This report was prepared for Nascent Solutions, Inc. by the et4d team, Dr. Brenda Sinclair, Dr. Michel 
Rosseau and Ms. Isabelle McMahon-Duston.
USDA McGovern-Dole Food for Education 
and Child Nutrition Program
USDA FFE-631-2015/001-00
Advancing Literacy through Good Nutrition 
(ALIGN) project – Cameroon
Final Evaluation Report
Submitted July 2018
Et4d ALIGN Cameroon Endline Survey Report 2
FY 2015 McGovern-Dole Advancing Literacy through Good 
Nutrition (ALIGN) project – Cameroon Final Evaluation
Program: McGovern-Dole International Food for Education and Child 
Nutrition
Agreement Number: [FFE-631-2015/001-00]
Funding Year: Fiscal Year 2015
Project Duration: FY 15- FY 19
Implemented by: Nascent Solutions
Evaluation Authored by: et4d
McMahon-Duston, Isabelle
Sinclair, Brenda
Rosseau, Michel
DISCLAIMER: This publication was produced at the request of the United States Department of 
Agriculture. It was prepared by an independent third-party evaluation firm. The author’s views 
expressed in this publication do not necessarily reflect the views of the United States 
Department of Agriculture or the United States Government.
Accessibility Note: An accessible version of this document can be made available by contacting 
fas.monitoring.evaluation@usda.gov
Et4d ALIGN Cameroon Endline Survey Report 3
Table of Contents
Executive Summary ..........................................................................................................6
Purpose and Key Evaluation Questions..........................................................................12
Evaluation Methodology..................................................................................................12
Question 1 Results and Discussion: What outcome-level changes are attributable to the 
project? ...........................................................................................................................20
Question 2 Results and Discussion: For each selected indicator, how much progress has 
been made against the baseline targets? .......................................................................43
Question 3 Results and Discussion: Qualitatively, what changes do stakeholders 
associate with ALIGN’s programming?...........................................................................46
Improved literacy .............................................................................................46
Question 4 Results and Discussion: In which programming areas, do stakeholders 
anticipate that ALIGN’s programming is sustainable? ....................................................51
Conclusions.....................................................................................................................54
ANNEX A: EGRA Scores by Student Characteristics .....................................................56
ANNEX B: Factors Associated with Stallings Observations............................................58
ANNEX C: EGRA Instrument..........................................................................................61
ANNEX D: STALLINGS Instrument ................................................................................74
ANNEX E: DDS Instrument.............................................................................................80
ANNEX G: Biographical summary of evaluation team ....................................................84
Figures
Figure 1: EGRA results by reading category.......................................................22
Figure 2: Proportion of students meeting literacy indicator by gender ................23
Figure 3: Proportion of students meeting literacy indicator by geographic location
.....................................................................................................................24
Figure 4: Proportion of students meeting the indicator by school type: private vs. 
public ...........................................................................................................25
Figure 5: Project and comparison mean fluency scores (correct letters/words per 
minute).........................................................................................................27
Figure 6: Project and comparison mean comprehension scores (percent correct)
.....................................................................................................................27
Figure 7: Proportion of students scoring zero on each EGRA subtask ...............28
Figure 8: Mean scores by gender .......................................................................29
Figure 9: Mean scores by school-age of student ................................................30
Figure 10: Mean scores by father literacy ...........................................................31
Figure 11: Mean scores by mother literacy .........................................................31
Figure 12: Proportion of teachers meeting quality of instruction indicator...........33
Figure 13: Stallings results by teaching activity ..................................................34
Figure 14: Percent of classroom time devoted to each active teaching activity ..35
Figure 15: Time devoted to classroom management by activity .........................36
Figure 16: Percent of classroom time devoted to off-task behavior ....................37
Figure 17:Proportion of classrooms meeting student attentiveness indicator .....38
Figure 18: Pupil off-task behavior by activity.......................................................39
Figure 19:Food group consumption ....................................................................42
Figure 21: Students using donated oil cans as trash bins...................................48
Figure 23: Predictors of improved quality of instruction ......................................58
Et4d ALIGN Cameroon Endline Survey Report 4
Figure 24: Predictors of student attentiveness....................................................58
Tables
Table 1: Outcome-level changes of ALIGN project...............................................8
Table 2: Endline results against baseline and targets of selected output indicators
.......................................................................................................................9
Table 3: Question 1 Data Collection Instruments................................................12
Table 4: EGRA minimum score to achieve literacy indicator ..............................13
Table 5: Stallings categories of active instruction ...............................................13
Table 6: Endline results for selected output indicators........................................15
Table 7: Sampling for quantitative methods........................................................16
Table 8: Percentage of students absent in Class 3.............................................20
Table 9: Definition of MGD performance Indicator for improved literacy.............21
Table 10: Regression coefficients for fluency and comprehension .....................32
Table 11: Predictors of pupil off-task behavior....................................................40
Table 12: Proportion of pupils consuming a minimum acceptable diet ...............41
Table 13: Proportion of pupils meeting the minimum meal frequency.................41
Table 14: Proportion of students meeting food group diversity requirements. ....41
Table 15: Mean number of food groups and meals consumed ...........................42
Table 16: Predictors of pupils who have a minimum acceptable diet..................43
Table 17: Endline results against targets and baseline for outcome indicators...44
Table 18: Endline results against targets and baseline for selected output 
indicators .....................................................................................................45
Table 19: Annex A: EGRA Mean Scores and Zero Scores by Student 
Characteristics .............................................................................................56
Table 20: Teacher and Classroom-level factors associated with pupil off-task 
behavior.......................................................................................................59
Et4d ALIGN Cameroon Endline Survey Report 5
List of Abbreviations and Acronyms
ALIGN Advancing Literacy through Good Nutrition
CI Confidence Interval
DDS Dietary Diversity Survey
EGRA Early Grade Reading Assessment
FA Field Agent
M&E Monitoring and Evaluation
MGD McGovern-Dole Food for Education and Child Nutrition Program
Nascent Nascent Solutions Inc.
PTA Parent-Teacher Association
SO Strategic Objective
Stallings Stallings Observation System
USDA United States Department of Agriculture
Et4d ALIGN Cameroon Endline Survey Report 6
Executive Summary 
The USDA-funded Advancing Literacy through Good Nutrition (ALIGN) project is a 
McGovern-Dole Food for Education and Child Nutrition project. The $12 million project is 
implemented in the Bui division of Cameroon by Nascent Solutions Inc (Nascent). Its 
primary goal is to improve the literacy of school-age children in 92 primary schools 
through improved: quality of literacy instruction, student attentiveness, and student 
attendance. Its secondary objective is to increase the use of positive health and dietary 
practices through improved knowledge of hygiene, safe food preparation, and nutrition, 
as well as increased access to clean water and preventative health interventions. The 
health objective will also be achieved by increasing the consumption of a minimum 
acceptable diet through provision of a daily lunch and periodic take-home rations using 
food commodities provided by the USDA. 
