To address flaws in national-level curriculum and teacher training and strengthen the implementation of evidence-based early grade reading instruction in Haitian schools, in 2017 the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) launched a new program known as the Early Reading Project (ERP). Under ERP, USAID works with the LAC/READS program and its partner (FONHEP); UND, and UNICEF to implement a streamlined and enhanced early grade reading program.
ERP is a two-year intervention in the first two grades of primary school in up to approximately 450 public, community, and semi-private Haitian schools. The ERP program has the following three objectives:
- Improve the MENFP’s capacity to implement and eventually scale reading reform
- Improve teachers’ ability to teach early grade reading
- Improve students’ early grade reading outcomes
This impact evaluation is intended to assess the effectiveness of the ERP intervention on early grade reading among grade 1 and grade 2 students in targeted schools as compared to their peers in non-targeted homologous schools.
The primary stakeholders for this evaluation include the Ministry of Education and Professional Training (MENFP), USAID/Haiti, the Early Reading Project implementing partners (the LAC/Reads program, UNICEF, UND, and UNOPS), and other donors and entities active in Haiti’s education sector (the World Bank, JICA, IDB, World Vision), and a variety of NGOs and religious affiliations devoted to improving learning in Haitian primary schools. The program is currently being implemented in the departments of Artibonite, Ouest, Grand’Anse, Sud, Sud-Est, Nord, and Nord-Est.
USAID has contracted Social Impact’s (SI) Haiti Evaluation and Survey Services (ESS) project to design and implement an independent evaluation of its Early Reading Program (ERP) project. The evaluation is being implemented over two and a half years and will be comprised of three discrete data collection events: baseline (fall 2017), midline (spring 2019), and endline (spring 2020). This procurement is solely for the endline data collection phase.
Evaluation Approach: The evaluation is a pre-post, longitudinal statistical matching design that involves collecting and analyzing baseline, midline, and endline data on program participants and comparing the performance of these participants to a comparison group. This design provides a measure of change in students’ academic achievement in participating schools regarding the primary learning indicator of reading/literacy. Learning tests will be administered to children in grades 1 and 2 in school, supplemented by qualitative data to better explain/understand key findings from quantitative data. The proposed methodology will utilize the following quantitative and qualitative tools: a school-based learning test for students (EGRA) including a short questionnaire on student characteristics, a school-based survey for directors, a classroom observation tool, focus group discussions (FGD) with parents, and key informant interviews (KII) with Ministry of Education (MoE) officials and teachers. These tools will be utilized in communities, schools, and other locations across all departments (refer to the sampling plan in the table below). The total sample size for the evaluation is 8 FGDs and 48 KIIs. This procurement is solely for the qualitative data collection (i.e. the FGDs with parents, and KIIs with MoE officials and teachers). Data collection will occur in the departments of Artibonite, Ouest, Grand’Anse, Sud, Sud-Est, Nord, and Nord-Est. The period of performance for endline data collection will be upon signing through June 30, 2020.
The sections that follow further detail the scope of work and technical requirements for this assignment, as well as guidelines for proposal submission.
SI requests that all bidders examine the specific requirements contained in this Request for Proposals (RFP) and prepare responses pursuant to the terms of this RFP. All questions related to the RFP are to be submitted by Monday, February 10, 2020 8:00 AM ET, and will be answered by Tuesday, February 11, 12:00 PM ET The deadline to submit proposals is Tuesday, February 18, 2020, 10:00 AM ET. Please refer to the RFP and for detailed documentation of the project background and scope of work. When submitting budgets please use the attached template.
Points of contact:
Christina Seybolt : [email protected]
Wesner Antoine : [email protected]
Basab Dasgupta: [email protected]
Jennifer Mandel : [email protected]
