Beyond One-Size-Fits-All: Iterative Design in Education Reform

Sep 30, 2024 | Luminos Fund | In the News, Luminos Method

On September 26th, the Luminos Fund hosted its eighth annual U.N. General Assembly (UNGA) week luncheon in New York, bringing together donors, partners, and education experts to discuss the role of iterative design in driving global education reform. As Luminos CEO, Caitlin Baron, emphasized in her opening remarks, while strides have been made toward achieving universal education, the path to delivering quality education is far from straightforward. The fact that nine out of ten children in low-income countries cannot read by age 10 is a reminder that great education programs are never one-size-fits-all, and must be designed and iterated in context.

“Extraordinary learning is possible. The binding constraint is not the child’s capacity to learn. It’s our capacity to help them do so.”

Caitlin Baron, CEO, Luminos Fund

The event featured two leading experts in education and philanthropy:

Ann Mei Chang, CEO of Candid and author of Lean Impact: How to Innovate for Radically Greater Social Good
Dr. Modupe (Mo) Adefeso-Olateju, Fellow at The Brookings Institution and Board Chair of the Malala Fund

Embracing Iterative Design: A Core Component of Luminos’ Identity and Approach

At the Luminos Fund, we believe successful education initiatives are those that marry the best of global learning science and local insights and apply an iterative approach to implementation.

The event began with a reflection on the critical role of iterative design in Luminos’ programs. Through an ongoing iteration cycle of designing, learning, and adapting, Luminos transformed its Liberia program to deliver profound learning gains.

Results of an IDinsight randomized controlled trial (RCT) of our Liberia program demonstrate the powerful impact of our approach on student learning. Liberian children enrolled in the one-year Luminos program learn 90% of what the average Liberian will learn in their lifetime.

“This is not where this journey began, but this is where it is today,” shared Caitlin.

The Iteration Cycle

Learn more about creating effective education programs in the Iterative Design element of the Luminos Method!

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In 2016, Luminos launched our Liberia program in partnership with another international non-governmental organization (INGO), drawing inspiration from the Luminos program model in Ethiopia. By 2017, Luminos took full ownership of the program, leading a comprehensive redesign that altered nearly every aspect of the approach. In the two years to follow, we narrowed our focus to literacy and numeracy and introduced a phonics-based approach. We also added structured pedagogy and detailed teacher guides.

Liberia iteration journey_teacher training

“The goal of that structured pedagogy is to help every teacher, whether it’s his or her first day in the classroom or hundreds of days in, to have the confidence to know how to meet every child where they are,” shared Caitlin.

We continued to revise the curriculum, and we increased training for teachers, partners, and staff.

By 2019, we shifted away from major changes to focus on refinements and incremental adaptations. This journey of continuous improvement ultimately led to transformative learning gains.

As Caitlin reflected, “In education, fundamentally, the how is as important as the what.” The process of adapting and iterating our approach in Liberia’s unique context was just as important as the model itself. Our emphasis on ‘how’ we deliver joyful learning allows us to create an environment where all children can truly thrive.

Innovation in International Development

Ann Mei Chang started the conversation by explaining why innovation is crucial in international development.

“The status quo won’t get us where we need to go,” noted Ann Mei. Drawing on her experience in Silicon Valley and at USAID, she highlighted that the best programs start small, iterate over and over, and scale incrementally.

“The only way you can iterate and learn quickly is if we start small, so that we are iterating and learning in the order of days or weeks, not years.”

Ann Mei Chang, CEO, Candid

At Luminos, we are laser-focused on measuring our impact on children’s learning, and we regularly collect and use real-time data to drive the necessary program adaptations. “We use real-time data in our program, most importantly, so we can understand each child as an individual, where they are on their unique learning journey, and what kind of support they most need from us to succeed,” shared Caitlin.

Proximate Leadership, Partnerships, and Iteration

Dr. Mo Adefeso-Olateju shared her experience scaling a grassroots education NGO in Nigeria and emphasized the power of proximate leadership in driving meaningful change. “Proximate leaders are those who are close to the problem or the issue. What do these leaders bring into conversation? They bring something that I think is so important, and that is perspective. They bring perspective, they bring nuance, they bring efficiency, and they bring effectiveness. They help us to think about innovation in context,” noted Mo.

