Mongolia: project activities and upcoming achievements

“Support to Early Grade Reading and Mathematics Assessments”

Focal Areas
• Enhancing stakeholder capacity to use assessment data to improve teaching and learning
• Training and professional development of teachers in use of classroom assessment practices

October – December 2018 Achievements
• Rolled out teacher training in use of classroom assessment practices around acquisition of early grade reading skills to 1,787 primary grade teachers in 108 primary schools
• Produced a draft report on the rollout of teacher training
• Completed, under intensive supervision by the Bank team, the baseline survey for an impact evaluation (IE) that will assess (i) changes in teaching practices attributable to the teacher training described above; and (ii) the impact of the training on improving early grade reading skills. The Bank team supported Ministry of Education, Culture, Sciences, and Sports (MECSS) in various supervision activities, including the identification of a qualified data collection firm, finalization of data collection instruments and IE methodology, sampling of schools, and training delivery to enumerators. The baseline included a nationally-representative sample of 216 schools (half of which were randomly
selected to receive teacher training), with 15 children selected for testing from each of grade 1 and 2 classes in each school. The baseline survey assessed early grade reading skills in the sample; individualand household-level socioeconomic data were also collected for each student. Following completion of quality assurance checks, analysis of baseline data is now underway.

Upcoming Achievements
• Obtain approval of the early grade reading and math assessment (EGRA and EGMA) policy briefs by MECSS, and translate briefs into Mongolian
• Publish the report on the subnational dissemination EGRA and EGMA workshop (targeted to education authorities and parents in Mongolia’s remote Western provinces) on the MECSS website
• Hold EGRA and EGMA results launch event (tentatively scheduled for March/April 2019)
• Finalize recommendations of the brainstorming workshop on strategies to improve pre-service teacher training on formative assessments for reading and math skills in the primary grades, and publish the recommendations on the MECSS website
• Complete the first monitoring mission and implementation report to assess use of formative assessments in classrooms, highlighting implementation issues faced, solutions explored, and lessons learned
• Produce baseline impact evaluation report on the effectiveness of classroom assessment strengthening activities in improving learning outcomes
• Design classroom observation and teacher questionnaires specific to the reading intervention, including a module on teachers’ beliefs about teaching practices around reading