Improving Educational Quality (IEQ) Project

This paper combines the experiences of host country colleagues and U.S. education researchers to examine educational quality and the process of change. During the five years of the Improving Educational Quality (IEQ) 1 Project, education researchers worked collaboratively to examine issues related to quality in Ghana, Guatemala, Mali, South Africa, and Uganda. The principles which emerged from IEQ I formed the foundation for the current IEQ II Project in an expanded set of countries. The paper is intended to stimulate thinking and dialogue about what constitutes educational quality in particular contexts and how change can be facilitated. We propose means to engage a variety of stakeholders in a learning process that is grounded in information, that engages groups of people in individual and joint reflection, and that leads to specific action to improve quality. One of the reasons the IEQ Project achieved such a high level of success is the pivotal role that Ministries of Education and host country educators played. They were instrumental in identifying what was examined in their classrooms and used the information to change educational practices. The continual assessment of what happened at the classroom level eventually led to an understanding of what policies were needed to improve and support teaching and learning. IEQ host country collaborators, whose work and findings were invaluable in writing this piece, include: