This blog was co-authored by Silvia Montoya (UIS), Clio Dintilhac (BMGF), Joao Pedro De Azevedo and Fumiaki Sagisaka (UNICEF), Rona Bronwin (FCDO), Kanae Watanabe and Marie Helene Cloutier (WB).

We are in the midst of a global learning crisis: reports on learning poverty suggest that 7 in 10 children in low and middle-income countries (LMICs) do not know how to read with comprehension by age 10.

Poor foundational learning perpetuates educational inequalities, limits opportunities for socio-economic advancement and hinders individuals from fully participating in society, ultimately impacting the overall development and progress of nations.

However, this figure remains an estimate in most of these countries due to a lack of reliable data to measure outcomes and progress on learning over time.

The need for reliable and comparable data

Ministries and development stakeholders need comparable learning data over time to know whether students are learning, which are being left behind and to understand where to adjust education policies and practices.

However, efforts to collect learning data are often fragmented and irregular, especially in LMICs. Many data investments are made at the country level without consistently adhering to technical guidelines, potentially leading to challenges in achieving comparability.

The solution: a menu of assessment options to measure learning outcomes

Education partners across the Global Coalition for Foundational Learning are committed to reducing fragmentation among the agencies by agreeing on common technical guidelines to help countries report on Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 4, specifically on indicators measuring reading and math outcomes at the beginning and end of primary school (SDG 4.1.1a and 4.1.1b which refer to the proportion of children and young people in grades 2/3 and at the end of primary respectively).

Our ambition is for ministries of education and stakeholders within a country to receive clear technical guidance on learning data collection that will enable them to know where they are in terms of their trajectory of learning data, and to manage their systems towards improving learning outcomes.

Since publishing our last blog in October 2022, the Global Coalition for Foundational Learning has made significant progress in supporting countries to monitor learning progress and improve the availability of learning data.

We have collectively created a menu of assessment options (see above) to help guide countries determine which assessment(s) are fit-for-purpose and most cost-effective for them. We considered 2 characteristics across assessments to inform decision-making: 1. comparability over time, and 2. representativeness of results at the national level.

This figure describes 3 scenarios for countries based on where they are in their assessment systems for reading and mathematics. Depending on the scenario, the country may consider prioritizing different assessment options.

Update on methods for collecting learning data

To ensure that the selected assessment aligns with a country’s SDG reporting goals, we have mapped the menu of assessments to a common scale—the global proficiency framework (GPF) and minimum proficiency levels (MPL). The GPF and MPLs have also been linked for SDG reporting purposes for grades 2, 5 and 8.

We are also in the process of developing joint guidance on how to administer assessments that also concretely defines how each assessment can be used for SDG reporting. In the coming months, engagements are being planned with country teams to share and get feedback on this guidance.

In addition to the assessment menu, Coalition members are developing and piloting additional methods for countries to improve their learning data:

• The Assessment for Minimum Proficiency Levels (AMPL) has been developed for reporting on SDG 4.1.1a and 4.1.1b, and is currently being piloted in Zambia, Kenya, India, The Gambia and Lesotho. It has also been administered by the World Bank in the context of their Global Education Policy Dashboard. AMPL-b had already been administered as part of the GPE-funded MILO project in 6 countries in Africa, and is available in English, French and Arabic.
• A technical review of the Early Grade Reading Assessment (EGRA) as well as UNICEF’s Multiple Indicator Cluster Surveys (MICS), Foundational Learning Skills (FLS) and People’s Action for Learning (PAL) common assessments is underway to assess how these tools can be mapped to the Global Proficiency Framework (GPF) and Minimum Proficiency Levels (MPL). Results from this review will be shared by September 2023.
• The UNICEF MICS Foundational Learning Skills (FLS) 2.0 has been piloted in Zambia, with other pilots planned by the end of the year and over 2024. By December 2023, the module will include the required items to ensure alignment with the global proficiency framework (GPF) and SDG 4.1.1a minimum proficiency levels (MPL). By the end of 2024, further improvements and validations exercises will ensure alignment with SDG 4.1.1b MPL.
• An updated toolkit for policy linking has also been developed that will be used to evaluate the extent to which national assessments map to the common scale.
• An updated EGRA/EGMA toolkit is being developed for later this year to ensure alignment of EGRA/EGMA with the updated Policy Linking Toolkit mentioned in the previous point.

Over the next weeks, the Coalition will closely engage with countries to socialize the new tools and gain feedback on the support that they need. We will share another progress update by September, marking the first anniversary of the Global Coalition for Foundational Learning.

We are looking forward to finalizing and sharing this guidance and increasing the availability and use of comparable learning data to help countries monitor and evaluate progress on foundational skills.