monitoring

Volunteers Needed: You Can't Improve What You Don't Measure!

By Merritt Frey, Executive Director

How do you measure a great education? You tell us! In 2021, Mali Rising is overhauling our approach to measuring the quality of education in our remote, rural Mali schools. We are searching for 2 to 3 people with skills in education, monitoring, and evaluation to help us really understand how to change lives through education.

Advisors will engage with our board committee (Internal Affairs Committee) on this issue and devote 4 to 6 hours a month to research and discussion. We ask Advisors to commit to 10 months of engagement (March-December) if possible. In exchange, Advisors will get to know a wonderful group of volunteers, explore how education works in a different culture, and have access to special content from Mali and our schools.

Interested in learning more and perhaps getting involved? Contact Merritt.

Classroom full of students.JPG

The Mystery of the Fluctuating DEF Scores

The DEF exam in Mali tests 9th grade students as they graduate from middle school. If students pass the test, they are eligible to continue on to higher education. If they fail, they must repeat 9th grade until they succeed. This reality combined with the fact that the DEF test results are the only quantitative measure we have of how much our students are learning means that it’s incredibly important to us to have strong pass rates. Frustratingly, DEF pass rates fluctuate greatly from year to year. Why?