The Literacy Laboratory Project (LLP) under the Northern Uganda Literacy Program

Lead Research Organisation: University of Michigan–Ann Arbor
Department Name: Institute for Social Research

Abstract

Literacy is the foundation for an informed, skilled citizenry. But in East Africa, less than 1/3 of pupils possess basic literacy skills. Ugandan children perform the worst; only 44.5 percent pass basic literacy tests. Early Grade Reading Assessment (EGRA) data from a Research Triangle Institute survey in northern Uganda in 2009 indicated that 82% of P2 pupils could not read a single word in the local language, compared to 51% of P2 pupils in the central region. Similar to other African countries there are many problems in Uganda's education system, including undertrained teachers, lack of materials and quality methods for teaching literacy, non-existent systems for tracking pupil performance, and parents, communities and local officials that lack the know-how to support and advocate for their children's education. Despite strong mother tongue education policies, due to underdeveloped orthographies and a lack of materials in many languages, implementing successful mother tongue literacy programs poses a significant challenge for African countries, including Uganda. While many educational interventions and literacy programs have been implemented in Africa, impacts have been minimal overall; moving to scale has also proven problematic as program effects reduce further.
Since 2010 Mango Tree, a private, locally owned educational tools company, has been piloting a successful early literacy project in one language community in northern Uganda. The main goals of the Mango Tree program include increasing literacy rates, enhancing education quality through improved, effective materials and teachers, and fostering a culture of reading among pupils, parents and communities within a cost-effective and scalable framework. Compelling evidence for the large benefits and cost-effectiveness of the intervention comes from a pilot randomized evaluation of the program conducted by University of Michigan researchers in 2013 and 2014.
The Literacy Laboratory Project (LLP) will scale up and evaluate the Mango Tree literacy program, whose model delivers better-quality teacher instruction, access to relevant literacy materials, inclusive approaches to learner assessment, parental and community engagement in schools and strengthening literacy infrastructure so that reading and writing, especially in local languages, becomes a meaningful part of daily life in households and communities. This scale-up will test a piloted and improved model to evaluate its effectiveness and test the mode of program delivery. Under the LLP, researchers from the University of Michigan will conduct a rigorous randomized control trial of the program in the Lango Sub-region over 4 years to measure the effectiveness of the instructional model, teacher training and support supervision innovations and literacy materials and methods on Primary 1- Primary 3 pupils' literacy achievement and explore public-private avenues for scale-up. We will study 128 schools, which are randomly assigned to either the full LLP implemented by Mango Tree's field officers, a partial-program implemented by Government Teacher Tutors, or a control group. The study will also randomize instructional materials to evaluate their contribution to effective teaching. The study will collect a rich set of pupil, parent, teacher, classroom, and school-level longitudinal data. Learning will be measured principally in terms of improvements in EGRA and Early Grade Writing Assessment scores.
Our goals are to: 1) demonstrate that big effects on learning are possible (as the 2013 pilot evaluation results point toward); 2) show that with the right combination of training, teaching and learning materials and correct support, teachers can be supported to effectively teach literacy - even in rural, under-resourced, overcrowded classrooms; and 3) to test and evaluate economic approaches to implementation at scale to determine value-for-money impacts on pupil learning and teacher performance in African schools.

Planned Impact

Numerous literacy projects have been implemented in Africa and Uganda. Of the few that have been rigorously evaluated, the average program effects are low, yielding effects less than 0.20 standard deviation (sd) gains in learning. In contrast, results for Mango Tree's (MT's) program suggest very large effects - preliminary results from a 2013 pilot find an average gain in over one sd in letter recognition after one year of the program among Primary 1 students.
This evaluation allows for the comparison of the effectiveness of MT's model with other similar programs in Uganda and Africa and will contribute to the body of available knowledge and inform effective modes of scaling up. MT has been developing and testing its' model and materials with government officials and teachers since 2009; its model is more advanced than others (as it has gone through piloting, small scale up and revisions) and ready for a large evaluation. We will use results to promote dialogue among policy makers and implementers about what works, what doesn't and why in literacy programming, with the goal of improving primary literacy interventions and helping decision-makers and practitioners align scarce resources with the most impactful programming possible. Results will be used to design standardized packages for scale up that allow the average school and teacher to access and successfully implement a literacy model at minimum cost and maximum impact.
Direct beneficiaries include: 1) 75,000 Primary 1 (P1), P2 and P3 pupils in government-supported primary schools; 2) 800 P1-P3 teachers in government-supported primary schools; 3) 150,000 parents of P1-P3 pupils. Indirect beneficiaries include: 1) siblings of P1-P3 pupils; 2) 500,000 members of Leblango-speaking communities; 3) the Lango Language Board, a local body responsible for promoting the Leblango language and culture; 4) government institutions (Ministry of Education and Sports, National Curriculum Development Centre, local education officials, primary teachers colleges); 5) education civil society organizations. Since 2009, MT has been regularly engaging these partners through quarterly and annual results-sharing events in schools, communities and government offices; they receive project updates, attend results dissemination and reflection workshops and participate in routine feedback and planning meetings. At the start of the project, a stakeholder workshop will be held in Kampala and Lira to disseminate results from the 2013 and 2014 pilot evaluation and present plans for the 2015-2018 project period.
Results will be shared with stakeholders, program implementers and policy/decision-makers. We will produce reports, journal articles, presentations, media (newspaper, internet, local radio and television), advocacy videos and other results-sharing documentation to disseminate through local channels and conferences in Uganda and abroad. These events provide an opportunity to share results and advocate for effective scale up of our methods with other practitioners and government officials, and reflect on ways to improve teacher and classroom practice to generate the best learning outcomes possible for the majority of pupils. In addition to publication of findings, we will also use our (expected) successes to advocate for our strategies to be tested and implemented elsewhere in Uganda and throughout East Africa. In many places in East Africa, demand for mother tongue education is low due to the perception that introducing children to instruction in local language will hinder their ability to learn international languages, such as English, which are keys to success. By demonstrating that local language instruction can in fact lead to better results in English, we will generate public and political demand for mother tongue education and replication of successful interventions that have proven effective in raising literacy levels at low cost and large scale.

Publications

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Buhl-Wiggers J (2022) Some children left behind: Variation in the effects of an educational intervention in Journal of Econometrics

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Kerwin J (2021) Making the Grade: The Sensitivity of Education Program Effectiveness to Input Choices and Outcome Measures in The Review of Economics and Statistics

 
Title Literacy Report Card for Parents 
Description When we communicate results to rural (many of them illiterate or semi-literate) audiences, we use situations and examples to explain difficult information that makes sense in their daily lives and local environment. Rather than present data and information in a series of numbers, figures, tables and graphs, we share information using agricultural metaphors to explain to parents how their children are performing in key literacy tasks. Using a series of tree images, each one corresponding to a different level of performance, we share complex information about student achievement in key literacy competencies. As our parents are nearly all rural farmers, we explain the 'inputs' required to help their children grow and thrive - weeding becomes school engagement, watering becomes the provision of school supplies and feeding, and sunshine becomes home learning and reading. In order to make their child - their seedling - grow, all of these inputs are critical to their success and to making them 'bear fruit' on their path to literacy. By explaining these concepts to parents in this way, they are able to engage in dialogue about their children's performance in a 'language' they know and understand. 
Type Of Art Artistic/Creative Exhibition 
Year Produced 2016 
Impact We have not yet begun to scale up the literacy report card, but we have received incredibly strong feedback from the parents we piloted the initiative with. The overwhelming response was that parents preferred this method of conveying pupil grades and wanted all report cards to be like this in the future. They appreciated the effort to change the way termly marks are done because most of them are illiterate, or at the very least the current marks don't make intuitive sense to them. Parents freely used agricultural metaphors to explain how they hoped to help their child: pruning, fertilizer, weeding, watering. They were very engaged. Parents also liked receiving the report cards in person from the teachers rather than their child bringing them home from school, indicating they get more from the face-to-face interaction. Making big data work for multiple audiences is a complex process requiring time, energy and commitment on the part of everyone in your research team. However, there are a few things we have learned about downstream results communication that may help others share information with their local partners in a simple and engaging way: 1. Make it relevant: Big data must be relevant to the people receiving it. It must be important to them and to their lives and work in order for them to consider it important enough to discuss and understand. 2. Make it accessible: Big data must be broken down into a series of manageable chunks for it to be useful. Presentation is critical in helping big data tell its own story. Different audiences often need the same information presented in very different ways. 3. Make it actionable: What we learn from our research must lead to changes in policy and practice. In order for results to make sense to the audiences we share them with, they must be structured in a way that allows recipients to take action and change behaviours that will lead to better lives, systems and polices. Downstream sharing should be a key feature of any results-sharing initiative. By planning for it in your studies and making the people you collect data from central to your impact process, the evidence we gather really can transform lives and turn research into real time practice. 
URL http://www.theimpactinitiative.net/blog/blog-impact-whom-making-big-data-work-little-guys
 
Title Student Benchmarking Videos 
Description We created student benchmarking videos to show parents, communities, teachers, school leaders and education officials what good reading and writing growth should look like for children in early primary grades. The videos show children completing key reading tasks - reading letters, familiar words and a story - throughout a school year and across multiple school years. They also show children completing a key writing task - writing a story - throughout a school year and across multiple school years. Please see the URL below (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k-JYU0Gfbsg) as well as this one (https://youtu.be/zfdNTpQq8D4) for the videos. 
Type Of Art Film/Video/Animation 
Year Produced 2016 
Impact The implementing organisation for this program, Mango Tree, is an educational tools company that works to produce relevant and quality tools to help people communicate in simple ways about complex issues and processes. These videos have been shown at teacher trainings, meetings with parents, engagements with government officials, during workshops and presentations, and at advocacy events to demonstrate what children can do when exposed to an appropriate literacy programme that methodically grows their skills and develops their abilities over time. The videos have elicited excitement and engagement on the part of audiences as children go from reading nothing in term 1 of Primary 1 to reading long stories by the end of Primary 3. They have also helped improve people's understanding of reading growth and progression and what schools and parents should expect of a child who is learning to read and growing into an independent and confident reader. 
URL https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k-JYU0Gfbsg
 
Description 1. Large increases in learning in both Mango Tree program and government tutor-supported schools, with the largest gains from Mango Tree schools
Since 2013, the Northern Uganda Literacy Program, implemented by the company Mango Tree, has been measuring project outcomes and contributing to the body of evidence on relevant, cost effective and scalable local language literacy models. The evidence provided by 2016 endline data suggests that Mango Tree's model is continuing to have significant success providing pupils with meaningful gains in literacy achievement. Pupils in Mango Tree program schools can name 50 letters per minute on average - 25% more than pupils in government teacher tutor-supported (CCT) schools and 60% more than pupils in control schools. Impressively, this fact also means that Mango Tree's Primary 2 pupils scored 33% higher on their end of year literacy assessments than Primary 3 pupils in control schools.

2. Our results were cumulative
Grade 4 pupils tested in 2017 after being exposed to the program in grades 1-3 showed large effects. These students scored 0.92 standard deviations higher in mother tongue reading - equivalent to 6.3 grade levels - more than the control students. Even in the reduced cost program we see large gains - 0.53 standard deviations, equivalent to 3.7 years of additional school. The effects on English oral reading fluency were almost just as large (although much less in the reduced cost program schools).

3. The effects of the program persisted
For students who were exposed to the Mango Tree program for only one year in 2013 when they were in Primary 1, the effects on reading persisted even until 2017. The average drop in the program effect was 9 percent each year; at the end of five years students were still performing 0.24 standard deviations higher than the control, losing only half of the program effect. This is evidence that investing for even one year in an effective literacy program improves learning outcomes for pupils over the longer term. This is an important result to continue exploring, as it has the potential to positively impact evidence related to education investment and expenditure in early grade reading programming in Africa. The reduced cost program effects did not persist, which suggest the long-term cost-effectiveness of higher quality (and thus higher cost) programs.

The results on program effect persistence among teachers are a bit more nuanced. Overall, we find that, with teachers, once the programme moved to the next grade level, learning gains in the same classrooms dramatically reduced from 0.77 SDs in the year of the treatment, to 0.51 SDs one year after the treatment, to 0.19 SDs 2 years after the treatment - even though teachers had the same skills, materials and in-school support provided from head teachers and district officials. The largest drop was in the second year after treatment. However, some of this decline in effect is due to some transfers in teachers out of our treatment (and control) schools. If we focus just on teachers who we know received the training and participated in the program, the fade-out effect is much smaller.

More generally, the learning take-away is that the main difference in the effects is due to teachers not receiving in-service trainings and continuous professional development sessions. This learning has a huge implication on policy, as it means investing in teachers - even for two years with a successful reading program - does not help them maintain learning outcomes once they stop receiving intensive training and support. It appears from these results that per teacher investments in education - which are far more expensive in many respects than per child investments - need to be rethought to provide a clear economic incentive for intensive engagement once a program year finishes. This also helped to motivate Mango Tree Literacy Lab to develop its current Teacher Mentor Program (TMP) to help teach teachers begin to create communities of support within and across their own schools when it comes to instructing the National Literacy Model.