“Proximate leaders are those who are close to the problem or the issue. What do these leaders bring into conversation? They bring something that I think is so important, and that is perspective. They bring perspective, they bring nuance, they bring efficiency, and they bring effectiveness. They help us to think about innovation in context.”

Dr. Modupe (Mo) Adefeso-Olateju, Fellow at The Brookings Institution and Board Chair of the Malala Fund

She added, “As we seed control, we are actually building for better sustainability and effectiveness of our programs.”

Luminos prioritizes working with domestic, locally led, NGOs. In our experience, these community partners approach the challenges of their country’s education system as their own, serving as stewards for the children of their communities. They provide a deep and nuanced understanding of national, regional, and local contexts. To learn more about how Luminos works with and supports our community-based partners, download the Community Partners element of the Luminos Method.

Mo also emphasized the importance of government partnerships to scale education interventions effectively.

She shared that government adoption requires building capacity and agency within the system, particularly among civil servants who remain in their roles regardless of changes in political leadership.

“You build from the core, and everything holds together from that core. When you think about that in the context of government, who is the core? Civil service. They will always be there. So, where does the attention need to be when thinking about building their capacity? It’s not just their technical capacity, but building their agency to see themselves as changemakers, to see themselves as participants in the solution,” explained Mo.

Mo stressed the importance of helping government leaders understand and apply lessons that are directly relevant to their own country’s education challenges, rather than simply adopting solutions from other contexts. This approach ensures that the insights gained are practical and tailored to the unique needs of their specific setting.

Looking Ahead

Underlying all of this work is donor commitment to and support for our approach. This support includes a flexible funding structure that prioritizes children’s learning outcomes rather than a fixed program model. We believe this flexible funding is key.

“Our journey is only possible because of our funders who believe in the potential to deliver transformative learning and teaching, and recognize that it’s often not nearly as simple as one might imagine,” shared Caitlin.

Caitlin’s closing remarks introduced the Luminos Method Learning Lab, a new initiative for community-based organizations in Sub-Saharan Africa focused on advancing foundational learning. The Luminos Method Learning Lab has two key objectives:

1. Providing hands-on training to help organizations learn from elements of the Luminos Method – a collection of resources on evidence-based practices that improve student learning and transform education for the most vulnerable children.

2. Allocating seed grants to help selected organizations adapt and apply these practices in their own contexts.

By taking our insights and learning to scale through the Luminos Method Learning Lab, we accelerate our mission of ensuring all children have equal access to joyful, foundational learning.

Commit, Measure, Iterate: Three Steps to Drive Impact on Student Learning Outcomes

Aug 9, 2024 | Luminos Fund | In the News

This blog was originally posted on UNESCO’s World Education Blog and can be viewed here.

By Dr. Kirsty Newman, Vice President of Programs, and Kirstin Buchanan, Communications and Advocacy Manager, The Luminos Fund

Globally, 250 million children are out of school, and millions more are in school but not learning, costing an estimated USD 10 trillion annually by 2030. In Sub-Saharan Africa, 90% of children do not learn to read by age 10. Given the scale of the learning crisis, it is tempting to look for a silver bullet to address it – a proven solution that can be scaled up wherever children are not learning. However, there is no single formula or recipe for education delivery. Various evidence-based approaches, including structured pedagogy for teachers and targeting teaching instruction by learning level, can effectively support learning. However, when trying to deliver learning outcomes, how you implement matters just as much as what you implement. More specifically, education programs that improve learning generally commit to learning as their single focus, measure whether learning is taking place, and continuously iterate to optimize learning outcomes.

At the Luminos Fund, our sole mission is to ensure all children experience joyful, foundational learning. Since 2016, our model has been well-tested and refined to deliver transformative learning for children. Below we summarize why a commit, measure, iterate approach is essential to drive impact on student learning outcomes.

