Using Data to Power “Teaching at the Right Level” in Ethiopia
Ethiopia is scaling the data-driven Teaching at the Right Level (TaRL) model, with HISP Ethiopia strengthening education data systems to help educators identify learning gaps and improve student outcomes.
Ethiopia faces a significant challenge with learning poverty, where a high percentage of children are not developing foundational literacy and numeracy skills. To combat this, UNICEF, in collaboration with the Ministry of Education and the Regional Education Bureaus (REB), is implementing and scaling the Teaching at the Right Level (TaRL) model.
TaRL is an innovative accelerated learning approach designed to improve reading and math outcomes. A core component of its methodology is in-class assessment to determine each learner’s individual capacity, allowing teachers to instruct them at their specific level, rather than just by their grade.
This targeted approach is fundamentally data-driven, and its success depends entirely on effective measurement and monitoring—tracking both student progress (through assessment data) and instructor performance.
This is where HISP Ethiopia provides critical technical assistance. Our work is to build and strengthen this data foundation to ensure the TaRL programme succeeds. We will support the Ministry, REB, schools, UNICEF, and other key partners by enhancing how educational data is collected, analyzed, visualized, and used for decision making at every level.
Key activities to support the TaRL implementation include:
- Supporting documentation for data management guidelines and strategies.
- Developing robust tools to collect accurate and timely data on learning outcomes, student attendance, and other key indicators.
- Building the capacity of teachers, school staff, and local education authorities to analyze this data and transform it into actionable insights.
- Creating user-friendly dashboards to visualize progress, helping schools and woredas (districts) to quickly identify which students need intervention and determine how to allocate resources most effectively.
By fostering a culture of evidence-based planning and ensuring these local data systems are linked with the Ministry’s national education management information system enterprise application, this project will provide the tools to measure the TaRL model’s impact, ensure accountability, and ultimately help improve learning outcomes for children in Ethiopia.
