EDUCATIONLINKS USAID ARABIC LITERACY AND NUMERACY STATE OF THE ART CONFERENCE DESK REVIEW FINAL REPORT October 2019 This publication was prepared independently by Dr. Helen Boyle on behalf of Social Impact, Inc. at the request of the United States Agency for International Development. This publication is part of the Middle East Education, Research, Training, and Support (MEERS) activity. ARABIC LITERACY AND NUMERACY STATE OF THE ART CONFERENCE DESK REVIEW FINAL REPORT October 2019 IDIQ: AID-OAA-I-14-00075 Task Order: AID-OAA-TO-17-00022 (Middle East Education Research, Training, and Support) Submitted to: Christine Capacci-Carneal, Contracting Officer’s Representative USAID/Middle East Bureau ii iii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Many people contributed to the compilation and analysis of research reports and articles that form the backbone of this monograph. The author would like to thank several individuals for their contributions. Bodunrin Akinrinmade, doctoral student at Florida State University, College of Education did an excellent job in creating tables to display data from recent EGRA and EGMA reports, as well as PIRLS, PISA, and TIMSS reports, and in drafting comments on trends in the data. Likewise, Samir Habib provided valuable assistance in compiling data and resources for review, drafting text to include in the report and providing feedback on the report as it was developed. Thanks are also due to both USAID and Social Impact for guiding and supporting the development of this monograph. In particular, the bi-weekly SOTA call participants, including Chris Capacci-Carneal, Rebeca Martinez, and Rebecca Rhodes from USAID, and Amy Porter, Meredith Feenstra, Catherine Villada, and Natalie Provost from Social Impact provided valuable feedback at all stages as well as support in editing and formatting. I am grateful to all of these talented and knowledgeable people for their immense support and contributions to the finalization of this monograph. iv CONTENTS Acknowledgements .......................................................................................................................................................... iv Acronyms & Abbreviations ........................................................................................................................................... vii Executive Summary ........................................................................................................................................................ viii Purpose, Research Questions, Methods, & Scope ............................................................................................. viii Findings & Conclusions ............................................................................................................................................... ix Recommendations for Addressing Achievement Gaps in Early Grade Reading and Math ...................... xiv Future Research Questions ...................................................................................................................................... xv I. Introduction and Research Overview ....................................................................................................................... 1 Research Purpose and Background .......................................................................................................................... 1 Research Questions...................................................................................................................................................... 1 Methodology and Analysis .......................................................................................................................................... 2 Limitations....................................................................................................................................................................... 2 Organization of the Report ........................................................................................................................................ 3 II. Background and Status of Education in the MENA Region................................................................................. 4 Language and Educational Context ........................................................................................................................... 4 III. Findings and Analysis ................................................................................................................................................... 7 RQ 1: Foundations for Arabic Literacy ........................................................................................................................ 9 Findings ............................................................................................................................................................................ 9 Synthesis of RQ1 Findings ......................................................................................................................................... 22 RQ 2: Current EGR and EGM Performance in MENA Countries ...................................................................... 23 Findings .......................................................................................................................................................................... 23 Results from International Reading Assessments ................................................................................................ 41 Synthesis of RQ2 Findings ......................................................................................................................................... 51 IV. Recommendations for Filling Gaps in Achievement .......................................................................................... 58 Early Grade Reading Recommendations ............................................................................................................... 58 Early Grade Math Recommendations..................................................................................................................... 60 Missing Resources ....................................................................................................................................................... 61 V. Questions for Future Research ............................................................................................................................... 62 VI. Conclusions ................................................................................................................................................................. 67 Annex I: Data Analysis Matrix ...................................................................................................................................... 68 Annex II: Bibliography ..................................................................................................................................................... 70 v TABLES AND FIGURES Table 1: Arabic-speaking populations across MENA have increased since 2012 ............................................... 5 Table 2: MSA versus Moroccan Dialect pronunciation of "This" and "That" .................................................... 11 Table 3: MSA versus Dialect Vocabulary ................................................................................................................... 11 Table 4: Elements of Arabic Morphology................................................................................................................... 15 Table 5: Process Standards ............................................................................................................................................ 20 Table 6: Egypt EGRA scores (2013, 2014, 2015, 2017, and 2019) ...................................................................... 25 Table 7: Jordan EGRA scores (2014 and 2017) ........................................................................................................ 26 Table 8: Morocco EGRA scores from Doukala-Abda region (2011) .................................................................. 27 Table 9: Morocco EGRA scores for the RFS-SSE project, (baseline, midline, and endline) .......................... 28 Table 10: Yemen baseline EGRA scores (2011) ....................................................................................................... 29 Table 11: Yemen Grade 1 EGRA scores (2013) ...................................................................................................... 30 Table 12: Yemen EGRA endline treatment scores (2011 and 2013) .................................................................. 31 Table 13: Yemen Grade 2 EGRA scores for intervention and control schools (2013) ................................. 31 Table 14: Yemen EGRA baseline scores (Phase 2, 2015) ...................................................................................... 32 Table 15: Yemen EGRA endline scores (Phase 2, 2015) ........................................................................................ 33 Table 16: Lebanon Grade 2 EGRA baseline (BL) and endline scores (EL) (2018) ........................................... 35 Table 17: Lebanon Grade 3 EGRA baseline and endline scores (2018) ............................................................. 36 Table 18: West Bank/Gaza EGRA baseline scores (2014) ..................................................................................... 37 Table 19: West Bank/Gaza kindergarten baseline (2018)