The Chalkboard Guides

Covid-19 has only emphasised the need for education to be more resilient to overcome the challenges of delivering high quality education in conflict-affected DRC, including low quality teaching, short-term school closures due to insecurity, transient communities and low parental literacy levels.

The Chalkboard Guides (CBGs) are a multi-modal structured pedagogy tool, used to support teachers to deliver high-quality learning, even amidst war, disease and weak infrastructure. Designed by teachers for teachers, CBGs  improve the quality of instruction, providing clear and accurate content, layout and order, lesson-by-lesson in teacher guides, workbooks, edutainment-inspired video and audio clips. 

“Inclusive education systems will function for everyone if they function for the most marginalized” - Pauline Rose. Once developed in conflict-affected eastern DRC, CBGs can be adapted for any curriculum/classroom, driving up the quality of instruction around the world to eradicate learning poverty.

CBGs aim to eradicate learning poverty: 53% children in LMICs suffer from learning poverty. Access to schooling has not translated to improved learning outcomes as it should. DRC reflects this, where over half of primary school graduates cannot comprehend a simple line of text. 

Best practice in improving learning outcomes is becoming clearer (such as Teacher Guides, lauded by the World Bank as a 'Good Buy'), but is relatively costly and logistically difficult to implement in rural or conflict-affected areas: they recommend regular touchpoints, color-printed lesson guides, workbooks and on-site specialist coaching. They also vary vastly in style and their pedagogical approaches are not underpinned by strong evidence. Yet the need for quality education is urgent: instead of being equipped to solve their communities' problems through education, children join armed groups. Schools in conflict zones face severe challenges accessing the resources and training they need to provide quality education. Teachers can be wary of change, bearing the trauma of 30 years of war. 

Widening access to technology has yet to be harnessed for peacebuilding through education. While technology mediums are tested and compared, the content and underpinning pedagogy are not yet evaluated. 

The Chalkboard Guides are innovative teacher guides that are more adoptable, more supportive and more cost-effective. Harnessing the power of structured pedagogy, they provide teachers with board models, sharpening subject knowledge and targeting scripting to where precision makes the most difference, so teachers, from novice to expert, can use them to improve learning outcomes for their students. 

Once we have a working prototype for the pedagogy that powers the Chalkboard Guides and the user-interface, we want to use its component parts for short animated demos, audio clips and worksheets that teachers can both assemble into blended learning solutions for their students, and use for their own professional development, all at the click of a button. 

CBGs serve teachers and students in conflict-affected areas. Prototyping will take place in eastern DRC, where over 3 million children are out of school, and of those children who make it to primary school, 1 in 4 don't finish. Of the ¾ who do, less than half can read a simple sentence by the end. Children in conflict zones encounter violence in the everyday: regularly fleeing insecurity, or insecurity meaning schools are forced to close when there's too much danger, and anything valuable in schools makes them a target for looting. 

CBGs will empower children in DRC to establish foundational literacy and numeracy in 3 years. As they are expanded to the rest of the curriculum, (and expanded to more countries) children will be equipped with the knowledge and skills to build and develop their communities and nations.

Our teachers have spent the last 30 years of their lives in a conflict zone. For some, it's all they've known; for our older teachers, they remember the relative stability of life under a military dictator. Their own schooling - particularly for the younger ones - has been poor. All this, and more, means that eastern Congo is one of the most challenging places to deliver a quality education. We have the least amount of time in school and extremely limited resources with which to bring about the drastic change in learning outcomes that are so desperately needed. 

CBGs will empower teachers in DRC to teach children foundational literacy and numeracy by 3rd Grade. Upon expansion of the curriculum, they will empower teachers to deliver a high quality curriculum, meaning they can equip children with the knowledge and skills to build peace and develop their communities and nations.

At Justice Rising we have been looking for a solution to support our teachers to improve their instruction since we first began in 2015. The CBGs are the result of 3 years of concerted efforts to find a solution that can work in areas of protracted conflict. The Country Director and Justice Rising headteachers have worked closely with the Schools Director, conducting over 100 joint observations, rigorous pedagogical discussions, 1:1 interviews, a full series of peer-learning visits (including weekly school-based CPD), two EGRA-based assessments and co-delivering two teacher training conferences. 

Headteachers from seven primary schools in rigorous pedagogical discussion.

Peer learning visits included joint observations and joint weekly CPD observation and feedback for headteachers. 

Annual conferences co-led by headteachers and Schools Director follow a practice-based approach to teacher training.

