usaid/uganda performance and impact evaluation for

QUARTERLY PERFORMANCE REPORT

FY2019, FIRST QUARTER REPORT

OCT - DEC 2018

USAID/UGANDA PERFORMANCE AND

IMPACT EVALUATION FOR LITERACY

ACHIEVEMENT AND RETENTION

ACTIVITY (LARA)

Contract No. AID-617-C-16-00003

This publication was produced for review by the United States Agency for International Development. It was

prepared by NORC at the University of Chicago. The authors’ views expressed in this publication do not

necessarily reflect the views of the United States Agency for International Development or the United States

Government.

AID/UGANDA PERFORMANCE

AND IMPACT EVALUATION FOR

LITERACY ACHIEVEMENT AND

RETENTION ACTIVITY (LARA)

QUARTERLY PERFORMANCE

REPORT

FY2019, FIRST QUARTER REPORT

OCT - DEC 2018

Prepared under Contract No.: AID-617-C-16-00003

January 31, 2019

Submitted to:

USAID/Uganda

Submitted by:

NORC at the University of Chicago

Attention: Ritu Nayyar-Stone

[email protected]

Phone:+1-301-634-9538

DISCLAIMER The authors’ views expressed in this publication do not necessarily reflect the

views of the United States Agency for International Development or the United States

Government.

mailto:[email protected]

Uganda LARA – AID Contract No. AID-617-C-16-00003

QUARTERLY PERFORMANCE REPORT 2019 QPR 1 i

TABLE OF CONTENTS

TABLE OF CONTENTS ..................................................................................................... i

ACRONYMS ........................................................................................................................ ii

INTRODUCTION ............................................................................................................... 1

IMPACT EVALUATION ACTIVITIES ............................................................................ 2

UPDATE ON IMPACT EVALUATION ACTIVITIES .......................................................................................... 2

MAJOR ACCOMPLISHMENTS AND CHALLENGES OF PAST QUARTER ............................................... 3

MAJOR ISSUES THAT NEED TO BE RESOLVED ............................................................................................... 3

PERFORMANCE EVALUATION ACTIVITIES .............................................................. 3

UPDATE ON PERFORMANCE EVALUATION ACTIVITIES ........................................................................... 3

MAJOR ACCOMPLISHMENTS AND CHALLENGES OF PAST QUARTER ............................................... 4

MAJOR ISSUES THAT NEED TO BE RESOLVED ............................................................................................... 4

P&IE PLANNED ACTIVITIES FOR NEXT QUARTER ................................................ 4

ANNEX A. OCT 17 2018 R&A AND CRO PRESENTATION ..................................... 5

ANNEX B. LIST OF ATTENDEES (OCT 17 2018 R&A AND CRO

PRESENTATION IN KAMPALA) .................................................................................. 28


QUARTERLY PERFORMANCE REPORT 2019 QPR 1 ii

ACRONYMS

CRO Classroom Observations

EGR Early Grade Reading

FY Fiscal Year

LARA Literacy Achievement and Retention Activity

MoES Ministry of Education and Sports

NORC NORC at the University of Chicago

P&IE Performance and Impact Evaluation

RWI Research World International

R&A Retention and Attendance

SRGBV School-Related Gender-Based Violence

USAID United State Agency for International Development


QUARTERLY PERFORMANCE REPORT 2019 QTR 1 | 1

INTRODUCTION

NORC at the University of Chicago (NORC), in partnership with subcontractor Panagora Group, is

pleased to submit this Quarterly Performance Report covering the period October to December 2018

under the USAID/Uganda Performance and Impact Evaluation (P&IE) of the 5-year Literacy

Achievement and Retention Activity (LARA) in Uganda.

LARA is a 5-year (April 7, 2015 to April 6, 2020) USAID-funded initiative to improve reading skills for

1.3 million learners in 28 districts throughout Uganda. The project, which is being implemented by RTI

International, is designed to support the Ministry of Education and Sports (MoES) - Uganda in its efforts

to improve early grade reading (EGR) and retention. LARA has two main objectives:

• Result 1 (R1) focuses on strengthening the capacity of MoES and other educational stakeholders

to deliver EGR. To this end, the activity focuses on improved reading skills in three local

languages (Luganda, Runyoro-Rutooro, and Runyankore-Rukiga) and English for early primary

grade learners P1-4.

• Result 2 (R2) focuses on promoting a safer primary school learning environment to prevent and

reduce incidents of school-related gender-based violence (SRGBV).

The activity hypothesizes that reducing SRGBV will increase learners' retention because they will be

able to focus on their lessons and feel secure in their learning environment, thereby improving their

ability to learn to read. To realize these objectives, the activity focuses its efforts on systemic capacity

building of the education system, school-level support, and community- and household-level support

and participation.

The Uganda LARA P&IE activity (April 2016 - April 2021) has two objectives: (1) to assess the impact

of LARA on learners’ literacy skills and retention rates; and (2) to assess the performance of LARA in

terms of project management, learning, design, implementation, results, and sustainability. The P&IE

activity is focused on LARA cluster 2 schools.



IMPACT EVALUATION ACTIVITIES

UPDATE ON IMPACT EVALUATION ACTIVITIES

Presentation on Retention and Attendance and Classroom Observations

In a presentation to USAID/Uganda and project stakeholders in Kampala on October 17th, 2018, the

LARA P&IE Evaluation Team Leader (Dr. Ritu Nayyar-Stone) and the Evaluation Specialist (Dr. Alicia

Menendez) shared the results from data collection on School Retention and Attendance (R&A) over

the past school year. The presentation (see Annex A) showed findings on enrollment and absenteeism

for students, teachers’ absenteeism, and differences across grades, gender, and LARA treatment status.

Dr. Ursula Hoadley, the Education and Classroom Practices Expert, gave a presentation on the findings

from the Classroom Observations (CROs) conducted in LARA P&IE study. She discussed observations

of literacy lessons and the differences across control and treatment schools, and provided insight into if

and how LARA curriculum and practices were implemented in the classroom.

A total of 20 participants attended the presentations. Participants were from MoES, USAID,

implementing partners and civil society (see Annex B for details).

Evaluation Team Leader and Evaluation Specialist met with USAID and LARA in

Kampala

On October 16th, prior to the presentation on findings, the LARA Evaluation Team met with

USAID/Uganda (Kay Leherr, Samuel Hargadine, William Osafo) to discuss ideas and the feasibility of

additional data collection and an endline study to understand whether midline results remain at the

same levels after the LARA program ends. As a result of this discussion, the NORC LARA P&IE

Evaluation Team prepared a concept note with proposed activities and requirements for

USAID/Uganda consideration, which was shared in November 2018.

On October 18 the LARA P&IE Evaluation Team met with the LARA Implementer Partner (Chief of

Party, Geri Burkholder and literacy team) to continue the conversation initiated during the

presentation about classroom practices in LARA schools and their implications for the program.

Training to collect Year 2 Term 3 R&A and CRO data

NORC’s local data collection partner for EGR, Research World International (RWI), held an R&A and

CRO data collection training prior to the start of fieldwork. Training included 4 classroom training

days and 1 pilot day during the week of October 15, 2018. Evaluation Specialist Dr. Alicia Menendez

and Education and Classroom Practices Expert Dr. Ursula Hoadley attended the training as well.

Fieldwork to collect Year 2 Term 3 R&A data



RWI undertook R&A data collection for year 2 term 3 students in 71 cohort 2 schools that are

targeted by the P&IE. Data was collected for a total sample of 3,5051 learners currently in P1 through

P5 (most are in P2 and P5) over the course of approximately four weeks starting on October 22nd,

2018.

Fieldwork to conduct Year 2 Term 3 CROs

In conjunction with the R&A data collection, RWI also performed CROs in a sub-sample of 31 schools.

Data collection involved paper-and-pencil data entry, and audio recordings that were later transcribed.

The team captured audio recordings in a subset of 8 schools from the CRO sample.

