WASHINGTON, D.C. — Results for Development (R4D) recently began serving as a network facilitator for a new learning exchange that supports education organizations to collaboratively generate and use evidence to drive better outcomes at the school, classroom, and learner levels.
With support from the Jacobs Foundation, the School Action Learning Exchange (SALEX) is a learning community of organizations that support schools, school leaders, and teachers by aggregating and sharing knowledge, building capacity and implementing promising practices in schools. Its diverse set of founding members, who work across six continents, include national NGOs, multilateral institutions, and organizations supporting teacher and school leader capacity, among others.
R4D led a consultative process to define an initial learning agenda for SALEX. This process yielded four topics of focus:
- Building evidence and data into school and policy decisions:Despite significant and rigorous evidence of promising practices and effective approaches in global education, this evidence is often not shared or integrated into school and policy-level decisions.
- Elevating and connecting teacher and school leader voices:Teachers and school leaders are at the heart of school-level change but they lack platforms to speak to one another and have their voices heard meaningfully in education policy.
- Integrating foundational skills and wellbeing, including alleviating setbacks from COVID-19: Teachers and schools should not only support learners’ fundamental skill building, but also help them flourish emotionally and socially.
- Testing and scaling teacher and school-driven innovations:Individual teachers and schools are developing unique approaches to address the challenges they face, but more could be done to better understand which innovations should be adapted and adopted across a wider range of schools and contexts.
SALEX members generate and aggregate knowledge on these topics through a range of different mechanisms, including topic-specific challenge groups. These challenge groups exchange resources, experiences and lessons learned, generate new knowledge and global public goods, and amplify existing learning. In addition, SALEX provides opportunities for members to receive catalytic funding to undergo rigorous, applied research that accelerates global understanding of these topics.
“SALEX members care deeply about creating and using knowledge to improve learning outcomes for all” said Laurel Schmitt, Senior Program Officer at R4D. “And they are equally committed to sharing and learning from each other in order to advance this aim.”
R4D is a globally recognized leader for designing and leading ecosystem-building initiatives that connect funders, experts and implementers across countries to build knowledge and get that knowledge into practice. R4D’s collaborative learning approach goes beyond static information-sharing between peers by providing a structured learning process in which practitioners set the agenda and technical priorities, and then co-develop solutions to their common challenges.
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About Results for Development
Results for Development (R4D) is a leading non-profit global development partner. We collaborate with change agents — government officials, civil society leaders and social innovators — supporting them as they navigate complex change processes to achieve large-scale, equitable outcomes in health, education and nutrition. We work with country leaders to diagnose challenges, co-create, innovate and implement solutions built on evidence and diverse stakeholder input, and engage in learning to adapt, iterate and improve. We also strengthen global, regional and country ecosystems to support country leaders with expertise, evidence, and innovations. R4D helps country leaders solve their immediate challenges today, while also strengthening systems and institutions to address tomorrow’s challenges. And we share what we learn so others around the world can achieve results for development too. www.R4D.org