Commit

We are often asked what we believe governments or donors need to do to ensure children are learning. Our response is that they must first commit to a single focus on ensuring children’s learning. This can sometimes be a frustrating response – the recommendation to first focus on whether there is enough commitment could feel a bit woolly and esoteric when weighted against recommendations of more practical or targeted actions, such as increasing student attendance or expanding access.

Often, it is assumed that simply working on an education project or with an education ministry means that delivering learning is implicitly the aim of education interventions. This misconception – that most people and organizations working on global education have learning as their driving goal – plays a significant role in the learning crisis.

A recent study investigating the objectives driving education projects in various developing countries found that improving learning outcomes was rarely the primary aim. Factors such as political patronage and student attendance frequently dominate the focus. There is a similar pattern in donor-funded education projects – objectives such as access or equity often play a significant role in project design and implementation, with an assumption that learning will follow. Yet very few education programs in developing countries – whether led by governments or donors or both – have demonstrated an impact on learning outcomes. Currently, three out of five of the largest global funders of basic education have no evidence of impact on literacy at scale. Those few programs that have achieved impact on learning outcomes have done so not by accident but by focusing relentlessly on learning and making intentional programmatic decisions to maximize learning outcomes.

A Luminos student in Ghana raises her hand to answer a math problem during a numeracy lesson. (Photo: Obeng Baah for the Luminos Fund)

Measure

Once there is a commitment to prioritize student learning outcomes as a central aim, the logical next step is to measure whether children are grasping foundational skills. This is critical because there is no one magic formula that is guaranteed to deliver the same impact to every child, regardless of context. For example, Luminos uses a structured pedagogy approach and has achieved remarkable learning outcomes in Liberia. But there are also examples of structured pedagogy interventions that have achieved little to no impact. Indeed, some interventions show strong impact in one context but negative impact in other contexts.

Effectively measuring learning takes careful skill and effort. The evidence tells us that if given the chance to cheat on assessments, humans generally will do so! Therefore, ensuring assessments are kept strictly confidential and training staff to rigorously collect, clean, and analyze data is of paramount importance.

At Luminos, we are laser-focused on measuring our impact on children’s learning and we regularly collect and use real-time data to drive the necessary program adaptations. Such efforts require significant investments in time, staff capacity, tools, and resources. But by investing in these systems, you gain a clear and accurate understanding of the extent to which each student is learning.

Iterate

Data is critically important to verify whether your program is actually achieving impact. It also informs decisions that will boost student learning outcomes as you implement. Getting education right for children requires careful research, astute design, disciplined implementation, and, importantly, rapid cycle iteration.

Iterations can and should be made at multiple levels. For example, at a classroom level, robust data can help teachers target support to struggling students, including those with learning differences such as dyslexia. At a program level, data can reveal which specific skills or areas students are struggling with which can, in turn, inform plans for teacher training and coaching.

For Luminos, iterative design is a core component of our identity and approach, and research results continuously demonstrate our approach’s powerful impact on student learning.

Learn more about Luminos’ approach to iterative design in the Luminos Method!

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The commit, measure, iterate steps are not unique to the Luminos Fund. For instance, very similar principles are embedded in the RISE Five Actions to Accelerate Progress in Learning, the UNICEF RAPID framework to accelerate foundational learning, and the Teaching at the Right Level (TaRL) approach.

This convergence on best practices is indeed a good thing! We do not need a new silver bullet to solve the learning crisis – several organizations are already succeeding in improving learning, and they identify these three steps as integral to their success. We know what works; now, let’s embrace these key steps to create a future where all children achieve joyful, foundational learning.

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.

Kirstin Buchanan is the Communications and Advocacy Manager at the Luminos Fund where she amplifies student voices and program stories, in addition to helping drive content, messaging, and fundraising strategy. Kirstin leads the development and implementation of the communication strategy relating to the organization’s advocacy and government engagement work. She also leads engagement with the Luminos Fund Advisory Board.

How to Build Effective International Education Programs

May 16, 2024 | Luminos Fund | Luminos Method

Across the globe, access to universal education is often seen as a key goal for many international education programs — and it is tempting to think that learning follows a simple pattern: build schools, hire teachers, and children will learn.

