Request for Proposals (RfP) Global Learning Assessment ...

Schools2030 Programme: TOR for Coordinating Global Assessment Partner Request for Proposals, April 2021

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Request for Proposals (RfP) Global Learning Assessment Coordination Partner

(GLACP) Schools2030 Programme

Terms of Reference April 2021

I. Background to Schools2030 Schools2030 is a ten-year participatory action research and learning improvement programme based in 1000 government schools across ten countries - Afghanistan, Brazil, India, Kenya, Kyrgyzstan, Pakistan, Tajikistan, Tanzania, Uganda and Portugal. Using the principles of human-centred design and focusing on the key transition years of learners aged 5, 10 and 15 years old, Schools2030 is catalysing teacher-driven, classroom-based education solutions that can inform systems-level approaches for improving holistic learning outcomes. Through its human-centred design approach, Schools2030 aims to increase the levels of agency of educators and school-level stakeholders to reclaim the discourse about ‘what works’ to improve quality learning outcomes from the bottom-up, rather than the top-down. At the heart of the Schools2030 approach is the recognition that schools should be the centre of social change, not the target of change. In collaboration with teachers, school leaders, research institutions, education ministries and national governments across ten countries, Schools2030 will generate evidence on how to improve quality learning outcomes for the most marginalised children to inform future education research, policy and practice. To do so, Schools2030 will track the relationship between school-level learning improvement solutions developed by educators and the learning progression/development milestones of approximately 500,000 learners over ten years. The programme is supported by a historic consortium of nine global private foundations with extensive experience in promoting quality lifelong learning throughout the world and within marginalized contexts. The Aga Khan Foundation (AKF) is a member of the Schools2030 consortium and leads the operationalization of the global programme as its Global Secretariat in partnership with the LEGO Foundation, Porticus, Jacobs Foundation, Wellspring Philanthropic Fund, Dubai Cares, IKEA Foundation, Oak Foundation, and Itau Social Foundation.

For more detailed information about the Schools2030 theoretical framing, six-step methodological approach, and overall conceptual framing, please see Annex C.

http://www.schools2030.org/


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II. Background to the School2030 Global Learning Assessment Strategy

Conceptual Framing

At the heart of the Schools2030 programme is our overarching question: Can a school and classroom-based participatory action research and learning improvement programme, using the principles of human-centred design and focusing on the key transition years of learners aged 5, 10 and 15 years old, lead to locally- rooted education solutions that inform national and global systems-level approaches for improving holistic learning outcomes?

Schools2030’s approach to learning assessment is driven by our programmatic focus on teacher-led, learner- centred, locally-rooted education solutions that inform systems-level approaches for quality education for all.

Schools2030 draws on the methodological tools of participatory action research, community-based operations and implementation science to guide teachers and school leaders to seek practical solutions to local educational concerns through a plan-do- study-act cycle embedded in a human-centred design approach. Administering and analysing learning assessments is the starting point on this journey for teachers and school leaders.

As illustrated below, ‘Assess’ is the first step in Schools2030’s six-step approach that it will use to collaborate with teachers across 1000 schools to help improve holistic learning outcomes each year. It is by administering and analysing student learning and classroom environment assessments that teachers will be able to identify learning gaps and needs in order to pose a ‘how might we’ question - the starting point of the human- centred design process – to develop new solutions to address these gaps at the classroom level over the academic year. Formative and summative assessments will provide teachers and schools with the evidence they need to track changes in student learning and the classroom environment, and to iterate the design of locally-rooted education solutions.

We draw inspiration from the work of David Yeager (Yeager, 2020) and others in developing a theory of ‘practical measurement’. Practical measurement allows teachers to gain the necessary information to adjust teaching and improve learning in their classroom in the immediate term – often through a very small number of targeted, contextual and teacher-led questions repeated through a plan-do-study-act cycle (Yeager et al, 2013). In sum, Schools2030 has three core value statements that guide our overall approach to learning assessment tools:

• It is essential that learning assessments are useful and usable for teachers; a means to transform classroom practices and empower teachers as change agents in the learning process.

• The assessment approach and tools must be driven from the classroom and school level. This will ensure that assessment tools are contextually relevant and fulfill Schools2030’s ethos: that improvements to learning outcomes happen when schools are at the center of social change, not the target of social change.


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• Schools2030 assessment tools and approaches must be free and open-sourced, providing the sector with new global public goods that can benefit the wider field beyond our Schools2030 programme and partner schools. We partner with national and global experts in assessment so that we contribute to and strengthen the important international efforts on holistic learning outcome measurement.

With these guiding principles, Schools2030 developed its Global Learning Assessment Strategy that draws on two important theoretical frameworks that allows us to embrace complexity in rolling out a local rooted, but globally informed approach to quality learning assessments:

1. Triple Loop Learning. Triple loop learning posits that in addressing complex challenges in a diverse world, requires processes that are participatory and involve a diverse set of actors. Triple loop learning builds of traditional learning approaches which ask, ‘Are we doing things right?’ and ‘Are we doing the right things?’, adding a third loop which accounts for context and diversity, asking ‘How do we decide what is right?’

2. Ecological approach. An ecological approach understands that learners, classrooms and schools exist within a complex environment made up of their communities, education systems and the global Schools2030 programme. It recognises that instrumentation that does not reflect the experiences of the children in the locale will be unlikely to capture the intended attribute in a meaningful way.

The assessment strategy for Schools2030 is neither top-down, nor bottom-up. Rather, the strategy takes a progressive, iterative approach to developing and implementing the Schools2030 assessments. The approach accounts for different starting points in different contexts, and allows time to focus on building engagement, buy in, and system capacity towards developing valid and reliable tools. This aligns to the principles of triple loop learning, with the focus being on thoughtful participatory implementation. However, the strategy also focuses on the development of a suite of complementary tools able to be used immediately to support teachers on their journeys designing and implementing contextually relevant localised solutions.

Implementation Framing

The following sections outline in detail what activities are expected in years one, two and three of implementing the Schools2030 Global Learning Assessment strategy.

The core focus of the early stages of the Schools2030 programme will sit at three levels:

(1) Building capacities of Schools2030’s ten country leadership teams in developing, testing, and evaluating new local learning assessment tools across the three age cohorts;

(2) Building capacities of Schools2030’s teachers for utilising new local learning assessments to kick-off their six-step Schools2030 process as outlined above.

(3) Generating new, actionable data about Schools2030’s students levels of learning at the beginning, middle, and end of each year of the programme.

The assessment strategy takes a relational view of capacity. This emphasises that capacity is not a goal in itself, but rather a means to an end; in this case, generating new data about students’ holistic learning


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outcomes to inform better pedagogical practice. In the case of Schools2030, assessment is the first of six steps and marks the beginning of the teacher journey in developing new evidence-based solutions for improving quality education for his/her students.

While all countries may move at different paces, it is intended that by the end of year three Schools2030 will be in a position to make significant contributions to the global community in learning assessments and fulfill the guiding principles of its approach to learning assessment that keep the teacher at the center of all of its activities and objectives. Progress made in the first three years will inform the development of the next seven years of the Schools2030 decade-long programme. Error! Reference source not found. outlines the principles, aims and suggested focus activities for each of the first three years.


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III. Scope of Work for the Global Learning Assessment Coordination Partner (GLACP)

AKF is looking for a GLACP to lead the implementation of the Schools2030 Assessment strategy from June 2021 to June 2024 by providing coordinated leadership across all global and national technical learning assessment partners. The GLACP will lead three workstreams of work:

Workstream 1 – Coordination of Schools2030 Learning Assessment Tools

The GLACP will lead the oversight, quality assurance, and coordination of the development, piloting, implementation, and analysis of all Schools2030 learning assessment tools for the three age cohorts across the ten countries. The ultimate outcome of the GLACP is to ensure that Schools2030 produces and implements the following six learning assessment tools across its ten-country programme:

Schools2030 Six Tools for Quality Outcome and Quality Learning Environment Assessments

Schools2030 Assessment Type Intended Users Global Lead

Assessment Partner

Role of GLACP

Pre-School Cohort (5 Year Olds)

Tool 1 - Child Holistic Learning Outcomes for Pre-School Cohort

Self-Assessment Teachers and School Leaders

Save the Children; adapting IDELA.

Facilitate and oversee partnership of Save the Children with 10 country-level leadership teams.

Tool 2 - Quality Learning Environment Observation Tool for Pre-School Cohort


University of Nebraska, ECD Measure, adapting BEQI.

Facilitate and oversee partnership of ECD Measure with 10 country-level leadership teams.

Primary School Cohort (10 Year Olds)

Tool 3 - Child Holistic Learning Outcomes for Primary School Cohort


National Assessment Partners

Co-develop with the National Assessment Partners the suite of holistic learning outcome tools across the 10 countries.

Tool 4 – Quality Learning Environment Observation Tool for Primary School Cohort



Co-develop with the National Assessment Partners the classroom learning environment tools across the 10 countries.

Secondary School Cohort (15 Year Olds)

Tool 5 – Student Holistic Learning Outcomes for Secondary School Cohort



Co-develop with the National Assessment Partners the suite of holistic learning outcome tools across the 10 countries.

Tool 6 – Quality Learning Environment Observation Tool for Secondary School Cohort



Co-develop with the National Assessment Partners the classroom learning environment tools across the 10 countries.

In addition to these tools, a Playful Learning Across the Years (PLAY) evaluation tool is being developed with support from the LEGO foundation and will be piloted through Schools2030 in Kenya and Uganda. This tool is for external evaluation and the rollout will be led at country level, however the GLACP may be called on to provide additional technical support during the piloting of this tool.

Ultimately, the GLACP will provide flexible draw-down support for each of the country-level teams to be confident in the tools and means through which they roll-out the learning assessment tools across the participating Schools2030 classrooms and schools.


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Workstream 2 – Coordination of Schools2030 Learning Assessment Partnerships

The role of the Global Assessment Partner will include a combination of fixed predictable support, convening and facilitating and flexible call-down support. Below is a framework for implementing the Schools2030 Assessment Strategy for the first three years. Together, Global Assessment Partners, National Assessment Partners and Country Teams will ideate, design, iterate and showcase assessment tools and products towards programme and global public goods, under the direction of the Global Secretariat and with advice from the Technical Advisory Group. The GLACP will take the lead coordination role for ensuring key linkages between the national, global and technical partners responsible for the development, testing, and roll-out of the six tools outlined in Workstream 1 above across all 10 countries for each of the three age-cohorts. The proposed GLACP within the existing framework of Schools2030 Learning Assessment Partnerships ecosystem is highlighted below in purple. Figure - Schools2030 Learning Assessment Partnerships

The GLACP will oversee the coordination of each of the 10 National Learning Assessment partners and provide expertise in the development, testing, and roll-out of the suite of local learning assessment tools. Of note, across the primary and secondary school-aged cohorts, each country has already selected ‘five priority learning domains’ to measure and develop solutions about during the first year. These five priority domains

GLACP

PROMISE3 Schools2030’s Learning

App to Input Data on Tablets in Coordination

with Vera Solutions


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per country are listed in Annex D, and were chosen by national education stakeholders in each of the Schools2030 countries.

Workstream 3 – Coordination of Schools2030 Learning Assessment Data, Evaluation and Reporting

At the end of each year, Schools2030 must produce ten datasets about the linkage of 1000 solutions with the corresponding levels of students’ learning outcomes and/or classroom quality learning environments across its 1000 schools for internal and external reporting requirements. To do so, the GLACP will need to coordinate the following streams of work related to the data and reports:

Data: PROMISE3 (Programme Management System for Education by Everyone, Everywhere) will be the default data collection app through which all Schools2030 teachers can input, access and visualise the data from the Schools2030 learning assessment tools. Schools2030 will provide each Schools2030 educator with a tablet and access to the PROMISE3 App to input data at the beginning, middle, and end of the Schools2030 6-step process to generate evidence related to their proposed solution and students’ learning progression. In order to produce the ten datasets across each country, the GLACP will need to coordinate between Vera Solutions (the technical global lead for PROMISE3) and Schools2030 global and national learning assessment partners (as outlined in Workstream 2) about how PROMISE3 can best be used by educators to collect and analyse learning assessment data at the school-level. The GLACP will also need to ensure that the learning assessment dataset in each of the ten countries in clean and labelled so it can be used for programme evaluation purposes. Evaluation: Schools2030 Global Secretariat is in the process of finalising an approach to programme evaluation and will seek input and technical support from the GLACP to finalise and operationalise our evaluation strategy. Our programme evaluation will draw primarily on learning assessment data gathered though the six learning assessment tools, supplemented by other school- and country-level data (including from the LEGO-supported PLAY Toolkit in Kenya and Uganda). As Schools2030 programme evaluation will be closely linked to learning assessment, it is expected that the GLACP will play an important role in supporting external evaluation at country-level.

Reports: The GLACP will be responsible for the following reports:

1. Final reports on the development process, validity and quality of the six learning assessment tools used across the 10 country contexts

2. Final synthesis of the Schools2030 fulfillment of internal and external donor requirements related to learning assessment tool development, testing, and implementation

3. Publication(s) and/or conference presentations on Schools2030’s contribution to the field of global learning assessment tools.

IV. Key Activities for the GLACP Consultancy

AKF seeks proposals from organisations to fill the role of the GLACP for the first three years of Schools2030 (2021-2023) and lead the coordination of a comprehensive and cohesive Schools2030 Assessment Strategy as outlined across the above-mentioned three workstreams. To do so, key activities of the GLACP include: Workstream 1 – Coordination of Schools2030 Learning Assessment Tools 1. Pre-School Cohort Tools


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▪ Facilitate the work of Save the Children and ECD Measure in developing, piloting, and testing their learning assessment tools with Schools2030 country-level leadership teams.

▪ Coordinate the integration of the pre-school cohort tools into the PROMISE3 App with Vera Solutions.

▪ Develop tools to support teachers to generate and use their own assessments.

2. Primary School and Secondary School Cohort Tools ▪ Develop guidance tools and materials to support Schools2030 country-level leadership teams and

national assessment partners at each stage of the learning assessment tool development process across the 10 and 15 year old cohorts in collaboration with National Assessment Partners

▪ Provide feedback to country teams and National Assessment partners at each stage of learning assessment tool development process.

▪ Undertake psychometric analysis of country level pilot data and provide feedback on how country teams and partners can improve the quality of the assessment items and tools

Workstream 2 – Coordination of Schools2030 Learning Assessment Partnerships ▪ Coordinate assessment functions and outputs with all Schools2030 global and national learning

assessment partners to provide streamlined updates and strategic direction for the Global Secretariat ▪ Chair meetings of the Schools2030 Technical Advisory Group (TAG) on Learning Assessment and

incorporate TAG inputs and recommendations into assessment tool development processes ▪ Present to Schools2030 National Coordinators about streamlined approach to learning assessment tools

during bi-weekly team calls, as needed ▪ Update Schools2030 donors steering committee on quarterly basis about learning assessment tools ▪ Liaise with Schools2030 Global Communications Manager to ensure progress on learning assessment is

communicated to key stakeholders ▪ Provide flexible call-down support for country teams and national assessment partners on developing the

teacher toolkit and designing and implementing evaluation activities. ▪ Serve as the focal point for any questions or concerns related to the Schools2030 approach to learning

assessment tool selection, development, and roll-out alongside the Schools2030 Secretariat. Workstream 3 – Coordination of Schools2030 Learning Assessment Data, Evaluation and Reporting ▪ Work iteratively with PROMISE3 App developers to allow stakeholders to collect, analyse and act on new

learning assessment data produced through the use of Schools2030 assessment tools ▪ Coordinate with Vera Solutions and Schools2030 country-teams about the generation of the 10 open

datasets about Schools2030 student learning outcomes and levels of quality classroom environments ▪ Ensure these datasets are clean and labelled for evaluative purposes ▪ Advise on Schools2030 programme evaluation, including the use of Schools2030 Learning Assessment

Tools in external evaluation across minimum 10% of schools ▪ Develop and implement strategies to effectively and efficiently provide Schools2030 assessment work as

open-source, global public goods ▪ Write reports/analyses on the quality of the items and learning assessment tools and identify ways to

showcase Schools2030 contribution to the field of holistic learning assessment

VII. Deliverables for the Consultancy


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The consultancy will be expected to undertake activities immediately, but with the full support of the AKF local and global teams; alongside existing Schools2030 learning assessment partners outlined above. Over the course of three years, the consultancy is expected to complete the following deliverables: Workstream 1 – Coordination of Schools2030 Learning Assessment Tools 1. Produced the final version of the pre-school, primary school, and secondary school-level learning

assessment tools that measure holistic student learning outcomes and quality learning environments (i.e. Tools 1 through 6 as noted in the previous section) across all 10 Schools2030 countries, in partnership with Save the Children, ECD Measure, and Schools2030 National Assessment partners by 2024.

2. Developed guidance tools and materials to support Schools2030 country-level leadership teams and

national assessment partners at each stage of the learning assessment tool development process for the 10 and 15 year old cohorts (while ensuring ECD Measure and Save the Children do the same for the 5 year old cohort) from 2021 to 2024.

3. Completed psychometric analysis of country-level data from the learning assessment tools and provide

feedback on how country teams and partners can improve the quality of the assessment tools.

4. Produced semi-annual reports about the selected learning domains across each of the countries to be measured.

5. Produced semi-annual reports about the suite of Schools2030 Learning Assessment Tools being piloted,

tested, and scaled over the three years of the consultancy.

Workstream 2 – Coordination of Schools2030 Learning Assessment Partnerships 1. Facilitated effective and regular coordination meetings across key constituencies within the Schools2030

Learning Assessment ecosystem, including coordination of (i) the Schools2030 Learning Assessment Global Technical Advisory Group; (ii) Schools2030 National Assessment Partners across 10 countries; (iii) Schools2030 Global Assessment Partners (ECD Measure and Save the Children); (iv) Schools2030 Global Learning Assessment App Partner for PROMISE3 (Vera Solutions); and (v) Coordination across the Schools2030 National Coordinators for topics related to Learning Assessment across each of the three cohorts.

2. Completed written updates and virtual/in-person for the Schools2030 quarterly donor steering committee meetings about progress of implementing the Schools2030 Learning Assessment Strategy implementation across the ten countries.

3. Provided flexible call-down support for country teams and national assessment partners on developing,

piloting, and implementing the Schools2030 Learning Assessment tools. 4. Contributed to Schools2030 internal and external donor report updates and/or new grant opportunities

about the progress of the Schools2030 Learning Assessment Tools. 5. Participated in global forums about advancing quality education and representing the Schools2030

consortium about its role in contributing the global field of learning assessments.

Workstream 3 – Coordination of Schools2030 Learning Assessment Data, Evaluation and Reporting


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1. Facilitated the integration by Vera Solutions of all Schools2030 learning assessment tools as outlined in

Workstream 1 into PROMISE3 so that educators can easily collect, analyse, and use learning data.

2. Coordinated the generation and synthesis of ten annual, country-level datasets about student learning outcomes and quality learning environments from the use of the six learning assessment tools across the 10 country contexts using the PROMISE3 app

3. Produced annual reports about the use of the Schools2030 Learning Assessment Tools to fulfil any

internal or external reporting requirements by donors, technical partners, or government partners.

4. Provided Schools2030 with strategic recommendations about how the Learning Assessment Tools and approaches will underpin the overall external evaluation process that will be launched across 10% of the Schools2030 schools for independent evaluation.

5. Analysing learning assessment data as part of validation process, and to ensure there is a clean labeled

dataset across the10 countries that can be used for evaluative work

6. Produced the next three-year strategic framework from 2024 to 2028 about the next phase of Schools2030’s workstreams related to quality learning assessment in outcomes and environments.

VIII. Travel, Accommodation, and Technical Support

The institution will be expected to work remotely and be in touch with the respective global and local stakeholders involved for Schools2030.

The consultancy will be provided with airfare and accommodation costs should travel be considered necessary in the future.

IX. Supervision The consultancy will report directly to Dr. Bronwen Magrath, Global Programme Lead for Schools2030. The consultancy will be expected to work closely with Dr. Andrew Cunningham and Nafisa Shekhova, both members of the Global Programme Team for the Aga Khan Foundation and Co-Leads for AKF’s Global Education and ECD portfolios.

X. Request for Proposal AKF requests those who are interested in joining the Schools2030 team as the GLACP for the coming three years, to respond to this RfP by sending the following items to Lucia Brandulas at [email protected], addressed to Dr. Bronwen Magrath (Global Programme Manager), no later than Wednesday 5 May 2021 17:00 BST.

• Cover Letter

• Technical Proposal

• Commercial Proposal The institution will be expected to begin immediately after a formal interview and final offer is made. Eligibility Criteria

mailto:[email protected]


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Applicants should be able to demonstrate:

Essential

Desirable

Experience in developing and conducting learning assessments in low- and middle-income countries

Experience of working with and through country teams to develop context-driven assessments

Experience in providing assessment technical assistance to education programme teams

Experience of working in a non-hierarchical relationship with country teams, while providing technical assistance and capacity building

Experience in developing psychometric reports, including providing guidance to improve the quality of items and tools

Experience in convening technical partners and advisors

Experience in designing and conducting robust global or regional programme evaluations

Experience in coordinating multiple teams and groups from diverse cultures and contexts

Track record of engagement with policymakers and the broader education community, including the ability to generate policy and programme focused outputs

Strong communication skills, including writing skills, presentation skills and meeting facilitation skills, especially online meetings and workshops

Ability to work to deadlines and to a high professional standard

Submission Requirements

Applicants should observe the following requirements:

• Applications must be completed in English

• No late submissions will be accepted after the deadline

• Applications should be submitted following the format provided in Annex A, following the word limit indicated for each section.

Commercial and financial proposal

• All budgets must be at a maximum of $275,000 USD per year and be inclusive of all government taxes, (except VAT).

• Payment milestones should be proposed as part of the commercial proposal Intellectual property

As the Schools2030 programme aims to make contributions to global public goods, all deliverables created under a contract with AKF must be released as open-source materials, without intellectual property or copyright restrictions.


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Annex A Technical Proposal template

1. Organisational profile and experience (1 page) 2. Understanding of the TOR (1 page) 3. Overarching principles of the approach (2 pages) 4. Methodology and workplan (7 pages)

Approach to Workstream 1 Approach to Workstream 2 Approach to Workstream 3 Approach to Fulfilling Deliverables Workplan

5. Risk analysis and mitigation strategies (1 page)

6. Qualifications and experience of the team (2 pages) 7. List of any existing or previous partnerships with the Schools2030 founding donors (see www.schools2030.org for the full list of donor members) 8. Annexes 9. Three organisational project experiences of similar projects with referee contact details 10. Team Member CVs

http://www.schools2030.org/


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Annex B Commercial Proposal template

