Honduras Reading Activity (De Lectores a Lideres) (2018-2022)

Learning Systems Institute at Florida State University, Contract # 2018-0036

Funding Agency: USAID-Honduras/Education Development Center, Inc.

Program Name: Honduras Reading Activity (Readers to Leaders/ De Lectores a Líderes

Period of Performance: January 9, 2018 - June 30, 2022

Name of Prime Contractor/ USAID Implementing Partner: Education Development Center, Inc. (EDC)

Award Number: AID-522-C-17-00002

Subcontract Type: Cost Reimbursement

Ceiling Price: $946,600

Name of Subcontractors/ Sub-awardees: Learning Systems Institute at Florida State University

Principal Investigator: Adrianne Barnes

Subcontract Number: 2018-0036

CFDA Number: 98.NUM

NAICS Code 541990

Country of Performance: Honduras

In early 2018, the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), and the Government of Honduras launched the "readers to leaders" program (De Lectores a Líderes, also known as the USAID Honduras Reading Activity). The project implemented by Education Development Center (EDC) and its partner Florida State University (FSU) targets regions according to Development Objectives (1) Citizen Security increased in high violence zones; and (2) Extreme poverty sustainably reduced. The five-year project is aimed at strengthening the capacity of the Ministry of Education to implement evidence-based reading approaches to improve the learning rates in reading and writing of at least 700,000 students from first to sixth grade in 2,500 schools across 60 municipalities; train more than 15,000 in-service teachers in evidence-based teaching practices; provide 1,000 existing or new school libraries with a collection of 1,200 books to promote reading opportunities.

The project is also aimed at building the capacity of pre-service teacher educators at the Universidad Pedagógica Nacional Francisco Morazán (UPNFM). The main goal is system strengthening and therefore the project will work to align pre-service and in-service teacher education around a common understanding of quality expressed in academic standards. The project addresses a gap created by recent educational reforms that terminated the ‘escuelas normales’ as teacher training centers for those seeking a high school-level teaching certificate to teach in primary schools (grades 1-6). Since 2016, all primary school teachers must have a college degree and a teaching license provided by UPNFM, the only institution in the country providing teacher certifications.

FSU’s main role in this project is to collaborate with the UPNFM and to provide technical assistance to better integrate educational standards and evidence-based teaching practices applied to both pre and in-service teacher training programs. FSU will support UPNFM faculty teaching ‘lectoescritura’ (reading and writing) courses to close the gap left by the reform, and provide professional development focused on early grade reading instruction at the university level. For this purpose, we developed a series of data collection tools to assess the current situation and readiness of UPNFM faculty, administrators and students to effectively embrace the new policies and impart evidence-based teaching practices aligned with current efforts to reform policies, especially in the development and implementation of academic standards and formative assessments.

A team of researchers at the Learning Systems Institute at FSU conducted a baseline assessment in September 2018 to examine the current state of pre-service teacher education provided by UPNFM. We conducted a mixed-methods baseline assessment of how [lectoescritura] is being taught at the pre-service level, examining administrative structures, teaching methods, and specific strengths and constraints in the context of the UPNFM in Tegucigalpa as well as in its Regional Centers in Gracias, Lempira; Santa Barbara; La Ceiba; and San Pedro Sula. We observed classrooms at UPNFM and at primary schools in Honduras; administered 134 surveys, 16 key-informant interviews, and facilitated 13 focus groups with university faculty, administrators, and students to better understand the context of reading and writing instruction in the Basic Education and Spanish Language Programs at the Universidad Pedagógica Nacional Francisco Morazán in Honduras.

In 2019, FSU will welcome a group of five visitors from Honduras to the FSU campus in Tallahassee. UPNFM faculty and government representatives will engage in a two-week study tour to collaborate with and learn from FSU faculty involved in research and teaching related to early grade reading instruction. The study tour will serve as the basis for continuous collaboration between FSU and UPNFM to support preservice teacher education efforts to improve basic education in Honduras.

LSI/FSU Team: