Individual Submission Summary
Share...

Direct link:

Strategies that work: Lessons from All Children Reading projects supporting students who have low vision or are blind

Tue, April 16, 5:00 to 6:30pm, Hyatt Regency, Floor: Street (Level 0), Regency A

Proposal

This paper will present the results of the studies of the All Children Reading: A Grand Challenge for Development (ACR GCD) Round 2 projects that supported students who have low vision or are blind. ACR GCD is a partnership between the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), World Vision, and the Australian Government that provides an ongoing series of grant and prize competitions that leverage science and technology to source, test, and disseminate scalable solutions to improve literacy skills of early grade learners in developing countries. Three grants awarded under ACR GCD Round 2 sought to improve the reading outcomes of students who have low vision or are blind.

To understand the ability of technology-based innovations to improve the literacy skills of early grade learners, School-to-School International (STS) collaborated with each ACR GCD Round 2 grantee to develop a robust research study design and advise on the sampling and research groups, conduct Early Grade Reading Assessments (EGRA) at each project’s baseline and endline to systematically assess project participants’ reading skills, and provide technical assistance on monitoring and evaluation, and fidelity of implementation activities. STS also conducted qualitative end-of-project interviews with project management, beneficiaries, and key stakeholders on each project to explore lessons learned from project implementation, understand how the project impacted beneficiaries, and assess the potential scalability of the projects.

This paper will present key features of these projects, including a discussion of literacy gains as measured by an adapted EGRA, a case study of the Reading Beyond Sight project implemented by Resource for the Blind, Inc. in the Philippines, and lessons learned to inform future funding and research.

Author