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College for a Day: Preparing Adult Learners for Postsecondary Education and Training
This project aims to increase the aspirations and readiness of adult learners studying in Boston's Adult Basic, Secondary (GED or diploma) or English for Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL) programs for postsecondary education and training. The College for a Day project has three components: 1) Pre-workshops and assessment; 2) The College for a Day event; 3) post-workshop and assessment. College for a Day! will enhance the programs' ability to provide adult learners meaningful exposure to the college environment in a way that is more cost-effective and educational than what individual programs can do on their own.
World Education's National College Transition Network (NCTN) will work closely with at least 10 Boston adult education programs and 3 postsecondary institutions. The initiative is funded by State Street Foundation.
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College for Adults Project
College for Adults is designed to help adults prepare for college on their own or as a supplement to classroom-based instruction through a free web-based resource. World Education is redesigning the existing website to make it more user-friendly for English language learners and to have more features to assist adults in their studies. We are working in partnership with three adult ESOL providers and their students to make sure the site is comprehensive and user-friendly for first-generation college students and English language learners. The site will also be part of the national Learner Web project. In this development and beta testing phase the project will focus on Massachusetts, but later will serve a national audience of adult learners. College for Adults is funded in part by the Verizon Foundation.
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Equipped for the Future (EFF)
Equipped for the Future (EFF) is a national standards-based initiative led by the Center for Literacy Studies at the University of Tennessee to reform the adult learning system so that it does a better job of preparing adults to meet their goals as workers, family members, and community members. The New England Literacy Resource Center (NELRC)/World Education has been involved in the development and dissemination of this effort since its inception over ten years ago. NELRC has provided technical assistance and professional development in over a dozen states and at numerous national conferences in areas such as the development and rollout of EFF-based standards and the development of complementary curriculum frameworks for instructors.
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Health and Literacy Special Collection
(2003 - 2004)
Health literacy is the ability to read, understand, and act on health care information. Studies estimate that almost half of American adults do not have the skills to meet their needs for health care information. The Health & Literacy Special Collection is a Web-based resource developed by World Education for adult educators and health educators who are trying to bring clear and easy-to-read health information to low literate populations. It contains health curricula for literacy or ESOL classes, links to health information in plain English and languages other than English, and information about health literacy.
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Improving the Postsecondary Success of Young Adults
The purpose of the project is to lay the groundwork for maximizing the potential of the Adult Basic Education system to improve the college readiness, enrollment, persistence, and completion rates of young adults. World Education's National College Transition Network (NCTN) is preparing profiles of policy and practice in 10 states that are working in innovative ways to bridge the ABE/GED delivery system(s) with postsecondary education. The NCTN is also developing policy recommendations to foundations (including the Gates Foundation) on the highest leverage and scalable systems impact opportunities to leverage GED/ABE for PSE success, with an emphasis on system reform, particularly in states of interest to the Gates Foundation.
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LINCS Region 1 Resource Center
The National Institute for Literacy funds three LINCS Regional Resource Centers whose purpose is to disseminate highest-quality resources through partnerships with adult education and related organizations to help practitioners use evidence-based instructional practices that improve outcomes in adult learners' literacy skills. The Centers organize training and workshops based on Institute-developed materials, as well as provide assistance in using online instructional resources provided through LINCS. World Education and the Ohio Literacy Resource Center are partnering to administer the Region 1 Resource Center.
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Managing Stress to Improve Learning
The current economic crisis has exacerbated the already long list of stressors and negative life events that low-income adults bring with them to adult literacy programs, and that affect their ability to learn. This project trains adult educators how to mitigate effects of stress and trauma on learning using strategies from expressive art therapy, without crossing the boundary to therapy. This project will benefit directly at least six non-profit adult learning centers and their students in Boston and northern New England. It presents an opportunity to open a constructive dialogue in the adult literacy field about the importance of attending to adult learners' readiness to learn.
