USAID

From April 11 – 22, 2005, a four-person team from the Washington, D.C.-based Safe Schools (DevTech SSP)1 traveled to Malawi to conduct a school-related gender-based violence (SRGBV) assessment. The DevTech Safe Schools Team was comprised of four DevTech Systems, Inc. employees: Program Director Maryce Ramsey, Youth and Reproductive Health Specialist Cate Lane, Education Specialist Nina Etyemezian, and Qualitative Researcher Ji Sun Lee. Also participating in the assessment was Julie Hanson Swanson, DevTech SSP’s Cognizant Technical Officer from the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), Economic Growth, Agriculture, and Trade/Office of Women in Development (EGAT/WID).

Objectives
The overall objectives of this first exploratory trip were to:
• Assess existing programs for their capacity to address SRGBV;
• Understand the nature of SRGBV in Jamaica; and
• Identify individuals and organizations from the key informant interviews to serve as local
partners.

Methodology
Over the course of the visit, the Team collected data, reports, and materials, conducted openended interviews, and semi-structured focus groups with key stakeholders recommended by the USAID/Jamaica and/or other informants. The Team examined programs and structures at multiple levels: national, institutional, community, and individual. The Team interviewed representatives from the Ministry of Education, Youth and Culture (MoEYC), the Ministry of Health (MoH), the Ministry of National Security (MoNS), USAID partners, other international donors and organizations, local non-governmental organizations (NGOs), and community level
organizations (e.g., Parent Teacher Associations [PTAs]) to identify:

(a) Types of gender-based violence;
(b) Issues and gaps;
(c) Promising programs and organizations; and
(d) Recommendations.

Paper Two: Testing and Assessment

This white paper discusses the challenges and lessons learned in the process of creating a cross-country testing initiative. The three CETTs carried out testing initiatives to track student performance toward literacy benchmarks, with the goal of showing valid and reliable results. An extremely challenging endeavor, student assessment is further complicated when using tests across countries.

Paper One: Regional Nature This white paper discusses the challenges, successes, and lessons learned implementing a regional model for teacher training. The regional nature of CETT differentiated this program from other, strictly national, teacher professional development efforts undertaken by USAID. Three CETTs in the Caribbean, Central and South America underwent a significant process of compromise and cooperation to arrive at their regional models and this paper documents the initiatives taken.

The Snapshot of School Management Effectiveness (SSME) developed under the USAID EdData II project offers an approach to assessing primary student performance at the same time that it evaluates school management and governance factors that are strongly associated with school effectiveness and learning achievement. A single person can gather data in one school during a one-day visit, and just enough schools are sampled to give donors and governments a fast, inexpensive, yet reliable and statistically valid scan of school management at a given level
of interest. The SSME also provides principals, teaching staff, and parents with a mechanism for voicing their concerns to the Ministry of Education.

The instruments that constitute the SSME were applied in 48 Jamaican primary schools in six parishes during the period May 29 to June 15, 2007. In each of the 48 schools, two classes (a grade 2 and a grade 3) and their two teachers were observed and interviewed. Two boys and two girls from each class were interviewed—making a total of 8 students from each school. In all, 48 principals, 96 teachers and classrooms, 384 students, and 47 parents provided information for the study. Observations were also made of the school compound and the classrooms.