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Teaching at the Right Level: The power of effective instruction in improving foundational learning skills through contextualization, adaptation, and localization

Wed, March 13, 9:45 to 11:15am, Hyatt Regency Miami, Floor: Third Level, Johnson 1

Group Submission Type: Formal Panel Session

Proposal

Teaching at the Right Level is an adaptable, holistic approach which helps education systems focus on the basics and improve learning for all. The approach is made up of several components which work together to improve learning outcomes. Each aspect of the approach is essential, and the full approach has the potential to provide all children with foundational skills. (https://www.teachingattherightlevel.org/)
Transforming education through partnerships and stakeholder engagement to provide learning opportunities for all is of critical importance in a world in which we find so many countries with expanding populations of youth. Education has historically been perceived as the vehicle for realizing the dreams for the future for every child regardless of background. However, while there is great progress is achieving access to education (although the COVID pandemic has had a tragic impact on this progress), learning outcomes continue to lag (Angrist et al., 2021). Even children and youth who attend school regularly are still not acquiring the basic foundational literacy and math skills that are so important for adult success (Azevedo et al., 2021).
The lack of widespread success of educational interventions in reading and math is often attributed to overambitious national curriculum standards (Pritchett & Beatty, 2012), ineffective teaching pedagogy, whole class instruction with the same content being taught to all students, and few teaching and learning materials. These approaches may result in learning improvements for a limited proportion of students and often the students benefiting the most scored at higher achievement levels prior to the intervention (Glewwe et al., 2009).
Within this context, an innovative approach was developed that is a ‘bottom up’ approach to learning rather than a ‘top down’ approach. Instead of looking at interventions that teach whole classes the same skills at the same pace, this approach teaches the skills that students need to learn with an understanding that there is typically a wide range of skills among students. Pratham’s “Teaching at the Right Level” approach involves groups of students with similar skills regardless of grade level or age participating in large group, small group and individual activities focused on improving foundational skills in reading and math. Activities are targeted to their current learning levels, and children progress quickly from one group to another. This approach addresses student learning at their learning levels and enables engagement with community stakeholders to harness necessary support and build awareness. System actors including teachers and other local educators, or volunteers are trained as implementers. In government-led programs, government officials are trained to mentor and coach teachers/instructors and are required to teach for at least two weeks prior to coaching activities. This ensures that government officials understand the program and their support can be substantive and informed.
Often the program is developed with government stakeholders from the beginning, but in other situations, it begins as a community-led effort. Despite the variations in the design and implementation of a TaRL program, the outcomes are consistently positive. Teaching at the Right Level has resulted in significant improvements in student learning across countries and contexts. It is an innovative, playful, and highly adaptable approach to learning that has profoundly changed how educators think about designing interventions to improve learning outcomes.
A critical feature of this model is the extent to which teachers teach the program consistently and with fidelity. In a recent review of research on TaRL program impacts, only one variable accounted for the variation across the TaRL program outcomes – the quality of the teaching including consistent teacher presence and instruction reflecting fidelity to the model (Angrist & Meager, 2023). This finding across multiple randomized control trial studies on TaRL highlights the importance of tracking fidelity of implementation and collecting data that includes treatment-on-the-treated effects in addition to the typical intention to treat effects (Angrist & Meager, 2023, p. 31).
The presentations in this panel will provide case studies of the Teaching at the Right Level approach to learning foundational skills, address the challenge of designing and adapting programs in different country contexts, and provide research evidence demonstrating the strong efficacy of this approach across models and contexts that can improve learning for all students.
Some key features of TaRL in addition to required training and support include:
1. A school structure that is flexible and acknowledges that foundational skills need focus.
2. Grouping by level and not by grades and ages.
3. ASER-type assessment administered individually to each child provides data on levels of learning and each learning level is tied to targeted instructional activities.
4. Grouping based upon learning levels, with formative assessment allowing for fluid movement of children across groups based upon their progress. Educational tracking is never the goal.
5. Instruction is active and playful and focuses on basic skills with regular instruction during a specific period during the year and during the day.
Each presentation will provide a unique opportunity to learn and understand how TaRL works in vastly different contexts. First, the TaRL team from India will present on the importance of flexible models in working at scale with ministries of education including examples of large-scale implementation of TaRL in 3 different states. Next a model designed with government and local stakeholders in Zambia and its combined efforts to focus on ensuring that every child learns. The Zambia presentation will feature lessons learned during national scaling with multiple funding sources, and a strong partnership with the Zambian government. The final presentation will describe a unique TaRL model implemented in Uganda focused on children in refugee contexts and the impact of the TaRL program on more than 8,000 refugee learners in Uganda.

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