MCSIE

Photo credit: RTI International/All Children Reading Cambodia

Donor: USAID • Partner: Purdue University Timeframe: Aug. 2019 – May 2024

Multi-Country Study on Inclusive Education (MCSIE)

IDP is conducting a three-year evaluation of USAID inclusive education activities in Cambodia, Malawi, and Nepal through the USAID-funded Long-Term Assistance and Services for Research (LASER) mechanism led by Purdue University. Our evaluation, the Multi-Country Study on Inclusive Education (MCSIE), is the first major effort by USAID to investigate what works to improve the quality of education for learners with disabilities. The activities in Cambodia, Malawi, and Nepal represent USAID’s most concerted effort to date to build systems to ensure students with disabilities have access to quality education. We are leveraging this unique opportunity to derive lessons learned about what works to sustainably advance teaching and learning outcomes for children with disabilities in varying contexts. USAID and its partners will use this information to inform adaptations to its activities in Cambodia, Malawi, and Nepal and to plan for new inclusive education programming globally. To further advance the global evidence base, we also will produce targeted policy briefs and how-to guides following the evaluation and will share these and the evaluation results via USAID’s Office of Education website—Education Links—and at global conferences, through journal publications, and through other means.

Project Highlights

  • Conducting country-specific and comparative (multi-country) literature and policy reviews around the situation of disability-inclusive education
  • Producing detailed evaluation reports identifying strengths and areas of opportunity related to inclusive literacy instruction, screening and identification of children with disabilities, and teacher training in each country 
  • Using evaluation methodologies that include key informant interviews and focus group discussions with implementing partners, disabled persons’ organizations, national and subnational government stakeholders, classroom teachers, principals, and parents; household surveys of parents of children with disabilities; secondary source document review and rubric analysis; and training and classroom observations.
  • Implementing a comparative case study methodology to dig deeply on qualitative factors supporting or hindering access to and learning in inclusive instructional settings.
  • Mapping areas of intervention to include existing systems and actors engaged in disability inclusion in each country.

Project Resources