Impacts After One Year of “Healing Classroom” on Children's Reading and Math Skills in DRC: Results From a Cluster Randomized Trial

Aber, J. Lawrence; Torrente, Catalina; Starkey, Leighann; Johnston, Brian M.; Seidman, Edward; Halpin, Peter F.; Shivshanker, Anjuli; Weisenhorn, Nina; Annan, Jeannie; Wolf, Sharon

doi:10.1080/19345747.2016.1236160

Cited by 24 publications

(27 citation statements)

References 14 publications

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“…Third, these results suggest that understanding how to improve children's literacy scores appears to require attention to family processes and to classroom/school processes beyond the supportiveness and predictability of school ecologies. While previous analyses indicated that LRHC significantly improved children's literacy scores (Aber et al, in press), our analysis suggests that it did not necessarily do so by improving school-level supportiveness and predictability. Given that LRHC is a teacher professional development program, it is possible that the intervention improved children's literacy scores by improving teachers’ own reading ability or their ability to teach literacy skills, two constructs that are not captured in our measures of the classroom ecology.…”

Section: Discussioncontrasting

confidence: 83%

“…Correlational, longitudinal, and experimental evidence from high-income countries supports the pathways in our theory of change (for overviews on evidence supporting specific mediating and outcome constructs, see Aber et al, in press; and Torrente et al, 2015, in press). First, a recent meta-analysis of over 200 school-based social–emotional learning (SEL) programs in the United States and other high-income countries shows that such programs are a viable and effective approach to improving both academic and socioemotional outcomes (Durlak, Weissberg, Dymnicki, Taylor, & Schellinger, 2011; see Figure 1, Paths c and d).…”

Section: Lrhc In the Drc: Theory Of Change And Impactssupporting

confidence: 56%

“…In the second year, a minimum of 30 and a maximum of 81 students per school were assessed in the 63 sample schools. Data from this study uses the samples reported previously elsewhere, resulting in data from a total of 4,142 students (Aber et al, in press; Torrente et al, 2015). All students were assigned to complete the school quality and SEL measures; however, in order to reduce participant burden, students in each school were randomly assigned to complete either the Early Grade Math Assessment (EGMA) or the EGRA.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“… 3. See Torrente et al (2015) and Aber et al (in press) for additional information on methodological issues of relevance to the current study, including (a) intervention content, (b) evaluation design, (c) sample characteristics, and (d) data collection. …”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…We employ data from the first year of the International Rescue Committee's (IRC's) Learning to Read in a Healing Classroom (LRHC) intervention—the only large-scale cluster randomized trial of a universal school-based socioemotional learning program in a CAC to date—in the DRC, in order to provide initial evidence for a dynamic, multilevel theory of change in which proximal changes in the quality of school and classroom ecologies lead to distal changes in multiple domains of children's learning and development, including academic skills (literacy and numeracy) and socioemotional functioning (mental health problems and victimization; see Figure 1). Specifically, building on our prior work quantifying the impact of 1 year of exposure to LRHC on teacher motivation (Wolf, Aber, & Torrente, 2016), school and classroom social and pedagogical interactions between students and teachers (Torrente et al, 2015), student socioemotional outcomes (Torrente et al, 2015), and student academic outcomes (Aber et al, 2016), we employ multilevel structural equation modeling techniques to examine whether LRHC caused changes in school and classroom processes that are associated with students’ academic and socioemotional outcomes after 1 year of implementation.

Figure 1. Hypothesized Learning to Read in a Healing Classroom evaluation theory of change. …”

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confidence: 99%

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Promoting children's learning and development in conflict-affected countries: Testing change process in the Democratic Republic of the Congo

et al. 2016

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Improving children's learning and development in conflict-affected countries is critically important for breaking the intergenerational transmission of violence and poverty. Yet there is currently a stunning lack of rigorous evidence as to whether and how programs to improve learning and development in conflict-affected countries actually work to bolster children's academic learning and socioemotional development. This study tests a theory of change derived from the fields of developmental psychopathology and social ecology about how a school-based universal socioemotional learning program, the International Rescue Committee's Learning to Read in a Healing Classroom (LRHC), impacts children's learning and development. The study was implemented in three conflict-affected provinces of the Democratic Republic of the Congo and employed a cluster-randomized waitlist control design to estimate impact. Using multilevel structural equation modeling techniques, we found support for the central pathways in the LRHC theory of change. Specifically, we found that LRHC differentially impacted dimensions of the quality of the school and classroom environment at the end of the first year of the intervention, and that in turn these dimensions of quality were differentially associated with child academic and socioemotional outcomes. Future implications and directions are discussed.

