BEC Welcomes EdIntersect as a New Member!

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Welcome to BEC!

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EdIntersect is a certified woman-owned small business (WOSB) based in North Carolina’s Research Triangle. The global education firm draws on a seasoned, international academic-practitioner network to provide research, evaluation, assessment, capacity development, and program design services for education sector programs, notably in literacy, numeracy, and social-emotional learning. The firm’s commitment to an intersectional lens means that gender and disability inclusion integrate thoroughly into EdIntersect approaches. EdIntersect’s consideration of intersectionality recognizes that the many elements of individual identity - disability, gender, ethnicity, race, age, language, urbanicity, class or caste, citizenship status or religion - are not static characteristics. These dynamics also overlap and interact in ways that affect how individuals or groups experience marginalization and exclusion from education. The firm brings innovative and technology-infused approaches to evaluation and to engagement with stakeholders of all types, with a strong commitment and proven capabilities in building local capacity and local leadership in each context where EdIntersect works. Inclusion in a distinctly participatory process in each local context is a key priority in all of the work conducted by the EdIntersect team. Together, the EdIntersect team has worked in over 25 countries on reading, math, social-emotional learning, gender, disability, girls’ education and empowerment, and social behavior across the life cycle and education ecosystem, from early childhood and pre-primary to primary, secondary, and on to teacher training levels. In addition, EdIntersect has conducted country-wide education sector evaluations, performance evaluations for specific projects, and partnered with development organizations and donors as a prime contractor and subcontractor in technical assistance, system-strengthening, capacity-partnering, and research and evaluation roles.

The EdIntersect team brings the overall knowledge and planning to carry out research required by donors, but with an expertise unique to the depth of skills and experience brought by the firm. Drawing on meaningful assessment principles, EdIntersect develops research instruments with a suite of sub-skills to assess learner outcomes in a variety of national languages depending on the context, which address needs at the country level but also speak to donor and international guidelines. EdIntersect works hand in hand with governments, ministries of education, and local organizations to build understanding around approaches to foundational skills development and assessment, as well as to engagement with school and home stakeholders relevant to the learner’s development. As a research team, EdIntersect brings a life course view of learning to its work as well as forward-thinking understanding and concentrated experience in using USAID’s frameworks for national and district assessments to look at school quality, and literacy and foundational skills progress for learners and the systems serving them.

Since its inception in 2013, EdIntersect has been working across the globe to incorporate multiple factors using an intersectional approach to frame critical issues and create practical, lasting solutions. EdIntersect is currently undertaking or has successfully implemented, along with its partners, USAID projects focused in pre-primary and primary education, including USAID Malawi NextGen, USAID Tajikistan Learn Together Activity, USAID Senegal Lecture Pour Tous, and USAID Rwanda Soma Umenye. In addition, EdIntersect served as the lead evaluation partner for the adolescent girls’ leadership and empowerment through education program USAID Mali GLEE over the course of that five-year award. EdIntersect also recently completed education sector evaluations funded by the World Bank and UNICEF in Cape Verde and Nigeria respectively. The EdIntersect team works closely with counterparts in diverse country contexts on capacity building across thematic areas, incorporating a seasoned teaching and learning approach for education systems and inclusive education solutions that take into account gender, disability status, rural/urban location, language group, and marginalizing factors specific to each context. In this sense, EdIntersect directly shares in BEC’s mission to “Promote expanded, equitable, access to quality basic education so that all children have the chance to learn.”

Visit EdIntersect’s website to learn more:

https://edintersect.com/

October 24 Webinar: Lessons and New Directions in Social and Emotional Learning (SEL) Measurement

The Basic Education Coalition's Monitoring, Evaluation, Research, & Learning (MERL) working group is excited to host this webinar on Lessons and New Directions in Social and Emotional Learning (SEL) Measurement.

During the webinar, we'll learn from the following BEC member interventions:

• FHI 360 will share its process for developing the Rwanda SEL assessment tool aligned with the Rwanda national SEL framework on the USAID/Rwanda Schools and Systems (Tunoze Gusoma) program.

• RTI International will share about its work developing a national survey in Kenya that collects information on both social emotional learning and educational achievement.

• Teach for All (and partner organizations Enseña por Paraguay, Enseña Ecuador, and Enseña por Colombia) will share about its development of a Student Learning Assessment Item Bank in the LAC region that measures student learning outcomes in academic (math, reading) and non-academic (social-emotional learning) domains aligned to local and international frameworks.

We look forward to seeing you there!

BEC Welcomes Humanity & Inclusion as a New Member!

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Welcome to BEC!

