Appropriateness

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Appropriateness

Appropriateness deals with what is actually being measured and how it is defined. Within child and adolescent development, there are numerous competency domains practitioners may want to measure and evaluate: physical wellbeing, mental health, cognitive functioning, academic skills (e.g., literacy and numeracy), social and emotional learning, and values, morals, and spirituality. In determining a measure’s appropriateness, practitioners need to consider the following questions: 1) what do I want to measure? 2) why do I want to measure it? 3) how will I measure it? and 4) who will use the results? We discuss the nuances of these questions when using formative or summative measures for tracking, screening, situation analyses, monitoring, or evaluation.

Additional Resources

Practical recommendations for equity analysis in education

Carina Omoeva, Wael Moussa, Amy Jo Dowd, Amy Mulcahy-Dunn, Keely Alexander, Chris Cummiskey, and Wilima Wadhwa

“…practical recommendations of best practice standards for measuring key equity dimensions. These recommendations are put forward as a means to consolidate current best practices in data collection in education and to chart a way forward together. They serve as a sounding board for future data collection and analysis as well as a starting point for honing our practice in areas not yet well-measured.”

Research translation planning template

USAID

“This template guides teams through the four stages of Research Translation: Partnership, Process, Translation Product, and Dissemination. The template is meant to be utilized after team formation and during the process of determining partner roles and developing work plans. It will inform the early-stage planning process and guide future planning with activities and thought processes critical in effectively translating research into practice. Projects are encouraged to revisit this planning template to see how tracked progress reflects initial planning and whether the implementation plan needs revision to guide future work.”

Communications strategy template

USAID

“The Communications Strategy Template is intended for use specifically for projects that require a robust communications strategy, but is a useful tool for any project to effectively strategize toward communicating messages effectively. This template guides your project in completing a plan for communications strategy and deliverables. It will guide you through sections on audiences, resources, barriers, goals and objectives, messages, products and channels, and ultimately evaluation. We intend for projects to consult this template early on to begin thinking about communications audiences and objectives. Complete with partner input and revisit during the course of the project.”

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What is practical measurement?

Practical measurement is measurement of children and adolescents’ learning and development that is driven by and focused on the needs of practitioners working with limited time and resources in low-resource, conflict-affected, and fragile contexts. Practical measurement is not a specific tool but rather a conceptual framework that can be used to develop a simple, yet rigorous plan to measure holistic learning and development outcomes related to physical health, mental health, psychosocial wellbeing, academic learning (e.g., literacy, numeracy), social and emotional learning, or values, morals, and spirituality.

Why this course?

When searching for online resources on measuring children and adolescents’ learning and development, there are two common forms of resources: those aimed at monitoring outputs of programs (e.g., number of training sessions implemented or number of beneficiaries engaged) and those aimed at rigorous program or impact evaluations such as randomized controlled trials. However, while these resources are valuable, they do not address many practitioners’ immediate purpose to go beyond monitoring outputs and to measure actual changes in children and adolescents. Recognizing the need for something that is driven by and focused on the needs of practitioners working with limited time and resources in low-resource and fragile contexts, the Practical Measurement course focuses on equipping practitioners with the knowledge and resources to develop rigorous yet feasible measurement initiatives.

Who is this course designed for?

Maybe you are an education technical expert with years of experience working in low-resource or fragile settings on programs for children. Or perhaps you are a monitoring and evaluation officer in the early stages of your career. Wherever you find yourself in your career, the Practical Measurement course is designed to support practitioners like you in understanding how to develop an effective approach to measuring holistic learning and development outcomes, especially when faced with limited time and resources. For this reason, you will find limited research and statistical jargon throughout the course. Instead, you will find clear and concise descriptions, tips, tools, and resources to support you on your journey of measuring the learning and development outcomes of children or adolescents.

What will I learn?

This course is focused on four key parameters that are important to consider when attempting to measure how children learn and develop through programs in low-resource and fragile contexts: appropriateness, utility, feasibility, and rigor. The materials in this course are not comprehensive nor are they meant to prepare you to take on a large research initiative. Instead, you can anticipate gaining a deeper understanding of the why and how behind measuring children and adolescents’ holistic learning and development outcomes. You can also expect to leave this course with a foundational understanding of how to start down the road of choosing a measure, adapting it, administering it with children, and ensuring that the data is useful. Throughout the course, you will find a curated list of resources to help develop a strategy to measure learning and development whether you are interested in tracking (formative assessments), screening, situation analyses, monitoring, or evaluations.

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Supporting Holistic and Actionable Research in Education

While progress has been made in recent years to conduct research that strengthens education systems in low-middle income countries (LMIC), there continue to be significant barriers to the utilization of education research to inform policy and practice. SHARE brings together education policy-makers, practitioners, researchers, and knowledge disseminators to ensure education research meets the needs of and is accessible to key stakeholders in education systems. SHARE seeks to develop a replicable and adaptable model to advance efforts to strengthen education systems in low-middle income countries.

This program, led by UND’s Pulte Institute for Global Development, is a true collaboration of partners across Notre Dame including the GC-DWC, the Institute for Educational Initiatives, and the Keough School of Global Affairs.

Our Approach

The program is built upon a deep appreciation of local capacity and ownership as the cornerstone of effective development practice. The Notre Dame team will mentor an impressive coalition of partners in higher education across Latin America, Africa, the Middle East, and Asia to implement the program. The first year will convene critical country-level and regional stakeholders to identify pathways to address learning agenda questions around education in crises and conflict, foundational learning skills, youth and workforce development, and higher education. Additionally, the program will offer a series of capacity-strengthening actions — including training sessions, workshops, mentorship, and technical assistance — to ensure that individuals and institutions engaged in the research generation, translation, and utilization ecology are equipped to work together to advance education interests.

Goals, Progress, and Impact

Notre Dame's overall goal for SHARE is to advance USAID learning priorities in international education to improve education system outcomes. This will be accomplished through the following development objectives (DOs):

Targeted research and learning to advance USAID education sector learning priorities is conducted;
Capacity of education ecosystems to generate, translate, and use high quality, actionable data and evidence to inform programmatic and investment decisions in the course of addressing USAID learning priorities at the local, regional, and/or global levels is strengthened; and
Specialized technical assistance to design and implement education research that supports country priorities is provided.

SHARE Research Studies

Through June 2023, SHARE will be engaging in research around five high-priority areas for the global education community. These studies will combine SHARE’s competencies in qualitative and quantitative research approaches while looking more systemically at how to foster a greater culture of evidence-based decision-making. Learn more about these SHARE research activities by clicking each link below:

Contextually Relevant Emotional and Social Wellbeing Tools (CREST): This study will conduct research on children’s socio-emotional learning skills and teacher wellbeing that is grounded in the perspectives of teachers, children, and caregivers.
Language of Instruction Transition in Education Systems (LITES): The LITES study seeks to fill knowledge gaps in language acquisition by generating evidence surrounding language of instruction transitions and their relationship to learners’ first and second-language literacy skills.
Learning to Improve Book Resource Operational Systems (LIBROS): This study will explore the underlying conditions that improve book supply chains and identify policy and practice pathways to strengthen the primary education level book supply chains in low- and middle-income countries.
Higher Education Institutions Generating Holistic and Transformative Solutions (HEIGHT S)- Financial Sustainability: This study aims to produce evidence-informed strategies that can facilitate financial sustainability in higher education systems, and will analyze the ways in which governments and higher education institutions mobilize public and private resources.
HEIGHTS - Innovation Ecosystems: This study will explore how higher education institutions can positively influence an innovation ecosystem through a variety of roles while considering limiting factors like resources, relationships, and social norms