The Research Process & Findings of the Speed School Uganda Longitudinal Study

• In Event: Experiences from China, Uganda, and Myanmar

Proposal

Geneva Global Uganda has entered into an agreement with Development Research and Social Policy Analysis Center (DRASPAC) to conduct an independent longitudinal study of the Speed School program in Uganda. DRASPAC is a monitoring and evaluation firm located in Kampala, Uganda with extensive experience in the evaluation of education programs in East Africa.

The study will look at students from the 2017 cohort and compare them to two control groups. The first control group will be students from government primary schools from which the Speed School program operated. In these schools, students and teachers would have had the opportunity to interact with and observe Speed School students. By studying the outcomes of these students, we will have the opportunity to observe the impact of the teacher trainings and educational communities of practice facilitated by Geneva Global Uganda and collaborating partners. The second control group will be made up of students from government primary schools with no link or connection to the Speed School program. The longitudinal study has only recently begun, so we cannot expand on findings in this proposal. The research team will be observing these students and their communities seeking to respond to three major research questions: (1) How well former speed school pupils perform in school; (2) How well former speed school pupils, both those still in school and those who drop out, integrate into life outside of school; (3) How mothers and other guardians of former Speed School pupils support their children’s education efforts. While not suited to longitudinal study, the final area being assessed during the study is an appraisal of the Speed School’s cost effectiveness, seeking to understand whether it is more or less costly to educate a child for one year in Speed School or three years in a conventional classroom. one other question may be determinant in the government’s decision to adopt the model or not.

The presenter will speak to the longitudinal study’s model and research methods, the challenges, and finally the study’s findings.

Author

• Joshua A Muskin, Geneva Global