The ALIGN project, which began in July 2015, ends in June 2018. This report presents 
the results of the final performance evaluation, which provides final measures of 
ALIGN’s outcome-level progress relative to the 2015 baseline values and project targets. 
The endline results are based on data collected between April and May 2018 in 89 
schools. A total of 354 teachers and 1,123 Class 3 children distributed in 43 project 
schools and 46 comparison schools participated in the endline surveys.
Evaluation Questions
The final performance evaluation aimed to respond to four key evaluation questions: 
1. What outcome-level changes are attributable to the project?
2. For each selected indicator, how much progress has been made against the 
baseline targets?
3. Qualitatively, what changes do stakeholders associate with ALIGN’s 
programming?
4. In which programming areas do stakeholders anticipate that ALIGN’s 
programming is sustainable?
Evaluation Methodology
The final performance evaluation is an impact evaluation. Using difference-in-difference 
analysis, we compare the gains achieved by the treatment group with the comparison 
group from baseline to endline to determine the overall treatment effect (e.g., impact) of 
the project. To respond to the evaluation questions, we used a mixed-methods approach 
consisting of quantitative surveys--to assess the difference in performance of both 
groups between baseline and endline, and qualitative methods-- to gain stakeholder 
perspectives about the impact and sustainability of the project. Employing the same 
tools administered at baseline for consistency and reliability, data collectors 
administered three surveys: the Early Grade Reading Assessment (EGRA), the Stallings 
classroom observation system (Stallings), and a Dietary Diversity Survey (DDS), using a 
24-hour recall. Thirty data collectors received four days of classroom-based training on 
tools, protocols and electronic equipment (Tangerine and tablets) for data collection. 
Following the training, enumerators conducted two practice administrations at primary 
schools.
Et4d ALIGN Cameroon Endline Survey Report 7
Limitations
There are numerous limitations potentially affecting endline results. First is the 
interruption of schooling, due to teacher strikes and school closures, which took place 
over the course of seven months during the project implementation period, from 
November 2016 to June 2017. This caused the suspension of school-based activities 
and school meals, which were replaced with the mobile reading activity and take-home 
food rations. Second is replication of the ALIGN Fantastic Phonics methodology in 
comparison schools, which was learned during interviews with Bui district Ministry of 
Basic Education representatives. This could have affected the performance of the 
comparison group and overall treatment effect of the project schools. Teacher transfers 
and spillover effects of other interventions (mobile reading activity and health and 
hygiene trainings) could also have affected performance of the comparison group. 
In terms of the endline study, the evaluation team encountered challenges with reaching 
the desired number of schools, students and teachers. Security risks led to high 
absenteeism rates among teachers and students in sampled schools, causing us to
replace schools in the middle of data collection and to add more schools than 
anticipated. Weighting was applied to account for any biases during the analysis stage. 
Finally, also due to heightened security risks for expatriate staff, the evaluation team was 
unable to visit any schools during the enumerator training or fieldwork. It is important to 
bear these limitations in mind when interpreting the endline survey results.
Results 
1. What outcome-level changes are attributable to the project?
Among the four outcome indicators listed in Table 1, the outcome with the greatest 
change since baseline, and a notable treatment effect attributed to the project, is MGD
SO2 --increased use of health and dietary practices. For this outcome-level indicator, the 
proportion of students meeting the minimum acceptable diet indicator increased from 
69% at baseline to 75% at endline. This difference minus any gains from the comparison 
group resulted in a treatment effect of 8.7% and was statistically significant. Therefore, 
there are 8.7% more students in the treatment schools consuming a minimum 
acceptable diet as a result of the ALIGN school-feeding program.
The second outcome indicator that demonstrated positive results attributable to the 
project was MGDSO1-improved literacy of school-age children. The proportion of 
students meeting this indicator increased from 7.5% at baseline to 10.9% at endline with 
a treatment effect of 1.9% improvement over baseline. Despite this progress, mean 
scores and the overall treatment effect were quite low. There was very little difference 
between the performance of students in project and comparison schools. In fact, the 
majority of students (73% in both project and comparison schools) still cannot read. 
There was no significant improvement over the baseline results, which showed 75% of 
students unable to read. Female students, pupils in Kumbo sub-division, school-aged
children, and students with literate parents produced higher mean scores, which are all 
factors unrelated to ALIGN interventions. The low project impact on literacy outcomes is
most likely attributed to the seven-month period of school closures, teacher transfers, 
multi-grade classes, high student and teacher absenteeism, and the spillover effect of 
ALIGN interventions into comparison schools. 
Et4d ALIGN Cameroon Endline Survey Report 8
Table 1: Outcome-level changes of ALIGN project
Outcome Target Baseline Endline Treatment 
Effect
Factors associated 
with outcomes
Improved 
literacy of 
school-age 
children
9% 7.5% 10.9% 1.9% Gender*
Age*
Parental literacy*
Location*
Improved 
quality of 
instruction
63% 52.0% 38.6% -15% Permanent private 
school teacher
Grade 2 teachers
Mean attendance ratio
Improved 
student 
attentiveness
6% 31.1% 16.8% -2.6% Active teaching*
Classroom*
management
Teacher outside of the 
classroom*
Increased use 
of health and 
dietary 
practices
74% 69.1% 75.2% 8.7% Gender
Location
Age
*Statistically significant (P<0.05)
The improved quality of instruction outcome and improved student attentiveness 
outcome both showed negative treatment effects. For the improved quality of instruction 
indicator, the proportion of teachers engaged in active instruction for 50%+ of classroom 
time declined from 52% at baseline to 39% at endline. Meanwhile, the comparison group 
improved from 37.3% at baseline to 44% at endline, an increase of 6.7%. These 
differences in performance resulted in a treatment effect of -15% for the treatment group. 
While regression analysis did not reveal any statistically significant factors to explain this 
result, the decreased performance could be related to school closures, multigrade 
classes which reduced the amount of classroom time devoted to classroom instruction, 
teacher transfers reducing the number of ALIGN trained teachers, and replication of the 
ALIGN Fantastic Phonics training in comparison schools by the Bui district.
