Learning, Marginalization, and Improving the Quality of Education in Low-income Countries

Abstract

The education goal-Goal 4-of the 2030 UN Sustainable Development Goals places a strong emphasis on "ensuring inclusive and equitable quality education and promoting life-long learning opportunities for all." This goal recognizes that though great gains have been made in improving access to education in the two decades since the first set of UN goals in the year 2000-a major accomplishment-such success is not enough. Schooling must be of good quality and effective learning for all children, and in all locales. The achievement of quality education has been especially difficult for those who are poor and marginalized in low-income countries-those at the bottom of the pyramid.This volume-Learning, Marginalization, and Improving the Quality of Education in Low-income Countries-is based on papers presented at an international virtual conference, Learning at the Bottom of the Pyramid 2 (LBOP2), held online in November/December 2020, and co-hosted by the University of Pennsylvania and IIEP-UNESCO. About 150 experts and observers-including researchers, policymakers and practitioners-participated in the conference. Topics included both thematic issues (e.g., metrics and financing) and national case examples (India, Ivory Coast, Kenya and Mexico), which broadly focused on better understanding children's learning in low-resourced settings worldwide, along with ways that new policy approaches can improve learning.This volume is the second in a series on "learning at the bottom of the pyramid." The first conference, LBOP1, was held at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia on March 2-3, 2017, and resulted in the 2018 book Learning at the bottom of the pyramid: Science, measurement and policy in low-income countries, published by IIEP-UNESCO.The LBOP initiative continues to raise substantial issues of concern to international agencies, foundations, policymakers, education vi Learning, Marginalization, and Improving the Quality of Education specialists, and the public at large. It is clear that in order to achieve quality education for all, a better understanding of learning in lowincome societies will remain a high priority.

Is a Phone‐Based Language and Literacy Assessment a Reliable and Valid Measure of Children's Reading Skills in Low‐Resource Settings?

“…In this sample, age does not contribute in the direction we would expect based on findings in HICs (i.e., older age is associated with higher performance), however, the findings are appropriate within this context. Despite the wide age range, all of the children within the sample are in fifth grade; those who are older are likely there due to late enrollment or grade repetition (Wortsman et al, 2023), both of which contribute to poorer academic outcomes (Jasińska & Guei, 2022;Jasińska et al, 2023;Wils, 2004). Importantly, high floor or ceiling effects were not exclusive to the phonebased assessment, suggesting the assessment format did not contribute to overly poor or high subtest performance.…”

Individual Differences in Leveraging Regularity in Emergent L2 Readers in Rural Côte d’Ivoire

“…Thus the amount of exposure to written materials that Ivorian children in a rural context receive is significantly lower than would be typical in WEIRD contexts. The quality of education for literacy is also significantly lower than in most WEIRD contexts in terms of infrastructure, teacher training and teaching materials (Ball et al, 2023;Cannanure et al, 2022) Children in rural CIV typically speak one or more of over sixty Ivorian languages as a first language, but are usually educated largely or solely in French, which for the majority is an L2 (Brou-Diallo, 2011;Jasińska & Guei, 2022), that they begin learning at school. Ivorian languages rarely appear in print, and French serves as the official national language and the prestige language for social, scholastic, and academic purposes.…”

Individual Differences in Leveraging Regularity in Emergent L2 Readers in Rural Côte d’Ivoire

“…There is high variability in the age at which children begin schooling, some starting at age four, but some as late as age 12 (Gulemetova et al, 2016). Children in rural CIV typically speak one or more of over sixty Ivorian languages as a first language, but are usually educated largely or solely in French, which for the majority is an L2 (Brou-Diallo, 2011;Jasińska & Guei, 2022), that they begin learning at school. Ivorian languages rarely appear in print, and French serves as the official national language and the prestige language for social, scholastic, and academic purposes.…”