Prof. Stafford Griffith and Team

Helping Teachers and Students

The Caribbean Centre of Excellence for Teacher Training (CCETT) project was established in 2002 under an Agreement between the University of the West Indies, Mona Campus, Jamaica and USAID-Washington with the Institute of Education/Joint Board of Teacher Education (JBTE), Mona Campus as the Executing Agency. the project’s overall aim was to improve the competence of teachers in literacy education in order to imrpove the literacy proficiency of students in the first three years of primary education. The project was effected through five critical components: diagnostic and performance assessment of children; development of teaching and learning materials; specialized training for reading specialists, teachers and principals; action research; development of information technology interactive platform. the project started in five countries (Jamaica, Belize, Guyana, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, St. Lucia). Subsequently eight other Caribbean countries have come on stream (Anguilla, Antigua, BVI, Dominica, Grenada, Montserrat, St. Kitts & Nevis, Trinidad & Tobago) and have been implementing the CCETT approach in their primary education systems.

Caribbean Standards for Reading & Writing Grades K—3.
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Action Research Approach

A key requirement of the project was that all interventions in schools be undertaken in the form of action research initiatives. These provided empirical data on the impact and effectiveness, and encouraged reflection on the meaning of the results in light of the objectives that initiatives were seeking to achieve. Research findings were shared with teachers, Education Officers and University researchers. This was to ensure the creating of learning community in the Commonwealth Caribbean with respect to the teaching of reading in the early grades, and lead to the development of new and more appropriate approaches to the teaching of reading as well as establish the applicability and effectiveness of existing strategies employed in teaching of reading in the early grades.

Project Attracts Impressive Funding

During the funding year 2008—2009, the CCETT project received a total of US$1.973 million from USAID. These funds were used for the following activities —

• US$1 million – for continuing the core CCETT activities in the five original CCETT countries (Jamaica, Belize, Guyana, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, St. Lucia). Dominica came on stream 2 years after to increase the number to six coutnries.
• US$ 500,000 million for carrying out special activities related to Dominica
• US$ 473,000 – to carry out activities to assure sustainability in the future impact of the project, such as developing various standards for training of teachers and for teaching of literacy in Grades 1–3.

The initial CCETT project involved 68 schools, approximately 12,000 students across the five original CCETT countries, 10 teachers colleges and five Ministries of Education.

Impact on Students

The benchmarks for the outcomes of the project were to have 80% of students “Not At Risk” for reading failure and 60% reading at or above grade expectancy level by the end of Grade 3. This was based on the Caribbean Reading Standards Achievement Test (CRSAT). The results of the interventions implemented in all CCETT schools are indicated in Figure 1.

Impact on Teachers’ Colleges & Teachers

• Improved resources — each college had well equipped literacy centres established
• College students had benefit of hands on experiences by participating in administration of tests in the field; they learned how to adminsiter standardized tests
• The Reading Specialists placed in each college continuously brought the lessons learned from the field into the college experience thus sensitizing the lecturers to the CCETT approach
• Teachers have learned how to utilize test results to inform their instructional approach. They have adopted an approach of “assessment for learning” rather than “assessment of learning”
• In almost all the countries, CCETT trained staff are being strategicaly placed in key positions in the Education system toh elp drive the CCETT methodology within the school system (e.g. St. Vincent & the Grenadines, Belize, Guyana)

Impact on Participating Schools

• Teachers and principals participated in several CCETT workshops that improved the knowledge, skills and attitude of principals as instructional leaders
• Teachers were helped to master differentiated learning and ability to handle teaching in multi-grade classrooms
• All CCETT classrooms were transformed to more student friendly, attractive and enriching places for learning. The Minister of Education, Belize commented that “When you enter a CCETT classroom you experience a tremendous difference.” All senior education policy makers in the CCETT countries have described the classrooms as “transformed”.

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Regional Networking and Building of Learning Communities

• The uniqueness of the CCETT project is its regionality
• It provided rich interaction among the participating countries
• The regional and sub-reginal workshops held each year provided opportunity for all participants to share and discuss their experiences
• Top performing teachers gained valuable exposure from being sponsored to attend the annual International Reading Association conferences
• CCETT trained teachers are being called on regularly to conduct workshops at International conferences, especially on multi-grade teaching

Development of Standards

• Standards have been developed for reading and writing at the Grades 1-3 level. The process of development involved pulling together all the reading standards of participating countries and benchmarking these against the international standards. These standards have been endorsed by CARICOM, which continues work to hae the standards accepted across the region
• Standards for the training of teachers of literacy for the primary grades 1-3 have also been developed and submitted to CARICOM for ratification. The process of development involved pulling together top regional specialists to develop the standards and benchmark them against International standards but paying special attention tot he Caribbean language diversity.
• Some teachers colleges across the Caribbean have already reviewed and refined their own standards against the new Caribbean standards

EDUCOMM

Through CCETT, a state of the art video-conferencing system has been established at the JBTE, and linked to all CCETT colleges. This system facilitates training which can be conducted for multiple sites simultaneously. The impact of this has been significant reduction int he cost of travel to training workshops. It allows for rich interaction between participants without having to move them from their own locations.

A new USAID/Govt of Jamaica Project has indicated that the CCETT methodology and materials must be used in the project. The Jamaican Minister of Education has endorsed this and says he intends to use it in the education system.