of the program. Monitoring and observation visits to YSLOs revealed that the curriculum was being delivered as planned, and youth remained engaged through the work readiness portion of the training. So, despite the different outcomes in literacy, the finding that higher literacy youth were not necessarily learning at this stage did not seem to be a barrier to their achievement of our larger goal, completion of the training and launching them to start their own businesses or find employment.

Our project is now taking the next step in asking whether our foundational skills curriculum is adequate for youth to be successful in the workforce. In 2023 we commenced tracer studies with cohort 1 youth where we will ask questions such as this. Our paper will share some of our preliminary findings, and how we plan to adapt our programming accordingly. The main message of our paper will be reinforced whatever our findings: that it is essential to regularly consult with data from assessments such as OLA to either verify or adapt programming so that it is more effective.

Author

• Gwen Heaner, Education Development Center