Yet the fact that nine out of ten children in low-income countries cannot read by age 10 is proof that delivering effective education, especially in low-resourced settings, is hard.

Teaching children who are often the first in their families to learn to read is an extraordinarily daunting task — especially if doing so in a language they don’t speak at home, with minimally trained teachers, and little to no classroom materials. Adding to these challenges is the fact that many, if not most, of the international education interventions set up to improve school learning fail: currently, three out of five of the largest global funders of basic education have no evidence of impact at scale.

At the Luminos Fund, we know that effective education projects are rooted in iterative design – a process centered on continuous improvement and refinement. In this approach, organizations continuously evaluate their program implementation to assess their impact and make ongoing adjustments accordingly. For education projects and organizations, impact means students are learning, and the depth of that impact is the depth of a student’s learning gains.

Successful education initiatives marry the best of global learning science with local insights and apply an iterative approach to implementation. At Luminos, we have identified six key capabilities needed to create our organizational culture of iterative design:

1. A Deep Commitment to an Ongoing Journey

At Luminos, our iterative process is an ongoing cycle with three key stages: design, learn, adapt. From the moment our program is launched in the classroom, Luminos is iterating on our approach in response to the data we collect. Our learnings inform the nature, extent, and pace of our program adaptations. These adaptations occur across all aspects of our programming, including curriculum design, assessments, service delivery program support, and staffing capacity and structures. Once one cycle ends, the next one begins.

2. A Focus on One Thing — Foundational Learning — and Doing It Well

While the needs of children in the developing world are vast, they cannot all be effectively addressed simultaneously by one international nongovernmental organization. Focusing on what you do best allows you the time and capacity to refine your approach until you reach excellence. At Luminos, we do one thing: provide joyful, foundational learning to marginalized children. Our singular focus enables iteration, allowing us to home in on the adjustments and adaptations needed to achieve maximum impact for our students.

3. Consistent Classroom-Level Implementation

In pursuit of foundational learning and in support of our community teachers, Luminos applies a structured pedagogical approach to our curriculum. Structured pedagogy involves breaking down complex concepts into smaller, manageable units and presenting them in a logical sequence in order to progressively build upon a child’s foundational knowledge. For example, when teaching students to read, we begin our phonics-based approach by ensuring students can identify letters, then the letter sounds, before blending those sounds into words of increasingly greater complexity, eventually progressing to reading individual words and then sentences.

This framework makes it easy for us to track how consistently our curriculum is implemented across classrooms, and whether individual students or whole classrooms are on track with set learning targets. By laying out clear expectations for children’s learning, our structured pedagogy, combined with our classroom observations and other data collection, allows us to know immediately if we are meeting our learning targets or not, and make adjustments accordingly.

4. Data Collection and Analytics

The ability to quickly and accurately collect data, and then process and learn from that data, is crucial to making adaptations. Across all Luminos’ program sites, we collect data through classroom observations made by supervisors and Luminos staff, student assessments, and external program evaluations. This data provides a clear picture of what is and is not working, and it enables us to focus our adjustments accordingly.

5. A Staff Committed to Excellence, and a Staffing Structure to Match

Iterative design is foundational to Luminos and is reflected in our Beliefs and Values. Among other things, staff commit to using research, data, and classroom observations in the tenacious pursuit of excellence to learn what works and take the initiative to problem solve and adjust our programming accordingly.

6. Extensive Communication and Consensus Building with Partners

From start to finish, Luminos works hand in hand with our community partners and government stakeholders to ensure the successful delivery of our programs. An iterative approach is often new for community and government partners. Sharing data on actual student learning levels and inviting collaboration on solutions is critical for bringing partners along on the iterative design journey.

Looking to the Future

While iterative design is a well-known model in other industries, it is rarely practiced among global education reformers. In a world in which 90% of children in low-income countries have not learned to read by age 10, effective interventions are essential to addressing the problem. We believe the way to get to those effective education interventions is by employing an iterative design approach. Education reform through iterative design is a hard journey, but our results in the classroom tell us that it is the only one worth pursuing.

Learning more in the Iterative Design element of the Luminos Method!