The Importance of Management Support for Teacher-Led Targeted Instruction in Ghana

• In Event: From research to policy in school management and accountability: Rigorous evidence from randomized evaluations

Proposal

Ghana, like many countries in sub-Saharan Africa, has greatly expanded access to primary school in the last two decades, but very few children meet academic standards for their grade. Based on insights from studies in India and Kenya showing that significant learning improvements can be achieved by targeting the level of instruction to pupils’ achievement levels, researchers collaborated with the Ghana Education Service to develop and evaluate the Teacher Community Assistant Initiative (TCAI). They found that the program improved children’s basic skills in numeracy and literacy, but implementation was uneven and compliance with the program was low among classroom teachers.

These results laid the groundwork for the Strengthening Accountability to Reach All Students (STARS) study, where researchers evaluated whether increased managerial engagement from head teachers and circuit supervisors could increase the likelihood that teachers implement targeted instruction in their classrooms. Researchers assigned government schools to three groups: 1) teachers received training in targeted instruction, 2) teachers received training in targeted instruction and head teachers and circuit supervisors received management training, and 3) a comparison group, where business operated as usual in these schools. The results will help inform Ghana’s Ministry of Education on how teacher-led targeted instruction can be scaled in Ghana.

This presentation will discuss 1) the results from the STARS project, and 2) considerations related to school management and support when thinking about pathways to scale of programs.

Authors

• Joyce Jumpah, Innovations for Poverty Action

• Renaud Comba, Innovations for Poverty Action