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Founded in 1982 and a co-recipient of the 1997 Nobel Peace Prize, Humanity & Inclusion (HI), formerly named Handicap International, is an independent and impartial organization working in situations of poverty and exclusion, conflict, and disaster. HI works alongside people with disabilities and individuals living in situations of extreme hardship, taking action and bearing witness in order to respond to their essential needs, improve their living conditions and promote respect for their dignity and fundamental rights. Since HI was founded in 1982, our work has benefited tens of millions of people worldwide. In 2022, we ran 466 projects in 60 countries. 

Humanity & Inclusion is a federation implementing projects in over 60 countries with eight national associations in Belgium, France, the UK, Germany, Luxembourg, Switzerland, the USA and Canada. Inclusive education (IE) is a core part of HI’s global strategy (2016-2025) which is to promote access to services (mainstream or specific) and to promote the social participation and equal opportunities of people with disabilities and vulnerable populations in emergency, post-emergency and development contexts.  

Humanity & Inclusion has been working in the field of education for more than 20 years and collaborates with education, social and healthcare partners to ensure quality inclusive education for children with disabilities primarily in the state formal education system. We are currently implementing more than 60 education projects in 27 countries across Africa, the Middle East and Asia. Since 2015, Inclusive Education in Emergencies (IEiE) has been a sub-sector within HI’s IE programming, growing to a portfolio of 15 IEiE projects in 14 countries. 

A core strength of HI’s operating model is our qualified, dedicated and skilled teams in-country, technically supported by experts in HI’s headquarters, and close partnerships with local implementing partners including Organizations of People with Disabilities (OPDs). In addition, HI is a recognized actor on the international scene: HI is part of different education networks, including the Global Campaign for Education (GCE) international and various national branches (Send My Friend (UK), Coalition Education (France), Educaid (Belgium) and GCE-US the International Network for EiE (INEE), Educaid, EENET and IDDC inclusive education working groups. Through our membership to IDDC we are also directly involved in the Global Action on Disability (GLAD) network and specifically the Inclusive Education working group, as co-chair representing the IDDC network. Our membership in these networks is helping to raise the issue of disability inclusive education within the wider mainstream education sector and the wider disability sector.

During the recent years, HI has been involved in several important events for inclusive education, such as taking part in the UNESCO Conference in Columbia to celebrate 25 years since the first Salamanca statement on inclusive education ( 2019) ,helping to shape the recommendations for the Global Education Monitoring (GEM) report on inclusion in education (2020),  the UN Transforming Education Summit (2022), and inputting into the agenda and commitments for the Global Disability Summit (2018 and 2022) . HI has also been involved in drafting various key chapters and statements around Inclusive Education for children with disabilities, for example in relation to the HLPF reviewing SDG 4. 

Learn more about Humanity & Inclusion at www.hi-us.org.

BEC Members Chemonics and Room to Read Commemorate International Literacy Day

The Unlocking Literacy: Navigating Challenges in Early Reading event marked the 2023 International Literacy Day with a panel discussion on the global state of literacy and its importance as a basic human right.

Chemonics, in partnership with co-hosts Room to Read and Reading Partners DC, were proud to host Unlocking Literacy: Navigating Challenges in Early Reading on September 7, 2023, at their corporate headquarters in Washington, DC’s Navy Yard neighborhood. The event saw engagement from a diverse array of attendees from literacy advocates to graduate students.

By discussing tangible challenges and solutions with diverse literacy advocates, powerbrokers, and champions, the event built discourse and reflected on literacy as the human rights issue of our time. The literacy issue is seen clearly in statistics; according to the National Assessment of Educational Progress, over 50% of Black, Hispanic, and American Indian/Alaska Native fourth graders read “below basic” compared to 37% of all fourth graders in the United States. Key to the discussion were selected clips from The Right to Read, a new film from Roco Films and executive-produced by LaVar Burton.

Opening remarks by Chemonics' Education Global Practice Lead Audrey Spencer highlighted literacy as a basic human right, calling for focus on education interventions that aim to provide inclusive, equitable, accessible, and quality education to all. Local middle-school teacher and author of A-Train Allen and Nearer My Freedom, Lesley Younge, delivered the keynote address underlining the impetus for effective literacy instruction and grounded the themes of the event in her personal and professional experiences as a mother and a teacher.

In her keynote address Ms. Younge said, "While there is much work and even struggle ahead, the reward is to collectively offer every child within our reach this precious gift, one that sows seeds of opportunity and self-determination in every area of life. One that builds bridges to people, information, and the larger world. This gift requires unique and special delivery, one mind at a time, one connection at a time. And as they say, many hands make light work. There are children making gains today who will backslide tomorrow if we are not vigilant, if we do not all hold ourselves accountable for growing the gift. For most of our kids it will take years to become proficient at reading and writing and they deserve a knowledgeable and committed educator at every step of their journey. Imparting the gift of literacy takes teamwork and a collaborative mindset, the kind demonstrated today by our hosts: Chemonics, Room to Read, and Reading Partners. I stand ready to grab the baton and run my leg. Are you?”