Year 1

Team Leader

Role Role Role Role

Fee rate per day $ $ $ $ $

Workstream 1: Coordination of Assessment Tools

Rate per day

No. of days x rate

No. of days x rate

No. of days x rate

No. of days x rate

No. of days x rate

Task

Task

Task

Total

Workstream 2: Coordination of Assessment Partners

Task

Task

Task

Total

Workstream 3: Coordination of Schools2030 Learning Assessment Data, Evaluation and Reporting

Task

Task

Task

Total

Year 2


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Task

Task

Task

Total


Task

Task

Task

Total


Task

Task

Task

Total

Year 3


Task

Task

Task

Total



15

Task

Task

Task

Total


Task

Task

Task

Total

Total Years 1, 2 and 3

Total cost per team member

Total cost for fixed predictable support

Call-down facility for unanticipated assessment and evaluation support

Unit cost per day


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Annex C – Detailed Information about the Schools2030 Programme

I. Problem

The International Commission on Financing Global Education Opportunity (the Education Commission) predicts that, by 2030, 825 million children in low- and middle-income countries will reach adulthood without the knowledge and skills they need to thrive in work and life. And yet, teachers and school leaders still lack evidence-based, actionable, and contextually relevant strategies to improve learning outcomes for children within their classroom contexts. New educational ideas, products, and pedagogies are far too often pushed ‘outside-in’ by temporary expert education consultants and policy-makers, dismissing the wisdom of frontline education practitioners. There is a critical need for an alternative approach to improving the quality of lifelong learning that flips the classic expert-driven approach on its head. Rarely are school leaders, teachers and students perceived as reservoirs of innovation, or invited to listen, reflect, and self-discover the wisdom that lies among them. Even rarer are instances where invitation, dialogue and self-discovery lead to community actions and external investments, guided by data that the school collects, processes, and uses to achieve holistic learning outcomes for all (Singhal and Dura, 2012).

II. School2030 Schools2030 is a new globally informed, locally-rooted 10-year longitudinal action research and learning improvement programme that searches for and supports positive deviance about ‘what works’ in equipping learners in marginalized contexts with the knowledge, skills, attitudes and values needed to become contributing members of society. Starting in the Fall of 2020 (revised start-date due to COVID-19), Schools2030 will partner with 1000 pre-schools, primary schools and secondary schools across 10 countries for the next decade to enable teachers and school stakeholders to co-design, implement, and measure new school-level solutions to identify what works to improve students’ holistic learning outcomes. Schools2030 will track the relationship between the school-level solutions and the holistic learning progression of boys and girls and young women and men in three age cohorts (ages 5-15; 10-20; and 15-25 years old) over the next decade, aligned with the timeline of the UN Sustainable Development Goals (2020 to 2030).

In order to remain flexible, innovative, and responsive to local needs, the Schools2030 programme was co-founded by a coalition of private philanthropic foundations – all of whom have a collective commitment to flip the power dynamics of the ‘what works’ in improving quality education agenda from the ‘top-down’ to the ‘bottom-up’. The detailed description of Schools2030 donor coalition is listed in the section about Foundations.


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A. Programme Design

Schools2030 adopts a ‘flipped mindset’ in how it generates evidence about what works from the end-user in the most marginalized contexts. To achieve this, the project will support 1000 schools to complete a six-step learning improvement process each year during the decade-long action research and learning improvement programme as illustrated and explained below:

Schools2030 Six-Step Programme Design

o Step 1 – Assess: School2030 partner schools will be provided with training and new hardware (tablets) to help

them know how to use PROMISE31 to conduct a diagnostic self-assessment baseline for each age cohort

learners and quality learning environment. PROMISE3 will draw on Schools2030’s global, offline library of validated, gender sensitive, contextualized learning and learning environment assessment tools that have been co-developed with Schools2030 global experts. Schools2030 will also be working with local learning partners in each country to ensure that at least 10% of the participating schools are independently evaluated to triangulate self-assessed learning results to help ensure the quality and integrity of the Schools2030 datasets being generated.

o Step 2 - Design: School2030 partners schools and stakeholders will conduct a series of school-level Human

Centered Design (HCD) workshops to design their own solutions to addressing the deficits emerging from the child learning outcomes and learning environment assessments. Schools will also have access to an annotated menu of existing global and local evidence-based learning solutions from which they can potentially adopt and adapt. The HCD workshop series was piloted in Nairobi with Schools2030 staff and partners from East Africa in March 2020; and then transformed into a 12-week virtual, blended-learning pilot programme for all Schools2030 staff across 10 countries during COVID-19 from April to July 2020.

• Step 3 – Fund: After completing Steps 1 and 2, each school, or cluster of schools, will apply for their

Schools2030 Flexible Response Fund2 of up to $2000 USD per school to implement a locally designed solution to improve holistic learning outcomes. During COVID-19, Schools2030 national teams piloted this process and learned that a number of proposed interventions and solutions are incredibly cost-effective and scalable, thereby suggesting the opportunity for perhaps funding multiple solutions within a school over the course of an academic calendar that address multiple areas of learning deficits identified by the school.

