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ECD and Education Quality Improvement at Scale: Centering Equity in Design, Data, and Developing Partnerships

Wed, March 26, 9:45 to 11:00am, Palmer House, Floor: 7th Floor, LaSalle 3

Group Submission Type: Formal Panel Session

Proposal

In an increasingly digital world, equity gaps in education only become more relevant and urgent to address. Quality early childhood development (ECD) and education outcomes are complex issues and particularly challenging to guarantee in low-resource, refugee-hosting, and crisis-affected contexts. Given limited global funding to both humanitarian aid and international development, a systems-based approach is necessary to align priorities, resourcing, and collective action to achieve the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals. Collaboration between myriad stakeholders considering respective mandates and expertise is critical for achieving scale for ECD and education reforms. There is, however, a dearth of global evidence on ‘what works,’ ‘how,’ and ‘for whom’ to scale ECD and education interventions in ways that ensure sustainable and equitable outcomes for all children.

Long-term and large-scale ECD and education reforms or interventions provide an opportunity to strengthen the system mandated to provide ECD and education services. Though government ministries and actors are an advantageous and logical partner for scaling reforms into existing systems, it is important to critically reflect on those who may be marginalized by the system itself. Otherwise, scaling risks replicating existing inequities and exclusions. Various factors could contribute to such marginalization for both teachers and children. Such inequities can be further exacerbated in an increasingly digital age, where factors that disadvantage certain groups such as ability status, socioeconomic status, and displacement status can be further entrenched rather than serve as a panacea for reducing inequities. Thus, practitioners, donors, and policymakers must remain agile and adaptable to deeply understand the context and needs, develop partnerships to address equity gaps, and curate a balanced portfolio of scalable approaches, interventions, and partners to ensure equitable outcomes for all.

This session will take an interactive moderated discussion format to engage a panel of researchers, practitioners, and policymakers working towards scaling ECD and education reforms and interventions with an eye towards equity. We will begin with a brief introduction to a global conceptualization of scale and multi-stakeholder approaches and four interventions/reforms currently at different scaling stages:
Playful parenting interventions focused on low-resource contexts for children ages 0-3 in Serbia, Zambia, Rwanda, and Bhutan;
ECD interventions focused on refugee and host community children ages 0-6 in Jordan, Lebanon, NW Syria, and Iraq;
A teacher education reform raising the standard of teacher preparedness for Kindergarten-Grade 3 education in Jordan; and
An active learning (learning through play) intervention focused on supporting improved quality of pre-primary and primary education for refugee and host community children ages 3-12+ in East Africa.

Following this introduction, panelists will engage in a facilitated discussion focused on three core themes: (1) conceptualizations of scale for equitable ECD and education outcomes, (2) data-driven decision-making for equity, and (3) systems thinking and cultivating partnerships for achieving equitable impact at scale. The moderated discussion format will allow both evidence from empirical research and lessons learned in project implementation to be shared across organizations and projects and allow for interaction with audience members. Collectively, these experiences shed light on opportunities and challenges for practitioners and policymakers to pursue scaling pathways harnessing collective action for sustainable and equitable impact.

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