Through this process the team has developed not only a strong shared understanding of the Congolese approach to teaching, inspectorate expectations and contextualized effective pedagogy, but also of the level of learning outcomes, approach to teacher training and available resources. It is through this way of working that the team was able to bring together their knowledge and experience to recognize the importance of the board and the potential for structured pedagogy to really boost its effectiveness. We particularly wanted to develop a form of support that could reach our schools in rebel-held areas, where a distance-based approach is necessary. 

CBGs are the most resilient solution we have conceived of to date, delivering simple, easy-to-use guides that teachers will use to improve their practice, resulting in deeper learning engagement from students, ultimately resulting in improved learning outcomes.

CBGs support teachers to adapt their pedagogy and increase the engagement of learners in remote and hybrid settings to make classrooms more equitable because they will support teachers to provide quality education in one of the most marginalized contexts in the world: conflict zones. As teachers master the underpinning pedagogy, CBGs will support teachers to provide world-class instruction where it is will make the most difference. 

Accompanying media resources will support teachers to keep providing quality education when schools have to close. Children in conflict zones will access high-quality, fun and engaging instructional content even when schools have to close.

Justice Rising is currently building CBGs for field-testing in June, July and August. This is an example of one that will soon be tested. 

Phase 1 innovations:

• More supportive: reimagines structured pedagogy, bringing it to the board. They don't require teachers to adopt foreign/new practices but support them to better use pre-existing knowledge and resources.

• More adoptable: designed and tested by teachers, they are user-friendly, strategically targeted towards easing teacher-workload, therefore increasing the likelihood of uptake through increased efficacy and agency. Near-instant success when trialling will result in long-term adoption.

• More evidence-based: clear evidence base underpinning pedagogy means teachers will see impact almost immediately. 

• More cost-effective: CBGs don't require expensive color printing or regular in-person visits. In classrooms they don’t even require accompanying workbooks. They are written by teachers in conflict-zones, for teachers in conflict-zones.

• More resilient: prototyping is happening across 3 schools in eastern DRC, including schools in rebel-held zones, temporary classrooms due to volcanic eruption, and in rural areas, which necessitate innovative approaches due to logistical and budget constraints of working in war zones. A successful prototype will be piloted across the 18 school network and shared widely. 

CBGs can enable broader positive impact because:

• the board is so ubiquitous;

• it is high-impact and low-effort;

• it is relevant to any context to improve teacher modelling/explanation; and

• teachers can assemble personalized distance-learning solutions, with edutainment-inspired content better suited for a home context, but providing critical continuity between home/school learning.

Phase 2 innovations:

• Engaging edutainment-inspired content in teacher's hands to assemble personalized blended learning.
• Pedagogically evidence-based and sequenced content.
• Teachers can deliver high-quality education when schools close.

Current number of students in Justice Rising schools: 2,500.

In one year, we project these numbers will rise to 3,000.

In five years, if we reach our goal for 5 other school operators, 1 national government (DRC) and 1 EiE context to adopt the model, we project:

5 more school operators, average 10 schools with 200 students at each school: 10,000

1 national government (depends on the nation, but if our home nation of DRC): 40+ million children of school age, even taking into account the estimated more than 3 million children who are out of school. If CBGs are adopted only for primary school, they will still reach approximately 14 million children.

+ 1 Education in Emergency context: extremely difficult to provide an estimate

First year goals: Develop a prototype that is 

• near-universally adopted (HTs record of adoption rates)

• significantly accelerates student learning outcomes in literacy (eliminates zero scores in EGRA assessments in 3rd grade) 

3-5 year goals:

• Pilot CBGs across Justice Rising network, focusing firstly on literacy, secondly on numeracy

• Students in Justice Rising schools can read in two languages by 3rd grade; there is no learning poverty in Justice Rising schools (100% 3rd grade can read 45 wpm in French and Swahili with comprehension)

• 5 other school operators and 1 national government have adopted the CBG and it is in an EiE context [JR leveraging its relationships to share the learning in the first 3 years of CBG design, use and re-design to share the CBGs.  JR belongs to education networks working in resource-constrained/fragile contexts.]
• CBGs' effectiveness is proven in multiple contexts. [through robust data collection will take place at each stage of the CBG development and implementation. This will include qualitative and quantitative data gained through lesson observations, FGDs and student assessments]
• Research about impact of the guides contributes to filling research gaps about what interventions work and how to ensure the adoption of those interventions [through participation in education conferences. Publishing in education journals]

We are developing indicators for the prototype in conjunction with Oxford MeasurEd focusing on adoptability and learning outcomes. 

Since the CBGs aim to ensure children in 3rd grade can read with fluency and comprehension in two languages, EGRA will be the foremost indicator.