• Step 4 – Track: Schools will use PROMISE3 to track the relationship of the solution(s) to the rates of learning progression of their students and quality of learning environment throughout the academic year.

• Step 5 –Iterate: Schools will be supported by local and global research experts to co-analyse data and adopt and adapt Singhal’s (2013) positive deviance analytical framework to search for ‘positive deviants’ in education - identifying certain learners who are demonstrating higher levels of learning progression and taking

1 The ‘Programme Management Information System for Education by Everyone, Everywhere’ (PROMISE3) provides local school stakeholders across the Schools2030 consoritium with a new offline, mobile, tablet-based app to better collect, visualize and act on meaningful education data related to learners’ educational enrolment, attendance, and learning progression. See Appendix – PROMISE3 for more details. 2 FRF is an implementation model, which provides schools with micro-grants and training in fund management, human centred design and action research. See Appendix - FRF for more details.


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the time to ask why. Furthermore, iterative, yearly evidence reports will provide critical new insights into practitioner-led solutions that could provide crucial inputs into local, national and global policy decision-making processes in budget, research and teacher practice.

• Step 6 – Showcase: Schools will amplify the results of implementing their solutions through showcase opportunities at national and global levels each year. The evidence from the schools will be disseminated through multiple approaches that include the innovative communication and advocacy platforms through which schools can be trusted and heard at the decision-making tables in educational research, policy and practice.

Schools that will participate in Schools2030 are all government schools selected based on an inclusive and transparent application process, in collaboration with each of the Schools2030 National Advisory Committees and Ministries of Education. AKF will work with governments to ensure that selected schools serve the most marginalized communities, often excluded from global, national and local international education development investments. To ensure schools receive adequate support and in-person training, the programme will work in select concentrated geographies.

B. Theory of Change for Schools2030 The detailed theory of change for Schools2030 is attached in the Appendix that outlines the overarching goal, outcomes and outputs of the global programme. A summary graphic is presented below that outlines the anticipated outcomes, intermediate outcomes, and outputs that we seek to achieve by 2030 over the course of the ten year programme:

Abbreviated Schools2030 Summary of Theory of Change - Expected Global Impact over 10 Years by 2030

C. Research Framing

Schools2030 is aligned with the global movement of educational research studies that seek to discover what works in improving learning outcomes and quality education for all (Snilstveit et al., 2016; Masino and Nino-Zarazua, 2016). But despite widespread agreement that education systems need to focus more on improving holistic learning outcomes (World Bank, 2018), there remains ‘no consensus on which interventions specifically lead to quality education improvement’ (Johnson et al., 2018). Schools2030 seeks to generate a new portfolio of evidence from the bottom-up about what works for improving educational quality learning for all.


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The programme adopts the tenets of implementation science – the study of how evidence-based programmes can be embedded to maximize successful outcomes (Kelly and Perkins, 2012). It uses a systematic and scientific approach to identify the range of factors which are likely to facilitate administration of an intervention. Although implementation science has often been employed in clinical health settings, its application within the educational domain is relatively new and there are many areas for further research within this discipline (Lyon et al., 2018). The project also roots itself within the traditions of participatory and learning action research (Carr and Kemmis, 1986; Adelman, 1993; and Chambers 1997; 2010), and adopts Singhal’s (2013) positive deviance approach within the school setting to drive a strength-based, community-driven methodology to understanding ‘what works’ to improve learning outcomes.

Furthermore, during COVID-19, Schools2030 offers one of the only opportunities to study the long-term effects of COVID-19 on an entire generation of learners and educators over the next decade. Through employing its new blended learning design thinking methodologies, participatory, open-source, and practical tools for education data collection in offline/online contexts (PROMISE3), and ability to deploy flexible response funds to the ‘last mile’ end-users, Schools2030 is well positioned to remain adaptive, resilient and responsive to the uncertain and ever-emerging challenges that COVID-19 continues to present to the world’s education community.

The project will apply methods and principles from four interwoven, inter-related methodological traditions in educational research: (i) The community-based operations research approach (Johnson and Smilowitz, 2007); (ii) The implementation science research approach (Kelly and Perkins, 2012); (iii) The action research approach (Lewin, 1946; Corey, 1953; Carr and Kemmis, 1986; Elliott, 1991; Adelman, 1993; Dahl, 2014); and (iv) The participatory and learning action research (PLA) tradition (Chambers 1983; 1994; 1997; 2010). All four approaches place a strong emphasis on ‘local stakeholder participation in problem definition, solution, and implementation’ (Taket and White, 1994) and operationalize what Chambers (2007) describes as a ‘paradigmatic shift from things to people, from top-down to bottom-up, from standard to diverse, from control to empowerment’ (p. 26).

