Supporting Holistic and Actionable Research in Education

WHAT IS SHARE?

• A five-year cooperative agreement between USAID and the University of Notre Dame that advances global education priorities to improve learning outcomes.

• Conducts primary research internationally in partnership with locally based research institutions, with a commitment towards capacity exchange.

• Fortifies linkages between researchers, policymakers, and practitioners involved in knowledge translation to create transformational change in educational and research landscapes.

Press Release: Notre Dame receives $40 million federal award to improve global education outcomes

SHARE Research Studies

Through June 2023, SHARE will be engaging in research around five high-priority areas for the global education community.  These studies 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.

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 (HEIGHTS)- 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

2023 LEARNING PRIORITIES

SINGLE-COUNTRY STUDIES AND EFFORTS INCLUDE:

The Emergency Education Evaluation and Diagnostic Program in Northern Ethiopia is a rapid assessment of the barriers to school re-entry faced by young adults, and an evaluation of USAID/READ II, an activity intended to boost the quality of literacy instruction and support for 15 million at-risk students.

Through Uganda’s Non-State School Assessment study, SHARE looks at questions related to quality and level of access at non-state, pre-primary, and primary schools in urban areas. The evaluation will inform USAID/Uganda’s future education programming.

• The Egypt Higher Education Local Scholarship initiative evaluates USAID/Egypt’s program which aims to increase the availability of scholarships for non-public higher education.

• The Higher Education Portfolio Evaluation reviews USAID/Malawi’s higher education portfolio based on criteria such as quality and access and analyzes Strengthening Higher Education Access in Malawi Activity (SHEAMA), Strengthening Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics & Expanding Degree Opportunities (SSTEMEDO), and Strengthening Teacher Education and Practice (STEP) initiatives.

• The Impact Evaluation of the Guatemala Basic Education Quality and Transition (BEQT) Activity sheds light on the multidimensional factors that affect the transition rate from primary to secondary education in Guatemala and to provide USAID with evidence regarding the impact of the BEQT Activity to inform future programming. 

• The Uzbekistan Inclusive Education Diagnostic Study conducts systems diagnostic workshops to better understand its inclusive education environment to serve as a model for USAID/Uzbekistan in applying systems diagnostic tools to inform other initiatives.

• The Basic Education and Quality Transitions Activity Evaluation in Guatemala includes an impact assessment of USAID’s Basic Education and Quality Transitions (BEQT) activity. The objective is to measure BEQT’s influence on improving the transition rate from sixth grade to lower secondary school and the contributing factors.

• In 2019, USAID commissioned an assessment of low-cost private schools (LCPSs) in the Zone of Influence (ZOI) in Northern Ghana to understand the financial sustainability, level of access, and the effects of COVID-19 on LCPSs in the region; and to explore the most feasible and beneficial means of strengthening the quality and accountability of LCPSs.

• An impact evaluation and cost analysis of USAID/Ghana’s Transition to English (T2E+) activity considers T2E+’s impact on reading outcomes as part of language of instruction transition efforts.

MULTI-COUNTRY STUDIES AND EFFORTS INCLUDE:

• In Honduras, Haiti, Colombia, and Liberia, SHARE is examining how to develop contextually relevant measures of primary school teachers’ well-being and social and emotional skills, and how this measure can be integrated into professional development programming. SHARE is also exploring how measures of children’s and adolescents’ social and emotional learning can be designed and adapted to meet context-specific needs and priorities.

• In Senegal, Rwanda, Mali, Mozambique, Kenya, and the Philippines, SHARE is researching how models and approaches to language of instruction transitions in the primary grades relate to key learning outcomes.

• In addition, SHARE is analyzing what has worked well in USAID-implementing countries to improve primary-level textbook and children’s book supply chain, and to what extent lessons may be transferred to other contexts.
   
• SHARE is working with USAID’s Latin America Caribbean (LAC) Bureau to develop an educational learning agenda to identify and prioritize future research needs within the region.
   
• In Malawi, Rwanda, and the Philippines, SHARE is assessing language of instruction transition in education systems (LITES) research applied to individuals who are deaf. SHARE is considering USAID’s efforts in these countries as a means of capturing learnings that could be transferable to similar contexts.
   
• In Kenya, Indonesia, and the Philippines, SHARE is analyzing what types of investments, policies, institutional arrangements, and educational approaches governments, the private sector, and higher education institutions (HEIs) in low- and middle-income countries are pursuing to enhance increased engagement in innovation ecosystems, and what factors influence the success of these strategies. SHARE is also looking at what strategies HEIs in low- and middle-income countries are implementing to promote financial sustainability, and what are the most effective strategies in different contexts.: