Room to Read is honored to participate in the 2026 Annual Conference of the Comparative & International Education Society (CIES). Held in San Francisco, CA from March 28 - April 1, 2026, the theme is “Re-examining Education and Peace in a Divided World.” Find Room to Read at CIES
CIES 2026
Meet our Presenters
In order of appearance at CIES
Room to Read's Schedule
Saturday, March 28
1:15pm - 2:30pm
Session Title: Youth, Dignity, and Peacebuilding: Learning, Participation, and Protection in Times of Social Conflict
Presentation Title: How Dignity Shows Up: Analyzing Design Delivery and Learner Experience in Educaiton Programming
Presenters: Dan Oliver, Japheth Ogol, Heather Simpson
4:30pm - 5:45pm
Session Title: Driving AI-powered transformations in teaching, coaching, and learning: Experiences from LMICs
Presentation Title: Strengthening Classroom Instruction: AI-Powered Coaching Tools for Literacy Improvement
Presenters: Patrick Curry
4:30pm - 5:45pm
Session Title: What Makes Literacy Work? Materials, Access, and Practice
Presentation Title: The power of children's libraries: Supporting literacy and building community
Presenters: Christabel Pinto
Sunday, March 29
9:45am - 11:00am
Session Title: Building FLN programs and evidence: Implementation of and impact evidence from state-wide and top-up district-level FLN interventions in India
Presentation Title: Insights and learnings from district level implementation of FLN mission in Madhya Pradesh, India
Presenters: Poornima Garg, Rishi Rajvanshi
2:45pm - 4:00pm
Session Title: Learning for Liberation: Pathways to Empowerment and Equality
Presentation Title: Empowering Adolescent Girls through Life Skills Education in India: A System-Integrated Approach
Presenters: Kaushlendra Kumar, Poornima Garg
4:30pm - 5:45
Session Title: Peace education and youth- and gender-inclusive peace
Presentation Title: Educating with Dignity: Reimagining Foundational Literacy and Girls' Education as Pathways to Peace
Presenters: Poornima Garg, Rishi Rajvanshi
Wednesday, April 1
8:00am - 9:15am
Session Title: Literacy Learning Across Contexts: Classrooms, Communities, and Innovative Evaluation Approaches
Presentation Title: Developing an observation tool to assess classroom teaching-learning practices - lessons from studies in Bangladesh, India and Nepal
Presenters: Rebecca Westbrook, Pinaki Joddar, Japheth Ogol
9:45am - 11:00am
Session Title: Strengthening Alignment and System Coherence to Improve Foundational Learning: Insights from Jordan and Global Contexts
Presenters: Patrick Curry (Discussant)
1:15pm - 2:30pm
Session Title: Accelerating fluent reading at scale
Presentation Title: Fluency as a construct and as a goal at scale: Lessons from India
Presenters: Saktibrata Sen
2:45pm - 4:00pm
Session Title: Evidence-Based Education Interventions for Equity and Learning: Global Perspectives on Resources, Gender, and Early Development
Presentation Title: Resource Allocation and Program Outcomes: A Multi-country Study of Library Interventions
Presenters: Shari Freedman, Aniruddha Neogi, Pinaki Joddar, Sourav Banerjee, Dan Oliver, Heather Simpson
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