Three Tips to Maximize the Impact of Investments In Accelerated Learning
By: Dr. Kirsty Newman
Getting education delivery right, especially in low-resourced contexts, is hard. Globally, 82 million primary school-age children are out of school, and millions more are in schools that fail to teach them to read. Increasingly, accelerated learning is seen as a crucial tool for countering learning loss, closing education access gaps, and supporting the most vulnerable out-of-school children to reintegrate into government schools.
Despite good faith efforts to support the most marginalized children to get a second chance at education, rarely is global education funding directed towards education interventions having an impact on children’s learning. Currently, three out of five of the largest global funders of basic education have no evidence of impact on literacy outcomes at scale.
Dr. Kirsty Newman, Luminos Vice President of Programs
The Luminos Fund, an international education nonprofit, delivers transformative, accelerated learning programs in four African countries. In just 10 months, Luminos students progress from not recognizing letters of the alphabet to reading short stories.
A recent randomized controlled trial (RCT) demonstrates the powerful impact of our approach on student learning and finds that the Luminos program is one of only three education programs shown to be both transformational for children’s learning and cost-effective.
The Luminos program is one of only three education programs that has been shown to be both transformational for children’s learning and cost-effective. Source: USAID, Early Grade Reading Barometer, GEEAP
Throughout my career in bilateral, multilateral, and non-governmental development organizations, including as Vice President of Programs at the Luminos Fund, I have worked to enable local research and evidence networks to support decision-making. Drawing from our experience at Luminos and the global evidence base, I propose three clear recommendations for maximizing the impact of investments in accelerated learning.
1. Scale What is Working Already
Donors should expand and scale up programs that have an established track record of impacting learning outcomes. This means identifying programs that routinely gather data on student learning and can demonstrate that they are improving learning outcomes.
The reality is that many, if not most, international education interventions set up to improve learning fail. Unlike other sectors such as health, education reform cannot be solved by a single formula or approach that guarantees the same impact for every child, regardless of context. Therefore, it cannot be assumed that a new program or organization will be able to achieve high impacts, even if it uses approaches that have been proven to work elsewhere. In our experience, successful education programs are those that commit to a single focus of achieving impact on learning, routinely gather data to assess whether children are grasping foundational skills, and continuously iterate to refine program implementation and maximize impact.
All too often, the dominant model for non-governmental organizations measures success by a program’s adherence to the original design plans rather than student learning gains. In my experience, rigid donor procurement systems set up to support new programs or projects that adhere to a strict design structure compound this challenge, and significantly limit funding for existing programs. Such procurement systems lack the flexibility needed to support existing programs that may not fit perfectly to the donor specifications but have proven impacts on learning outcomes. Generally, it is much more cost-effective to fund programs that have already devoted time and resources to optimizing learning outcomes, rather than to establish entirely new projects.
Innovating to increase the likelihood that funds go to projects that work is possible. One such example is a recent change in the rules for the Foreign, Commonwealth, and Development Office (FCDO) procurement to ban exclusivity agreements in consortia. This change allows local organizations to join multiple bidding consortia, reducing the risk of exclusion from funding opportunities and ensuring that high-impact, evidence-based education programs are more likely to receive support.
Luminos student Momodou demonstrates in front of his class in The Gambia. (Photo: Lena Nian for the Luminos Fund)
2. Simplify to Succeed
Accelerated learning programs that achieve impact generally focus on building children’s foundational literacy and numeracy skills. These foundational skills are crucial to enabling lifelong learning in children and improving their chances for success later in life. Yet at present, most education systems fail to build these skills; in low- and middle-income countries, 70% of children are unable to read by age 10.
Given the scale of the learning crisis, it is essential to prioritize efforts that improve learning outcomes. Successful organizations implementing foundational learning programs recognize the need to simplify to succeed. This may require delaying other competing education reform goals, such as expanding schooling, and other aspects of broad national curricula to focus relentlessly on building foundational skills. This does not mean that other skills or priorities in education are not important – it just means that there is a necessary sequence. If children do not master foundational learning early, they cannot attain more complex educational goals later.
If children do not master foundational learning early, they cannot attain more complex educational goals later.
3. Choose Impact Metrics Wisely
Often, the success of accelerated learning programs is measured by the proportion of children who complete the program and transition into government schools. While this is undoubtedly important, it is not the only metric. On its own, such data does not provide a sufficient measure of whether children have mastered the foundational learning skills that will be necessary for them to benefit from further schooling. Research shows that without strong foundations in literacy and numeracy, children are likely to fall behind, and drop out of school altogether.
In contrast, a longitudinal study of the Luminos accelerated learning program in Ethiopia confirms the transformative impact of foundational learning on children’s education trajectory. Children who completed the Luminos program persist in school longer and complete primary school at nearly twice the rate of their peers who started in the government school system. Furthermore, Luminos students continued to outperform their peers academically even six years after completing the program – a fact that is particularly remarkable given that the students in the Luminos program are some of the most disadvantaged children.
In addition to enabling children to succeed in further schooling, strong foundations in literacy and numeracy skills are critical for the employability, trainability, and resilience of older children and youth. This is particularly relevant when transitioning to government schools after completing an accelerated learning program is not possible due to the student’s age, or the fragility of an education system because of conflict or crisis. In such circumstances, it is still possible to dramatically improve students’ life chances by equipping them with foundational literacy and numeracy skills. Thus, in some cases, learning outcomes (even without high transition rates) may be the more effective impact metric.
Luminos students complete an activity in their student book during class in Ghana. (Photo: Obeng Baah for the Luminos Fund)
At Luminos, we believe all children should have the opportunity to experience joyful learning, and we know how transformational effective, accelerated learning programs can be for bridging education access gaps and addressing the learning crisis. The need for funding to support such programs has never been greater. By following these guidelines, funders can maximize the impact of every dollar invested in this crucial work.
Dr. Kirsty Newman is the Vice President of Programs at the Luminos Fund where she oversees the global programs team to support joyful, foundational learning for children at the margins. Before joining Luminos, Kirsty held senior leadership roles in various bilateral, multi-lateral, and non-governmental development organizations. Kirsty trained initially as a scientist (she has a PhD in Microbiology and Immunology) and has worked throughout her career to enable local research and evidence networks to support decision-making.
