Harnessing the transformational power of literacy: Using research to build more effective literacy interventions in school feeding programs

Group Submission Type: Formal Panel Session

Proposal

Across the developing world, 66 million school-age children go to school every day hungry (Bundy et al., 2018). Attending classes hungry severely impacts children’s abilities to learn, to thrive, and to realize their full potential (Plaut et al., 2017). While children in low- and middle-income countries are enrolling in school at historically high levels, many are not acquiring foundational literacy and numeracy skills (World Bank, 2019). Several evidence syntheses examine the effectiveness of school-based interventions and find that multi-faceted programs are most promising to improve learning (Evans & Mendez Acosta, 2020; McEwan, 2015).

Since 2002, the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), through the McGovern-Dole International Food for Education and Child Nutrition (FFE) Program, has provided support to low-income, food-deficit countries around the globe to reduce hunger and improve literacy and primary education, especially for girls. Through the provision of U.S. agricultural commodities and financial and technical assistance to support education, school feeding, and maternal and child nutrition, USDA has provided support to more than 31 million children in 48 countries. These multifaceted MGD FFE projects aim to (a) increase children’s nutrition, school attendance, and classroom attentiveness through the provision of school meals and (b) improve the quality of literacy instruction by giving teachers the pedagogical tools and materials they need, with the goal of improving children’s food security and literacy skills.

While early-grade literacy interventions have proliferated in LMICs as a possible solution to improve literacy in LMICs, major questions remain about which components of these literacy interventions are most effective in improving children’s literacy skills. This panel will present findings from across six McGovern-Dole school feeding programs (Benin, Burkina Faso, Lesotho, Liberia, Mali, and Tanzania) to demonstrate how evidence and innovative models are being used to shape literacy interventions in school feeding programs.

In one presentation, representatives from American Institutes for Research (AIR) will present the results of language mapping studies conducted as a component of literacy interventions in Benin and Lesotho. Project staff will highlight how semantic fluency data was used to understand the degree of multilingualism in project schools and to adapt literacy activities.

In a second presentation, a representative from Education Development Center (EDC) will share findings from a pilot in 10 early childhood development centers (CDPE) in Mali designed to engage children and communities around respect for the environment and to initiate advocacy within communities around school vegetable gardens as a center for literacy development and learning hands-on science and climate effects.

In a third presentation, a representative from Catholic Relief Services (CRS) Burkina Faso will present a special study from MGD Beoog Biiga developed to provide a deeper examination of factors that can contribute to student inattentiveness how these might be addressed. This presentation will describe the study, its methods and preliminary results.

In a fourth presentation, AIR evaluators will discuss findings from the baseline evaluation of Liberia Empowerment through Attendance, Reading, and Nutrition II (LEARN II) and Pamoja Tuwalishe FFE IV along with some preliminary results from the LEARN II midterm evaluation including the RCT. The baseline findings in both countries show low literacy rates (4% in Liberia and 4% in Tanzania) at the beginning of implementation. However, digging deeper into the literacy numbers revealed some notable findings including that in Tanzania, literacy rates were significantly higher for students who ate a meal the day of the assessment and were even higher when the meal they ate was a school-provided meal. In addition to literacy findings, the presentation will explore key findings around students’ food security and nutrition, health, and hygiene.

A representative from USDA will moderate discussion and provide reflections around the generation and application of evidence to improve MGD FFE literacy interventions.

Sub Unit

• Global Literacy SIG

Organizer

• Jill Pritts, American Institutes for Research

Chair

• Anne Sellers, Catholic Relief Services

Individual Presentations

• Using research to navigate language of instruction policies in multilingual settings: Two case studies - Jill Pritts, American Institutes for Research; Pooja Nakamura, American Institutes for Research; Michaela Gulemetova, AIR; Uttara Balakrishnan, American Institutes for Research; John Austin Downes, American Institutes for Research; Anasthasie Liberiste-Osirus, AIR

• Pre-school science as means of combating climate change: Advocacy that engages children, educating mothers and communities in the climate crisis - Carrie Lewis, Edcucation Development Center EDC; Simeon DEMBELE, Catholic Relief Services; Almou Maiga, Education Development Center, Inc.

• Improving attentiveness in the classroom for better academic performance: Is addressing student hunger sufficient? - Hamadou Kanazoe, Catholic Relief Services; Daniel G Oliver, Room to Read

• Literacy & school feeding in Liberia and Tanzania - Vanessa Hoffman, AIR; Daniel Zaas, American Institutes for Research

Discussant

• Eleanor JS Morefield, USDAFAS