The esteemed panel included Dr. Joanie Cohen-Mitchell (Policy and Technical Leadership Lead, Center for Education, USAID), Dr. Katherine Norris (Chair, Department of Curriculum and Instruction, Howard University), Dr. Kenya Dugger (Sr. Advisor/Director of DE&I, Chemonics International), Heather Simpson (Chief Program Officer, Room To Read), and Audu Liman (Head of Atiku Institute for Development, American University of Nigeria; USAID Global Reading Network). The panelists discussed key issues surrounding literacy including the advent of technology and its role in teaching literacy, access to quality reading materials, evidence-based literacy instruction, and emerging needs for equitable learning from their personal, professional, and organizational perspectives. The post-event social produced new connections and collaborations that will continue championing and advocating for literacy as a basic human right.

Chemonics’ global education work is driven by the belief that tomorrow’s world must be better than today’s, which is why our approach to working with children, youth, and adults centers on continuous learning and instructional excellence. Chemonics has been sponsoring Reading Partners DC since 2019 and are frequent collaborators with Room To Read on international literacy projects.

BEC Launches New Universal Design for Learning (UDL) Video

In Education, One Size Does Not Fit All

Not all students learn the same way. Academic researchers have found that, just as every individual has their own fingerprint, every single student looks, sees, and senses instruction differently.

Universal Design for Learning (UDL) is an education framework specifically designed to reach ALL students at the same time. That’s why, over the last 30 years — and with particularly explosive growth in the last decade — this new, evidence-based approach for learning has steadily gained ground. In fact, UDL has become experts’ preferred way to design learning experiences around the world and USAID is now requiring the UDL approach to be integrated into all new education programming.

BEC’s Gender & Social Inclusion (GSI) working group banded together with Brooklyn Story Lab to develop a quick-and-simple overview of this inclusive education approach. Our hope is that implementers, donors, school leadership, teachers, and others around the world will use this video to become better informed about UDL — and perhaps even implement it or encourage its implementation.

April 5 Virtual Launch Event: USAID's Guidance for Promoting Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Accessibility in Educational Materials

Wednesday, April 5
10am-11:00am EST

The Basic Education Coalition is honored to host the virtual launch of USAID's Guidance for Promoting Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Accessibility in Educational Materials. 

This guidance equips development workers to identify and create educational materials that promote equity and inclusion across the education continuum, from pre-primary through higher education, and within the populations they seek to serve.

What is promotion of equity and inclusion in educational materials, and why is it important?
Responsible and effective promotion of equity and inclusion in educational materials means:

• Understanding the context in which the materials will be received, particularly demographic composition and intergroup relations;

• Understanding the interactions between interventions within a given context and how such interactions are affected by group relations; and

• Acting upon the understanding of these interactions to minimize negative impacts and maximize positive impacts of educational materials, to empower marginalized groups.

Educational materials that do not promote equity and inclusion can worsen marginalization. For example, if children or youth from one group have less access to requisite technology for distance learning materials, or if materials use derogatory slang terms to describe a marginalized group, those materials will reinforce systemic exclusion.

The event will also launch an exciting new Universal Design for Learning video by the Basic Education Coalition's Gender & Social Inclusion working group.

BEC Welcomes Opportunity International as a New Board-Level Member!

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Welcome to BEC!

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Opportunity International (Opportunity) is a global non-governmental organization based in Chicago, USA. Founded in 1971, Opportunity designs, delivers, and scales innovative financial solutions that help families living in extreme poverty build sustainable livelihoods and access quality education for their children. Opportunity equips families with the tools and training they need to build their businesses, send their children to school, provide for their families, and break the cycle of poverty. In 2021, Opportunity reached 18.7 million clients, 97 per cent of whom are women, through 104 partners, facilitating loans worth $2 billion.

Launched in in 2009, Opportunity International’s Education Finance initiative (EduFinance) is the global leader in unlocking private capital in the affordable private education sector today. The goal of EduFinance is to help accelerate an end to the global education crisis of 619 million children and youth either out of school or in school but not learning. Opportunity’s approach helps more kids go to school and stay in school, while systemically improving the quality of education schools provide. This work is accomplished much faster and more effectively by investing in local parents and educators who, impatient with waiting for their local public schools to improve, build their own affordable private schools to provide the quality education they envision for their children. To date Opportunity has established EduFinance portfolios in 30 countries in Africa, Asia, Latin America, enabling the investment of $564 million to 15,000 schools through 134 banks and financial services companies cumulatively.