MAJOR ACCOMPLISHMENTS AND CHALLENGES OF PAST

QUARTER

The major accomplishment of this past quarter was:

• Successful presentation of preliminary findings after one full year of R&A and CRO data

collection.

MAJOR ISSUES THAT NEED TO BE RESOLVED

None.

PERFORMANCE EVALUATION ACTIVITIES

UPDATE ON PERFORMANCE EVALUATION ACTIVITIES

Since the final performance evaluation will take place in March/April 2020, no activities have been

initiated for this component. NORC intends to use midline findings of the impact evaluation (Oct

2019) to inform the performance evaluation (Feb 2020) in such matters as the locations of schools to

be selected for field visits and the questions to be asked during the KII. The 2017 baseline was an

indication of the status in cluster 2 schools prior to LARA intervention, Yand NORC expects

considerable changes between the baseline and the midline data collection.

1 The number has decreased due to the unfortunate death of 2 learners.



MAJOR ACCOMPLISHMENTS AND CHALLENGES OF PAST

QUARTER

None.

MAJOR ISSUES THAT NEED TO BE RESOLVED

None.

P&IE PLANNED ACTIVITIES FOR NEXT

QUARTER

Preparation for R&A Data Collection (Year 3, Term 1)

In preparation for the data collection in the first quarter of 2019, NORC and RWI will review the data

collection instruments and protocols from the last data collection round and updated them based on

lessons learned from fieldwork and data cleaning. NORC’s Nfield programmer will update the student

instrument to show the correct grades in which the pupils should be enrolled, assuming that all were

promoted to the next grade at the end of the 2018 school year. Additionally, the teacher instrument

will be updated and no names will be preloaded as we expect new teachers to be assigned to P3 and

P6 in 2019.

Fieldwork to collect Year 3 Term 1 R&A data

RWI will conduct R&A data collection for year 3 term 1 in 71 schools for a total sample of 3,505

learners in P2 through P6 (most will be in P3 and P6) over the course of approximately three weeks

starting on March 11th, 2019. RWI will hold an R&A data collection training on March 9th prior to the

start of data collection.

Initiate Preparation for the Midline Impact Evaluation

Based on the evaluation design, NORC will conduct the midline impact evaluation for R1 and R2 in

2019. NORC plans to collect the SRGBV data in term 2 (June/July 2019) and the EGRA data in term 3

(October 2019) to avoid burdening the schools with data collection and to ensure quality control.

Thus preparation for the SRGBV data collection will start in the first quarter of 2019 with an update of

all LARA activities, followed by additional survey questions to capture information on implemented

activities.



ANNEX A. OCT 17 2018 R&A AND CRO

PRESENTATION



ANNEX B. LIST OF ATTENDEES (OCT 17 2018

R&A AND CRO PRESENTATION IN KAMPALA)

Names Organization / Agency Title

Eonnie Katzler Redearth Education Director

Jody Underrheiner Reads for Life Executive Director

Jamses Kassaga

Avinaitne Teach for Uganda Director

Klinnie Nakanwagi Teach for Uganda Training and Support

Stephen Backman RTI SHRP Education Specialist

William Asazo USAID COP

Komukama Gloria Teach for Uganda Development and Communication

Officer

Charlotte Iraguhan Teach for Uganda CPO

Fiona Waaya USAID M&E Specialist

Martin Muwaga USAID Senior M&E Specialist

Ammanyire Daniel MOES Ass. Gender Unit

Consilous Rwanyonga RTI LARA Deputy Chief of Party T

Prossy Naayombi RTI LARA Senior Program Specialist

Peto Mayingo RTI LARA M&E Coordinator

Geri Burkholder RTI LARA COP

Victoria Brown Mango tree Research Technical Adviser

Sherry Ahititne Koica Program officer

Vinvent Funi Dusabe NCDC Curriculum Specialist

Sanit Kizido Omale Makerere University School of

Statistics Lecturer & Researcher

Richard Wamimbi NORC Local Evaluation Manager

Vicky Kengozi STIR Education Senior Program Manager

usaid/uganda performance and impact evaluation for

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