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Massachusetts Adult Literacy Hotline
The Massachusetts Adult Literacy Hotline is a statewide information and referral service that connects adult learners and volunteers to local programs. These programs provide instruction in basic reading, writing, and math; GED and Adult Diploma preparation; and English for Speakers of Other Languages. The hotline database includes information on 300 programs around the state. People interested in enrolling in a class or volunteering in a program can reach a live operator at 1-800-447-8844 or search online at www.sabes.org/hotline
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National Center for the Study of Adult Learning and Literacy (NCSALL)
(2004 - 2005)
The quality of educational services that adult learners receive can be positively affected by making sure that teachers and other practitioners use research results to improve their practice. The goal of NCSALL was to improve the quality of practice in adult basic education programs nationwide through basic and applied research. NCSALL worked to build partnerships between researchers and adult literacy practitioners and to inform adult literacy policy through dissemination of research results. NCSALL was a partnership between World Education and Harvard Graduate School of Education, Portland State University, Rutgers University, and Center for Literacy Studies at The University of Tennessee, and was funded by the U.S. Department of Education's Institute of Education Sciences. World Education's role within NCSALL was to connect practice, policy and research through the development and dissemination of accessible and high-quality publications and integration of research results with professional development for ABE teachers. World Education has been responsible for two major research studies under NCSALL: research on effective staff development approaches and on the application of multiple intelligences theory to adult literacy instruction.
The research publications, Focus on Basics, training and teaching resources, and other materials continue to be available on the NCSALL website. All funding for NCSALL ended on July 31, 2007.
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National College Transition Network
(2009 - 2009)
College graduates can earn nearly double the wages of high school graduates and GED recipients. This income gap will increase in the coming years. In order for many adult literacy program graduates to succeed in postsecondary education, they need additional academic preparation and counseling. The National College Transition Network (NCTN) responds to this need by providing original publications, online resources and technical assistance to the adult education community. NCTN's growing membership spans the United States and a range of institutions representing schools systems, colleges, prisons, community-based organizations, and workplaces.
The network is funded by Carl and Ruth Shapiro Family Foundation.
Read more in the World Education Feature Story: Transition-to-College Program Transforms Lives.
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New England Learner Persistence Project
(2007 - 2010)
The goal of this project is to improve adult learner persistence and outcomes in order for adult learners to meet their educational and related life goals, and to strengthen workforce development in the New England region. The specific objective is to make measurable improvements in persistence for adult learners participating in 18 adult education programs in five New England states, as measured by increases in attendance in class and/or self-study during stop-out periods, academic progress and the rate of attainment of educational goals. The lessons learned and practices adapted through action research are being disseminated through the NELRC website, articles and presentations, including a training of trainers for professional development providers.
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New England Literacy Resource Center (NELRC)
World Education has coordinated the New England Literacy Resource Center (NELRC) since 1993. Building individuals 'and organizations' capacity to provide high-quality adult education services is the mission of New England Literacy Resource Center.
NELRC has worked to advance its mission in collaboration with adult education professional development providers, practitioners, researchers and policy makers in Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island and Vermont. NELRC brings added value to the adult education community in areas where regional approaches can make the most difference and where individual member states have fewer resources. NELRC
- initiates and promotes collaborations across states through projects such as the New England ABE-to-College Transition Project ;
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develops projects and generates knowledge in collaboration with educators to improve practice through studies such as the Adult Multiple Intelligences Study and New England Learner PersistenceProject;
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produces practical, state-of-the-art publications through documenting promising practices, writing books for practitioners and publishing the biannual Change Agent journal focused on bringing social justice issues to adult education; and
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coordinates and manages projects for funders through consultations and long-term partnerships, such as serving as an intermediary for the Nellie Mae Education Foundation and as the technical assistance provider for the Hyams Foundation.