Opportunity’s model uses catalytic capital to leverage investment from local financial institutions into low cost schools in emerging markets. Opportunity provides expert technical assistance to socially-focused financial institutions that are committed to the shared goal of access to education for all. Opportunity supports them to develop, launch and grow sustainable education lending portfolios through the provision of training and support in market research,  financial product design for school improvement and school fees, staff training, and access to a suite of proprietary back office systems improvement.

Opportunity enrolls affordable private schools in a development program to improve the quality of education children receive and foster an enabling environment for learning. Through training to teachers and administrators, accompanied by mentoring of teachers and classroom staff, the program builds the human capacities to run more sustainable institutions and offer higher quality of instruction to students. Opportunity also assists school leaders to assess key education quality metrics within their schools and then assists them to develop and implement plans to increase their performance in their areas of priority.

The combination of increased access to finance to invest in schools and the coaching, mentoring and, internal assessment and improvement together lead to creating the conditions where more children can learn and thrive. Looking ahead, Opportunity has set an ambitious goal to accelerate the growth and adoption of this model in order to reach a cumulative 19.3 million children and youth in at least 30 low- and middle-income countries by the end of 2025.

Visit the Opportunity International and Opportunity EduFinance websites to learn more:

www.opportunity.org

www.edufinance.org

BEC Welcomes Inclusive Development Partners as a New Member!

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Welcome to BEC!

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Inclusive Development Partners (IDP) is a unique, woman-owned small business that leverages unparalleled expertise in the field of inclusive development to achieve policies, practices, and programs in corporate, governmental, and civil society sectors that ensure international development, humanitarian aid, and government services reach all members of society.

IDP’s transdisciplinary team uses a scholar-practitioner model to translate research to practice in more than 20 countries, on behalf of a multitude of diverse stakeholders. IDP has extensive technical expertise in a wide range of issues related to inclusive education, including teacher professional development, policy, systems change, Universal Design for Learning (UDL), policies and programs for individuals with diverse disabilities, parent engagement, monitoring and evaluation, and capacity building of diverse actors including educators, government officials, and DPOs.

IDP also recognizes and values the importance of engaging local actors as active participants and contributors to policies, programs, and research and evaluation. Partnering with local individuals and organizations is critical, as it affirms and honors the lived experiences, cultural intricacies, and social and political capital of all citizens, especially those with disabilities.

IDP ensures that all individuals, including persons with disabilities, have access to quality education. A sample of IDP’s work includes:

• Conducting the USAID-funded Multi-Country Study on Inclusive Education (MCSIE), a four-year evaluation of USAID inclusive education activities in Cambodia, Malawi, and Nepal.

• Leading a USAID-funded review of inclusive education programming implemented and coordinated by USAID Missions in the Asia region (with assistance from RTI International, the prime) to identify any gaps or potential incentives to improving the education sector’s response to inclusion.

• Working with UNICEF in Jamaica to conduct a situational study on school-to-work transition for youth with disabilities and developing a detailed manual to guide Jamaican educators in leading the process of school-to-work transitions for students with disabilities nationally.

• Serving as a subcontractor under RTI International on the USAID-funded Transforming the Education System for Teachers and Students in Liberia (TESTS), where IDP supports eight teacher training institutions (TTIs) assess and improve the extent to which their teacher preparation programs are supportive of women and persons with disabilities.

• Supporting the Education Commission’s Innovative Pedagogies project, funded by the LEGO Foundation, by serving as the technical expert on inclusive pedagogies and developing an inclusive pedagogical framework for countries to evaluate their strengths and gaps.

• Developing a Universally Designed Assessments (UDA) toolkit for the World Bank, as well as piloting an accessible early grade math assessment (EGMA) in Tajikistan.
  

Visit IDP’s website to learn more: https://www.inclusivedevpartners.com/

Don't Miss BEC Member Presentations at CIES!

The 2023 CIES program is chock-full of excellent BEC member presentations, during which they’ll share their technical expertise in areas such as Anti-Racism, Diversity, and Inclusion; Early Childhood Education; Education Technology; Gender & Social Inclusion; Monitoring, Evaluation, Research, & Learning; and more.

Click here or on the below image for the full program of BEC member presentations.

We look forward to seeing you there!

This Week! Don't Miss BEC Members VIRTUAL Presentations at CIES

The 2023 CIES program is chock-full of excellent BEC member presentations, during which they’ll share their technical expertise in areas such as Anti-Racism, Diversity, and Inclusion; Early Childhood Education; Education Technology; Gender & Social Inclusion; Monitoring, Evaluation, Research, & Learning; and more.

Click here or on the below image for the full program of VIRTUAL BEC member presentations.