Congo team

30 writers recruited from within Justice Rising schools (contractors for CBGs)

3 core team members (1 full-time project manager, 2 part-time Schools Advisors who have other responsibilities to manage alongside)

International team

1 part-time Schools Director

Programme Director and Managing Director lend support with M&E/budget/strategy.

Justice Rising operates a network of 18 schools in eastern DRC, where the protracted conflict creates an extremely challenging context for communities. 

Amidst these communities, Justice Rising builds schools and operates them: 

• to bring transformation through education, equipping children with the lifelong knowledge and skills they will need to build peace. 
• to eradicate learning poverty by establishing foundational literacy and numeracy is central to providing quality education. 
• recruiting and upskilling teachers from the local community to support teacher retention
• headteachers/school advisors have emphasised the importance of the board to quality learning, enabling the conception of the CBGs
• teachers will give feedback throughout the iterative design process, ensuring CBGs' adoptability
• Justice Rising teachers bring their deep contextual knowledge and experience to write the CBGs for the pilot (literacy) and any future CBGs we write 
• International leadership at Justice Rising all practice and value immersion - deep listening and observation of lived-experiences - and the importance thereof to guide strategy. 
• Solution is the fruit of JR headteachers, Schools Advisors and Country Director bringing deep knowledge of context + Schools Director's pedagogical and change leadership expertise. 

Diversity, inclusion and equity are very important to us. In addition to this we are convinced that the experience and expertise of Congolese would be pivotal for any solution to be successful and sustainable.

Justice Rising is proud to have achieved gender parity across our school network for 3 consecutive years. We are committed to having women in leadership: our Executive Director, Schools Director and Chief of Staff positions are all held by women (half our executive team). We currently have four female headteachers and more in the pipeline.

Our executive team has diverse ethnic representation: 2 Congolese, 1 Nigerian, 2 Koreans, 1 Canadian.

After a really positive experience with Solve during the Jacobs Foundation Solveathon, it was a no-brainer to apply! As an organization we aim to solve some really complex problems, and we think that learning from Solve MIT's methodology and approach could really help us.

We are also interested in being connected with like-minded people/organizations that we can partner with - especially where their expertise can compliment our own. We particularly want to connect with organizations with expertise in software development, edutainment and 2G-compatible media.

We would benefit from help with technology: 

• building the user-interface for the CBG
• creating short edutainment-inspired animated videos
• compressing media files
• using USSD/radio/robocall when schools close

Product distribution:

• especially to government-level

Business model:

• bringing our solution from prototype to scale

Chalkboard Guides are innovative teacher guides that take a sustainable approach to tackling learning poverty. We would use the Andan Prize towards developing a truly universally-adoptable prototype to be used in Education in Emergency contexts, accelerating global progress towards eradicating learning poverty. Adoption of CBGs in an education-in-emergency context is one of our 5 year impact goals.

Justice Rising operates a network of schools in eastern DRC, where the protracted conflict creates an extremely challenging context for communities. Amidst these communities, Justice Rising builds schools and operates them to bring transformation through education, equipping children with the lifelong knowledge and skills they will need to build peace. Eradicating learning poverty by establishing foundational literacy and numeracy is central to providing quality education. 

Chalkboard Guides will improve instruction in low-resource, no-tech environments as well as high-resource, high-tech environments, since the board is ubiquitous throughout. High-quality content on the board, paired with high-quality explanations, give teachers what they need to improve their practice and eradicate learning poverty.

Teachers from within refugee/displaced people camps would use these highly innovative and intuitive teacher guides to teach quality lessons - all they need is a board. 

Chalkboard Guides are innovative teacher guides that take a sustainable approach to tackling learning poverty. We would use the GSR Prize towards developing the blended-learning dimension of the Chalkboard Guides: short animated video clips that provide worked examples/how-to guides for children learning at home.

Justice Rising operates a network of schools in eastern DRC, where the protracted conflict creates an extremely challenging context for communities. Amidst these communities, Justice Rising builds schools and operates them to bring transformation through education, equipping children with the lifelong knowledge and skills they will need to build peace. Eradicating learning poverty by establishing foundational literacy and numeracy is central to providing quality education. 

Chalkboard Guides will improve instruction in low-resource, no-tech environments as well as high-resource, high-tech environments, since the board is ubiquitous throughout. High-quality content on the board, paired with high-quality explanations, give teachers what they need to improve their practice and eradicate learning poverty.

The content in this prototype would then be used to develop edutainment-inspired media to provide children with high quality education suited to a remote-learning context. Short video and audio clips that follow the sequence of the chalkboard guides provide fun and engaging worked examples/how-to guides, rather than trying to simulate a classroom environment. This blended learning dimension will enable children who have to stay home due to war, disease or a natural disaster to continue to access quality education at their own pace.