GC-DWC Haiti
Education has the potential to be a catalyst for change in Haiti and an equalizer amidst a harsh legacy of colonial rule and racial inequities. However, without support for schools’ financial security and for children’s health and nutrition, academic learning, and social and emotional learning (SEL) in place, education will remain a fledgling pursuit in Haiti. Recognizing this opportunity, Notre Dame has partnered for over a decade with the Haitian Catholic Church and supporting actors to improve learning outcomes for students in 562 schools across eight of the ten departments in Haiti.
49% of Haitian students cannot read a single word when they enter the third grade (EdData 2014), and roughly two-thirds of Haitian children experience violence from a caregiver or authority figure during childhood (Flynn-O’Brien et al, 2016). In general, education is high-cost in Haiti, with limited free school options, and even most public schools charge some form of tuition. As a result, under-resourced families are frequently forced to send their children to school during select months or years when it is financially feasible (WorldBank 2015). 80% of teachers have not received any form of pre-service training and over half lack basic qualifications (USAID 2020). Teachers are not paid a living wage and often work in overcrowded and underfunded classrooms. Schools are regularly forced to withhold teacher salaries or forced to shut down completely due to insufficient funds.
L3 Systems Activation:
The Home, School and Church
By activating the Haitian child’s most central networks, engaging key stakeholders, and leveraging culturally-relevant and engaging programming, the GC-DWC promotes a whole child approach to development that values the cultural richness of Haitian communities and will create a ripple effect throughout the country.
Learn MoreOur Approach
L3 Systems Activation: The home, school, and church
In response to chronic and systemic challenges facing the education system in Haiti, GC-DWC Haiti leverages a multidimensional approach to development in Haiti that integrates and evaluates a robust package of interventions for children and their families. The team’s unique approach and collaboration with local stakeholders addresses a wide range of developmental needs while empowering parish communities to make their own evidence-informed decisions, ultimately creating opportunities for independence and sustainability.
The challenges posed by chronic disinvestment and disruption of core institutions in Haiti mean that a top-down approach to change will never directly reach the individuals most in need. Recognizing that each Catholic parish in Haiti runs a school and is deeply embedded in local culture and home life, GC-DWC Haiti activates parish networks to meet children’s holistic needs at all three levels of their social ecology: the home (lakay), school (lekòl), and church (legliz) or L3. Innovative interventions occur within the L3 system and include everything from integrating child development and positive parenting messages into sermons and baptismal preparation courses to introducing nutrition education and resources to combat stunting within schools to creating community resource centers for play and learning. By activating the Haitian child’s most central networks, engaging key stakeholders, and leveraging culturally-relevant and engaging programming, GC-DWC Haiti promotes a whole child approach to development that values the cultural richness of Haitian communities and will create a ripple effect throughout the country.
L3 Components:
A whole child approach to development and learning engages a broad spectrum of support systems, including family, school, and community, to ensure children and youth reach their full potential. WCD values all aspects of a child’s well-being—social, emotional, physical, intellectual, spiritual, and creative—to ensure they become active citizens and life-long learners. Therefore, GC-DWC Haiti helps parish-school communities to address concerns surrounding children’s nutrition and health, academic learning, mother tongue literacy, and SEL, and deploys curricular reform, teacher training, and effective investments to combat ethnic, racial, and gender inequalities.
GC-DWC Haiti leverages learnings from its L3 system to identify the complex spectrum of issues affecting children’s learning and development and to iteratively test and scale community solutions to these issues, using a Rapid Evaluation, Assessment, and Learning Methodology (REALM). By feeding learning back into the community and to local stakeholders through REALM during program implementation, on-the-ground practitioners are able to refine and make adjustments to programming in the moment, ensuring maximum impact and efficacy.
In order to refine its L3 interventions and then scale the most relevant and effective ones throughout its wide network of communities in Haiti, GC-DWC Haiti pilots interventions in 5 communities in the Nord department. Using REALM, the team feeds learning back into communities in order for programming to be improved before being scaled throughout the country.
Initiatives
Early Childhood Development
Leveraging the home, school, and church to develop the whole child in Haiti.
Literacy
Using culturally relevant, mother tongue materials to foster children's literacy in Haitian Creole and French.
Social and Emotional Learning
Fostering the psychological, emotional, social, cognitive, and spiritual development of the child to achieve a life of human flourishing, dignity, and social harmony.
Enhancing the Model School Network
Research, Data Systems and Curriculum Strengthening
Radio Program
Leveraging radio as one of the most democratic and effective means of disseminating learning outside of the classroom.
Resilient Education
Addressing man-made and natural disasters.
Resources
Explore GC-DWC Haiti's collection of community, parish, classroom, parent, and teacher resources, tailored specifically for the Haitian context.
Notre Dame's History in Haiti
The Institute for Educational Initiative’s (IEI) Alliance for Catholic Education (ACE) began exploring opportunities to support Catholic schools and the mission of the Congregation of the Holy Cross in Haiti in 2006. When the 2010 earthquake devastated Haiti, ACE responded by helping to rebuild Basile Moreau, the Congregation of the Holy Cross’ flagship K-12 school in Port-au-Prince, and also began a broader engagement with Haiti’s Catholic school system. Forming a sustained partnership with Catholic Relief Services (CRS), Haiti’s Episcopal Commission for Catholic Education (CEEC), Summits Education, and the École Fondamentale d’Application; Centre d’Appui Pédagogique (EFACAP) network, ACE Haiti and its partners emerged as leaders in educational reform, research, and programmatic change in the Haitian context, especially in the field of early grade literacy.
In 2021, ACE Haiti formally joined the Global Center for the Development of the Whole Child becoming the Global Center for the Development of the Whole Child Haiti (GC-DWC Haiti). GC-DWC Haiti now drives cutting-edge education policy, practice, and applied research in early grade literacy, whole child development, social and emotional learning, nutrition, systems activation, and social enterprise. The team’s work has yielded promising improvements to student literacy outcomes and foundational skills while engaging the networks most central to Haitian children: the home, school, and church.
Timeline
2006:
ACE begins exploring a partnership with the Congregation of the Holy Cross, which runs 25 schools in Haiti and has been an active presence there for the past 70 years.
2010:
The 2010 earthquake devastates Haiti, and Notre Dame pledges its support.
2011:
ACE Haiti rebuilds Holy Cross’ flagship school, Basile Moreau School in Port-au Prince.
2012:
Holy Cross launches a teacher training institute in northern Haiti.
ACE Haiti, Catholic Relief Services (CRS), and Church partners conduct an assessment of Haiti’s 2,315 Catholic schools.
ACE Haiti receives a grant from the W.K. Kellogg Foundation to work with CRS and the Episcopal Commission for Catholic Education (CEEC) to support the training of 1,000 teachers and the creation of governance structures in 200 schools.
2014:
ACE Haiti supports the development and implementation of academic interventions at Basile Moreau School.
ACE Haiti receives a grant from Porticus to launch Read to Learn, an early grade literacy program in Haitian Creole and French in partnership with the CEEC and CRS, in 52 Catholic schools in the Nord and Artibonite departments.
2016:
Read to Learn yields the strongest improvement in student outcomes of any early grade literacy program in Haiti.
In collaboration with the W.K. Kellogg Foundation, ACE Haiti supports the creation of the Model School Network (MSN) in the Center department of Haiti with the Diocesan Education Board (BDE) of Hinche, Summits Education, and École Fondamentale d’Application; Centre d’Appui Pédagogique (EFACAP) networks.
2017:
ACE Haiti secures a $13.3 million Global Development Alliance (GDA) grant from the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), Porticus, and the W.K. Kellogg Foundation for its Read Haiti program.
Read Haiti scales its early grade literacy program to 340 schools across five departments (Nord, Artibonite, Center, Sud, and Grand’Anse), ultimately serving over 100,000 students.
ACE Haiti creates a social and emotional learning (SEL) framework specifically for the Haitian context and pilots SEL programs in 20 schools in the North and Artibonite departments.
2019:
ACE Haiti begins collaborating closely with the Global Center for the Development of the Whole Child (GC-DWC), which joins the Institute for Educational Initiatives in 2019.
Read Haiti’s pilot SEL programs showed significant gains in SEL competencies based on ISELA and mini-DESSA endline results.
2020:
In response to COVID-19, ACE Haiti and the GC-DWC develop a comprehensive distance learning radio program for students during school closures.
ACE Haiti closes out project work on Read Haiti.
ACE Haiti and GC-DWC secure a $16 million GDA grant from USAID, Porticus, and the W.K. Kellogg Foundation for 270 schools across five departments (Nord, Artibonite, Centre, Sud, and Grand’Anse) for its Strong Beginnings program. Strong Beginnings continues Read Haiti’s early grade literacy program and further scales the SEL program. Strong Beginnings also begins to develop and pilot community-driven early childhood development and positive parenting interventions in five Innovation Communities in the Nord department, reinforcing the L3 (lakay/home, lekòl/school, and legliz/church) community ecosystem with plans to scale most promising interventions to the rest of the schools in its network.
2021:
The Haiti Salt Project, a social enterprise committed to eradicating iodine deficiency disorders through the distribution of locally-produced, fortified salt, joins the GC-DWC.
ACE Haiti formally joins the Global Center for the Development of the Whole Child, becoming the Global Center for the Development of the Whole Child Haiti (GC-DWC Haiti).
The GC-DWC Haiti, in partnership with INNOVED at the Université Quisqueya (UNiQ) and the Children’s Environmental Health Initiative (CEHI), secured a $2.24 million grant to enhance the MSN network through research, data, and curriculum strengthening.
After the August 2021 earthquake in southern Haiti, the GC-DWC Haiti secured a $1.25 million grant from the LEGO Foundation that focuses on supporting education in emergencies through the activation of systems closest to the child in the Nippes department.
2022:
In collaboration with the GC-DWC Haiti, CRS received a $23 million grant from USAID. The Continuity of Learning program builds upon the early grade literacy and SEL work (grades 1 & 2) from Read Haiti/Strong Beginnings, develops SEL programming for grades 3 & 4, and seeks to build a resilient education system, delivering uninterrupted access to quality education across five departments in Haiti (Sud, Grand’Anse, Ouest, Nord & Nord-Est).
GC-DWC Haiti Early Childhood Development
The GC-DWC Haiti’s original literacy program combines a robust teacher training and coaching program with a high-quality, scripted curriculum for first and second grades. Despite the measured success of this program, incoming students were woefully underprepared to receive the in-school intervention. Students not only lacked foundational academic skills but also crucial SEL skills that would enable them to thrive in the classroom environment. Further, learning adjacent needs such as nutrition, psychosocial health and support, and financial stability remained unmet and hindered students’ abilities to receive the in-school literacy intervention and thrive.
Approach
In response to these challenges, GC-DWC Haiti is integrating a package of early child development (ECD) interventions for children 0-5 to ensure that children grow up in safe, stimulating home environments and receive a strong foundation in language development, social and emotional learning, pre-literacy, pre-numeracy, and life skills/discovering the world themes before they enter formal school. Integrated into Haitian communities through its most central networks - the family, school, and church - this intervention is a sustainable pathway to lasting change.
Progress, Goals, and Impact
Currently, GC-DWC Haiti is piloting this approach to child development through a series of complementary interventions in five communities in the Nord department. Communities in which interventions take place are known as Innovation Communities. Lessons learned from working in Innovation Communities will allow GC-DWC Haiti to refine interventions and scale the most relevant and effective ones to have the greatest future impact in Notre Dame’s wider network of communities throughout Haiti.
GC-DWC Haiti is in the midst of developing and implementing five interventions in its Innovation Communities: 1) Comprehensive Early Childhood Development (ECD) Curriculum; 2) Parent and Caregiver Training Workshop Program and Parent Support Groups; 3) Supplemental Weekend Radio Programming; 4) Pre-Baptism Counseling Sessions and Liturgical Workshops infused with Positive Parenting and ECD Messaging; and 5) Community Resource Centers. All interventions are evaluated using a Rapid Evaluation, Assessment, and Learning Methodology (REALM) that quickly feeds learning from program outcomes back into interventions, creating a regular cycle of improvement and refinement.
Innovation Communities Interventions
Comprehensive Early Childhood Development (ECD) Curriculum
A 10-month curriculum for pre-K that first focuses on daily morning meetings that guides teachers in effectively delivering lessons that meet preschool students’ social and emotional needs based on Notre Dame’s Vision of the Haitian Child SEL framework and pre-literacy schools using decodable books in Haitian Creole. The curriculum then progresses to other key themes: pre-numeracy and life skills/discovering the world.
As part of this intervention, teachers receive foundational training on reading, SEL instruction, and pre-K pedagogy, as well as follow-up coaching and supervision visits. Additionally, students are encouraged to engage in play-based learning activities and participate in Read Aloud activities.
Resources: SEL Children's Books and Activities, Vision of the Haitian Child: Social Emotional Framework
Parent & Caregiver Training Workshop and Parent Support Groups
A ten-week module program that equips parents with interactive games and songs they can use with their children and promote positive parenting techniques.
Sessions unpack positive parenting videos, specifically tailored to the Haitian context, that highlight the importance of social care, alternatives to harsh discipline, and reading with one's children. Sessions revolve around the following themes: importance of the parent-child relationship; consistent and responsive care; social emotional and cognitive development connection; self-regulation, discipline, and corporal punishment; wellbeing and self-care; and nutrition.
