Local Education Expert for the School Infrastructure Multi-Activity Evaluation, Jordan/Monitoring, Evaluation, and Learning Activity

BACKGROUND

Due to rapid population growth, the influx of Syrian and other refugees, and economic constraints that have caused a migration of students from private to public schools, Jordanian public schools have been strained by overcrowding in recent decades. While there is near universal enrollment in the school at the primary level, public schools do not have sufficient capacity to safely accommodate all students, and access is particularly limited for students with disabilities. Over 720 schools currently operate double shifts in order to accommodate students, while many others operate with classrooms sizes beyond their intended capacity. The Ministry of Education (MoE) also operates 777 schools in rented buildings that are often not designed to accommodate all learners. Both academic and non-academic learning outcomes across Jordanian public schools are affected by challenges in access to safe and engaging learning environments, with high rates of violence in schools and low performance in literacy and numeracy from Kindergarten through the upper grades.  The Government of Jordan (GOJ) estimates that it will require approximately 600 new schools over the next decade to meet demand.

In response to the MoE efforts to increase access to schools as well as enhance the learning environment, USAID/Jordan launched infrastructure activities beginning in 2006 with the four-year Jordan School Construction and Rehabilitation Project (JSP) and continued in 2014 with the six-year Jordan School Expansion Program (JSEP), followed in 2015 by the five-year Schools for a Knowledge Economy Program (SKEP). The primary focus of these activities has been to reduce overcrowding in public schools, replace rented and double-shifted schools and provide a safe and more suitable school environment to respond to the needs of the MOE’s reform efforts.

As USAID’s school infrastructure activities continues to develop, USAID/Jordan requires an external evaluation of three of its different school infrastructure activities. This external evaluation will inform the design of new schools and determine how USAID’s school infrastructure has affected students and communities.

Jordanian public schools have been strained by overcrowding in recent decades due to rapid population growth, an influx of refugees, and economic constraints. In response to The Ministry of Education’s (MoE) efforts to increase access to schools as well as enhance the learning environment, USAID/Jordan has made significant investments in school infrastructure in recent years and is planning to build additional schools over the next five years as part of a new program that aims to reduce overcrowding in public schools and provide a safe and more suitable school environment to respond to the needs of the Ministry of Education’s reform efforts. 

Activity Overview

In addition to increasing access to schools and easing overcrowding, USAID’s infrastructure investments anticipated that the enhanced learning environments would also impact student learning outcomes. This hypothesis was somewhat explored through the JSP evaluation as well as the EDY School Construction Assessment, which sought to study changes in student and teacher attitude and behavior, but challenges in data availability limited an examination of whether academic learning outcomes differed between USAID-built and neighboring schools. With the benefit of ESMP as well as data collected at the school level by USAID’s current Reading and Math Program (RAMP), this evaluation can reexamine the question related to academic and non-academic learning outcomes. It will study JSP, JSEP, and SKEP schools along with neighboring schools to consider whether there is any variation in among other things:

• Grade repetition rates
• Student scores in core subjects
• Violence and bullying in schools
• School vandalism
• Staff attitude or performance in schools

To that end, the Jordan Monitoring, Evaluation, and Learning Activity is recruiting for a Local Education Expert to assess the Learning outcomes describing what students demonstrate in terms of knowledge, skills, and values upon completion as a result of the school construction multi activity program, that will serve as the foundation of effectiveness of the learning process. In addition, he/she will also collect data from field with a locally hired monitoring and evaluation organization (LMO) to assess the changes as a result of improved/rehabilitated school infrastructure.

The Education expert will work closely with the Data Analyst and Team Lead (TL) defining what are the key learning outcomes that can be measured based on the collected data on the schools and the ministry level, these outcomes will be compared between the USAID constructed schools, and non-USAID schools including some donors’ contributions and projects in the education system. such data is related but not limited to:

• Grade repetition rates
• Student scores in core subjects
• Violence and bullying in schools
• School vandalism
• Staff attitude or performance in schools
• Dropouts rates
• Gender disaggregated data

Local Education Expert

Purpose

The objective of this assignment is to provide technical expertise, leadership and coordination in accessing data sources, data collection, analysis of the data provided by the data analyst in terms of the core education outcomes defined. In addition, technical assistance in designing the data collection tools and analysis to inform the evaluation design to examine how the school construction and expansion affected students in JSP, JSEP, and SKEP schools and their neighboring schools, and will consider, among other things – but not limited to:

• Overcrowding at the school and classroom level
• Student dropout rates and attendance rate for students and teachers
• Enrollment of students with disabilities and gender and children with learning difficulties
• School violence

• Engagement in extracurricular activities.

• Staff attitude or performance in schools
• Social accountability
• Use and usability of infrastructure constructed or rehabilitated  

Under this Scope of Work, the selected candidate shall perform, but not be limited to, the following tasks:

1. Coordinate with the Data Analyst on the core learning outcomes and the data collection methods under the guidance of the evaluation Team leader.
2. Should have a good grasp of all the factors affecting the learning outcomes and be able to identify potential learning outcomes attributed to the school construction multi activity program.
3. Closely work with Subject Matter Expert (SME) to design data collection tools/instrument to collect data on use and usability of infrastructure.
4. Conduct key informant interviews, conduct focus group discussions, and surveys with the LMO that would take the lead of field data collection
5. Provide technical analysis, information, and guidance during all phases of the assignment.
6. Assist in completing all deliverables as described in the scope of work including inception report, data collection instruments, data analysis and final reports.
7. Assist in the Evaluation design process
8. Contribute to the inception report
9. Contribute to the final evaluation report (findings, conclusions and recommendations)
10.  Work closely with MOE to access data and coordinate to create understanding with available data.
11. Participate in the kickoff and bi-weekly meetings with the USAID

Deliverables

1. A work plan documenting tasks, time and deliverables. A standard Work Plan template will be provided by the USAID Monitoring, Evaluation, and Learning Activity team.
2. Contribution in the development of Inception report and data collection tools   
3. Conducting focus group discussions (FGDS) and key informant interviews (KII) to collect qualitative data under use and usability of infrastructure to support LMO
4. Report with preliminary findings in English and presentation
5. Final report to be part of the final evaluation report in English

Qualification Requirements

The Organization shall mobilize experts that bring the following minimum qualifications to be considered for this consultancy:

• A university degree in the field of education, public administration, economics or equivalent
• At least 10 years of working experience in national education sector preferably student learning outcomes and education programs/project focusing development of educational standards, curricula development and infrastructure improvement.
• Possess excellent communication, analytical and writing skills
• Fluent in English and Arabic both oral and written:

• At least 6 years of experience in projects, which supported the development of educational standards, curricula development.
• Work experience in development of manuals / guidelines would be an asset

Duty station

Will be stationed in Amman and possible travels to other governorates for data collection.

At The Kaizen Company, we find strength in our diversity. We are committed to creating and sustaining an inclusive working environment in which everyone has an equal opportunity to fulfill their potential. We know that we can only do development differently if we are open to and inclusive of new and unique perspectives. We encourage candidates of all abilities, ages, gender identities and expressions, national origins, races and ethnicities, religious beliefs, and sexual orientations to apply. Further, we urge parents and non-parents, married and unmarried, those from different or non-traditional educational backgrounds, and persons of all other diverse identities or experiences to apply. The Kaizen Company is an equal opportunity employer.