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Section: Discussioncontrasting

confidence: 83%

Section: Lrhc In the Drc: Theory Of Change And Impactssupporting

confidence: 56%

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Figure 1. Hypothesized Learning to Read in a Healing Classroom evaluation theory of change. …”

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confidence: 99%

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Promoting children's learning and development in conflict-affected countries: Testing change process in the Democratic Republic of the Congo

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Reconsidering assent for randomised control trials in education: Ethical and procedural concerns

McPherson

Saltmarsh

Tomkins

2020

British Educational Res J

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Despite ongoing disagreement about what kinds of evidence are most valuable to education, there continues to be an increasing push to make a narrow group of scientific methodologies the basis of educational policy and practice. This has created a growth in the use of randomised control trials (RCTs), which are considered an exemplary example of scientifically rigorous research design. Yet despite the increase in both the prevalence and status of RCTs, this article will argue that the ethics informing this research orientation remains underdeveloped, with the specific need for an agenda that grapples with assent in RCTs in both a philosophical and a methodological way. As a corrective to this, we engage with Biesta’s observation of a lack of explicit engagement with the values informing our decisions about the direction of education practice. We begin by examining assent in existing education research literature, focusing on some of the ways that qualitative and praxis‐oriented researchers have grappled with the complexity of assent in research projects involving children and young people in schools. We then consider analogous debates concerning assent in fields such as bioethics and biomedicine, given the established nature of bioethics as a discipline. Finally, we turn our attention to developing an agenda that can work towards a consideration of assent in RCTs in education research, with the purpose of making transparent some of the ethical concerns that warrant attention in the design and conduct of RCT research studies in education.

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Policies and interventions to remove gender‐related barriers to girls' school participation and learning in low‐ and middle‐income countries: A systematic review of the evidence

Psaki

Haberland

Mensch

et al. 2022

Campbell Systematic Reviews

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Background Gender disparities in education continue to undermine girls' opportunities, despite enormous strides in recent years to improve primary enrolment and attainment for girls in low‐ and middle‐income countries (LMICs). At the regional, country and subnational levels gender gaps remain, with girls in many settings less likely to complete primary school, less likely to complete secondary, and often less likely to be literate than boys. The academic and policy literatures on the topic of gender‐related barriers to girls' education are both extensive. However, there remain gaps in knowledge regarding which interventions are most likely to work in contexts with different combinations of barriers. Objectives This systematic review identified and assessed the strength of the evidence of interventions and exposures addressing gender‐related barriers to schooling for girls in LMICs. Search Methods The AEA RCT Registry, Africa Bibliography, African Education Research Database, African Journals Online, DEC USAID, Dissertation Abstracts, EconLit, ELDIS, Evidence Hub, Global Index Medicus, IDEAS‐Repec, Intl Clinical Trials Registry, NBER, OpenGrey, Open Knowledge Repository, POPLINE, PsychINFO, PubMed, Research for Development Outputs, ScienceDirect, Sociological Abstracts, Web of Science, as well as relevant organization websites were searched electronically in March and April of 2019. Further searches were conducted through review of bibliographies as well as through inquiries to authors of included studies, relevant researchers and relevant organizations, and completed in March 2020. Selection Criteria We included randomized controlled trials as well as quasi‐experimental studies that used quantitative models that attempted to control for endogeneity. Manuscripts could be either published, peer‐reviewed articles or grey literature such as working papers, reports and dissertations. Studies must have been published on or after 2000, employed an intervention or exposure that attempted to address a gender‐related barrier to schooling, analyzed the effects of the intervention/exposure on at least one of our primary outcomes of interest, and utilized data from LMICs to be included. Data Collection and Analysis A team of reviewers was grouped into pairs to independently screen articles for relevance, extract data and assess risk of bias for each included study. A third reviewer assisted in resolving any disputes. Risk of bias was assessed either through the RoB 2 tool for experimental studies or the ROBINS‐I tool for quasi‐experimental studies. Due to the heterogeneity of study characteristics and reported outcome measures between studies, we applied the GRADE (Grading of Recommendation, Assessment, Development and Evaluation) approach adapted for situations where a meta‐analysis is not possible to synthesize the research. Results Interventions rated as effective exist for three gender‐related barriers: inability to afford tuition and fees, lack of adequate food, and insufficient academic support. Promising inter...

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Impacts After One Year of “Healing Classroom” on Children's Reading and Math Skills in DRC: Results From a Cluster Randomized Trial

Cited by 24 publications

References 14 publications

Promoting children's learning and development in conflict-affected countries: Testing change process in the Democratic Republic of the Congo

Promoting children's learning and development in conflict-affected countries: Testing change process in the Democratic Republic of the Congo

Reconsidering assent for randomised control trials in education: Ethical and procedural concerns

Policies and interventions to remove gender‐related barriers to girls' school participation and learning in low‐ and middle‐income countries: A systematic review of the evidence

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