The project’s research and programme design reflects what Sammons (2012) describes as the need for a ‘third paradigm’ of mixed-method educational effectiveness and improvement research (EEIR) that ‘rivals the dominant post-positivist and constructivist traditions of social research and [...][offers] the potential to enhance theory development as well as provid[e] new knowledge of relevance to practitioners’ (p. 18). She argues for greater emphasis on ‘to and fro’ processes of EEIR research that use ‘inductive and deductive reasoning for ongoing theory generation and testing that represents a cyclical rather than linear approach to inquiry’ (Sammons, 2012, p. 19). Schools2030 seeks to generate both qualitative and quantitative evidence about how best school stakeholders can adapt and implement evidence-based solutions to improve quality learning outcomes for all.

III. Collective Impact to Achieve SDG4 Together and Key Messages In summary, Schools2030 offers a historic, diverse coalition of leadership at the school, national and global levels of educational leadership to inform and inspire systems change from innovations and evidence emerging from the bottom-up rather than the top-down channels of reform. Together, by 2030, Schools2030 will:

• Generate longitudinal action research about ‘what works’ in pre-schools, primary schools and secondary schools that support children and young people to achieve holistic learning outcomes and successfully progress through the increasingly complicated pathways of education.

• Contribute to the education policy dialogue at local, national, and international levels by providing new

evidence, from the bottom-up rather than the top-down, about ‘what works’ for advancing 21st century competencies and holistic learning outcomes for children and youth for systems change at scale;


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• Diversify the evidence about ‘what works’ in early childhood development, education, and youth programming by partnering with research and design partners from the global south in helping implement Schools2030 across 1000 schools and communities in ten countries;

• Demonstrate the linkage between the support of children’s non-academic skills/knowledge and increased proficiencies in academic proficiencies to mainstream holistic approaches to improving quality education policies, pedagogies, learning environment and child learning assessment methods into systems-level change across the Schools2030 geographies and beyond;

• Reimagine the future of education through more evidence-based, playful, participatory, and innovative approaches to education reform that empowers local educators, families, and students, themselves, to help design the future of their education systems to be more resilient, inclusive, and enjoyable.


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Annex D – Priority Learning Domains per Schools2030 Country as Selected by National Advisory Committees

Country

Preschool Cohort Learning

Domains

Primary School

Cohort Learning

Domains

Secondary School

Cohort Learning

Domains

Afghanistan

Literacy

Numeracy

Art and Culture

Health and Nutrition

Relationship building

Literacy

Numeracy

Science

Creativity


Literacy

Numeracy

Science

Ethical decision-making


Brazil

Sel-efficacy

Self-awareness

Collaboration

Creativity

Empathy

Leadership

Self-awareness

Collaboration

Creativity

Empathy

Leadership

Self-awareness

Collaboration

Creativity

Empathy

India

Literacy

Numeracy

Creativity

Self-regulation

Collaboration

Literacy

Numeracy

Creativity

Self-awareness

Arts and Culture

Literacy

Numeracy

Creativity

Self-awareness

Digital Literacy

Kenya

Literacy

Numeracy


Communication

Problem solving

Literacy

Numeracy


Science

Leadership

Literacy

Numeracy

Digital literacy

Taking responsibility

Reconciling tensions

Kyrgyzstan

Literacy

Numeracy

Collaboration

Empathy

Communication

Literacy

Numeracy

Science

Critical Thinking

Leadership

Literacy

Numeracy

Taking responsibility

Critical Thinking

Leadership

Pakistan

Literacy

Numeracy



Self-awareness/Self-

efficacy

Literacy

Numeracy


Critical Thinking

Respect for diversity & the

environment

Literacy

Numeracy

Digital literacy

Leadership

Respect for diversity &

the environment

Portugal Literacy Literacy Literacy


22

Numeracy

Communication

Empathy


Numeracy

Problem solving

Empathy


Numeracy

Critical thinking

Empathy

Ethical decision making

Tajikistan

Literacy

Numeracy


Creativity


Literacy

Numeracy

Self-awareness

Arts and Culture

Problem solving

Literacy

Numeracy

Science

Digital literacy

Communication

Tanzania

Literacy

Numeracy


Creativity


Literacy

Numeracy

Self-awareness

Creativity

Problem solving

Literacy

Numeracy

Civil engagement

Arts and Culture

Critical thinking

Uganda

Literacy Numeracy Creativity Empathy Writing

Literacy Numeracy Mathematics Critical Thinking Leadership

Literacy Numeracy Creativity Entrepreneurship Open-mindedness

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