4. Limited support and supervision (in the reduced cost treatment arm) is more important for effectiveness than scaling up itself
We compare effects of the program in 2013 with a small number of schools with the effects of the program in 2014, after the program was scaled up by 230%. We find no difference in effectiveness after scaling up. Our main difference in effectiveness was directly testing the type of program that was implemented - our reduced cost, government tutor delivered through a cascade model, with limited support supervision.

5. We find that measures of teacher value add correlate with what a teacher does in the classroom, such as being more active. We also find that salary is somewhat correlated with higher teacher value add. We also find that the program increased teacher value add and increased the teacher quality dispersion. We have suggestive evidence that the good teachers were made better through the training and support.

Going forward, the focus of this study will be onward longitudinal tracking of sampled children. We would like to be able to follow these children throughout their adolescence, regardless of whether they are currently enrolled in school or not. We would assess the impact of successes in early literacy on education investments, later learning, transitions to secondary school, and even labor market outcomes. In 2018, we began student tracking efforts with an extensive, multi-step pilot designed to understand the mechanisms of attrition as well as to pre-test tools and enumerator and data management techniques. Our first pilot involved targeting 25 students in six schools across our study site (selected to be representative of each treatment arm and reflect a variety of initial attrition rates, the average being an attrition rate of 62 percent). By the end of pilot activities, we were able to reduce the attrition rate to an average of 15.3 percent.


School Attrition at 2017 Endline Treatment Arm Post-Pilot % of Pupils Found
1. 84.0% No program 96.0%
2. 72.0% No program 92.0%
3. 80.0% Full Program 92.0%
4. 36.0% Full Program 60.0%
5. 44.0% Reduced Program 76.0%
6. 56.0% Reduced Program 92.0%
Overall % Found 81.3%

While many children were still attending the school that they were enrolled in when they were first selected into the sample in 2014, there are also children who are no longer residing in the same community. In the majority of these cases, there is a village home where an aunt, uncle, or grandparent still resides. In these cases, we interviewed these close contact points in order to obtain information on the current location of the children and who they are staying with. Overall, we find low dropout rates, transfer rates of 22 percent, and 18 percent of students of whom we did not have enough data to find or identify the student.

School Not found Enrolled at 2014 school Transfer Drop-out
1 4% 68% 28% 0%
2 12% 60% 28% 0%
3 12% 68% 16% 4%
4 44% 28% 24% 4%
5 28% 48% 12% 12%
6 8% 68% 24% 0%
Overall % 18% 57% 22% 3%

We faced an issue with tracking in urban areas. Community structures are not as tight knit as in the village setting and neighbors do not know each other. To counter this, we decided to cut the Lira stratification cells from our sample. This results in a sample of 107 schools, which remains sufficient to meet our power needs while hopefully reducing the time and effort required for reaching each student.

We plan to study a sub-sample of Cohort 1 and 2 students as they transition to upper grades. We will collect one round of data, to test procedures for tracking students and minimizing attrition. We will examine the effects of having solid foundational literacy skills on school progression, primary school completion, and learning. We will also measure motivation, aspirations, adolescent behavior, and life outcomes. We will compare the two types of program versions (full-cost vs. reduced-cost) and compare the two levels of program exposure (one year vs. four years). These comparisons will allow us to speak to important policy-relevant aspects of the delivery and design of early grade interventions. We will make comparisons across gender, academic performance, and socio-economic status. We will collect one round of data. Our main outcomes are learning and school progression (enrollment). To measure learning we will test math and English literacy (reading and writing) using standard validated tests (UWEZO, EGRA, EGWA, EGMA), as well as testing children on more practical "real world" problems (Banerjee et al. 2017). Students will be asked about termly enrollment in each academic term. Student enrollment will be cross-validated with teachers and school administrators. We will develop a new tool to measure student motivation that will include students' engagement and connectedness with school, teachers, and the curriculum, perceptions of curriculum relevance, as well as physical, verbal, and emotional abuse from teachers and other students. Several questionnaires will be used as models including Young Lives and the Middle Grades Longitudinal Study. We also will collect detailed information on the characteristics of students' schools and teachers.

Our tracking sample will involve a subset of schools (grouping schools within randomization stratification cells) and students as follows:
1. Exclude Lira Municipality stratification cells where the communities are less tight-knit, teachers and parents were unable to identify students, and there was more student movement across schools and across Uganda.
2. Include only Cohort 1 and 2 students who were tested at the respective baseline, and who were also sampled for household surveys. These students would be more likely to have additional parent and sibling information.
3. From here, we will sample 320 Cohort 1 students (16 students in 20 full-cost and control schools; reduced-cost schools will be removed from the sample due to relatively small effect sizes and to reduce the budget) and 2,354 Cohort 2 students (22 students in full-cost, reduced cost and control schools), each stratified by gender.
Exploitation Route At the heart of Mango Tree's approach to project implementation is learning. We have collected an enormous amount of data between the project's M&E system, Monitoring, Evaluation, Learning and Sharing system, and the RCT. We are currently inputting that data and creating a series of result summaries in the form of policy briefs to share with various stakeholders. We have continued to remain diligent with sharing routine project data and results with our schools, parents, communities, partners and government officials throughout the project. Mango Tree is represented in the regular NGO working groups for education at the national level. Recently, members of the team have been invited by the International Growth Centre (IGC) to present the learnings of the research across multiple Ugandan ministries: Ministry of Finance, Ministry of Education, and the Ministry of Planning. Results continue to be presented at academic conferences in Uganda and internationally.

Additionally, we have processed data from our 2014 - 2017 RCT activities and shared literacy data and results with government and civil society partners throughout Uganda, regionally and internationally. We are also finding ways to re-visualise that data and package and share it with a range of stakeholders. Appropriate and effective results-sharing lies at the heart of what Mango Tree does, and we continue to develop different results-sharing practices for various audiences focusing on highly visual, simplified results that speak to the interests and needs of the people receiving them. To illustrate, Mango Tree is currently working on creating regional benchmarks for reading and writing in P1-P3 that will set children up for continued success with their education. In addition to setting benchmarks, they are working to help support teachers to properly assess their students' reading and writing progress and to focus on literacy instruction that will allow children to meet those benchmarks. Mango Tree is also creating easy to read reports that communicate to parents how well their children are performing in regards to the benchmarks. We are continuing to explore results sharing and information gathering through SMS and radio, and plan to further explore approaches to learning and gathering feedback from stakeholders and beneficiaries.

To date, Mango Tree has been increasingly, positively recognised for its work under the NULP and heavily consulted regarding its success in mother tongue literacy programming, teacher professional development and learner assessment by a number of significant actors in the sector, positioning the organisation for key strategic advancements in the next phase of the project. All told, these engagements demonstrate Mango Tree's key position in the education sector as a lead agency with a hugely successful early grade reading programme, track record of success in building effective teacher training and support programmes, and record of successful engagement with parents and communities on mother tongue literacy. Moreover, the specific technical abilities of key advisers, staff and consultants in early grade reading, literacy assessment, teacher training and support supervision have been flagged by government, donors and other important education sector actors as relevant and important to pushing Uganda's early grade reading agenda into the next phase. In sum, Mango Tree's work to 'get a seat at the table' has been hugely successful, positioning the organisation for key strategic advancements in the next phase to measure what modalities are most effective for supporting and skilling teachers.

We have recently been awarded money to expand our tracking activities to follow students into adolescence and post-primary years. We will be measuring functional skills as well as literacy and life outcomes from a sub-sample of students in our sample. We are seeking additional funding to expand these activities and are piloting tracking strategies to reduce our attrition rates. We also are seeking funding to extend our dissemination toolkit - adding infographics, a data dashboard online, and video diaries. We continue to develop additional research questions that have come out of the original study and are working with our research and field-based team to pilot and test additional studies.
Sectors Communities and Social Services/Policy,Education
 
Description Policy Mango Tree's approaches to literacy instruction have since been incorporated into the national literacy framework for Uganda and the national Early Grade Reading Materials developed with USAID funding by Research Triangle Institute for Primary 1 to Primary 4. Mango Tree's writers, illustrators and pedagogical experts worked directly with RTI on materials development for the national design and led the Leblango and English writing teams in coordination with SIL. We have contributed to policy discussions through hosting a Learning Event with DFID and other research partners about how to take our learnings to scale in policy work. We coordinated with Pauline Rose at Cambridge/Impact Initiative and presented to Ed Barnett, Education Advisor at DFID. We also followed up to ensure the results of our study were further fielded with DFID staff in Uganda. To date, government schools across Uganda including all seven of the districts where Mango Tree operated through the NULP, have now adopted the National Literacy Model from the Ministry of Education, based on the original Mango Tree model. Mango Tree has changed their current programming beginning in 2018 to support the implementation of the National Literacy Model combining key lessons learned from the RCT into their Teacher Mentor Program (TMP). We learned from our evaluation that supporting teachers is crucial for success in adopting new teaching practices - from this, Mango Tree has developed, tested, and implemented their mentor teacher program in 86 schools from our study. Many schools continue to use original Mango Tree reading materials in their Primary 1 to Primary 3 classrooms. Finally, Mango Tree has secured a key position in the education sector as a lead agency with a hugely successful early grade reading program, track record of success in building effective teacher training and support programs, and a record of successful engagement with parents and communities on mother tongue literacy. Moreover, the specific technical abilities of key advisers, staff and consultants in early grade reading, literacy assessment, teacher training and support supervision have been flagged by government, donors and other important education sector actors as relevant and important to pushing Uganda's early grade reading agenda into the next phase. The new DFID program, SESIL, has reached out to Mango Tree to support the roll out of the National Literacy Model in new language communities in Eastern Uganda (Kupsabine) based on the successful results from the 2014-2017 program. Also we are part of the development of the national CPD model and modules, which will provide a framework for training teachers in local language literacy and English instruction across Uganda. Knowledge Generation: Our work has also contributed to knowledge generation about successful approaches to teacher training, professional development and effective instructional materials in Uganda. These results have been presented to the Ministry of Education and Sports and other development partners throughout Uganda and have generated an appreciation for appropriate professional development approaches for not just teachers, but the government teacher tutors and local government officials responsible for their ongoing training and skilling. Moreover, the RCT's approach to testing modes of delivery between Mango Tree's field staff and government teacher tutors has identified that it is possible to generate large learning gains among teachers and pupils within government systems - and at a greatly reduced cost. Our results are evidence that this can happen in even the most resource poor regions and schools, and that success is possible (even where other programs have failed). The government is extremely interested in this outcome and periodically requests Mango Tree to formally present its results and cost effectiveness analysis to its technical teams and working groups in Basic Education and Teacher Instructor Education and Training. Our work has also contributed to the research community. We have been cited prominently in the 2018 World Development Report, in meta-analyses, blogs, and have presented twice at RISE. Our research is innovate and important in that it: 1. Finds some of the largest program effects on literacy ever measured 2. Is able to separately measure the program fade-out among students and among teachers 3. Estimates the first value-added measures for teachers in Africa 4. Is the first to combine value-added measures with an intervention that affects teacher quality to understand how teacher training increases the dispersion of quality, by making good teachers better 5. Contributes to the discussion on scaling up and cost-effectiveness with a full-cost and reduced-cost treatment arm that was designed to replicate what the program would look like if taken to scale 6. Tracks teachers longitudinally to understand attrition from grades within schools, and across schools 7. Finds large impacts on English literacy after students transition to grade 4 8. Collects data on writing and examines different types of teaching methods on reading vs. writing skills Community Awareness Mango Tree has successfully engaged with parents and communities to raise mother tongue instructional awareness and the critical role it plays in learning and development. Over 98% of parents and teachers surveyed have identified the importance of mother tongue instruction to growing reading levels in children and as a result have supported the initiative in their schools. This is a remarkable shift from the days before Mango Tree's program, when the majority of parents and teachers did not buy into the concept or believe mother tongue instruction would help their children develop better English language literacy. This is further evidence of the impact Mango Tree has made in these communities and in the school systems we have supported for the last six years - and to the success of the model in raising learning outcomes for pupils in some of the most resource poor and remote districts in the country.
First Year Of Impact 2015
Sector Education,Other
Impact Types Societal,Policy & public services
 
Description Build capacity with local officials
Geographic Reach Local/Municipal/Regional 
Policy Influence Type Influenced training of practitioners or researchers
Impact Local education officials are empowered with the capacity to discuss local needs to national actors. Mango Tree has secured a key position in the education sector as a lead agency with a hugely successful early grade reading programme, track record of success in building effective teacher training and support programs, and record of successful engagement with parents and communities on mother tongue literacy. Moreover, the specific technical abilities of key advisers, staff and consultants in early grade reading, literacy assessment, teacher training and support supervision have been flagged by government, donors and other important education sector actors as relevant and important to pushing Uganda's early grade reading agenda into the next phase.
 
Description Castro, Nicolás, Santiago Gómez-Echeverry, and Luis-Esteban Álvarez. "Turning points: the effect of the strategy Colegios Pioneros on academic performance." Lecturas de Economía 89
Geographic Reach Multiple continents/international 
Policy Influence Type Citation in other policy documents
URL https://bit.ly/2SGh3X7
 
Description Cilliers, Jacobus, et al. "How to improve teaching practice? An experimental comparison of centralized training and in-classroom coaching." Journal of Human Resources
Geographic Reach Multiple continents/international 
Policy Influence Type Citation in other policy documents
URL https://www.ekon.sun.ac.za/wpapers/2018/wp152018/wp152018.1.pdf
 
Description Citation - ÉVALUATION DES POLITIQUES ET DES INSTITUTIONS EN AFRIQUE
Geographic Reach Africa 
Policy Influence Type Citation in systematic reviews
 
Description Citation - 3ie
Geographic Reach Multiple continents/international 
Policy Influence Type Citation in systematic reviews
 
Description Citation - Cilliers et al
Geographic Reach Multiple continents/international 
Policy Influence Type Citation in other policy documents
URL http://media.withtank.com/45bb06169c/egrs.pdf
 
Description Citation - Romero, Sandefur and Sandholtz
Geographic Reach National 
Policy Influence Type Citation in other policy documents
URL http://sites.tufts.edu/neudc2017/files/2017/10/paper_484.pdf
 
Description Citation - WDR 2018
Geographic Reach Multiple continents/international 
Policy Influence Type Citation in systematic reviews
 
Description Early learning toolkit - 2017
Geographic Reach Multiple continents/international 
Policy Influence Type Citation in systematic reviews
URL http://www.earlylearningtoolkit.org/sites/default/files/resource-files/Mango%20Tree%20Evaluation%20S...
 
Description Evans, David K., and Fei Yuan. "The Working Conditions of Teachers in Low-and Middle-Income Countries."
Geographic Reach Multiple continents/international 
Policy Influence Type Citation in other policy documents
URL https://www.riseprogramme.org/sites/www.riseprogramme.org/files/inline-files/Yuan.pdf
 
Description Evans, David, and Fei Yuan. "Equivalent Years of Schooling: A Metric to Communicate Learning Gains in Concrete Terms." World Bank Policy Research Working Paper
Geographic Reach Multiple continents/international 
Policy Influence Type Citation in other policy documents
URL https://bit.ly/2SIGPu7
 
Description Gilligan, Daniel O., et al. Educator incentives and educational triage in rural primary schools. No. w24911. National Bureau of Economic Research
Geographic Reach Multiple continents/international 
Policy Influence Type Citation in other policy documents
URL https://bit.ly/2Hgp7fa
 
Description Jimenez, Emmanuel, et al. "Mixing and matching: using qualitative methods to improve quantitative impact evaluations (IEs) and systematic reviews (SRs) of development outcomes." Journal of Development Effectiveness 10.4
Geographic Reach Multiple continents/international 
Policy Influence Type Citation in other policy documents
URL https://bit.ly/2UkwYvX
 
Description Magrath, Bronwen, Monazza Aslam, and David Johnson. "Exploring systems change in education research: Evolving research designs and methods." Research in Comparative and International Education
Geographic Reach Multiple continents/international 
Policy Influence Type Citation in other policy documents
URL https://bit.ly/2C3KkWs
 
Description Paul, Sarah Museng'ya. Influence of Donor Funding om Learning Outcomes in Public Primary Schools. Diss. University of Nairobi
Geographic Reach Multiple continents/international 
Policy Influence Type Citation in other policy documents
URL https://bit.ly/2HgoLVS
 
Description Romero, Mauricio, Justin Sandefur, and Wayne Aaron Sandholtz. "Outsourcing Service Delivery in a Fragile State: Experimental Evidence from Liberia."
Geographic Reach Multiple continents/international 
Policy Influence Type Citation in other policy documents
URL https://pacdev.ucdavis.edu/files/conference-schedule/session/papers/2B/Romero%20Sandefur%20and%20San...
 
Description World Bank Group, Policy Research Working Paper - Teacher Classroom Observation Tool - Molina et. al
Geographic Reach Multiple continents/international 
Policy Influence Type Citation in other policy documents
URL https://bit.ly/2SYPwoQ
 
Description World Bank Policy Approach to Teachers, Tara Beteille and David K. Evans
Geographic Reach Multiple continents/international 
Policy Influence Type Citation in other policy documents
URL https://bit.ly/2TwypH9
 
Description World Bank. "World Development Report 2018: Learning to realize education's promise."
Geographic Reach Multiple continents/international 
Policy Influence Type Citation in other policy documents
URL https://bit.ly/2SIGPu7
 
Description IGC
Amount £50,000 (GBP)
Organisation International Growth Centre (IGC) 
Sector Charity/Non Profit
Country United Kingdom
Start 01/2014 
End 12/2016
 
Description IPA Professional Training Session
Amount $3,000 (USD)
Organisation Innovations for Poverty Action (IPA) 
Sector Charity/Non Profit
Country United States
Start 03/2016 
End 03/2016
 
Description Program grant and impact evaluation extension
Amount $1,050,000 (USD)
Organisation Wellspring Advisors 
Sector Private
Country United States
Start 12/2016 
End 11/2019
 
Description Research Assistant - Juan
Amount $3,000 (USD)
Organisation University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign 
Sector Academic/University
Country United States
Start 05/2016 
End 09/2016
 
Description Research Assistant - Katie
Amount $45,000 (USD)
Organisation University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign 
Sector Academic/University
Country United States
Start 01/2016 
 
Description Research Assistant - Natalia
Amount $30,000 (USD)
Organisation University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign 
Sector Academic/University
Country United States
Start 09/2015 
 
Description Solid Foundations and the Transition to Post-Primary School
Amount $148,647 (USD)
Funding ID 0981 
Organisation Massachusetts Institute of Technology 
Sector Academic/University
Country United States
Start 06/2019 
End 06/2021
 
Title Classroom Observation Teacher Interview Tool 
Description The Classroom Observation Teacher Interview Tool is used to conduct a guided interview with the teachers whose classroom was observed. This tool focuses on the attitudes and self-reported behaviors of the teachers. More specifically, the tool collects data on the engagement of the teachers with the Mango Tree model and aims to assess their comfortability with the model and which aspects are most beneficial. 
Type Of Material Physiological assessment or outcome measure 
Year Produced 2014 
Provided To Others? No  
Impact The teacher interview data collected enables the researchers to understand the nuance of the programming and its reception at the school-level. 
 
Title Classroom Observation Tool 
Description The Classroom Observation Tool is used at least two terms a year to gather data about what is going on in the classrooms involved in the program. This tool contains a set of observable pupil and teacher behaviors that a trained data collector records when visiting the class. Recorded teacher behaviors include their use of instructional materials, use of local language, their interaction with students -- participatory or rote, and their attendance and amount of time on task. Pupil behaviors focus on their engagement in the class, their focus on the teacher, and their time on assigned tasks. 
Type Of Material Physiological assessment or outcome measure 
Year Produced 2013 
Provided To Others? No  
Impact The crucial innovation of this Classroom Observation Tool is the focus on observable behaviors. Data Collectors are not relied upon to assess the quality of the teachers: instead, the key behaviors are pre-identified by the research team and educational experts so that the collectors merely record what they are seeing. This tool has allowed us to be able to correlate teacher behaviors with the end of year assessment results and get insight into which actions by teachers and pupil are related to high and low scores on the Early Grade Reading Assessments. 
 
Title Classroom Video Observation Protocol 
Description During the Classroom Observation exercise, data collectors are also tasked with recording the entirety of the lesson that is observed. The Video Observation Protocol ensures that there is consistency across data collectors and that there is a focus on certain key elements of the classroom experience. Collectors visually represent the start and end times of the class and they record in the video a cover sheet that contains the information particular to that school so that videos can be properly organized and cataloged at a later date. They are also instructed to videotape not only the teacher, but also the pupils and their reaction to the teacher after being invited to participate in classroom activities. 
Type Of Material Physiological assessment or outcome measure 
Year Produced 2014 
Provided To Others? No  
Impact The collected videos vis a vis the protocol standards are used for back-checking the data recorded by the data collectors. This allows the research team to proceed with greater confidence in the analysis of the collected data. This videos are also catalogued and kept on file for further analysis and reference. A later goal is to create a curated online video repository where anyone would be able to access these videos, learn from them, and otherwise use them for their own objectives. 
 
Title Endline EGWA 
Description The Endline Early Grade Writing Assessment (EGWA) tool is a pencil and paper test in which pupils are given a writing prompt and asked to draw a picture and write a story about the prompt. Examples of this could be, "Please draw a picture of yourself in the rain" and "What is an activity that you do together with your family?". These prompts are meant to engage students on the creative level and to measure their writing abilities. The EGWA are assessed on the ability of the child to write clearly and have a clear theme in their writing. The picture is also meant to capture certain unobservable characteristics about the child that may not necessarily be measurable. 
Type Of Material Physiological assessment or outcome measure 
Year Produced 2013 
Provided To Others? No  
Impact The EGWA is a tool unique to this intervention and research. While many other groups worldwide administer the EGRA and some version of a math test, giving a writing is more complicated and time consuming and therefore rarely done and particularly not on this scale. The EGWA is also differentiated from other examinations by the picture drawing exercise which aims to get a sense of who the child is and their qualities beyond just their examination scores. 
 
Title Endline English and Leblango Teacher EGRA 
Description During the endline assessment period, we administer both Pupil and Teacher Early grade reading assessments (EGRA). These tests are identical in their construction and give us the opportunity to gather more data about the competencies of the teachers that are responsible for teaching these early grade reading concepts to the pupils, whom we are also assessing. The EGRA is designed to evaluate performance in key areas of literacy development. This includes but is not limited to: identifying letter sounds and names, reading a passage in English and a different passage in local language, and answering reading comprehension questions related to the passages. 
Type Of Material Physiological assessment or outcome measure 
Year Produced 2017 
Provided To Others? No  
Impact The use of the EGRA to gather data on the competencies of early grade teachers is fundamentally important to the research because it gives further information on why pupils may be performing worse in some schools than others. If teachers do not have the key concepts of literacy fully mastered themselves, then it would be impossible for them to be able to teach children those same concepts. 
 
Title Endline Math Assessment 
Description The Endline Math Assessment tool is a set of tools that are different for each grade of pupils assessed. These tests are tailored to be specific to the math competencies that should be covered according to the Uganda National Curriculum. These are timed, group administered tests that pupils take in a classroom using pencil and paper provided to them. There is a large copy of the test on the chalkboard which is used by the data collector to guide the children through each question. 
Type Of Material Physiological assessment or outcome measure 
Year Produced 2014 
Provided To Others? No  
Impact The math assessment is important to the research because we are interested in finding out if there are spillover effects to other subjects when a child has mastered key literacy competencies. 
 
Title Endline School Inventory Form 
Description The School Inventory Form serves to collect information about the resources available to the school and whether or not the resources are being utilized by the staff at the school. Examples of areas where data is collected include, but are not limited to: books provided by Mango Tree, books provided by the government or other NGOs, the condition of the School Library, the teacher accommodation, student latrines, availability of soap, and much more. The inventory additionally includes condition and quality assessments of each of the items contained within the form. 
Type Of Material Physiological assessment or outcome measure 
Year Produced 2017 
Provided To Others? No  
Impact The School Inventory form is important for the research because it further informs the data collected on the satisfaction of the teachers and the performance of their pupils. For example, a lack of books and literacy material could be a contributing factor to low teacher job satisfaction and poor pupil performance. 
 
Title Endline Teacher and Headteacher Interview Tool 
Description The Endline Teacher and Headteacher Interview Tool is similar to the Interview tool used in Classroom Observations, but is more extensive and covers more areas of interest to the research team. This is typically conducted only once at the end of the year. Teachers and Headteachers are asked to give further background information about the trainings that they have received, their attitudes and opinions regarding the school environment, and are asked in-depth questions about their personal lives outside of school including other income sources and their combined household income. 
Type Of Material Physiological assessment or outcome measure 
Year Produced 2017 
Provided To Others? No  
Impact he Endline Teacher and Headteacher Interview Tool is important to the research objectives because of the wealth of detailed information contained in it related to the attitudes, opinions, and motivations of the teachers along with further information regarding their background and home lives. This information gives us the opportunity to connect the background and motivational aspects of the teachers to the performance of the schools and of the pupils in their classes. 
 
Title Grade and Employee Rosters 
Description Grade and Employee Rosters are used during Classroom Observation to track the attendance of known program teachers and teachers at other grade levels. The tool also collects information about the educational employment history of the teachers. In particular, the school teachers and administrative assist in keeping the teacher records up to date with issues of transfers. The tool also contains attendance and enrollment information about the pupils at the school. 
Type Of Material Improvements to research infrastructure 
Year Produced 2014 
Provided To Others? No  
Impact This tool gives the research team the ability to track teachers over time and get data on their movements within the Lango sub-region and elsewhere if they are transferred. 
 
Title Tracking tool 
Description Tool to track students 
Type Of Material Physiological assessment or outcome measure 
Year Produced 2019 
Provided To Others? No  
Impact We have developed this tool and are further piloting how to reduce our attrition and follow students over time. 
 
Title Classroom Observations - 2016 
Description We collected classroom observations in term 1, term 2 and term 3 including data from: a teacher Interview Tool, P1 Classroom Observation Tool, P2 Classroom Observation Tool, Tracking list of classes observed, Current and Former Employee Rosters, Grade and Classroom Rosters, P1 Materials Data Collection, P1 classroom observation videos 
Type Of Material Database/Collection of data 
Provided To Others? No  
Impact Still cleaning these data 
 
Title Classroom observations - 2015 
Description We collected classroom observations in term 1, term 2 and term 3 including data from: a teacher Interview Tool, P1 Classroom Observation Tool, P2 Classroom Observation Tool, Tracking list of classes observed, Current and Former Employee Rosters, Grade and Classroom Rosters, P1 Materials Data Collection, P1 classroom observation videos 
Type Of Material Database/Collection of data 
Provided To Others? No  
Impact Still cleaning these data 
 
Title Classroom observations 2017 
Description We collected classroom observations including data from: a teacher Interview Tool, Classroom Observation Tool, Current and Former Employee Rosters, Grade and Classroom Rosters, 
Type Of Material Database/Collection of data 
Year Produced 2017 
Provided To Others? No  
Impact Currently cleaning these data 
 
Title Drawings 2016 
Description Collection of student drawings to measure self-efficacy and esteem 
Type Of Material Database/Collection of data 
Year Produced 2016 
Provided To Others? No  
Impact Not yet analyzed 
 
Title Drawings 2017 
Description Collection of student drawings to measure self-efficacy and esteem 
Type Of Material Database/Collection of data 
Year Produced 2017 
Provided To Others? No  
Impact Not yet analyzed 
 
Title Endline Assessments 2017 
Description Collection of measures from P3, P4, and P5 students including Math, EGWA, Leblango EGRA, English EGRA, Oral English. 
Type Of Material Database/Collection of data 
Year Produced 2017 
Provided To Others? No  
Impact We have shared preliminary results in our report. We have found large gains in learning due to the Mango Tree program 
 
Title Endline assessments - 2015 
Description Collection of measures collected from P1, P2 and P3 students including: Math tests, EGWA, Leblango EGRA, English EGRA, Oral English Also drawings and questions collected from pupils 
Type Of Material Database/Collection of data 
Provided To Others? No  
Impact This was the first time we collected digital data and have been able to analyze the Leblango EGRA with very interesting and promising results. 
 
Title Endline assessments - 2016 
Description Collection of measures collected from P1, P2, P3 and P4 students including: Math tests, EGWA, Leblango EGRA, English EGRA, Oral English Also drawings and questions collected from pupils 
Type Of Material Database/Collection of data 
Provided To Others? No  
Impact We have shared preliminary results in our report. We have found large gains in learning due to the Mango Tree program 
 
Title Head teacher surveys 2015 
Description Head teacher surveys 
Type Of Material Database/Collection of data 
Provided To Others? No  
Impact data being analyzed 
 
Title Household survey - 2015 
Description Parent survey of attitudes, behaviors, and links to sample children 
Type Of Material Database/Collection of data 
Provided To Others? No  
Impact Still cleaning and analyzing these data 
 
Title Monitoring and Evaluation data - 2017 
Description Continuous assessment forms from teachers and monitoring tools by CCTs and Field officers 
Type Of Material Database/Collection of data 
Year Produced 2017 
Provided To Others? No  
Impact Used to give feedback to CCTs and Field officers 
 
Title Monitoring and evaluation data - 2015 
Description Continuous assessment forms from teachers and monitoring tools by CCTs and Field officers 
Type Of Material Database/Collection of data 
Provided To Others? No  
Impact Data being entered 
 
Title Monitoring and evaluation data - 2015 
Description Continuous assessment forms from teachers and monitoring tools by CCTs and Field officers 
Type Of Material Database/Collection of data 
Provided To Others? No  
Impact data being entered 
 
Title Parent report card pilot data -2016 
Description Survey data collected from parents at a pilot parent engagement meeting. 
Type Of Material Database/Collection of data 
Provided To Others? No  
Impact Still ongoing 
 
Title Pilot - sms ivr data - 2016 
Description Data of SMS/IVR experiences of teachers 
Type Of Material Database/Collection of data 
Provided To Others? No  
Impact Planning of future research 
 
Title Pilot tracking data 
Description Data on locations and contact information for students in our study to be used for tracking 
Type Of Material Database/Collection of data 
Year Produced 2019 
Provided To Others? No  
Impact These data will allow us to follow-up with students over time 
 
Title Randomization forms - 2016 
Description Detailed information on student classroom assignment 
Type Of Material Database/Collection of data 
Provided To Others? No  
Impact Not yet analyzed. In process 
 
Title School Inventory data - 2017 
Description Comprehensive inventory of materials and supplies at each school 
Type Of Material Database/Collection of data 
Year Produced 2017 
Provided To Others? No  
Impact These data will be used to determine eligibility of a school into the teacher mentor program 
 
Title School records - 2015 
Description Term 1-3: Pupil Enrollment numbers Class Registers Literacy Report cards Other report cards Attendance rosters End of term assessments P1-P3 Pupil enrollment roster (Term 3) 
Type Of Material Database/Collection of data 
Provided To Others? No  
Impact data being entered 
 
Title School records - 2016 
Description Term 1-3: Pupil Enrollment numbers Class Registers Literacy Report cards Other report cards Attendance rosters End of term assessments P1-P3 Pupil enrollment roster (Term 3) 
Type Of Material Database/Collection of data 
Provided To Others? No  
Impact These forms have been distributed and are waiting collection and entry 
 
Title School records 2017 
Description Term 1, 2, and 3 school records printing, distribution, monitoring and collection Each term, we print, distribute, monitor the completion of and collect a series of school records in all 128 schools, including class and enrolment rosters, and attendance registers. 
Type Of Material Database/Collection of data 
Year Produced 2017 
Provided To Others? No  
Impact These records help us keep track of enrollment and attendance of teachers and pupils, as well as changes in the school environment from term to term. This information helps to plan activities, printing and distribution numbers for materials, and identifying demographics about the school population that help us all plan activities. These numbers also are used in reporting and results calculations about teachers and pupils reached with the intervention. 
 
Title Teacher Egra 2017 
Description Teacher endline tests on literacy 
Type Of Material Database/Collection of data 
Year Produced 2017 
Provided To Others? No  
Impact Not yet analyzed 
 
Title Teacher surveys - 2015 
Description Teacher surveys 
Type Of Material Database/Collection of data 
Provided To Others? No  
Impact Data being analyzed 
 
Title Teacher/ Head teacher surveys 2017 
Description Teacher and head teacher surveys 
Type Of Material Database/Collection of data 
Year Produced 2017 
Provided To Others? No  
Impact Currently being analyzed 
 
Title Videos - CCT and teacher training 
Description Video observations of teacher and CCT training 
Type Of Material Database/Collection of data 
Provided To Others? No  
Impact design of future research 
 
Title Videos - CCT and teacher training - 2017 
Description Each term, we have sent enumerators to the field to oversee and record information during MT and CCT CPD training sessions with teachers. They record videos of the training, complete tools summarizing training approaches, schedules and timelines, monitor attendance and session timings and conduct teacher surveys. 
Type Of Material Database/Collection of data 
Year Produced 2017 
Provided To Others? No  
Impact Inform the design of CCT trainings, inform teachers, head teachers, and district officials. This information is compiled and analyzed for Mango Tree and shared in the form of reports and attendance and time tracking data. It is also presented to MT during weekly meetings so that the team can use the information gathered to make adjustments to the training program and provide support where needed to CCTs. 
 
Title Videos - Classroom observations 2017 
Description Term 2 and 3 independent classroom observations of teachers and literacy lessons by external enumerators, including videos of instruction and teacher and head teacher surveys and school data collection P3, P4 and P5 teachers in 128 schools were observed teaching literacy lessons, videotaped, interviewed regarding their experiences teaching and in receiving support and supervision, and head teachers surveyed regarding their support to the literacy program in their school. 
Type Of Material Database/Collection of data 
Year Produced 2017 
Provided To Others? No  
Impact Not analyzed yet. Some videos have been used to give feedback directly back to teachers 
 
Description Collaboration - Julie Buhl-Wiggers 
Organisation University of Copenhagen
Department Center for Geogenetics
Country Denmark 
Sector Academic/University 
PI Contribution Collaborating on data collection, design, and data analysis.
Collaborator Contribution Collaborating on data collection, design, and data analysis.
Impact Paper drafts
Start Year 2015
 
Description Collaboration between UIUC and Umich 
Organisation University of Michigan
Department Department of Economics
Country United States 
Sector Academic/University 
PI Contribution We are currently working with economist Jeff Smith at the University of Michigan who has contributed to the intellectual design and analysis of the data.
Collaborator Contribution Further research guidance, review of analysis.
Impact 3 research paper drafts for publication
Start Year 2016
 
Description Collaboration with Ichuli Insitute 
Organisation Ichuli Institute
Country Uganda 
Sector Academic/University 
PI Contribution We are collaborating with Ichuli on piloting, translating, and overall oversight on the study.
Collaborator Contribution We are collaborating with Ichuli on piloting, translating, and overall oversight on the study.
Impact Blogs, Engagement, activities listed in research fish
Start Year 2013
 
Description Collaboration with Jacobus Cilliers 
Organisation Georgetown University
Country United States 
Sector Academic/University 
PI Contribution Future research papers planed based on shared research interests.
Collaborator Contribution Models, empirical analyses, shared ideas
Impact None yet
Start Year 2019
 
Description Collaboration with Mango Tree Education Enterprises 
Organisation Mango Tree Literacy Laboratory
Country Uganda 
Sector Private 
PI Contribution We provide data to Mango Tree on their schools, teachers and students to help with programmatic planning.
Collaborator Contribution Mango Tree helps to link to the communities we work in and with the schools.
Impact Collaboration is multi-disciplinary (education & economics). Outputs include school meetings, community messaging, reports to schools and teachers.
Start Year 2013
 
Description Collaboration with University of Minnesota - Jason Kerwin 
Organisation University of Minnesota
Country United States 
Sector Academic/University 
PI Contribution Collaborative work on design of the study and analysis of the data.
Collaborator Contribution Collaborative work on design of the study and analysis of the data.
Impact Publication drafts
 
Description Juan Morales 
Organisation IESEG School of Management
Country France 
Sector Academic/University 
PI Contribution Researcher
Collaborator Contribution drafting papers and running analysis
Impact Draft of heterogeneity paper
Start Year 2019
 
Description Mango Tree Literacy Lab 
Organisation Mango Tree Literacy Laboratory
Country Uganda 
Sector Private 
PI Contribution We provide input from our data to the Literacy Lab for the development of their educational programs.
Collaborator Contribution They provide the connection with schools and communities.
Impact Spin-off research projects have developed as well as dissemination to the communities. New programs have been developed such as the Mentor Teacher Program, Parent Engagement, Mentor Student Program, and the Portable Library Program
Start Year 2017
 
Company Name ICHULI INSTITUTE LIMITED 
Description Ichuli Institute was founded in 2016 by Victoria Brown and John Mark Muwangala, Ichuli Institute is a research think tank dedicated to identifying effective teaching and learning approaches tailored specifically for teachers, learners, communities, and families within East Africa. Ichuli Institute's ultimate aim is to contribute to the body of transformative, forward-looking research that deepens and expands our understanding of effective approaches to resolving some of Africa's most pressing development challenges. Today, Ichuli Institute conducts research studies and evaluations related to education and health within East Africa. They design and conduct their research from a uniquely African perspective, leveraging the local and international experience of our staff and researchers in every project we undertake. They take special care to ensure their studies are ethical by instituting a rigorous consent process, focusing on asking questions that matter directly to the lives of those involved in the research, and broadly sharing findings with communities, governments and other relevant stakeholders. Ensuring the quality, robustness and integrity of their research is critical to both their identity and reputation. 
Impact Ichuli Institute is the primary research institute evaluating the long-term results of the Mango Tree mother-tongue literacy model that was developed and piloted in northern Uganda. This literacy project's ultimate goal is to ensure primary school children obtain meaningful and relevant reading and writing skills in local languages and English through quality teacher support and training; provision of appropriate and relevant materials; inclusive approaches to assessment; parental engagement and strengthened literacy infrastructure in districts, schools and communities. Since 2013, the Ichuli Institute team has conducted a longitudinal randomized control trial (RCT) impact evaluation in collaboration with the University of Illinois Economics Department in 158 schools in the Lango Sub-region. The study follows 25,000 pupils and 1,000 teachers throughout primary school. The results of from RCT are impressive, ranking the literacy project among the most effective programs ever studied with an RCT in the developing world. To date, Ichuli Institute's team members have been consulted and interviewed for inputs to national strategies, frameworks and intervention plans to improve early learning and teacher training and effectiveness by over 25 notable international organizations and major bi-laterals focusing on education initiatives globally and in Uganda, and presented at over 50 conferences on effective education interventions and outcomes. The results of these discussions and presentations have been integrated into policy, planning, strategy and research initiatives on early learning, pupil literacy assessment and approaches to teacher effectiveness and motivation by organizations including the International Growth Centre, the World Bank, DFID, the Equity Initiative, RTI, R4D and CEI, Open Society Foundation, Open University, JPAL and IPA. These engagements demonstrate Ichuli's key position in Uganda's education sector as a lead advisory and research institution.
Website http://ichuli.africa/institute/
 
Company Name Mango Tree 
Description Mango Tree is a small, private, Ugandan-owned educational tools company that makes information, education and communication materials, largely for low literate audiences. Mango Tree implements the project studied by the University of Illinois in this RCT. Mango Tree developed a mother tongue literacy program for Primary 1-Primary 3 (P1-P3) pupils. In 2009, it received funding to implement its model in 8 government schools in northern Uganda, later expanding to 11 schools in 2011. In 2013, only having the budget to implement the full program in 12 schools, Mango Tree partnered with researchers to conduct a small RCT with an additional 26 comparison schools. After one year, the effects on letter recognition were over 8 times larger than other randomized trials in low-income countries. In 2014, the evaluation was scaled to 158 schools, funded until 2016. 
Impact Based upon these results, Mango Tree has reshaped its education portfolio and agenda, evolving its works over time to continue asking questions about what makes an effective teacher and a successful education system in Africa. Other organizations have come to Mango Tree seeking similar advice, hiring the company's experts to develop additional literacy programs for primary and secondary schools across the country. This experience has caused Mango Tree to reflect heavily on its work and redesign its education strategy to focus on new areas of classroom instruction and teacher effectiveness that heavily shape the literacy outcomes of students in rural, under-resourced African settings.
 
Description 2016 - waterloo 
Form Of Engagement Activity A talk or presentation
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Other audiences
Results and Impact Presentation to the business school and economics department
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2016
 
Description 4th National Reading Association of Uganda Conference - July 2016 
Form Of Engagement Activity A talk or presentation
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach National
Primary Audience Policymakers/politicians
Results and Impact 4th Annual Reading Conference in Kampala in July 2014: The NULP participated in this event and presented on the topic "Engaging children in learning through visual aids". The presentation caught many participants' attention as it presented MT's work on supplementary materials development through the sample of an animated story book.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2016
 
Description 8th AfrEA International Conference 2017 March 
Form Of Engagement Activity A talk or presentation
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Policymakers/politicians
Results and Impact 8th AfrEA International Conference 2017 Conference AfrEA Kampala, Uganda March 27-31, 2017 Katie Pollman The Impact of Teacher Effectiveness on Student Learning in Africa
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2017
 
Description 8th AfrEA International Conference 2017 March 
Form Of Engagement Activity A talk or presentation
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Policymakers/politicians
Results and Impact 8th AfrEA International Conference 2017 Conference AfreEA Kampala, Uganda March 27-31, 2017 Katie Pollman Literacy Report Cards for Non-Educated Stakeholders: Attempts to Convey Pupil Progress
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2017
 
Description Basic Education Working Group 
Form Of Engagement Activity A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach National
Primary Audience Professional Practitioners
Results and Impact Dissemination of results to basic education working group in Kampala, Uganda
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2019
 
Description Basic Education Working Group - MOES dec 2016 
Form Of Engagement Activity A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Professional Practitioners
Results and Impact Basic Education Working Group - MOES Research results and policy implications Presentation at working group meeting MOES - BEWG Kampala, Uganda 12/8/2016 Victoria Brown 2016 Results and Learnings 35 MOES staff in basic education, heads of major education NGOs in Uganda, including RTI None Has a PPT They asked us to reguarly present. They also want us to present to a wider audience in MOES, including the M&E working group
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2016
 
Description CCT Methods Training Observation - June 2016 
Form Of Engagement Activity Participation in an activity, workshop or similar
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach Local
Primary Audience Schools
Results and Impact Due to convenience 15 CCTs convened in 9 coordinating centres to train their P3 teachers for term 2. A team of enumerators monitored the training and captured information about how CCTs led the training process.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2016
 
Description CCT Program Support Supervision - March-May 2016 
Form Of Engagement Activity Participation in an activity, workshop or similar
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach Local
Primary Audience Schools
Results and Impact Data collection, delivery of CAM forms, class registers, and letters from RCT. Held project discussions with teachers and head teachers throughout the term.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2016
 
Description CESifo presentation 2017 
Form Of Engagement Activity A talk or presentation
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Other audiences
Results and Impact CESifo education group in Munich in September 2017. Presentation by Jeffrey Smith on teacher effectiveness paper.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2017
URL http://www.cesifo-group.de/ifoHome/events/Archive/conferences/2017/09/2017-09-01-ee17-Hanushek.html
 
Description CIES 2018 Mexico City 
Form Of Engagement Activity A talk or presentation
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Professional Practitioners
Results and Impact CIES conference panel on the RLO DFID program studies.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2018
 
Description CPD In-service Meeting for CCT Program Schools - Oct 2016 
Form Of Engagement Activity Participation in an activity, workshop or similar
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach Local
Primary Audience Schools
Results and Impact 15 CCTs facilitated CPD in-service meetings with 88 P3 teachers from 44 CCT program schools. Teachers were guided to prepare children to present their literacy achievements for Literacy Recognition Day, held on different days in each school during in Term 3. During these meetings CCTs also discussed the issue of any missing data, collected tools and data, and communicated plans for endline survey.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2016
 
Description CPD In-service Meeting for Mango Tree Program Schools - Oct 2016 
Form Of Engagement Activity Participation in an activity, workshop or similar
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach Local
Primary Audience Schools
Results and Impact 15 CCTs facilitated CPD in-service meetings with 84 P3 teachers from 42 MT program schools. Teachers were guided to prepare children to present their literacy achievements for Literacy Recognition Day, held on different days in each school during in Term 3. During these meetings POs also discussed the issue of any missing data, collected tools and data, and communicated the plans for endline survey.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2016
 
Description CPD In-service Meeting for Supplementary Schools - July 2016 
Form Of Engagement Activity Participation in an activity, workshop or similar
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach Local
Primary Audience Schools
Results and Impact 15 CCTs facilitated refresher training on the thematic curriculum and classroom management for supplementary materials schools. 144 P3 teachers from 72 schools participated in this meeting. These are crucial to engage our control group.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2016
 
Description CPD In-service Meeting for the Supplementary Schools Oct 2016 
Form Of Engagement Activity Participation in an activity, workshop or similar
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach Local
Primary Audience Schools
Results and Impact 15 CCTs facilitated a refresher training on the thematic curriculum and classroom management for supplementary materials schools. 144 P3 teachers from 72 schools participated in this meeting. During these meetings POs and CCTs also collected tools and data, and communicated the plans for the endline survey.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2016
 
Description CPD In-service Meetings for MT and CCT Schools - June 2015 
Form Of Engagement Activity Participation in an activity, workshop or similar
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach Local
Primary Audience Schools
Results and Impact 15 CCTs facilitated CPD in-service meetings with 84 P3 teachers from 42 MT program schools, and 88 P3 teachers from 44 CCT program schools. The purpose of the meeting was to help improve teachers' ability to use the MT model and to focus on creative writing, as that was a challenge for teachers during term 1.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2016
 
Description CPD in-service at CC for P3 Supplementary Schools - April 2016 
Form Of Engagement Activity Participation in an activity, workshop or similar
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach Local
Primary Audience Schools
Results and Impact 15 CCTs facilitated a refresher training on the thematic curriculum and classroom management for supplementary materials schools. 144 P3 teachers from 72 schools participated in this meeting.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2016
 
Description Center for Education Innovations Blog: Supporting Mother Tongue Literacy in Uganda 
Form Of Engagement Activity Engagement focused website, blog or social media channel
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Professional Practitioners
Results and Impact The research team and Mango Tree wrote a blog for the CEI website about the role of mother tongue education in supporting early literacy. It focused on the program's role in fostering a culture of literacy through the program, defined as, "A community of people with enthusiasm for and commitment to reading and writing in daily life." Because of these early discussions our intervention, though primarily focused on improving instruction in the classroom, has always maintained components that address strengthening a culture of literacy in the community. To date, some of our initiatives that address larger "culture of literacy issues" include:
• Working with the language board to revise the orthography of the local language, Leblango.
• Funding a weekly radio show devoted to teaching the community about their local language and discussing literacy-related issues.
• Developing a "transition primer" for individuals who speak Leblango fluently, but are uncomfortable reading and writing the language (this includes most teachers). This transition primer uses their knowledge of English to transition into literacy in Leblango.
• Supporting lexicography workshops that add new terms and concepts to the local language so that it can function more effectively in the classroom, especially at an academic level.
• Creating a local language dictionary for primary school pupils.
• Sponsoring writing and illustrating contests to identify individuals with talent and then training and supporting them to develop new works for publication.
• Employing local printing companies.
• Translating report cards into the local language and improving how pupil progress is reported.
• Developing simple assessment tools that parents can use at home to monitoring their children's progress in reading.

Through the approaches described above, Mango Tree has successfully stimulated a passion for local language literacy and a love for reading in local language in the homes, communities and schools where we operate. As our program continues growing and evolving we realize more than ever that generating a culture of literacy is a challenging - but critical - task in a community's literacy journey. And, for mother tongue language and education to thrive, it must remain central to the work that we do.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2017
 
Description Centre for the Study of African Economies (CSAE) 2017 
Form Of Engagement Activity A talk or presentation
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Postgraduate students
Results and Impact Conference Oxford University Oxford March 19-21, 2017 by Julie Buhl-Wiggers The Impact of Teacher Effectiveness on Student Learning in Africa
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2017
URL http://ex-iis.csae.ox.ac.uk/conferences/2017-EdiA/default.htm
 
Description Classroom Observation and Collection of Tools (HT and CCTs) April 2016 
Form Of Engagement Activity Participation in an activity, workshop or similar
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach Local
Primary Audience Schools
Results and Impact Sent 20 enumerators spread across 158 schools, in grades P1-P4, to collect videos of ordinary classes conducted and other school data. During these visits M&E data was collected, and Teacher and Head Teacher interviews were conducted.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2016
 
Description Collection of Term 2 Tools - Sept 2016 
Form Of Engagement Activity Participation in an activity, workshop or similar
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach Local
Primary Audience Schools
Results and Impact Termly data and school records were collected by POs and M&E staff throughout the term.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2016
 
Description Collection of Term 3 Tools Nov 2016 
Form Of Engagement Activity Participation in an activity, workshop or similar
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach Local
Primary Audience Schools
Results and Impact POs conducted visits to each school in their districts, including CCT and Supplementary schools to collect tools.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2016
 
Description Conference - CIES presentation #1 
Form Of Engagement Activity A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Professional Practitioners
Results and Impact Results dissemination at the comparative international education society. Received a lot of attention and questions about the results and methods.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2016
URL http://cies2016.org/
 
Description Conference - CIES presentation #3 
Form Of Engagement Activity A talk or presentation
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Professional Practitioners
Results and Impact Discussion on strategy for impact for the project
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2016
URL http://cies2016.org/
 
Description Conference - London experimental week 
Form Of Engagement Activity A talk or presentation
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Professional Practitioners
Results and Impact Discussion and presentation
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2015
 
Description Conference - Pacdev 
Form Of Engagement Activity A talk or presentation
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach National
Primary Audience Other audiences
Results and Impact results dissemination and feedback on analysis and findings
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2016
URL http://scid.stanford.edu/events/pacific-conference-development-economics-pacdev
 
Description Conference - RLO Jan 2017 
Form Of Engagement Activity Participation in an activity, workshop or similar
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Other audiences
Results and Impact Raising Learning Outcomes workshop with grantees
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2017
 
Description Conference - University of Minnesota 
Form Of Engagement Activity A talk or presentation
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach National
Primary Audience Other audiences
Results and Impact Seminar presentation on the results, discussion on the analysis and interpretations of findings. Found potential collaborators
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2015
 
Description Conference - middlesex 
Form Of Engagement Activity A talk or presentation
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Professional Practitioners
Results and Impact Discussion on results
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2015
 
Description Conference CSAE 
Form Of Engagement Activity A talk or presentation
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Other audiences
Results and Impact Dissemination of results and discussion
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2016
URL http://www.csae.ox.ac.uk/conferences/2016-EdiA/
 
Description Conferences - CIES Presentation #2 
Form Of Engagement Activity A talk or presentation
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Professional Practitioners
Results and Impact Great feedback and reception of our presentation. Sparked debate and discussions as well as requests for collaborations
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2016
URL http://cies2016.org/
 
Description Continuous Professional Development (CPD) Meetings in Term 1 2016 
Form Of Engagement Activity Participation in an activity, workshop or similar
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach Local
Primary Audience Schools
Results and Impact 15 CCTs facilitated CPD in-service meetings with 88 P3 teachers from 44 CCT program schools across their respective districts, and 6 POs facilitated CPD in-service meetings with 84 P3 teachers from 42 MT program schools across their respective district. The purpose of the meeting was to help improve teachers' ability to use the MT model and to help them better engage with parents, children and school management staff to support quality learning in schools.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2016
 
Description DEO, DIS, MEO, PAC Meeting - Feb 2016 
Form Of Engagement Activity Participation in an activity, workshop or similar
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach Local
Primary Audience Policymakers/politicians
Results and Impact 10 District Officials, including District inspector of Schools, Ministry of Education, and Project advisory committee members, and 11 Mango Tree staff, were briefed on findings from 2015, and expressed their support for MT's P3 approach for 2016.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2016
 
Description DFID Conference on the Evolution of Uganda's Assessment and Examination System 
Form Of Engagement Activity A talk or presentation
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach National
Primary Audience Policymakers/politicians
Results and Impact The Uganda research team was invited to present on our work on independent assessments and the results from our study at a 2-day symposium organised and hosted by DFID Uganda. We contributed to the national dialogue on appropriate approaches to independent assessment and the role of external research in contributing to the dialogue about learning outcomes and what it takes to deliver quality learning in challenging contexts - with success. This sparked discussion about elements of the Mango Tree program that have led to the huge results and reading gains realised under the intervention.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2017
 
Description Departmental Seminar Copenhagen Business School 
Form Of Engagement Activity A talk or presentation
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Postgraduate students
Results and Impact Presentation of "The impact of teacher effectiveness on student learning in Africa" at a Departmental Seminar at the Copenhagen Business School.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2018
 
Description Distribution of Term 1 Report Cards (P1, P2, P3) May 2016 
Form Of Engagement Activity Participation in an activity, workshop or similar
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach Local
Primary Audience Schools
Results and Impact 6 POs, and 15 CCTs distributed report cards for Term 1 to P1, P2, and P3 Teachers in all MT, CCT and Supplementary schools.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2016
 
Description Distribution of Term 2 Report Cards (P1, P3, P3) - Aug 2016 
Form Of Engagement Activity Participation in an activity, workshop or similar
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach Local
Primary Audience Schools
Results and Impact 158 schools received report cards to be filled for grades P1-P4, to be later collected again during wrap up meetings.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2016
 
Description District Officials and Head Teachers Meeting - Feb 2016 
Form Of Engagement Activity Participation in an activity, workshop or similar
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach Local
Primary Audience Schools
Results and Impact 15 CCTs, 158 Head Teachers, 9 District Officials and Principals, 12 Mango Tree staff met to discuss how to use the support monitoring tools, and ways to support teachers implementing the model. Participants were also trained on project-developed classroom support supervision tools to aid them in observing and supporting teachers in the implementation of literacy lessons.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2016
 
Description District Officials and Head Teachers' Meeting June 2016 
Form Of Engagement Activity Participation in an activity, workshop or similar
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach Local
Primary Audience Schools
Results and Impact 15 CCTs, 158 Head Teachers, 9 District Officials and Principals, 12 Mango Tree staff met to reflect on Term 1, discuss how to use the support monitoring tools, and identify ways to support teachers implementing the model in the final year.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2016
 
Description Drop Everything and Read DEAR Day - March 2016 
Form Of Engagement Activity Participation in an activity, workshop or similar
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach Local
Primary Audience Schools
Results and Impact DEAR Day as an event led by Peace Corps was conducted nationwide; 6 schools within the municipality were covered by MT staff to capture the event. The activity aimed at promoting reading in homes, schools and any other places of work. DEAR Day collided with the National Book Week. NULP embraced the activity and made communications to program schools to remember the importance of reading in their daily lives by dropping everything and reading for 10 minutes or more (the theme of Dear Day). Pupils and teachers were able to leave whatever they were doing and devoted their time to demonstrate their reading abilities using different types of literature. Various materials including newspapers, story books, text books, encyclopaedias, maps, novels, charts were read by different individuals to mark this great day. Mango Tree also donated 15 hanging Libraries to Peace Corps for this event to be gifted to schools.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2016
 
Description ESRC Blog: Impact for Whom? Making Big Data Work for the Little Guys 
Form Of Engagement Activity Engagement focused website, blog or social media channel
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Professional Practitioners
Results and Impact Following the January 2017 ESRC-DFID London conference, Victoria Brown wrote a blog for the ESRC Website about the role of data in programming. At the conference, a common theme emerged amongst the researchers: do researchers focus their data-sharing at the national and international level (mainly targeting policymakers, government stakeholders and other academics and researchers) at the expense of downscaling for downstream audiences? At the conference, many researchers faced common barriers to sharing data with local audiences. Challenges regarding the time it takes to share information, the cost of preparing and packaging data and disseminating it, issues surrounding the relevancy of the information and data collected during the study for downstream sharing, and the complications of how to effectively communicate complex information to local audiences were frequently cited as barriers to this process. The blog asked the question, with all of these similar challenges, it is possible to come up with similar solutions to resolving them? We received some really good feedback about the blog when it was further posted to the Mango Tree FB page and LinkedIn.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2017
 
Description Education Run Oct 2016 
Form Of Engagement Activity Participation in an activity, workshop or similar
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach National
Primary Audience Public/other audiences
Results and Impact The annual education run was organized by the Centre for Social Research (CSR) in conjunction with the Ministry of Education Sports (MOES) on October 23rd, 2015. It was organized to promote literacy and innovations. Mango Tree participated in the event and made a financial contribution to support the education run budget. Mango Tree also gave a speech about its activities. The run promoted experience-sharing among the organizations that participated.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2016
 
Description Endline Data Collection - Nov 2016 
Form Of Engagement Activity Participation in an activity, workshop or similar
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach Local
Primary Audience Schools
Results and Impact 12 teams comprised of 171 people visited 158 schools in 8 districts to conduct digital data collection in P1-P4 classes. Tests administered included EGWA, MATH and the EGRA and assessed 27,000 sampled pupils.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2016
 
Description FENU meeting (Forum for Education NGOs in Uganda) 
Form Of Engagement Activity A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach National
Primary Audience Policymakers/politicians
Results and Impact Were able to discuss results with other NGOs and government stakeholders. Gained a lot of attention and interest in the literacy model.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2016
 
Description IBBY Children's Writers and Illustrators Conference 2017 
Form Of Engagement Activity A talk or presentation
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Professional Practitioners
Results and Impact IBBY Children's Writers and Illustrators Conference 2017 Conference Children's Writers and Illustrators Association Kampala, Uganda August 22-24, 2017 Craig, James, Victoria Brown MT's materials and appropriate writing for low literate audiences
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2017
 
Description Integration into Coursework for a Beijing course in Human Capital and Economic Opportunity 
Form Of Engagement Activity A talk or presentation
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Postgraduate students
Results and Impact Presentation of "Teacher Effectiveness in Africa: Longitudinal and Causal Estimates" as part of a Human Capital and Economic Opportunity (HCEO) course that was co-taught with Jessica Goldberg in Beijing in July of 2018.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2018
 
Description International Literacy Day 
Form Of Engagement Activity A talk or presentation
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach Local
Primary Audience Public/other audiences
Results and Impact NULP joined the world to mark the day by collaborating with Dokolo District. The theme was: "Reading the Past, Writing the Future". In attendance were district heads of departments, head teachers and teachers, CAO Dokolo, RDC Dokolo, civil servants, NGO representatives, media, pupils and parents. 20 primary schools in Dokolo District participated in various activities like drama, spelling competitions and reading competitions. Very strong speeches were given by that focused on the importance of literacy in the region. Over 600 people attended the event.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2016
 
Description Learning event with DFID and other research partners 
Form Of Engagement Activity Participation in an activity, workshop or similar
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach National
Primary Audience Policymakers/politicians
Results and Impact Learning Event we hosted in UG with DFID and other research partners about how to take our learnings to scale in policy work. We coordinated that with Pauline Rose at Cambridge/Impact Initiative and presented to Ed Barnett, Ed Advisor at DFID. After this meeting, the results of our study were further fielded with DFID staff in UG.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2019
 
Description Learning outcomes Uganda - 2017 
Form Of Engagement Activity A talk or presentation
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach National
Primary Audience Policymakers/politicians
Results and Impact The 1st National Conference on Learning Outcomes in Uganda 2017 Presentation by Victoria Brown
Learning from Learning: Turning Results into Practice and Policy
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2017
 
Description Learning outcomes Uganda 2017 
Form Of Engagement Activity A talk or presentation
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach National
Primary Audience Policymakers/politicians
Results and Impact The 1st National Conference on Learning Outcomes in Uganda 2017 Presentation by Katie Pollman
Making Big Data Work for the Little Guys: Results Sharing with Downstream Audiences
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2017
 
Description Learning outcomes in Uganda - 2017 
Form Of Engagement Activity A talk or presentation
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach National
Primary Audience Policymakers/politicians
Results and Impact The 1st National Conference on Learning Outcomes in Uganda 2017 Presentation by Victoria Brown
Making the Grade: Understanding What Works for Teaching Literacy in Rural Uganda
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2017
 
Description MOES Communications Technical Working Group 
Form Of Engagement Activity A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach National
Primary Audience Policymakers/politicians
Results and Impact Mango Tree and its research partner, Ichuli, were invited to join the MOES Communications Technical Working Group to share results and best practices from the research project and program implementation activities. Our membership has sparked further interest in our research and literacy results.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2017,2018
 
Description MOEST SBC Meeting - Sept 2016 
Form Of Engagement Activity A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach National
Primary Audience Industry/Business
Results and Impact Ministry of Education and Sports Social Behaviour Change Communication (SBCC) Creative Workshop in September 2016: The workshop gathered different for disseminating the messages. In attendance were staff from Mango Tree, Maad Advertising, Mixakids, ministry officials and the community. Great messages related to promoting parent-child reading at home were developed and the right channels of communicating messages were identified.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2016
 
Description Meeting with New Supplementary School Teachers and Head Teachers - March 2016 
Form Of Engagement Activity Participation in an activity, workshop or similar
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach Local
Primary Audience Schools
Results and Impact As RCT staff were coming back from the field, reporting that they were getting negative responses by Supplementary Head Teachers and teachers who didn't understand why their classrooms were being observed, 30 Head teachers, 1 District Official, 60 P3 teachers, 8 Mango Tree staff held a meeting to sensitize and clarify questions. This meeting paved the way for successful working relations for the rest of 2016.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2016
 
Description Multi-Lingual Education Network MLEN Meeting 
Form Of Engagement Activity A talk or presentation
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach National
Primary Audience Professional Practitioners
Results and Impact The Mother Tongue-Based Multilingual Education Network (MTB-MLE Network) is an association of individuals and agencies that share a common vision: all children have the right to receive a quality education in a linguistically and culturally appropriate environment. The debate was majorly on methodologies used for the National Assessment of Progress in Education which is conducted regularly by the Uganda National Examinations Board (UNEB). The debate also looked at the issue of providing quality learning materials to deliver the thematic curriculum. Mango Tree's presentation focused on the value of mother tongue and how to embrace it for development.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2016
 
Description NULP Radio Talk Show - June 2016 
Form Of Engagement Activity A broadcast e.g. TV/radio/film/podcast (other than news/press)
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach National
Primary Audience Public/other audiences
Results and Impact School Parent Meetings: How does active participation in parents' meetings impact your child's learning? This talk show aimed at reminding parents on their roles and gathering their thoughts about how to motivate parents to attend parent meetings willingly. 6 Mango Tree staff participated in dialoguing with the listeners. A total of 17 callers made great contributions related to the topic. 15 of them shared how important it is to attend the meetings in person, identifying reasons like strengthening the relationship between schools and parents. They also said that meetings provided an opportunity for follow up on their child's learning.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2016
 
Description National Book Week - March 2016 
Form Of Engagement Activity Participation in an activity, workshop or similar
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach Local
Primary Audience Public/other audiences
Results and Impact NULP participated in 2016 National Book Week festival. The event was organised to encourage and provide vital information to the world to better use the library as a bank of all information. During the week there were various book related activities held in different parts of the country. The Book Week was held at the Public Library in Lira. The theme for the year 2016 was "A library, an information bank for democracy." NULP sponsored the event and invited program schools to participate. The event attracted 208 participants including prominent officials like the Mayor of Lira Municipality, Town Clerk, head teachers, media houses, education officials and librarians. 14 schools participated and demonstrated key literacy skills by reading, giving speeches, and acting plays demonstrating the importance of reading on one's life. Mango Tree also donated readers to the library to boost local language readership.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2016
 
Description National Spelling Bee - Oct 2016 
Form Of Engagement Activity Participation in an activity, workshop or similar
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach Regional
Primary Audience Public/other audiences
Results and Impact The Uganda Spelling Bee is an annual spelling competition for primary school children with the aim of improving literacy, unlocking children's imaginations and developing key life skills such as confidence, teamwork, critical thinking and presentation. It is conducted in both local languages for P3 pupils and English and Sign Language for P4-P7 pupils. Mango Tree, in collaboration with the Enjuba Spelling Bee held the regional spelling competition in Lira on 21st October 2016. The event gathered 14 schools, two from each district. Among the districts were Lira, Kole, Oyam Dokolo, Amolatar, Otuke and Alebtong. 42 pupils from the seven districts participated in the completion. One winner from a CCT program school emerged to represent the Lango Sub-region at the national level.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2016
 
Description P3 T3 Methods and Materials Training for CCT Schools- T3 Materials Distribution Sept 2016 
Form Of Engagement Activity Participation in an activity, workshop or similar
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach Local
Primary Audience Schools
Results and Impact 88 P3 teachers from 44 CCT program schools had 3-day training in the term 3 literacy model and materials. Instructional videos were used to refresh teachers on key areas of the instructional model based upon challenges identified during term 2 classroom observations. The training was conducted by 15 CCTs for the project's 17 coordinating centres.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2016
 
Description P3 T3 Methods and Materials Training for MT Schools-T3 Materials Distribution - Sept 2016 
Form Of Engagement Activity Participation in an activity, workshop or similar
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach Local
Primary Audience Schools
Results and Impact 84 P3 teachers under 42 MT schools were trained in the term 3 literacy model and materials. Instructional videos were used to refresh teachers on key areas of the instructional model based upon challenges identified during term 2 classroom observations. Videos of the instruction were collected.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2016
 
Description P3 Teachers Meeting with Supplementary School Teachers - May 2016 
Form Of Engagement Activity Participation in an activity, workshop or similar
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach Local
Primary Audience Schools
Results and Impact 15 CCTs, 144 P3 Teachers, 10 Mango Tree staff in total. For the supplementary teachers, Mango Tree offered support in how to best utilize the government curriculum, and also collected feedback from term 1.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2016
 
Description P4 teachers' Meeting for RCT 1 Schools - May 2016 
Form Of Engagement Activity Participation in an activity, workshop or similar
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach Local
Primary Audience Schools
Results and Impact Meetings held with 38 RCT 1 Schools, 76 teachers about the process for continuing to track pupils in the RCT.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2016
 
Description Panel involvement at RLO ESRC workshop -- Measuring learning outcomes 
Form Of Engagement Activity A talk or presentation
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Other audiences
Results and Impact Discussions related to measuring writing performance, potential collaborations formed with others measuring writing outcomes.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2019
 
Description Parent Meeting at CCTs Schools Oct 2016 
Form Of Engagement Activity Participation in an activity, workshop or similar
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach Local
Primary Audience Schools
Results and Impact Facilitated by 15 CCTs in their respective areas with the support of POs. These meetings further communicated about data collection and testing for the endline survey, as well as piloting community literacy initiatives that will be expanded in 2017.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2016
 
Description Parent Meeting at Mango Tree Program Schools - Oct 2016 
Form Of Engagement Activity Participation in an activity, workshop or similar
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach Local
Primary Audience Public/other audiences
Results and Impact Facilitated by 15 CCTs in their respective areas with support of POs. These meetings further communicated information about data collection and testing for the endline survey, as well as community literacy initiatives that will be expanded in 2017.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2016
 
Description Parent Meeting at Supplementary Schools Oct 2016 
Form Of Engagement Activity Participation in an activity, workshop or similar
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach Local
Primary Audience Public/other audiences
Results and Impact Facilitated by 15 CCTs in their respective coordinating centres with the support of POs. These meetings further communicated information about the endline survey.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2016
 
Description Parent Meeting for Supplementary Schools - July 2017 
Form Of Engagement Activity Participation in an activity, workshop or similar
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach Local
Primary Audience Public/other audiences
Results and Impact Facilitated by 15 CCTs in their respective areas with support of POs. These meetings continued the previous discussions and reinforced support for Mango Tree's research, learning in the local language, and supporting children in school. Crucial for our control group
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2016
 
Description Parent Meetings - June 2016 
Form Of Engagement Activity Participation in an activity, workshop or similar
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach Local
Primary Audience Schools
Results and Impact Facilitated by 15 CCTs in their respective areas with support of POs. These meetings continued the previous discussions, and reinforced support for learning in the local language and supporting children in school. 'Take a book home' was discussed and encouraged. Also parents were guided on how they should assess how their children's learning at home.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2016
 
Description Parent Meetings - March 2016 
Form Of Engagement Activity Participation in an activity, workshop or similar
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach Local
Primary Audience Public/other audiences
Results and Impact Facilitated by 15 CCTs in their respective areas with support of POs. These meetings provide a different avenue for community engagement. The Literacy Awareness chart was used to sensitize parents on how they should support their children's learning.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2016
 
Description Population Association of America (PAA) 2017 Annual Meeting 
Form Of Engagement Activity A talk or presentation
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach National
Primary Audience Policymakers/politicians
Results and Impact Conference PAA Chicago, IL April 27-29, 2017 Jason Kerwin and Rebecca Thornton The Impact of Teacher Effectiveness on Student Learning in Africa
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2017
 
Description Pre-training and Training of New RCT Enumerators for Endline Data Collection - Oct 2016 
Form Of Engagement Activity Participation in an activity, workshop or similar
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach Local
Primary Audience Other audiences
Results and Impact After rigorous recruitment we selected 58 people to attend the pre-training to become familiar with tablet-based assessment. During the training newly recruited enumerators were re-trained after evaluating their performance to improve their field-based performance.

200 people gathered for a 5 day training on how to administer endline surveys. Enumerators were evaluated daily on their performance. On the last day 171 people were selected to participate in the endline survey. They were assigned to be team leaders, deputy team leaders, IT assistants, and enumerators, creating 12 teams of 16 people to collect data during the endline.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2016
 
Description Presentation - Depaul 
Form Of Engagement Activity A talk or presentation
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach National
Primary Audience Other audiences
Results and Impact Presentation at Depaul University
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2016
 
Description Presentation - GWU April 2016 
Form Of Engagement Activity A talk or presentation
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Other audiences
Results and Impact Presentation to conference on development in Africa
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2016
URL https://www2.gwu.edu/~iiep/events/GW_Africa_Conference2016/
 
Description Presentation - Rand May 2016 
Form Of Engagement Activity A talk or presentation
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach National
Primary Audience Other audiences
Results and Impact Presentation to Rand
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2016
 
Description Presentation at Canadian Labour Economics Forum, McGill University 
Form Of Engagement Activity A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Policymakers/politicians
Results and Impact Presentation of "Teacher Effectiveness in Africa: Longitudinal and Causal Estimates" at the Canadian Labour Economics Forum, McGill University in Montréal, QC, Canada.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2018
 
Description Presentation at DFID Child Poverty Conference in Uganda 
Form Of Engagement Activity A talk or presentation
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Policymakers/politicians
Results and Impact Presentation at the DFID Child Poverty conference in Uganda.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2018
 
Description Presentation at FHI 360 - 2018 
Form Of Engagement Activity A talk or presentation
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Policymakers/politicians
Results and Impact Presentation of The Impact of Teacher Effectiveness on Student Learning in Africa paper at an FHI 360 conference.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2018
 
Description Presentation at Georgetown University Seminar in School of Public Policy - 2018 
Form Of Engagement Activity A talk or presentation
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Postgraduate students
Results and Impact Presentation of The Impact of Teacher Effectiveness on Student Learning in Africa paper at a Georgetown Guide2 seminar in the school of public policy.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2018
 
Description Presentation at IUSSP 2017 
Form Of Engagement Activity A talk or presentation
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Other audiences
Results and Impact Presentation on: The Impact of Teacher Effectiveness on Student Learning in Africa (with Julie Buhl-Wiggers,
Jeffrey A. Smith, and Rebecca L. Thornton)

2017 International Union for the Scientific Study of Population, 28th International
Population Conference. Cape Town, South Africa. November 1, 2017.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2017
 
Description Presentation at IZA World Labor Conference 
Form Of Engagement Activity A talk or presentation
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Policymakers/politicians
Results and Impact Presentation of "Teacher Effectiveness in Africa: Longitudinal and Causal Estimates" at the IZA World Labor Conference.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2018
 
Description Presentation at Institute for Research on Poverty Summer Research Workshop 
Form Of Engagement Activity A talk or presentation
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Postgraduate students
Results and Impact Presentation on Program Scale-up and Sustainability at the Institute for Research on Poverty Summer Research Workshop.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2018
 
Description Presentation at NYU Seminar - 2018 
Form Of Engagement Activity A talk or presentation
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Postgraduate students
Results and Impact Presentation of The Impact of Teacher Effectiveness on Student Learning in Africa paper.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2018
 
Description Presentation at Ohio State University 
Form Of Engagement Activity A talk or presentation
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Postgraduate students
Results and Impact Presentation of VAM paper at the Ohio State University Department of Agricultural, Environmental, and Development Economics.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2019
 
Description Presentation at RISE - 2018 
Form Of Engagement Activity A talk or presentation
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Policymakers/politicians
Results and Impact The RISE Programme is a collaboration between the Center for Global Development in Washington DC, the Blavatnik School of Government, University of Oxford, and Oxford Policy Management in Oxford, UK. We presented our paper on teacher effectiveness.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2018
 
Description Presentation at the Midwest International Economic Development Conference at the University of Minnesota 
Form Of Engagement Activity A talk or presentation
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Postgraduate students
Results and Impact Presentation of paper, The Impact of Teacher Effectiveness on Student Learning in Africa.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2018
 
Description Presentation at the Society of Labor Economists, 23rd Annual Meetings 
Form Of Engagement Activity A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Policymakers/politicians
Results and Impact Presentation of "Teacher Effectiveness in Africa: Longitudinal and Causal Estimates" at the Society of Labor Economists, 23rd Annual Meetings.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2018
 
Description Presentation at the University of Hawaii Department of Economics 
Form Of Engagement Activity A talk or presentation
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Postgraduate students
Results and Impact Presentation of the VAM paper at the University of Hawaii Department of Economics.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2019
 
Description Presentation at the University of Tennessee 2018 
Form Of Engagement Activity A talk or presentation
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach Regional
Primary Audience Other audiences
Results and Impact Presentation of results at the Department of Economics.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2018
 
Description Presentation at the University of Texas at Austin 
Form Of Engagement Activity A talk or presentation
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Postgraduate students
Results and Impact Presentation of the "Teacher Effectiveness in Africa: Longitudinal and Causal Estimates" paper to the University of Texas at Austin Department of Economics.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2019
 
Description Presentation of Results to Mango Tree Program Advisory Committee 
Form Of Engagement Activity A talk or presentation
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Policymakers/politicians
Results and Impact We presented a summary of teacher effectiveness and early grade reading results in the program to local and district-level government leaders and printed out slides for them to take back to their district offices.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2018
 
Description Presentations to district officials 
Form Of Engagement Activity A talk or presentation
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach Local
Primary Audience Policymakers/politicians
Results and Impact Discussions and results sharing with district officials in Lira. Audience was enthusiastic and excited about the research and further work.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2016
 
Description Putting Children First: Identifying Solutions and Taking Action to Tackle Child Poverty and Inequality in Africa - International Conference, Addis Ababa 
Form Of Engagement Activity A talk or presentation
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Professional Practitioners
Results and Impact The International Conference on "Putting Children First: Identifying Solutions and Taking Action to Tackle Poverty and Inequality in Africa" gathered in Addis Ababa, 23-25 October 2017, to deliberate on solutions for fighting child poverty and inequality in Africa, drawing on numerous research and practical experiences presented at the Conference. The Ugandan research team presented about the role of education in fighting poverty based on results and learnings from the study. Education as a means to address child poverty is both widely agreed and rarely understood. The conference focused on bringing to light issues around education's role in fighting poverty and highlighting best practices for making education accessible and relevant for children who are often most excluded from the system.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2017
 
Description RISE Conference 2017 
Form Of Engagement Activity A talk or presentation
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach National
Primary Audience Policymakers/politicians
Results and Impact The RISE Programme is a collaboration between the Center for Global Development in Washington DC, the Blavatnik School of Government, University of Oxford, and Oxford Policy Management in Oxford, UK Julie Buhl-Wiggers presented our paper on teacher effectiveness.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2017
URL https://www.cgdev.org/event/rise-conference-2017
 
Description RLO ESRC workshop - panel on Policy uptake 
Form Of Engagement Activity A talk or presentation
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Other audiences
Results and Impact Discussion on experience related to policy uptake
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2019
 
Description Radio Talk Show - Aug 2016 
Form Of Engagement Activity A broadcast e.g. TV/radio/film/podcast (other than news/press)
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach National
Primary Audience Public/other audiences
Results and Impact School Holidays: How should parents prepare to receive their children back from school and what should they do with children at home? This talk show was held towards the end of term 2 to prepare parents/guardians as their children go on school holiday. 3 talk shows were held at 3 different radio stations. 6 Mango Tree staff guided the discussions on air and shared possible activities for parents to do with children like reading together, helping children revise, discussing school activities and planning for next term. 19 callers expressed their views on air and advised parents to always attend school meetings to better support their children.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2016
 