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ProfessionalStudiesAE.org
ProfessionalStudiesAE.org is a portal for online professional development in adult education and literacy. Explore evidence-based practices that practitioners can use in their work with adult learners. Through the site, ProLiteracy and World Education offer high quality training on... - Adult Development
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Adult Multiple Intelligences
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College Transitions
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Engaging Students in Learning
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ESOL and Technology
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GED Impact
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Health Literacy
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Numeracy and Mathematics
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Reading
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Serving Young Adults
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Student Assessment
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Student Persistence
World Education's Online Professional Development courses can be found at: http://professionalstudiesae.worlded.org/index.html
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SABES Literacy Library
World Education supports the work of the System for Adult Basic Education Support (SABES) Literacy Library by providing technical services, reference services, and outreach, and participating in ongoing planning and evaluation. The library is located at the Adult Literacy Resource Institute at the University of Massachusetts Boston and serves adult basic education practitioners throughout the state.
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System for Adult Basic Education Support (SABES)
Based on New Skills for a New Economy (Massachusetts Institute for a New Commonwealth, 2001), 1.1 million Massachusetts adults are not prepared for the 21st Century skills needed in today's economy. This group includes 195,000 immigrants with limited English language skills, 280,000 high school dropouts, and 667,000 high school graduates with limited skills.
Adults with limited literacy skills are served by more than 300 Massachusetts adult basic education programs. The System for Adult Basic Education Support (SABES), funded by the Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education, is a statewide training and technical assistance initiative serving adult literacy programs and staff. World Education is the SABES Central Resource Center and works with five Regional Support Centers housed in community colleges and the University of Massachusetts/Boston to strengthen adult literacy services. SABES provides comprehensive professional and organizational development activities including workshops, mini-courses, institutes, mentoring, study circles, publications, and more.
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Teacher to Teacher: Exploring Math
( - )
Teacher to Teacher: Exploring Math is the key project in the SABES Adult Basic Education (ABE) Math Initiative. Through the Initiative, SABES expects to improve mathematics instruction for the state's most economically vulnerable community members by providing a venue for teachers to learn more about mathematics and math instruction. Teachers meet in regional groups around Massachusetts; groups are facilitated by math practitioner leaders supported by SABES staff.
Picture teachers working within a small group of fellow practitioners as they puzzle over a math problem. As they discuss solution methods, they unveil the mathematics embedded in the problem. They think about the different ways their students might perceive the problem. Then they discuss ways to help their students access the mathematics, whether with diagrams, manipulatives, or with calculation algorithms. They may devise some sample lessons that touch on the mathematical concepts uncovered and then try these out in their classrooms. The next time they meet, they share what happened. All the while, they focus on what students know, how they approached problems, and what they need from their teachers in order to better understand and utilize the mathematics. The group facilitators, meanwhile, may research literature to find out what experts have to say about the math topic, methods of instruction, or cognitive development. As the teachers' understanding deepens, classroom practice changes. Discussions become more lively, assistance even more professional. Teachers find it easier to help students learn not for one test, but for all time. This is the ultimate goal of the Teacher to Teacher: Exploring Math project.
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Transitions to College and Careers (TCC)
Adult education in New England has received another boost through the launching of the Transition to College and Careers pilot project. Designed by the New England Literacy Resource Center (NELRC) at World Education, the TCC is a career pathways model to help adults with limited education enter and succeed in college programs that prepare them for occupations in high-growth fields, enabling them to earn family sustaining wages and help to reduce critical staffing shortages. Six pilot sites in five states were funded by the Nellie Mae Education Foundation through a competitive process managed by NELRC: - Community Education Project, Holyoke, MA, in partnership with Holyoke Community College
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Lewiston Adult Education, Lewiston, ME, in partnership with Central Maine Community College, Central Maine Medical Center College, and University of Southern Maine
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Marshwood Adult Education, South Berwick, ME. In partnership with Great Bay Community College (NH), York County Community College (ME)
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North Shore Community Action Programs, Inc, Peabody, MA in partnership with North Shore Community College
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The Tutorial Center, Inc., Bennington, VT, in partnership with the Community College of Vermont and Vermont Adult Learning in Burlington
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Vernon Regional Adult Basic Education, Vernon, CT, in partnership with Manchester Community College
Beginning in January 2009, adults learn core academic and college readiness skills and participate in educational counseling and career planning. Most of the participating adults pursue a career in health care, such as radiology and cardiovascular technicians, occupational therapists, dental hygienists, and nurses. In addition to the classroom based instruction, they participate in an online course on health science developed by World Education. They will be able to provide better for their families while helping to reduce critical staff shortages.
