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BEC-GRN Webinar Follow-Up: Learning & Adapting on Reading Programs during COVID-19

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Thank you for your interest in the BEC-GRN event: Learning and Adapting on Reading Programs during COVID-19!

The Basic Education Coalition and Global Reading Network were pleased to welcome 200 members of our global development community (from Honduras to Chad to Indonesia) to discuss ways to learn and adapt on reading programs during this pandemic.

Please find the reference information below: 

Finally, if you are not yet on the GRN email list, you can sign up here. Please also feel free to reach out to the Global Reading Network at GRN@usaid.gov. To join the BEC newsletter listserv, click here.

Safety Matters!

The Basic Education Coalition (BEC) Gender & Girls Education Working Group (GGE WG) consulted with several organizations that have worked with donors, governments, and communities to plan and sustain safe learning environments. While no situation is precisely the same in any school or in any country, here are some lessons these organizations have learned (in alphabetical order by country) around what fostering a safe home learning environment, as well as a safe return to school, might look like in these unprecedented times.

Read their practical, experience-based advice here!

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BEC-GRN Webinar Follow-Up: Evaluating/Assessing Reading Programs during COVID-19

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Thank you for your interest in the BEC-GRN event: Evaluating/Assessing Reading Programs during COVID-19!

The Basic Education Coalition and Global Reading Network were pleased to welcome 250 members of our global development community (from Haiti to Ethiopia to Fiji) to discuss ways to evaluate reading programs during this pandemic.

Please find the reference information below: 

Finally, if you are not yet on the GRN email list, you can sign up here. Please also feel free to reach out to the Global Reading Network at GRN@usaid.gov. To join the BEC newsletter listserv, click here.

Stay tuned for the next webinar in this series, which will focus on learning and adapting reading programs during COVID-19. 

BEC Welcomes Childhood Education International as a New Member!

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Since 1892, Childhood Education International, or CE International, has worked at the intersection of education, human development, and international development. As an organization, CE International strives to transform education so that every child has access to quality and equitable care and education experiences that uphold their right to learn. This vision is bolstered by the belief that education creates better lives for learners and, ultimately, society.

As a trusted organization that has historically promoted innovative approaches in education, CE International addresses the most pressing challenges through three Practice Areas: Innovative Leadership, Child Health & Well-Being, and Rethinking Education. The work conducted through these three lenses can ultimately lead to major shifts in education, primarily by developing a burgeoning workforce of education professionals, emphasizing the holistic view that children’s development is crucial for them to thrive in school and beyond, and constantly considering, examining, and exploring new opportunities to advance education. 

Over the course of its history, CE International has formed a united global network of education specialists across a variety of sectors. CE International engages their vast global network, including over 35 Country Leads and 4 representatives to the United Nations, to collaborate on opportunities to design, implement, and circulate critical innovations in education around the world.

Welcome to BEC!

BEC Welcomes Team4Tech as a New Member!

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Team4Tech works to improve the quality of education for underserved learners around the world through technology solutions and training. Since 2013, Team4Tech has advanced the quality of learning for over 65,000 learners, as reached by our 25 nonprofit partners in 18 countries.

Team4Tech partners with established, high performing nonprofits for three to five years to help realize the nonprofit’s goals for integrating technology to increase educational outcomes for underserved learners. Team4Tech collaborates with each nonprofit to define the goals and metrics of the partnership as well as the scope of annual projects, which contribute 1300 hours of pro bono consulting and technology grants of up to $15,000. For each project, a team of pro bono consultants from leading technology companies works with nonprofit staff for about eight weeks to learn about the nonprofit’s goals. The consultants design technology solutions and training to meet those goals as well as the needs of staff, learners, and local context. The pro bono consultants then spend 1-2 weeks onsite (or virtually), working with nonprofit staff and teachers to implement the technology and build capacity to use the technology effectively in teaching and learning. The goal is to improve educational outcomes for learners and empower them with the skills they will need for economic and employment opportunities.

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BEC-GRN Webinar Follow-Up: Monitoring Reading Programs during COVID-19

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Thank you for your interest in the BEC-GRN event: Monitoring Reading Programs during COVID-19!

The Basic Education Coalition and Global Reading Network were pleased to welcome over 300 members of our global development community (from the Dominican Republic to Kyrgyzstan to Nepal) to discuss ways to monitor reading programs during this pandemic.

Please find the reference information below: 

Finally, if you are not yet on the GRN email list, you can sign up here. Please also feel free to reach out to the Global Reading Network at GRN@usaid.gov. To join the BEC newsletter listserv, click here.

Stay tuned for the next webinars in this series! One will focus on Evaluation/Assessment, the other on Learning.

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New Resource: BEC-mEducation Alliance EdTech Webinar Series Recordings, Presentations, & More

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In April, May, and June 2020, BEC and the mEducation Alliance held a series of webinars entitled “Education Technology for Continuity of Education in Response to COVID-19”. The series brought together hundreds of development workers from around the world to learn from one another in an effort to better meet learners needs during this pandemic. Below please find a compilation of the resources gleaned from this series.

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Webinar #1: Education Development Center, Teach for All, All Children Reading: A Grand Challenge

BEC and mEducation Alliance welcomed nearly 100 members of our global development community (from Iraq to the Philippines to Zimbabwe), to discuss EdTech interventions from:

Read more about each organization’s interventions and resources by clicking the above links and/or by viewing the webinar presentations. Click here to tune in to the recording.

Webinar #2: World Education, Room to Read, RTI International

BEC and mEducation Alliance welcomed nearly 100 members of our global development community (from Cambodia to Guatemala to Nigeria) to discuss EdTech interventions from:

Check out each organization’s interventions and other resources by clicking the above links and/or by viewing the webinar presentations. Click here to tune in to the recording.

Webinar #3: Cambridge Education, Chemonics International, Worldreader

The Basic Education Coalition and mEducation Alliance welcomed nearly 100 members of our global development community (from Brazil to Liberia to Pakistan) to discuss EdTech interventions from:

Check out each organization’s presentation by clicking the above links. Click here to tune in to the recording.

Webinar #4: Creative Associates International, FHI 360, World Learning

BEC and the mEducation Alliance welcomed nearly 200 members of our global development community (from Honduras to Malaysia to Spain) to discuss EdTech interventions from:

Check out each organization’s presentation by clicking the above links. Click here to tune in to the recording.

Keep the conversation going by contributing to our interactive Q&A googledoc. Also be sure to check out BEC’s “Pivot Stories” document, which is chock-full of resources, the solutions presented in this webinar series, and more. Lastly, don't miss BEC's latest newsletter and the mEducation Alliance newsletter.

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BEC & GRN hold Webinar: Reading Instruction in the Age of COVID-19 — Planning for the Present and the Future

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The Basic Education Coalition and Global Reading Network were pleased to welcome nearly 200 members of our global development community (from Costa Rica to Malawi to Uzbekistan) to discuss ways to best support reading instruction during this pandemic and beyond. 

Please find the reference information below: 

Finally, if you are not yet on the GRN email list, you can sign up here. Please also feel free to reach out to the Global Reading Network at GRN@usaid.gov. To join the BEC newsletter listserv, click here.

New Resource: Ensuring All Students are Learning White Paper

The global education community works to increase access to quality education for all children around the world. Education is one of the greatest equalizers—children of all backgrounds, skill levels, and religious beliefs can learn the fundamentals of reading and writing—the core skills of communication. Education empowers all learners to become productive members of society and to thrive in their individual lives. Unfortunately, education systems across both the developed and developing worlds do not currently adequately support children of all learning abilities, or those from certain ethnic and cultural backgrounds. Instruction is primarily aimed at ‘able’ learners, leaving children of different cognitive or physical abilities at a severe disadvantage.

Even as the idea of inclusion garners support, the global community struggles to move beyond buzzwords to concrete recommendations for action. To further this discussion, DAI hosted a panel on inclusive education in 2019 to ask two fundamental questions: What are the key policy recommendations we need to be making to support inclusive education? And, what are the key aspects we need to think about during project design and implementation to achieve inclusive education?

This paper by Sakil Malik, Farah Mahesri, Craig Geddes, and Angie Quintela, captures key points from that discussion and develops them further through additional research, consolidated here into concrete recommendations for policy makers and implementers. DAI acknowledges with special thanks the contributions and insights of these experts and supporters:

  • Candace Debnam of School to School International

  • Deborah Backus of All Children Reading: A Grand Challenge for Development

  • Jerry Mindes of Leonard Cheshire

  • Josh Josa of the U.S. Agency for International Development

  • Lisa Wadors Verne of Benetech

  • Sue Swenson of Inclusion International

  • Amy Pallangyo, an independent education consultant.

Additional thanks and acknowledgment to the DAI Inclusive Education team: Antonio Iskandar, Gustavo Payan, and Zehra Zaidi

BEC Welcomes the Luminos Fund as a New Member!

The Luminos Fund works to ensure no child is ever denied an education, whether by poverty, crisis, or discrimination. Luminos is one of the few international, non-government organizations with a proven model, laser focus, and compelling track record for helping out-of-school children learn and catch up to grade level. The organization works to empower communities and reverse the global learning crisis that has left millions of children out of school and lacking opportunity.

The Luminos Fund’s core offering is Second Chance: an intensive learning program that empowers children to catch up to grade level and covers the first three years of school in ten months. In Second Chance, boys and girls learn to read and do math – to learn how to learn – through a joyful, activity-based curriculum. To date, Luminos has helped over 132,000 children get a second chance at education across Ethiopia, Liberia, and Lebanon where the organization works with Syrian refugees.

Luminos programs achieve inspiring, long-term results. Upon completion of Second Chance programs, over ninety percent of Luminos students advance into their local mainstream school, continuing on the path to opportunity. Even six years after completing Second Chance and transitioning into mainstream schools, Luminos children continue to fare better than their counterparts. External research shows that graduates of the program complete primary school at twice the rate of their peers.

Welcome to BEC!

Banner photo: Room to Read