Protective factors for children’s academic progress and outcomes in West Africa

Session Type: Paper Symposium

Abstract

Despite significant progress in increasing universal primary school enrollment (UNESCO, 2014), educational quality and learning levels in West Africa remain low by both national and international standards (Angrist et al., 2021). Developmentally informed descriptive and evaluation research is needed to identify key protective processes that support learning in this context to inform how interventions can be utilized to maximize effectiveness.
This symposium addresses key protective factors related to children’s academic outcomes and progress using longitudinal data from two countries: Ghana and Côte d’Ivoire. In the first paper, Worstman and Jasińska will present findings on protective processes that reduce the risk of primary-school dropout in rural Ivorian schoolchildren, including child-, family- and school-level factors. In the second paper, Avornyo will present findings on the role of both parental and non-parental caregivers’ cognitive and social-emotional stimulation in supporting young children’s academic development over one schoolyear. Finally, Wolf will present new data from a longitudinal impact evaluation of an early childhood education intervention, presenting 9-year medium-term impacts of improved quality early education on children’s literacy and math outcomes in the return to school after pandemic-induced school closures.
Together, the findings point to the role of protective factors across multiple ecological levels that can support academic progress and skills in an under-studied context.

Sub Unit

• Solicited Content: Global South

Chairs

• Kaja K Jasinska, University of Toronto

• Sharon Wolf, University of Pennsylvania

Individual Presentations

• Risk and resilience factors for primary-school dropout in Côte d’Ivoire - Presenting Author: Brooke Wortsman, University of Toronto; Angela Capani; Henry Brice; Mary-Claire Ball, University of Toronto; Benjamin Zinszer, Swarthmore College; Sharon Wolf, University of Pennsylvania; Kaja K Jasinska, University of Toronto

• Mothers, fathers and other caregivers’ stimulation and children’s school readiness in Ghana - Presenting Author: Esinam Ami Avornyo, University of Cape Coast; Sharon Wolf, University of Pennsylvania

• Medium-term Protective Effects of Quality Early Childhood Education during and after school closures in Ghana - Presenting Author: Sharon Wolf, University of Pennsylvania; Elisabetta Aurino, Imperial College London; Noelle Suntheimer, University of Pennsylvania; Edward Tsinigo, Innovations for Poverty Action