Literacy is a fundamental skill that serves as the foundation for an individual’s future learning and, collectively, for a country’s social and economic development.
The USAID Latin America and Caribbean Reads Capacity Program (LRCP) aims to increase the impact, scale, and sustainability of early grade reading interventions in the Latin American and Caribbean (LAC) region through the development of state-of-the-art knowledge resources. It provides technical assistance to host country governments and other selected key stakeholders, and enhances their efforts to boost early grade reading outcomes, particularly for disadvantaged children.
The program will create a self-sustaining network of skilled early-grade reading specialists and informed education sector actors at universities, Ministries of Education, NGOs, and community organizations. These actors will be part of a community of practice whose members remain connected to one another and actively use evidence to inform policy decisions and to implement approaches and actions to improve early grade reading in the LAC region.
In order to achieve this, AIR and its partners will collect, synthesize, and disseminate high-quality research on early grade reading. In addition, a major focus of the team will be working with stakeholders to gauge needs and demand and then develop and provide demand-driven technical assistance to build the capacity of the region’s Ministries of Education.
USAID expects that the program activities will have led to the demonstrable achievement of the following four results:
- Collect, consolidate, and systematize evidence on early grade reading for practical use by LAC region stakeholders
- Actively disseminate up-to-date knowledge about early-grade reading to targeted audiences and stakeholders
- Expand institutional capacity to implement proven approaches for improving early-grade reading outcomes for poor and disadvantaged children.
- Continue and strengthen sustainable platforms to improve early grade reading in priority LAC countries.
AIR's five-year LRCP program in partnership with Juárez & Associates and local organizations across the LAC region has been extended through 2022.
Related Resources
Marco introductorio: ¿Cómo se está formando al cuerpo docente centroamericano para enseñar la lectoescritura inicial? Aportes de una investigación regional a partir de cinco estudios de caso
(Introductory framework: How is the Central American teaching staff being trained to teach initial literacy? Regional research contributions from five case studies)
In collaboration with the Central America and Caribbean Early Literacy Network (RedLEI), AIR recently published this first-of-its-kind study in the Spanish language journal, Actualidades Investigativas en Educación, examining how pre-service teachers are trained to teach children to read at five Central American universities and whether the pre-service curricula align with the latest evidence.
Online webinar series on Emergency Remote Teaching launched in response to COVID-19
To view the webinar series on which these were based, in English, please visit the Open Education Resources Africa website.
In collaboration with the LRCP project, RedLEI completed a series of six online Spanish-language webinars on Emergency Remote Teaching (ERT) for higher education institutions in the LAC region. These sessions are intended to help teachers transition to a remote curriculum and ensure that learning continues during COVID-19. The series covers the following topics:
- Introduction to Emergency Remote Teaching ERT
- Curriculum selection and appropriate tools during ERT
- Communication and relationships during ERT
- Assessment and assessment tools for ERT
- Inclusivity during ERT
- ERT in practice
