USAID: Early Grade Education Activity in Jordan

The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) is seeking applications from qualified entities to implement a cooperative agreement for the Early Grade Education Activity.

Goal: The goal of the five-year Early Grade Education activity (the “Activity”) is to advance national efforts to strengthen the caliber of pre- and in-service teacher education and improve Kindergarten through Grade Three foundational and socio-emotional skills across the Kingdom of Jordan.

Result & Objectives

• Result 1: Improved quality of early grade pre-service education programs

  • Objective 1.1: Capacity of Universities to Deliver Effective Early Grade Pre-Service Teacher Education Programs Improved

  • Objective 1.2: Early Grade Pre-Service Curriculum and Teaching and Learning Materials Enhanced

  • Objective 1.3: Pre-Service Education Systems and Policies Improved

• Result 2: Strengthened quality of early grade student education

  • Objective 2.1: Early Grade Teacher In-Service Professional Development Strengthened

  • Objective 2.2: Early Grade MOE Curriculum and Teaching and Learning Materials Enhanced

  • Objective 2.3: Data Collection and Utilization Enhanced

  • Objective 2.4: Education Systems and Policies Improved

  • Objective 2.5: Communication and Community Engagement Strengthened.

Principles

• Characteristics of successful approaches are those that include the following guiding principles:

  • Gender-Sensitive and Inclusive Development Approaches: The activity should foster student-centered and inclusive early grade education, including through interdisciplinary approaches, differentiated instruction, and socioemotional and universal design learning principles.

  • Socio-Emotional Learning and School-Based Violence Prevention: Socio-Emotional Learning (SEL) and School-Based Violence (SBV) are performance issues.

  • Innovation: The activity should utilize research and international best practices to pilot and scale innovative, integrated, and inclusive student-centered initiatives that improve students learning outcomes and socio-emotional wellbeing (i.e. reimagining an integrated and child-centered early grade curriculum and integrated pedagogical knowledge content in early grade bachelors degree programs).

  • Return on Investment: The activity must prioritize interventions based on data-driven need and return on investment (i.e. focusing on foundational grade levels and competencies) within pre- and in-service training, curriculum development, and targeting (i.e. gender, socio-economic status, and geographical location).

  • Flexibility: The activity should incorporate flexibility and adaptive programming that changes in response to emerging evidence or strategic needs.

  • Coordination: The activity should coordinate with relevant stakeholders, including line ministries, universities, the private sector, CSB, and implementing partners to leverage gains, ensure complementarity of efforts, and avoid duplication of efforts.

  • Private Sector Engagement: The activity should engage the private sector to advance accessibility of TLM and timeliness and utility of data for policy and decision making.

  • Sustainability: This activity should ensure sustainability through working with and through GOJ systems and processes and continuously assessing whether existing structure and policies are still relevant, adequate, or efficient in achieving results.

Funding Information

• USAID intends to award one Cooperative Agreement pursuant to this notice of funding opportunity. Subject to funding availability and at the discretion of the Agency, USAID intends to provide up to $49,000,000 in total USAID funding over a five (5) year period.