For more information, visit www.nelrc.org and www.collegetransition.org
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Voter Education, Registration and Action (VERA) campaign
The elections provide many teachable moments and raise critically important conversations in the classroom about democracy and civic engagement. VERA is a non-partisan effort aimed at adult learners and literacy program staff in the New England states. The goal is to educate adult learners about voting and elections, and mobilize them to vote in the 2008 elections. Over 13,000 adult learners from the six New England states are participating in VERA. The participating learning centers receive complimentary copies of Democracy in Action issue of NELRC's Change Agent magazine that contains readings and classroom activities to build academic skills, such as reading comprehension, critical thinking, math, civics and social studies.
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A Quality Approach to Mainstreaming Best Practicies
Since 2002, World Education has worked in Prey Veng Province to develop and implement interventions that aim to increase educational access and retention of vulnerable girls, children and youth aged six to 17 in quality education programs through the EPSSEG and OPTIONS Programs. After five years, evaluations of these programs have concluded that OPTIONS has developed effective models that have the potential for replication on a larger scale and can be sustained through the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports (MoEYS) funds. Through the support of UNICEF, World Education is currently focusing on larger scale replication with the aim to mainstream its more effective education interventions under the national Child Friendly School framework and the national Education for All strategy.
The program's four main objectives are to: mainstream a gender-sensitive response; mainstream a holistic approach to developing and implementing local life skills programs; establish a MoEYS coordinated and managed community-based livelihood development model for out-of-school youth; and lastly, to retain at-risk girls and children in need of special protection in upper primary and lower secondary school through scholarship support.
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Empowering Cocoa Households with Opportunities and Education Solutions (ECHOES)
Low literacy and numeracy skills impede farmers' abilities to efficiently manage production and loans, negotiate agreements, understand the business aspects of cocoa farming, apply new technologies to increase crop yields, and understand costing and pricing calculations. The ECHOES initiative aims to strengthen cocoa growing communities in Western Ghana by expanding opportunities for youth and adults through relevant education.
ECHOES is implemented in collaboration with the International Foundation for Education and Self Help, Winrock International, and Leadership Africa USA.
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Faisons Ensemble
Faisons Ensemble, a 31-month project funded by USAID/Guinea, focuses on improving basic services in health, education, agriculture, and natural resource management through better governance practices. The project targets communities in Upper Guinea, Forest Guinea, and the five communes of Conakry.
The goal of Faisons Ensemble is to increase citizen access to better services in the health, education, agriculture, and natural resources sectors, with the aim of improving living conditions for Guineans. Faisons Ensemble will recruit and work with "champions" within local government, civil society, and the media, to provide capacity building, technical, and financial support for groups that promote good governance practices.
The project has four main objectives:
1. Improved effectiveness of government institutions and decentralization and local service delivery
2. Greater visibility and effectiveness of anti-corruption efforts
3. Increased capacity and effectiveness of civil society, working through strong CSOs and CBOs that are well managed and participate, demand accountability and transparency in service delivery, and advocate for good governance.
4. Increased citizen access to more diverse sources and types of information.
World Education is responsible for managing the third and fourth components of Faisons Ensemble, which focus on the capacity and effectiveness of civil society for improved civic participation and advocacy, and citizen access to information - as well as cross-cutting adult literacy, youth engagement, and gender. World Education also oversees overall grants management of the project, ensuring that targeted champions at community, regional, and national level receive the full financial support required to advance innovations in good governance.
World Education collaborates with five other U.S. non-governmental organizations (NGO) and two Guinean NGOs in the Faisons Ensemble consortium led by the Research Triangle Institute.
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Global Alliance for Illumination in Education in Mali
(2004 - 2007)
Across Mali, adult literacy classes have formed at the request of parents mobilized to advocate schooling for their children. Due to lack of electricity, these adults meet at night in dark classrooms, huddled around a few oil lamps and flashlights. They struggle to see the textbooks and learning materials provided for them. In this exciting initiative, Global Alliance for Illumination for Education, World Education partnered with Design that Matters (DtM) to develop a program focusing on a low-cost, battery-powered projector to be used in dark classrooms. The projector was designed by a team from DtM and named Kinkajou after a nocturnal animal with exceptional nighttime vision. It combines cutting edge light emitting diode (LED) technology with durable microfilm. Literacy lesson material provided by World Education was converted to microfilm stored on reels and inserted in the sturdy projector. The project, funded by USAID, had three main objectives. The first was to increase access to adult literacy by increasing the capacity of educators to teach at night. A secondary objective was to enhance motivation and learning via the use of new educational technology appropriate to developing countries. Thirdly, the project modeled a process that shifts the manufacture of new technologies to local manufacturers.
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Mali Girls' and Women's Literacy Pilot
World Education's past experience demonstrates that female-only literacy classes ensure greater participation of women, especially when taught by women using materials and methods specifically targeted for their use. Women teaching women is a successful strategy: women feel more at ease with teachers of their own gender, especially when discussing sensitive issues like reproductive health, female genital cutting, and domestic violence. Furthermore, husbands and fathers, particularly in conservative Muslim countries, are more likely to permit their wives and daughters to participate in women-only classes. Unfortunately with few literate women in rural communities, and the disinclination of husbands and fathers to allow their wives and daughters to teach, providing classes and recruiting women teachers is difficult.
In Mali, World Education developed mother/daughter classes taught by women. Appropriate measures were taken in the community to address the concerns of husbands and fathers with the hope that this pilot would pave the way for better recruitment and retention of women teachers. The idea of linking girls and their mothers encouraged older women to share local knowledge with young women in their communities. The target result was an integrated literacy program in which women teach other women and adolescent girls to read, write, and do math while learning about good health and nutrition, and promoting an exchange between mothers and girls. Working in partnership with a local NGO, World Education tested the project in 12 classrooms of 30, reaching a total of 360 women/girls. This project was made possible through the generosity of a private donor.
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OPTIONS: Combating Child Trafficking and Exploitation through Education
(2003 - 2007)
Cambodia serves as a country of origin, transit, and destination for both domestic and international trafficking networks. A recent report estimates that 30% of commercial sex workers in Cambodia are under 18 years of age. These girls and women are easy targets for traffickers, unaware of the dangers that lurk behind promises of good employment. They are a living testimony to the link between lack of education and vulnerability. The OPTIONS program was implemented from 2004-2007 with the goal of reducing the number of children, especially girls, who fall victim to trafficking and exploitation. The immediate objective was to ensure that children, especially girls, removed from or at risk of trafficking and exploitation were educated in programs relevant to their needs. OPTIONS worked closely with community networks to identify children who are at risk and provided them with support in formal and nonformal interventions appropriate to their individual needs. Building on the skills of four major partners - World Education, CARE International, The Asia Foundation, and Kampuchean Action for Primary Education - OPTIONS worked in three provinces: Prey Veng, Kompong Cham, Banteay Meanchey, and certain areas of Phnom Penh. The OPTIONS program was funded by the U.S. Department of Labor with additional support from the McKnight Foundation and UNICEF.
Read the following success story about the program: Using Education to Combat Child Trafficking in Cambodia
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Support to Health, Institution Building, Education and Leadership in Policy Dialogue (SHIELD)
Approximately 130,000 refugees from Burma live in refugee camps along the Thai-Burma border, and well over 400,000 live unofficially in Thai communities along the border. Some of the refugees have lived along the border for a decade or more, and have seen whole generations of children grow in the camp environment. The refugees wish to educate their children in the camp setting, so that some day they may return to Burma and actively partake in its transformation. Unfortunately, their resources for education activities are extremely limited.
World Education, working with the International Rescue Committee and funded by a grant from USAID, initiates projects to increase access to and quality of education for Burmese refugees and migrants in Thailand. World Education trains refugee teachers and school administrators, and works on curriculum development, special education, adult literacy, and materials development and production. To assist refugees and displaced people living outside of the refugee camps in Thai villages, and to the Thai villagers who host them, World Education also provides targeted education support to several Thai communities along the Thai-Burma border. All work is carried out in cooperation with other NGOs working along the border to ensure sustainability and effectiveness of the training efforts, and to create a sustainable education system that can be quickly adapted when the refugees return to Burma.
Read more in the World Ed Feature Stories: Training Refugee Teachers on the Thai-Burma Border.
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Providing Special Education to Burmese Refugees
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Using Educational Television to Promote School Readiness in Cambodia
There is a growing global recognition of the importance of early childhood education. In Cambodia, however, most children's access to quality early education remains extremely limited, and the most socio-economically disadvantaged children come to school the least equipped with the necessary competencies. Studies have shown that high-quality educational television shows, such as Sesame Street can help pre-school aged children gain certain cognitive and socio-emotional competencies. In addition, research has suggested that from watching educational children's shows, teachers and parents change their attitudes and practices around fostering young children's learning. In Cambodia, where television is now ubiquitous even among the most disadvantaged, television is an overlooked early education opportunity for children.
World Education, the Educational Television Corporation (ETC), and WGBH-TV have adapted the US educational TV series, Peep and the Big Wide World, for Cambodian broadcast. Peep is the first curriculum-based, locally adapted television program which targets Cambodia's preschoolers (children aged 3 to 8). Each half-hour episode of Peep contains two animated stories in which the characters explore a phenomenon in the world around them, such as water, light, or gravity. Following each animated segment is a short film featuring Cambodian children and parents investigating the same phenomenon at home or in their community.
Peep models inquiry, nurtures curiosity, and encourages discovery learning. The humor of the show appeals to adults and it models concrete examples of how they can help their children engage in hands-on learning. Peep is broadcast nationally on one of the most frequently watched stations in rural Cambodia.
Peep was selected by the Ministry of Education and Youth Sports, the National Advisory Group for Children's Educational Television, and World Education to be adapted for Cambodian children because of the alignment between Peep's curriculum and the National Learning Standards for Children Aged 5 and 6. In addition, accompanying materials are being developed with the Ministry for use by community Parent Educators in nationwide parenting interventions. In this way, the TV show and the support materials are tools in Cambodia's efforts to promote the school readiness of young children.
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Women's Literacy and Livelihoods Pilot
It is estimated that 81% of women in Guinea are illiterate, with the highest concentration of illiteracy in rural areas. The impact of these high illiteracy rates, particularly in Guinea's rural areas, is felt in numerous sectors including education, health, natural resource management and throughout the local economy. Rural women are particularly affected by illiteracy, which, combined with the lack of access to microcredit serves to deepen their vulnerability and marginalization. Approximately 70 to 80% of rural women in Guinea suffer serious financial difficulties and have no access to credit.
World Education's Women's Literacy and Livelihoods Project is a 14-month pilot designed to improve the well-being of rural Guinean women and their families through increased access to basic literacy and the promotion of sustainable livelihoods. The pilot integrates lessons learned from years of experience in Africa and Asia working with community-based organizations to create innovative tools and strategies that address critical needs for functional literacy and microenterprise.
Working with 10 women's groups in the Mamou region, the project aims to develop women's basic skills in literacy and livelihoods. Functional literacy training is held local-languages and integrates sustainable livelihoods and includes practical exercises, allowing participants to immediately use mathematics and microfinance skills learned in literacy sessions. To complement literacy training, women receive additional skill-training in locally relevant income generating activities and gain access to microcredit funds.
The pilot encourages sustainability by strengthening women's groups to manage literacy activities, sustain small savings programs and provide ongoing assistance to their members. As with many of World Education's programs, women receive cross-cutting training on HIV and AIDS and its impact on livelihoods and development.
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