Resources: Positive Parenting Videos
Pre-Baptism Counseling Sessions and Liturgical Sermons
A program, developed in close collaboration with local Church leaders and the Archdiocese of Cap-Haitian, to merge science and theology messaging into pre-baptism counseling sessions for parents.
Programming ensures participating parents receive messages on the synergies of promoting healthy brain development and parental love and care in conjunction with the Catholic belief that all children are beloved children of God. Additionally, as concepts align with the liturgical calendar, Church holidays, and feast days, parish priests are encouraged to infuse ECD and positive parenting messaging into their sermons.
Supplemental Weekend Radio Programming
Distance-learning literacy, SEL, and ECD radio education programs developed in response to 2020 COVID-19 school closures and 2022-2023 initial school closures due to sociopolitical issues in Haiti.
With schools back in session, Notre Dame is adjusting its radio programming to a weekend schedule to provide access to additional learning opportunities for students at home. Designed primarily for pre-K through second grade students and their parents and caregivers, each episode incorporates general themes around basic literacy and numeracy, SEL concepts, and parent engagement while following a basic, consistent structure.
Resources: Radio Program
Community Resource Centers
Centers, within each Innovation Community, that link together learning materials and programming to address the unique development and learning needs of children within each community.
Centers will provide a clear space for learning outside of the classroom environment and will create space for parents to actively engage in their children’s learning and development. As a direct response to bridging the digital divide, centers will leverage digital learning hubs. Digital learning hubs will be equipped with solar power, internet connectivity, and tablets to extend technology-based learning opportunities. Additionally, centers will be open to everyone in the community including out-of-school youth, older students, and adults.
GC-DWC Haiti Literacy
49% of Haitian students cannot read a single word when they enter the third grade. Frequently, students are left to flounder in a classroom where the official language of instruction, French, is not their mother tongue, Haitian Creole. To complicate matters further, 80% of teachers have not received any form of pre-service training, and over half lack basic qualifications (USAID, 2020).
Our Approach
In response to these challenges, the GC-DWC Haiti team implemented a scripted, mother tongue literacy curriculum, created by Haitian and international educators with support from USAID in collaboration with the Haitian Ministry of Education, for first and second grade students: M ap li nèt ale (Haitian Creole) and Je parle bien français (French). To further augment the literacy curriculum, the GC-DWC Haiti team developed and added enrichment materials to the school-based program: classroom libraries with culturally relevant, mother-tongue books; summer reading camps led by the school community; and additional tutoring for the lowest-performing students.
Additionally, a robust teacher and school leader professional development program accompanies the literacy program. The professional development program includes residential educator training sessions at key points throughout the school year; professional learning community meetings; monthly coaching and observation visits by supervisors/coaches; and monthly teacher newsletters that share strategies and tips for classroom management and pedagogical best practices.
Goals, Progress, and Impact
To date, the GC-DWC Haiti team’s literacy program is the most successful literacy program in Haiti. A 2016 randomized control trial of the curriculum revealed statistically significant gains in 7 of the 8 Early Grade Reading Assessment indicators, including a 143% increase in letter recognition and a 49% increase in reading fluency.
Learn more about the impact of the literacy program in Improving Reading Instruction and Students’ Reading Skills in the Early Grades: Evidence From a Randomized Evaluation in Haiti.
Resources
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Scripted, Mother Tongue Literacy Curriculum: M ap li nèt ale and Je parle bien français are scripted curriculums for Grades 1 and 2 that meet international standards for evidenced-based best practices in literacy instruction. They are designed specifically for Haiti's developmental context and to meet the educational needs of Haitian children. They were created by Haitian and international educators with funding from USAID and have been validated by Haiti's Ministry of National Education and Vocational Training (Ministère de l'Éducation Nationale, et de la Formation Professionnelle).
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Ayiti Li Kreyòl (ALiK): The Ayiti Li Kreyòl (ALiK) assessment evaluates the reading performance of students based on vocabulary knowledge, reading comprehension, phonemic awareness, word recognition, and reading fluency. The assessment includes small to long paragraphs with accompanying comprehension questions.
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Ana ak Tiga SEL Children’s Book Series: The Ana and Tiga books are a series of children's books contextualized for Haiti. Written and illustrated by Haitian authors and artists, the books pull on Haiti's rich culture while integrating key elements of social and emotional learning. They also include helpful activities for parents and teachers to do with learners at the end of the stories. Books are free to use and download.