Description Radio Talk Show - March 2016 
Form Of Engagement Activity A broadcast e.g. TV/radio/film/podcast (other than news/press)
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach Regional
Primary Audience Public/other audiences
Results and Impact International Mother Tongue Day in Lira: The benefits of learning in mother tongue. 3 radio shows were held, 2 in Lira and 1 in Dokolo. A total of 24 callers largely contributed towards the programme by sharing views related to mother tongue literacy. Most callers strongly supported the use of mother tongue in lower grades as a medium of instruction as a way of preserving the culture, creating ease for children to learn the second language among others.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2016
 
Description Radio Talk Show - Sept 2016 
Form Of Engagement Activity A broadcast e.g. TV/radio/film/podcast (other than news/press)
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach Local
Primary Audience Public/other audiences
Results and Impact International Literacy Day: Literacy, a tool for development. This talk show was held at 2 radio stations in Lira. 4 Mango Tree staff, 2 CCTs, 6 pupils (3 boys and 3 girls) from Mango Tree Program schools participated in it. Selected pupils demonstrated their reading competences on air. They asked listeners questions on air and awarded prizes to them. The talk show aimed at creating awareness on how literacy has positively impacted communities, encouraging children and building confidence in them to actively participate in literacy activities. It also focused on sharing experiences from distinguished key stakeholders on what they have done to promote a culture of literacy in the region. 8 callers joined on air to respond to the questions asked by facilitators.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2016
 
Description Radio Talk Show April 2016 
Form Of Engagement Activity A broadcast e.g. TV/radio/film/podcast (other than news/press)
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach National
Primary Audience Public/other audiences
Results and Impact International Mother Tongue Day: The benefits of learning in mother tongue. This was a great show where we had guests from Kampala live broadcasted in Lira, and many callers called in to discuss this topic. In Lira, 11 callers shared their positive contributions on air. The team that participated in the Kampala celebration included 3 Mango Tree staff and 1 Language Board representative. The national celebration was held at the National Theatre with all participating organizations showcasing what they do to promote mother tongue literacy.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2016
 
Description Radio Talk Show- Oct 2016 
Form Of Engagement Activity A broadcast e.g. TV/radio/film/podcast (other than news/press)
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach Local
Primary Audience Media (as a channel to the public)
Results and Impact This talk show was held to make clear communication to all schools and the community about the RCT endline survey. 6 Mango Tree staff were part of this and talk shows ran across 3 radio stations. Time was limited, but 6 callers asked for clarity on the process and more details about the endline survey.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2016
 
Description Radio programs -2017 endline 
Form Of Engagement Activity A broadcast e.g. TV/radio/film/podcast (other than news/press)
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach National
Primary Audience Study participants or study members
Results and Impact Radio program to engage schools, parents and students in preparation for endline data collection activities. Lots of increased attention and parent brought their children from other districts to continue their involvement.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2017
 
Description Reading Association of South Africa 
Form Of Engagement Activity A talk or presentation
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Professional Practitioners
Results and Impact Reading Association of South Africa presentation on RCT results and findings.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2015
 
Description SMS for Teacher Support - Sept 2016 
Form Of Engagement Activity A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach Local
Primary Audience Schools
Results and Impact Teachers from early primary grades for two schools were selected as the pilot group to receive the first round of messages. These messages were sent to a total of 12 teachers (9 Male, 3 Female) twice a week over a period of a month. We received responses from a total of 6 teachers, or 50% of the total targeted number of teachers. 5 of the teachers who responded were male and 1 was female. Teachers were given the opportunity to learn about topics in monitoring pupil progress and classroom management. Included were tips on how to support slow learners, finish lessons on time, measure learner progress, and provide a good learning environment for pupils.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2016
 
Description Special Parents Meeting in Olyaka P/S, Amolatar District - Sept 2016 
Form Of Engagement Activity Participation in an activity, workshop or similar
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach Local
Primary Audience Schools
Results and Impact Conducted by 2 POs and 1 Research Assistant, this training targeted 80 parents of P2 class of Olyaka P/S. 62 parents attended. This pilot served to test parent opinion on using agricultural symbols to replace the number and lettering symbols in parents' report cards. This metaphor was meant to help parents easily understand how the path to becoming an independent reader is similar to progressing from seedling, grown plant, and finally to fully grown tree with fruits. Overall the meeting was a success with parents welcoming the new idea of using the agricultural symbol to represent the learners' performances in the parents' report cards as it aided their understanding and processing of their children's literacy scores.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2016
 
Description Supplementary Meeting with Teachers Feb 2016 
Form Of Engagement Activity A talk or presentation
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach Local
Primary Audience Schools
Results and Impact Program Director, 2 RCT staff, and 6 Program Officers held a separate meeting with 144 Supplementary teachers, motivating them for the new school year and sharing with them activity plans for the term.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2016
 
Description Supplementary School P3 Teacher's Meeting - March 2016 
Form Of Engagement Activity Participation in an activity, workshop or similar
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach Local
Primary Audience Schools
Results and Impact 15 CCTs, 84 P3 Teachers, 10 Mango Tree POs and 144 teachers from 72 in total participated in refresher trainings on the thematic curriculum and classroom management for supplementary materials schools.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2016
 
Description TOT for Term 2 Training May 2016 
Form Of Engagement Activity Participation in an activity, workshop or similar
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach Local
Primary Audience Schools
Results and Impact 15 CCTs, 6 Mentor Teachers, 14 Mango Tree staff trained on the P3 guides and prepared for the Term 2 methods delivery trainings at the Mango Tree office.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2016
 
Description TOT for Term 3 Training - Sept 2016 
Form Of Engagement Activity Participation in an activity, workshop or similar
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach Local
Primary Audience Schools
Results and Impact At the end of term 2, 8 Mango Tree staff and 15 CCTs held a meeting to plan for executing effective term 3 trainings. Roles and responsibilities were assigned and materials for the training organized in preparation for the upcoming methodology training workshop.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2016
 
Description Talk at Stellenbosch 
Form Of Engagement Activity A talk or presentation
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Undergraduate students
Results and Impact Stellenbosch University Department of Economics. Stellenbosch, South Africa. October 31, 2017. Talk on: The Impact of Teacher Effectiveness on Student Learning in Africa (with Julie Buhl-Wiggers,
Jeffrey A. Smith, and Rebecca L. Thornton)
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2017
 
Description Talk at University of Colorado 
Form Of Engagement Activity A talk or presentation
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach National
Primary Audience Other audiences
Results and Impact Presentation on:
The Impact of Teacher Effectiveness on Student Learning in Africa (with Julie Buhl-Wiggers,
Jeffrey A. Smith, and Rebecca L. Thornton)

University of Colorado Department of Economics. Boulder, CO. September 16, 2017.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2017
 
Description Teacher Instructor Education and Training Department - MOES Feb 2017 
Form Of Engagement Activity A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Professional Practitioners
Results and Impact Teacher Instructor Education and Training Department - MOES Research results and policy implications Presentation at department meeting MOES - TIET Kampala, Uganda 2/6/2017 Victoria Brown 2016 Results and Learnings 15 All MOES senior staff in teacher educaion and training Has a PPT They asked us to formally be part of their working group and to reguarly present. They also want us to present to a wider audience in MOES.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2017
 
Description Teacher engagement - 2017 
Form Of Engagement Activity Participation in an activity, workshop or similar
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach Local
Primary Audience Study participants or study members
Results and Impact Mango Tree began collecting feedback from teachers regarding the usefulness of classroom observation visits and providing support supervision and feedback using the videos collected. By showing teachers videos of themselves and then discussing what they were doing well and what they needed to improve, Mango Tree was able to further improve the usefulness of the feedback process.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2017
 
Description Term 2 Video Observations July 2016 
Form Of Engagement Activity Participation in an activity, workshop or similar
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach Local
Primary Audience Schools
Results and Impact Classroom observation term 1 was conducted by 20 observers/enumerators in the 158 schools. In each school an enumerator observed four classes P1-P4. The information obtained from the videos explains the active participation of pupils and their teachers in class in different lessons.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2016
 
Description Tweet on results - March 2016 
Form Of Engagement Activity A broadcast e.g. TV/radio/film/podcast (other than news/press)
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Public/other audiences
Results and Impact Tweet on our CSAE presentation
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2016
URL https://twitter.com/tukopamoja/status/711971189950980096
 
Description USAID Literacy Symposium: Reflection on the Future of Early Literacy Development in Uganda 
Form Of Engagement Activity A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach National
Primary Audience Policymakers/politicians
Results and Impact The one day symposium on 30th May, 2017 brought together 130 people from the Ministry of Education and Sports, education NGOs and funding partners, primary and secondary schools, universities and primary teachers colleges to discuss the Ministry's Literacy Framework and potential future actions for early literacy development in Uganda. The deliberations of the symposium were the basis of a report of recommendations for government's implementation of literacy programs in schools, especially to fill recognizable gaps.
Keeping the child as the central focus, the symposium made recommendations to MOES on the following:
• key issues for a national language education policy;
• ways of including speech communities;
• improvements for professional development of teachers and teacher educators;
• means of equitable distribution and efficient management of material and human resources;
• key areas of district support for implementation of literacy programs, and
• practical means of supporting community engagement.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2017
 
Description University of Copenhagen - 2018 
Form Of Engagement Activity A talk or presentation
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Other audiences
Results and Impact Symposium on applied statistics: University of Copenhagen, Denmark. January 22-24. Presentation by Julie Buhl-Wiggers on teacher effectiveness
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2018
 
Description Visits to Old and New Supplementary Schools - March 2016 
Form Of Engagement Activity Participation in an activity, workshop or similar
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach Local
Primary Audience Schools
Results and Impact RCT staff began 2016 data collection, delivery of class registers and letters from RCT, and held project discussions with teachers and head teachers, which helped improve attitudes about programme participation and led to greater cooperation throughout the term.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2016
 
Description Visits with head teachers and teachers 
Form Of Engagement Activity Participation in an activity, workshop or similar
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach Local
Primary Audience Schools
Results and Impact Discussed our 2016 research and implementation plans, discussed preliminary results, answered any questions and addressed concerns. Met with representatives from all 158 study schools.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2016
 
Description World Women's Day - March 2016 
Form Of Engagement Activity Participation in an activity, workshop or similar
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach Local
Primary Audience Public/other audiences
Results and Impact Program Director and Content Advocacy Manager attend event in Dokolo District. The theme was World Women's day, which also celebrated mothers, female teachers, school staff, and girls in school. Mango Tree was recognized by the district and thanked for our continuous support in improving school life for teachers, pupils and families.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2016
 
Description World bank blog 2017 
Form Of Engagement Activity Engagement focused website, blog or social media channel
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Policymakers/politicians
Results and Impact https://blogs.worldbank.org/impactevaluations/latest-research-economics-africa-csae-round Blog about our paper presentation at CSAE
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2017
URL http://blogs.worldbank.org/impactevaluations/latest-research-economics-africa-csae-round
 
Description Wrap-up Meetings 
Form Of Engagement Activity Participation in an activity, workshop or similar
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach Local
Primary Audience Schools
Results and Impact Mango Tree schools: 84 P3 teachers, 42 head teachers, 1 guest speaker, 9 district officials, and 18 Mango Tree staff met for end of year reflection meetings to share successes, challenges and the way forward for 2017 as the current NULP program came to a close. Documented successes included improvements in pupils' reading and writing, and active support from teachers and the community regarding the project. The wrap-up meetings were held by RCT treatment arm - supplementary program, CCT program and Mango Tree program schools - and provided helpful feedback to improve implementation of our next program and school engagement in 2017 and beyond.

CCT schools: 88 teachers, 44 head teachers, 1 guest speaker, 15 CCTs, and 18 Mango Tree staff met for end of year reflection meetings to share successes, challenges and the way forward for 2017 as the current NULP program came to a close. Documented successes included improvements in pupils' reading and writing, and active support from teachers and the community regarding the project. The wrap-up meetings were held by RCT treatment arm - supplementary program, CCT program and Mango Tree program schools - and provided helpful feedback to improve implementation of our next program and school engagement in 2017 and beyond.

Supplementary schools: 84 old supplementary teachers, 60 new supplementary teachers, 72 head teachers, 1 guest speaker, 2 CCTs, and 18 Mango Tree staff met for end of year reflection meetings to share successes, challenges and the way forward for 2017 as the current NULP program came to a close. Training was held on using supplementary materials in their schools in 2017.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2016
 
Description blog #2 - Feb 2017 
Form Of Engagement Activity Engagement focused website, blog or social media channel
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Professional Practitioners
Results and Impact blog on using data from our RCT
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2016
URL http://www.theimpactinitiative.net/blog/blog-impact-whom-making-big-data-work-little-guys
 
Description blog - feb 2017 
Form Of Engagement Activity Engagement focused website, blog or social media channel
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Media (as a channel to the public)
Results and Impact Blog on our results and supporting literacy
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2017
URL http://www.educationinnovations.org/blog/supporting-mother-tongue-literacy-uganda-%E2%80%93-mango-tr...