Room to Read is very committed to ensuring the highest quality programs so that they have the greatest impact on the lives of children throughout the developing world. To this end, we are committed to the monitoring and evaluation (M&E) of our projects - both internally and externally.
Internal M&E
Our in-country staff visits our programs regularly and uses a variety of methods, such as interviews and surveys, with key stakeholders, students and teachers to gather information about program effectiveness. Through this monitoring, our staff is able to provide regular feedback to highlight areas for future improvement for each program in each country.
One example of this was the development of our Local Language Publishing Program in Nepal. In 2003, Nepalese students indicated to our local team that our libraries were not being optimally utilized because of a lack of Nepali children's books. We quickly realized that there simply were not many children's books available in Nepal. We started sourcing and self-publishing culturally-relevant, brightly-colored children's books written in Nepali. We are now one of the largest publishers of Nepali children's books, and this successful program has been expanded into all of our countries - we have published 226 new children's titles to date and will publish an additional 70 titles in eight local languages in 2006.
In addition to the Local Language Publishing example, we have also made additional modifications as a result of student and teacher feedback. The modifications include:
- Increasing training over three years as part of our Reading Room and Computer & Language Room Programs
- Designing library construction projects as a part of our Reading Room Program so that we could partner with schools without sufficient space to dedicate a room to serve as a library
- Adding toilets and clean water in the design of each of our schools, to decrease the likelihood of female attrition
- Providing tutoring and mentoring as part of our Room to Grow Girls' Scholarship Program
In response to our need to focus more on M&E and to implement a more systematic way to monitor and evaluate our work, Room to Read has hired a Global Program Officer devoted to overseeing the monitoring and evaluation in all of our countries and in all our programs.
We are designing a formalized monitoring system that will use a mixed-methods approach to collect data across all countries related to access, utilization, and sustainability of our programs. The first program - Reading Room coupled with our Local Language Publishing Program - will be piloted in the Fall of 2006. In 2007, we will be implementing our global M&E system for our other programs.
External Evaluation
Room to Read also conducted an independent, external evaluation in 2005 on all of our programs in four of our countries (Sri Lanka and Laos were excluded because they were new countries), designed to investigate the effectiveness of our programs. The evaluation employed a survey, which consisted of 66 items that focused on teachers' and students' perceptions, attitudes, and self-reported behavior with regard to each Room to Read program in all of the countries. The questions focused on teachers' and students' involvement in the programs, as well as their perceptions of the quality of operations, and the value and impact of the programs.
Samples of the findings include:
- In each country across each program, students and teachers rated our programs highly: 91% and 87% of respondents rated our Room to Grow Girls' Scholarship Program and our School Room Program a 4 out of a possible 4-point scale; additionally, 82%, 80%, and 70% of respondents rated our Computer Room, Reading Room, and Language Room Programs a 4 out of 4, respectively.
- In our Reading Room Program, students and teachers agreed that students were becoming better readers and reading more often as a result of the program.
- The majority of respondents agreed or strongly agreed that each program was running well.
Download a summary of the 2005 Independent Monitoring & Evaluation Study (Adobe PDF, 138kB).
If you have further questions regarding our Monitoring & Evaluation, please visit this section of our Common Questions.