The improved student attentiveness outcome is based on a reduction in the amount of 
class time in which more than five students were off-task. Hence, we expect to see a 
decline from baseline to endline, with a target of 6%. Performance on the student 
attentiveness indicator improved from 33% off-task at baseline to 17% off-task at endline
in treatment schools, and from 30% off-task at baseline to 16% off-task at endline in 
comparison schools. The difference in performance between the comparison and 
treatment schools resulted in a treatment effect of -2.6% for the project schools. Factors 
positively associated with more students off-task were teacher outside of the room (e.g., 
to teach multigrade classes1) and classroom management (e.g., grading assignments, 
lesson planning, etc.). Meanwhile, use of active teaching pedagogy (e.g., reading aloud, 
discussion, demonstration), were associated with higher rates of pupil on-task behavior. 
With 25% of teachers managing multigrade classes, this could have affected students’ 
ability to stay on task.
1 In multigrade classes, an average of 48% of teachers were outside of the classroom compared 
28% in mono-grade classes.
Et4d ALIGN Cameroon Endline Survey Report 9
2. For each selected indicator, how much progress has been made against 
the baseline targets?
Based on endline results in Table 1, the ALIGN project exceeded the targets for the two 
strategic objectives and outcome indicators: (MGD SO1) improved literacy and (MGD 
SO2) increased use of health and dietary practices. Simultaneously, ALIGN performed 
below the target for improved quality of instruction and improved student attentiveness.
For the eight output indicators selected for analysis (See Table 2), ALIGN exceeded its 
targets for six indicators aimed to increase knowledge and skills of school administrators 
and community members for the various literacy and health-related activities. ALIGN 
particularly exceeded its target for training in child health and nutrition, culminating with 
13,039 persons trained compared to the targeted 3,456. ALIGN also met its expected 
output for increased extracurricular activities engaging all 92 schools in after-school 
literacy activities. ALIGN fell short of meeting the indicator for improved skill and 
knowledge among teachers, which is measured by the percentage of teachers engaged 
in active instruction for 50%+ of classroom time. This is partially due to a reduction in the 
number of teachers in ALIGN schools, which decreased from 725 in 2016 to 648 in 
2018, as a result of the crisis. Another contributing factor could have been the school 
closures, which created lag time between training and implementation, as well as 
disruption in teaching and learning.
Table 2: Endline results against baseline and targets of selected output indicators
Standard Output Target Baseline Endline
MGD Standard 3 Increased skill and knowledge 
among school administrators
156 0 271
MGD Standard 5 Improved skill and knowledge 
among teachers
648 0 230
MGD Standard 9 Increased engagement of local 
orgs. and community groups
92 0 92
MGD Standard 18 Increased knowledge of good 
nutrition practices
3,456 0 13,039
Custom 5 Increased extracurricular activities 92 0 92
Custom 7 Increased community 
understanding of benefits
276 0 407
Custom 10 (& MGD 
Std. #18)
Improved knowledge of health 
and hygiene practices
5,520 0 6,082
Custom 11 (& MGD 
Std. #18)
Increased knowledge of safe food 
prep and storage practices
2,200 0 2,523
3. Qualitatively, what changes do stakeholders associate with ALIGN’s 
programming
There was consensus among all stakeholders interviewed that the ALIGN project has 
infused positive changes in ALIGN-supported schools and communities. The six most 
noteworthy achievements were:
1. Improved literacy
2. Improved health and hygiene practices
Et4d ALIGN Cameroon Endline Survey Report 10
3. Improved agricultural practices
4. Increased student attendance and enrollment
5. Improved school infrastructure, and 
6. Increased community engagement. 
These accomplishments largely stemmed from the take-home food rations, the mobile 
reading activity, gardening techniques training, and the water and sanitation facilities.
4. In which programming areas, do stakeholders anticipate that ALIGN’s 
programming is sustainable?
Stakeholders agreed that to a certain extent all ALIGN activities will be sustained, 
including the school library and mobile reading activity, parts of the school feeding 
program (e.g., management of school gardens and farms as well the agriculture 
practices learned), skills and knowledge gained from ALIGN trainings, and the water and 
sanitation facilities. However, all stakeholders noted the challenge to maintain school 
meals at the level of the ALIGN project (e.g., five days per week for all students). Most 
schools could manage no more than two meals per week with existing resources and 
stated that they would require additional land, inputs and support from the government 
or external donor to sustain the school feeding program.
To provide meals for five days consumption would require the USDA and/or Cameroon 
government to provide additional inputs. Many stakeholders, including district 
representatives, believed that if the government made school-feeding a national priority, 
it would be a great achievement and the essential resources would become available.
Conclusions
Considering the three-year ALIGN project was condensed into two years due to the 
teacher strike and school closures, which stalled activities, it did achieve sustainable 
outcomes within that short timeframe in terms of improving knowledge, skills and 
creating a culture of reading. Although the project met its target for improving literacy of 
school-age children, the quality of instruction declined and the literacy interventions had 
low treatment effects. With more teacher refresher training and follow up coaching on 
evidence-based reading instruction, uninterrupted schooling (including summer catch-up 
programs), and appropriate reading materials, literacy results could be improved in 
future USDA McGovern Dole programs.
In terms of the second objective, ALIGN achieved its target for increasing the 
percentage of students with a minimum acceptable diet and increasing the use of health 
and dietary practices. ALIGN also built the capacity of schools to establish and maintain 
school gardens while increasing the availability of food for school meals. Therefore, the 
foundation for maintaining the school-feeding program at the school level exists, and 
there is overwhelming support from schools and communities to continue meeting the 
minimum requirements for all pupils. However, in order to sustain the school meals at 
the level of the ALIGN project and maintain the positive health outcomes, more 
government and USDA intervention is needed. The next step, according to stakeholders, 
is to build on the commitment at the school-level with greater national and local
government resources to bring ALIGN to full scale and sustainability.
Et4d ALIGN Cameroon Endline Survey Report 11
Introduction 
This report presents the endline survey results for the Advancing Literacy through Good 
Nutrition (ALIGN) project. The three-year project runs from July 2015 to June 2018. 
ALIGN is implemented by Nascent Solutions Inc (Nascent) and funded by the USDA
McGovern-Dole (MGD) Food for Education and Child Nutrition program. 
Project Description
The ALIGN project is designed to achieve two strategic objectives: 1) to improve literacy 
of school-age children and 2) to increase the use of positive health and dietary practices. 
An activity that is central to achieving the literacy goal is the provision of a daily school 
lunch and periodic take-home rations using food commodities provided by the United 
States Department of Agriculture (USDA). 
According to the ALIGN project results framework, the literacy objective will be achieved 
via three intermediate results: improved quality of literacy instruction, improved 
student attentiveness and improved student attendance. The project sought to 
improve the quality of instruction through more consistent teacher attendance, better 
education materials, and training of teachers and administrators. ALIGN aimed to 
improve student attentiveness through the daily lunch program and after-school 
extracurricular activities. ALIGN planned to increase student attendance through school 
infrastructure improvements, enrollment outreach, an increased understanding of
education benefits and reduced health-related absences. ALIGN also aimed to improve 
education systems through enhancing the capacity of local government and civil society 
to develop local education and nutrition policies.
The health objective will be achieved by increasing the consumption of a minimum 
acceptable diet through provision of a daily lunch using food commodities provided by 
the USDA and homegrown fruits and vegetables from the school gardens established 
with technical assistance from ALIGN. The project aimed to increase the use of positive 
health and dietary practices through improved knowledge of hygiene, safe food 
preparation, and nutrition, as well as increased access to clean water and preventative 
health interventions.
The project operates in 92 schools, both public and private, including Catholic, Baptist, 
Presbyterian and Islamic schools. All 92 schools are located in the Bui division in the 
Northwest region of Cameroon. The Bui division was selected because of its high rates 
of hunger and stunting, an indicator of chronic malnutrition, amongst school-age children 
in the area, and poor feeding and hygiene practices2. The 92 schools were selected for 
participation by government partners based on meeting at least four of the following 
criteria: 1) low enrollment, especially for girls; 2) lack of access to water and sanitation 
services; 3) lack of access to supplies and literacy materials; and 4) lack of trained 
teachers. All schools received the full menu of interventions, with the exception of pilot 
schools that received e-readers and after-school tutoring.
Nascent implements the ALIGN project in partnership with the local authorities from the 
Ministries of Education, Public Health, Agriculture, and Water and Energy, and Caritas 
Kumbo. International partners include Books for Africa and WorldReader.
2 ALIGN Cooperative Agreement No.OGSM: FFE-631-2015/001-00, dated July 15, 2015.
Et4d ALIGN Cameroon Endline Survey Report 12
ALIGN’s target beneficiaries comprised 157,000 students and their families as well as 
teachers, administrators, civil servants, parent-teacher associations, food preparers and 
other stakeholders associated with the 92 target schools.
Purpose and Key Evaluation Questions
The purpose of the final performance evaluation of the ALIGN project is to provide
Nascent, USDA, implementing partners, and stakeholders with final measures of 
ALIGN’s outcome-level progress relative to the 2015 baseline values and project targets. 
The endline results will provide a snapshot of student achievement in relation to the 
literacy and health-related benchmarks for both the comparison and treatment groups to 
determine the outcome-level changes attributable to the project. It will further inform of 
ALIGN’s successes and challenges per stakeholder perceptions, which will enable 
ALIGN implementers to determine the most viable sustainability path going forward and
to plan for future McGovern-Dole projects in Cameroon.
Evaluation Questions
The four key evaluation questions are:
1. What outcome-level changes are attributable to the project?
2. For each selected indicator, how much progress has been made against the 
baseline targets?
3. Qualitatively, what changes do stakeholders associate with ALIGN’s 
programming?
4. In which programming areas, do stakeholders anticipate that ALIGN’s 
programming is sustainable?
Evaluation Methodology
This section discusses the evaluation design and methodology for responding to each 
evaluation question, the sampling techniques, the rationale for the instruments selected,
enumerator training, fieldwork and limitations.
Evaluation design 
The endline evaluation is an impact evaluation, which compares the performance of 
students in a treatment group to the comparison group. It measures the difference in 
gains for each group since the baseline to determine the overall treatment effect or 
impact of the project. To respond to the evaluation questions, we used a mixed-methods 
approach consisting of quantitative surveys to assess the difference in performance of 
both groups between baseline and endline, and qualitative methods to gain stakeholder 
perspectives about the impact and sustainability of the project. 
Question 1 Evaluation Methods
For evaluation question #1, three quantitative tools were used to measure four outcomes 
shown in Table 3. 
Table 3: Question 1 Data Collection Instruments
Question 1 ALIGN Project Outcomes Instrument
What outcome￾level changes 
are attributable 
Improved Literacy of School-Age Children Early Grade Reading 
Assessment (EGRA)
Improved Quality of Instruction Stallings Observation Tool
Et4d ALIGN Cameroon Endline Survey Report 13
to the project? Improved Student Attentiveness Stallings Observation Tool
(Stallings)
Increased Use of Health and Dietary 
Practices
FAO’s Dietary Diversity Survey 
(DDS)
The quantitative instruments (e.g., EGRA, Stallings, and DDS) were existing instruments 
from the baseline, while the qualitative instruments were specifically developed for the 
endline study to gather responses to questions 3 and 4.
EGRA. The Early Grade Reading Assessment (EGRA) was administered one-on-one to 
students in Class 3 to assess English reading and comprehension skills learned by the 
end of two years of schooling3. The EGRA measures fluency in reading letters, words 
and passages as well as comprehension of stories read aloud by the assessor or the 
student. The four subtasks included in the EGRA instrument are: letter name knowledge, 
letter sound knowledge, non-word decoding, reading fluency, reading comprehension 
and listening comprehension. In order to meet the expected literacy outcome – ability to 
read and understand the meaning of grade level text by the end of two years of 
schooling, students must achieve a minimum score in the oral reading fluency and 
reading comprehension subtask4:
Table 4: EGRA minimum score to achieve literacy indicator
EGRA subtask Minimum score
Oral Reading Fluency Greater than 0
Oral Reading Comprehension 40% of questions answered correctly
Stallings Observation System. The Stallings observation system (Stallings) tool is 
based on a World Bank instrument adapted to the Cameroon context. The Stallings
instrument was used to assess two project outcomes: 1) percentage of teachers in levels 
1-6 spending at least 50%5 of their classroom time on active instruction and 2) 
percentage of classroom time in which five or fewer students are “off-task”. The Stallings 
tool is comprised of ten 15-second classroom observation snapshots spread evenly 
throughout the class period to capture what the teacher is doing, what materials are 
being used, and pupil involvement. 
The categories of instruction that qualify as “active” are:
Table 5: Stallings categories of active instruction
Activity Example of active instruction
Reading aloud Teacher or students are reading aloud. One or more students are 
reading connected text from a textbook, trade book, periodical, their 
own writing, or reproduced material. When reading aloud, generally 
students take turns reading sections from the material. The teacher or 
student may also read aloud while the rest of the class follows along 
in their own texts.)
3 Class 1 students in Year 1 of the project were out of school during Year 2 of the project, and 
returned to school in Class 3 in Year 3 of the project. Thus, in order to assess students who had 
at least two years of schooling, Class 3 was selected for the EGRA rather than Class 2.
4 See results section for all reading categories and definition of literacy performance indicator.
5 Evidence from Stallings shows that teachers spending at least 50% of time engaged in “active 
instruction” is associated with high-achieving students.
Et4d ALIGN Cameroon Endline Survey Report 14
Demonstration/
lecture
The teacher, television or some form of media is informing or showing 
a student or groups of students about a subject i.e. reading, 
mathematics, science, history.)
Discussion/debate/
question and answer
Students and teacher interact in an academic discussion, i.e. a verbal 
exchange of ideas or opinions. This may be slow-paced questions 
and answers regarding reading material, science, mathematics, 
political science or any problem where there is not one right answer. 
This could also be a check by the teacher or student for 
comprehension and understanding of material.
Practice/drill The objective here is to memorize material such as multiplication 
tables or spelling words. The teacher and students or several groups 
of students interact in oral question and answer sessions where there 
is one right answer. The teacher asks the students repetitive 
questions in order for the students to memorize the correct answer.
The Stallings tool also tracks if students are off-task. The three categories that qualify as 
“off-task” are: 1) social interaction, 2) student uninvolved, or 3.) being disciplined.
Both the EGRA and Stallings survey included a biographical survey to identify 
background characteristics of teachers and students that may be associated with 
teaching and learning outcomes (pupil age, student home environment, teacher 
qualifications, teacher training, prevalence of teaching and learning aids, etc.). Students 
who took the EGRA and DDS were given a student ID number that allowed us to track 
and analyze performance of the same students across both surveys6.
Dietary Diversity Survey. The original Dietary Diversity Survey (DDS) used at baseline 
was administered at endline to the same students taking the EGRA. The DDS collected
data to measure the percentage of school-age children receiving a minimum acceptable 
diet. According to the ALIGN MGD Performance Monitoring Plan, the “minimum 
acceptable diet” indicator measures both the minimum feeding frequency and minimum 
dietary diversity. 
1. Minimum meal frequency for children is defined as three or more feedings of 
solid, semi-solid or soft food per day. 
2. Minimum dietary diversity for children is defined as four or more food groups out 
of the following seven food groups: Grains, roots and tubers, Legumes and nuts, 
Dairy products (milk, yogurt, cheese), Flesh foods (meat, fish, poultry and 
liver/organ meats), Eggs, Vitamin-A enriched foods, including vegetable oil, fruits 
and vegetables, Other fruits and vegetables
Based on the above indicators, the DDS tool collected data on the number of food 
groups consumed and frequency of meals within 24-hour recall.
Question 2 Evaluation Methods
In response to Evaluation Question #2, “For each selected indicator, how much progress 
has been made against the baseline targets?” eight output indicators (4 standard and 4 
custom) were selected (See Table 6). For each indicator, we examined the progress 
achieved since the baseline and in relation to the targets using monitoring data provided 
by Nascent M&E staff. We further conducted qualitative interviews with project staff to 
gain insights into what contributed to or hindered achievement of the targets. In addition, 
6 This analysis was conducted, but not included in the final report since we did not identify any 
pattern or relationship in performance across both surveys.
Et4d ALIGN Cameroon Endline Survey Report 15
we assessed progress achieved against targets for each outcome indicator listed in 
Question 1.
Table 6: Endline results for selected output indicators
Questions 3 and 4 Evaluation Methods
For Evaluation Questions #3 and 4, key informant interviews were conducted with 
government counterparts and implementing partners at the district level, and focus group 
discussions were facilitated with school staff and Parent-Teacher Association (PTA) 
members. At the government level, key informants included: local officials from 
Ministries of Basic Education, Partnership with Education, Public Health, Agriculture and 
Rural Development and Water and Energy. Additional interviews took place with 
Nascent project staff and their partner, Caritas Kumbo. At the school level, three focus 
groups were conducted with participants from different schools: one with head teachers, 
one with literacy-trained and health-trained teachers, and one with parents who were 
PTA members and involved in ALIGN project activities. A separate interview guide was 
developed for national-level stakeholders, for Nascent staff, and for each school-level 
informant. All stakeholders were asked about what changes have been observed in 
ALIGN-supported schools as a result of project interventions (Evaluation Question #3)
and which project activities are likely to be sustained and why (Evaluation Question #4). 
Sample size
We used the same sampling methodology employed at baseline in order to collect 
reliable and consistent data that could be compared against baseline results. Using a 
two-stage cluster sampling with project and comparison schools as the primary sampling 
unit and pupils/teachers as the secondary unit, the total targeted sample size was 80 
schools (40 comparison and 40 project schools), 360 teachers and 1,120 students. 
Standard Output/Outcome Output Indicator
MGD Standard 3 Increased skill and 
knowledge among school 
administrators
Number of school administrators who 
demonstrate use of new techniques as a result of 
USDA assistance
MGD Standard 5 Improved skill and 
knowledge among 
teachers
Number of teachers who demonstrate use of now 
and quality teaching techniques or tools as a 
result of USDA assistance
MGD Standard 9 Increased engagement of 
local organizations and 
community groups
Number of Parent-Teacher Associations or 
similar school governance structures supported 
as a result of USDA assistance
MGD Standard 18 Increased knowledge of 
good nutrition practices
Number of people trained in child health and 
nutrition as a result of USDA assistance
Custom 5 Increased extracurricular 
activities
Number of schools organizing after-school 
literacy activities as a result of USDA assistance
Custom 7 Increased community 
understanding of benefits
Number of information sessions held regarding 
education benefits held as a result of USDA 
assistance
Custom 10 (and 
MGD Std. #18)
Improved knowledge of 
health and hygiene 
practices
Number of individuals trained in hygiene as a 
result of USDA assistance
Custom 11 (and 
MGD Std. #18)
Increased knowledge of 
safe food prep and storage 
practices
Number of individuals trained in safe food 
preparation and food storage as a result of 
USDA assistance
Et4d ALIGN Cameroon Endline Survey Report 16
However, due to the political unrest and high student/teacher absenteeism, we collected 
data in 89 schools (43 project and 46 comparison), of which 22 were replacement7
schools. We surveyed 1,123 Class 3 pupils and 354 teachers with almost even 
distribution between project and comparison groups (186 project, 168 comparison). As 
the baseline found no issue with gender disparities, gender was not a stratification 
criterion for sampling.
Table 7 lists the sample size and methods for each quantitative instrument. For the 
EGRA and DDS instruments, we initially planned to randomly sample 14 students from 
Class 3, but during fieldwork we found schools with fewer than 14 students due to high 
student absenteeism (especially in comparison schools), and thus increased the sample 
size to 16 students. In most cases, all students present were surveyed due to low 
attendance. For the Stallings instrument, 2-6 teachers were observed from Class levels 
1-6, based on availability (See limitations section). A total of 1,123 students participated
in EGRA and 1,122 in the DDS8. A total of 354 teachers were observed using the 
Stallings Observation tool.
Table 7: Sampling for quantitative methods
Instrument Sample Size Sampling method (project 
and comparison schools)
Confidence interval 
and power
EGRA 85 schools 
(41 Treatment; 
44 Comparison)
1,123 students level 3
Up to 16 students based on 
student attendance from
Class 3 per school (if there 
was more than one Class 3, 
one was randomly selected)
95% confidence interval 
with power to detect a 
5.2% change in 
improved literacy 
outcome
Stallings 89 schools 
(43 Treatment; 
46 Comparison)
354 teachers
Up to 6 teachers selected 
from class levels 1-6, based 
on availability of teacher
For improved quality of 
instruction outcome, 
95% confidence interval 
with power to detect a 
difference of 13.9%; 
For improved student 
attentiveness outcome, 
95% confidence interval 
with power to detect a 
difference of 11.9%
DDS 85 schools 
(41 Treatment;
44 Comparison)
1,122 level 3 students
Up to 16 students based on 
student attendance from
Class 3 per school (if there 
was more than one Class 3, 
one was randomly selected)
95% confidence interval 
with power to detect a 
10.8% change in health 
and dietary practices 
outcome
For the qualitative evaluation questions, we used a purposeful sampling methodology. 
The criteria for purposeful selection was to select the most knowledgeable stakeholders 
who had active involvement in the project and could best evaluate the outcomes, 
challenges and sustainability of the ALIGN project. To collect a representative sample of 
7 Schools that were found to be unsafe due to security risks were replaced with alternate 
schools. Oversampling prior to data collection allowed us to identify replacement schools.
8 We had planned to assess the same students for the DDS and EGRA, but one student in a 
comparison school who took the EGRA refused to participate in the DDS.
Et4d ALIGN Cameroon Endline Survey Report 17
teachers, we selected teachers from various grades and different schools. Head 
teachers from different school types (public, private, Christian, etc.) were selected. For 
the parents’ focus group, we requested to speak with parents who were PTA members 
and involved in diverse project activities (kitchen, commodity management committee, 
library, school garden, etc.). In total, we interviewed one national representative, six
district stakeholders, 12 Nascent staff, and six head teachers, five teachers, and seven
parents.
Enumerator training
The enumerator training workshop for the ALIGN project took place over the course of 
six days in Kumbo from April 16-21, 2018. A total of 30 enumerators participated in the 
training supported by Et4d facilitators, ALIGN Field Agents (FAs), all of whom served as
enumerators in the baseline, and project technical staff.
The purpose of the workshop was to train enumerators on the three surveys (EGRA and 
the associated student questionnaire, Stallings, and DDS) as well as on the protocols 
and equipment to be used during data collection. Unlike the baseline, which used paper 
instruments for data collection, enumerators entered data directly onto tablets using 
Tangerine software for the three quantitative tools9.
Two school visits were organized in a nearby primary school to allow assessors to 
practice administering the tools with students and teachers, and using the technology.
During the first school visit, each enumerator practiced the EGRA and student 
questionnaire with at least five students. On the second school visit, the team practiced 
administration of the DDS and Stallings classroom observation, and performed student 
sampling protocol. 
In addition to hands-on practice with facilitator feedback and practice school visits, 
Assessor Accuracy Measurement (AAM) simulations were conducted three times for 
EGRA and once for the Stallings and the DDS in order to familiarize the enumerators 
with the process and examine their accuracy levels. A score of 90% is considered 
passing the training. On average, trainees scored 94% accuracy for EGRA and 90% for 
Stallings and DDS. A few enumerators needed more training for DDS, which was 
provided to the DDS-specific enumerators.
Training facilitators selected final enumerators, including Nascent Field Agents,
according to AAM scores, quiz results and observations. Although we had planned to 
select the best 25 enumerators, all 30 trainees were retained as enumerators for two 
reasons. First, with the intensified political unrest, there was a need to shorten the data 
collection period and increase the number of teams. Secondly, all trainees passed the 
training with high levels of accuracy scores for each instrument. Therefore, it was 
possible to increase the number of teams from five to six. The enumerators received full 
training documentation, including the training program, enumerators’ manual, and 
assessor observation checklist.
Challenges encountered. Due to heightened security risks during the training, the 
evaluation team was not able to oversee enumerator school practice. Instead, Nascent’s 
9 Using tablets eliminates the need for data entry thereby minimizing error and facilitates cleaning 
of the data.
Et4d ALIGN Cameroon Endline Survey Report 18
technical team conducted observations and provided feedback to the enumerators, while 
Et4d provided remote technical support during practice school visits and the first week of 
data collection. Additional challenges, according to trainee survey feedback and trainer 
observation, was the length and duration of the training. In order to allow every 
enumerator to experience administering all tools, it would be necessary to increase the 
number of training days. The training was successful as a result of the high standards of 
the trainees and the decision to specialize enumerators earlier than initially foreseen. 
Time for DDS survey training should also be budgeted carefully as DDS requires a lot of 
practice in order to be performed accurately.
Data collection
Fieldwork took place from April 23 through May 17 spanning four weeks. While we 
originally planned to visit 80 schools (similar to the baseline), we had to increase our 
final sample to 89 schools to reach the desired number of teachers and students due to 
high absenteeism rates. Although there were four weeks of data collection, there were 
16 effective days of actual school visits due to holidays or security risks and the need to 
replace schools.
Each team was composed of 2 enumerators for EGRA, 2 for Stallings, and 1 for DDS. 
One enumerator was designated as the supervisor for each team. In most cases, the 
supervisor was a FA, who was responsible for the Stallings observations. The supervisor 
was responsible for carrying out the introductions to Head Teachers, sampling the 
students, coordinating logistics, and providing directions to the driver.
Prior to data collection, the evaluation team leader prepared weekly schedules for each 
data collection team and assigned schools randomly. Due to increased insecurity in a 
number of schools, we had to adjust the plan frequently and select replacement schools 
in 22 instances.
During the first week of data collection, it was planned to have a Nascent or Et4d staff 
member supervise each team to assist with sampling and quality control. Due to security 
concerns for expatriate team members, Nascent staff oversaw fieldwork and ALIGN 
Field Agents served as enumerators. Their prior experience with the baseline was
instrumental to ensuring high quality control and adherence to protocols. The Nascent 
Staff continued providing additional follow-up support to supervisors and teams as 
needed with remote technical assistance from Et4d.
The data was analyzed by Et4d daily based on the school sheets completed by the 
supervisors and the data was uploaded to Tangerine Central. Daily feedback was 
communicated to the local M&E team, who relayed any data quality issue to the 
supervisors.
Challenges and Limitations
There are numerous limitations affecting endline results. One of the greatest challenges 
affecting ALIGN outcomes is the interruption in schooling that took place during the 
project. All 92 project schools in Bui Division closed for seven months (from November 
2016 to June 2017) due to teacher strikes and political unrest. This caused the 
suspension of school-based activities and school meals, which were replaced with the 
mobile reading activity and take-home food rations. Teachers who were trained during 
the summer of 2016 therefore did not have the expected two years of implementation. 
Et4d ALIGN Cameroon Endline Survey Report 19
Following a refresher training in 2017 for the first cohort and an initial training for the 
second cohort, teachers had one full year of implementation. Thus, the assessment 
does not measure consecutive classroom instruction, but interrupted teaching and 
learning in treatment schools. This could account for the low treatment effect in the 
project schools. School closures could have also affected the performance of students in 
comparison schools.
An impact-related limitation that helps to explain why there are no significant differences 
between the treatment and comparison group is the exposure to the ALIGN training to
teachers in the comparison group. During discussions with the Ministry of Basic 
Education Divisional Pedagogical unit, we learned that the Basic Education staff
replicated the ALIGN Fantastic Phonics training with all head teachers in Bui Division, 
and with all teachers at the sub-divisional level. Therefore, all teachers in comparison
schools have received similar Fantastic Phonics training as teachers in project schools. 
However, it is likely that the project school teachers received a higher quality training 
than the comparison schools since it was provided directly by the Fantastic Phonics 
trainers, rather than through a cascade model. Furthermore, comparison schools did not 
receive teaching materials and the full methodology; however, there may have been a 
spillover effect caused by teacher transfers, the mobile reading activity, and community￾based activities. It is important to bear these challenges in mind when interpreting the 
results of the literacy outcome (MDG SO1 performance indicator).
Another challenge related to data collection was reaching the desired number of 
schools, students and teachers. Because of the political unrest during the evaluation, 
about 25% of the schools selected were unsafe and therefore they had to be replaced10.
The final school sample was 89 as opposed to the targeted 80 schools. Teacher 
absenteeism, especially in comparison schools, was very high, due to the security 
situation. To reach the targeted number of teachers, we asked the team to observe all 
teachers present whenever possible to make up the difference for schools in which the 
number of teachers present was below our target number. Consequently, we observed 
two teachers in some schools and up to six teachers in other schools. 
The situation was similar for students (See Table 8). Forty percent or more of enrolled 
students were absent in about half of the schools visited. In 28 schools, there were fewer 
than 14 students (the target number) present. We tested all students in these schools, 
but fell below the target number. To address this deficit, we increased the student 
sample size from 14 to 16 students in subsequent schools. Despite these measures, by 
the end of data collection, we were below the targeted 160 Stallings observations in
comparison schools and project schools. Therefore, four additional schools were added 
to increase the number of Stallings observations. Unfortunately, we did not have enough 
replacement schools available, which were considered safe; so, in the end we were only 
able to collect 168 Stallings observations in comparison schools and 186 in project 
schools. Weighting has been applied to all datasets to control for any differences in 
probability to be selected in the sample. This statistical approach corrects the bias that is 
caused by the sample size differences.
10 A list of project and comparison schools that could serve as alternates had been identified prior 
to data collection, so we were easily able to identify replacement schools to substitute the original 
sampled schools.
Et4d ALIGN Cameroon Endline Survey Report 20
Table 8: Percentage of students absent in Class 3
Percentage of students absent Number of schools
Over 70% 6
60 to 69% 12
50 to 59% 16
40 to 49% 10
30 to 39% 12
20 to 29% 10
Less than 20% 19
Finally, it is important to note the limitations the evaluation team experienced with
conducting school visits. Due to the heightened security risks in the project areas, the 
evaluation team was unable to visit any schools during the training, piloting or data 
collection. Focus groups with head teachers, teachers and PTA representatives were 
held at the ALIGN office in Kumbo. Additionally, ALIGN selected the participants. 
Consequently, these restrictions limited our ability to randomly select participants, 
conduct school observations, and validate the data collected from focus group 
discussions. Yet, we did meet face to face with multiple head teachers and teachers, 
which could have increased the level of accountability to provide credible responses.
Data analysis
Data from each instrument was analyzed using descriptive and inferential statistics to 
formulate responses to each evaluation question. For the quantitative tools, we report on 
the proportion of students meeting the outcome performance indicators using difference￾in-difference analysis to determine the treatment effect between baseline and endline. 
We also report on EGRA mean scores and zero scores, disaggregated by school type, 
gender and geographic location; on mean times for each type of activity category
observed for the Stallings tool; as well as on the types of food consumed for DDS. 
Through examining student characteristics and EGRA mean scores, we aim to identify
factors associated with results to help explain variations in scores. Regression analysis 
of teacher and classroom factors and mean scores was conducted to identify additional 
factors associated with literacy outcomes, student off-task behavior and food 
consumption. Finally, content analysis and triangulation of results was performed to 
identify key themes and responses to the qualitative questions.
Question 1 Results and Discussion: What outcome-level changes are 
attributable to the project?
This section reports the results for each outcome indicator and instrument. Using 
difference-in-difference analysis, we determine the treatment effect between the 
baseline and endline for each outcome indicator. Difference-in-differences is a statistical 
technique that compares the average change over time in the outcome variable for the 
treatment group compared to the average change over time for the comparison group. 
The difference between these gains is the “true effect” of the program, known as the 
“treatment effect”. The treatment effect represents how much the project schools 
improved compared to the comparison schools since baseline, which is a determinant of 
the impact of the program and is attributable to project interventions. In addition, we 
provide descriptive data, such as mean scores, to describe the overall performance of 
Et4d ALIGN Cameroon Endline Survey Report 21
the target group for each indicator. Finally, we examine characteristics associated with 
expected outcomes to identify which factors are possible predictors of higher 
performance. 
EGRA Results
Proportion of students meeting improved literacy performance indicator. To
achieve the ALIGN MGD SO1 performance indicator for improved literacy, students 
must fall into one of two reading categories: reads fluently and understands or reads with 
some understanding (See Table 9). Based on the definitions of each category in Table 9, 
the minimum score for achieving the MGD SO1 indicator is an ORF score greater than 
zero and a reading comprehension score of 40% correct.
Table 9: Definition of MGD performance Indicator for improved literacy
Reading Categories ORF 
Score
Reading 
Comprehension score
Meets ALIGN SO1 
indicator
Reads fluently and 
understands
≥35 cwpm ≥ 60% correct
Reads with some 
understanding
> 0 ≥ 40% correct of 
questions attempted
Does not meet 
ALIGN SO1
indicator
Read some words, but 
didn’t understand
> 0 < 40% correct of 
questions attempted 
Cannot read 0 N/A
At endline, 10.9% of students (95% CI(7.6, 15.3)) achieved the MGD SO1 indicator in 
project schools compared to 9.3% (95% CI(5.9, 14.2)) in comparison schools (See 
Figure 1). This is an increase from the baseline results, in which 7.5% of pupils met the 
benchmark. Project schools showed an average of 1.9% more improvement since 
baseline compared to the comparison schools. The difference-in-difference treatment 
effect is estimated at 0.019 and is not statistically significant (p = 0.716).
The results in Figure 1 show that the majority of students, 73% in both project and 
comparison schools, cannot read. There is no significant improvement over the baseline 
results, which showed 75% of students unable to read, 16.7% reading some words, but 
did not understand, and 7.4% reading with some understanding. We do see slightly
higher results in the percentage of students who can read fluently and understand (0.1% 
at baseline compared to 2.2% in comparison schools and 1.5% in project schools). 
Overall, the treatment effect of the project and improvement in reading is quite low. 
There are many explanatory factors contributing to these results. Chief among them, as 
mentioned in the limitations section, are school closures from November 2016 through 
June 2017 due to teacher strikes, the divisional basic education unit replicating the 
Fantastic Phonics methodology in comparison schools, and the spillover effect of 
bringing books home from the mobile reading activity, which could have reached 
students in comparison schools.
Et4d ALIGN Cameroon Endline Survey Report 22
Figure 1: EGRA results by reading category
73.1%
73.1%
17.7%
16.0%
7.8%
8.7%
1.5%
2.2%
0% 20% 40% 60% 80% 100%
Project
Comparison
Cannot read
Read some words, but didn't understand
Read with some understanding
Read fluently and understands
Et4d ALIGN Cameroon Endline Survey Report 23
Proportion meeting literacy indicator by gender. At endline, 7% of boys in project 
schools (95% CI (4.0,12.1)) met the MGD S01 indicator compared to 4.9% of boys (95% 
CI), (2.8, 8.1)) in comparison schools. For girls, this proportion is 14.8% in project 
schools (95% CI(10.0, 21.1)) and 13.3% in comparison schools (95% CI(8.2,20.8)). 
There were 10% more boys and 9% more girls in the project schools who met the 
indicator since the baseline11. 
Figure 2: Proportion of students meeting literacy indicator by gender
11 The difference-in-difference treatment effect for boys is 0.100 and is not significant (p=0.179.) 
For girls, the treatment effect is 0.093 and is not significant (p=0.303).
14.8%
7.0%
13.3%
4.9%
0%
10%
20%
30%
40%
50%
Female Male
Project Comparison Target
Et4d ALIGN Cameroon Endline Survey Report 24
Proportion meeting literacy indicator by geographic location. Kumbo is the largest 
town of Bui division and tends to have a more peri-urban landscape than other project 
sites, which are primarily rural. Because of this geographical difference and assumption
that students in urban areas tend to perform better than their rural counterparts, we 
separated results by students within Kumbo and students outside of Kumbo. Within 
Kumbo, 21.5% of students in project schools (95% CI(13.4,32.6)) reached the MGD S01 
indicator compared to 12.2% in comparison schools (95% CI(6.1, 23.1)). Outside of 
Kumbo, 6.9% of students (95% CI(4.5, 10.4)) in project schools and 7.6% of students in 
comparison schools (95% CI(4.1,13.4)) achieved the literacy indicator. Therefore, a 
greater proportion of students within Kumbo met the benchmark than students in schools 
outside of Kumbo, and the treatment effect was greatest for project schools inside 
Kumbo. Within Kumbo, 29% more students (0.291 treatment effect) met the indicator at 
endline and it was statistically significant (p = .032). Meanwhile, only 4.3% more 
students met the indicator in schools outside of Kumbo (p=.495).
Figure 3: Proportion of students meeting literacy indicator by geographic location
6.9%
21.5%
7.6%
12.2%
0%
10%
20%
30%
40%
50%
Outside of Kumbo Kumbo
Project Comparison Target
Et4d ALIGN Cameroon Endline Survey Report 25
Proportion of students meeting literacy indicator by school type. Figure 4 shows no 
consistent patterns emerged from the results by school type. Among private schools, the 
ALIGN-supported schools performed better than comparison schools. Within 
government schools, the comparison schools performed better than project schools. 
There is no evidence to support the perception that private schools perform better than 
public schools.
Figure 4: Proportion of students meeting literacy indicator by school type: private vs. public
15.6%
7.7% 7.5%
12.7%
0%
10%
20%
30%
40%
50%
Private Public
Project Comparison Target
Et4d ALIGN Cameroon Endline Survey Report 26
Mean Scores 
Figure 5 provides a snapshot of the EGRA mean fluency scores for all schools sampled 
at endline. There were no significant differences in performance between the project and 
comparison groups. Both groups were better able to identify letter sounds than letter 
names. Both groups scored very low on the decoding (nonword) subtask and oral 
reading fluency subtask, indicating the majority of students have low fluency and 
decoding skills. 
The results for comprehension in Figure 6 were similar with both groups scoring equally 
low. Students comprehended an average of 3.8% of questions asked in the project 
group and 3.2% in the comparison group. Listening comprehension scores were higher 
for both groups, with each group answering an average of one-third of questions 
correctly. However, this is still quite low for class 3 considering listening comprehension 
is a pre-requisite to reading. The treatment group showed a 49% improvement in letter 
name and oral reading fluency at endline, and a 22% improvement in reading 
comprehension, but the results were not statistically significant12. Performance of the 
treatment group declined since baseline on two subtasks, in nonword (-38%) and letter 
sound (-33.6%).
12 Difference-in-difference treatment effect: Letter name (effect=0.493, p=0.600), Letter sound 
(effect=-0.336, p=.775), Nonword (effect=-0.382, p=.677), ORF (effect=0.490, p=0.450), Reading 
Comprehension (effect=-0.220, p=.758), Listening Comprehension (effect=3.173, p=.147).
Et4d ALIGN Cameroon Endline Survey Report 27
Figure 5: Project and comparison mean fluency scores (correct letters/words per minute)
Figure 6: Project and comparison mean comprehension scores (percent correct)
3.8%
34.2%
3.2%
33.8%
0%
10%
20%
30%
40%
50%
Reading Comprehension Listening Comprehension
Project Comparison
10.6
15.4
4.6 4.8
10.0
17.3
4.2 4.3
0
5
10
15
20
25
30
Letter Name Letter Sound Nonword Oral Reading
Fluency
Project Comparison
Et4d ALIGN Cameroon Endline Survey Report 28
Zero Scores
The proportion of students scoring zero on each EGRA subtask is illustrated in Figure 7. 
With 73% of students in both groups unable to read a single word of a story in the Oral 
Reading Fluency subtask, it is no surprise that many students across both groups could 
not complete many of the other subtasks. As illustrated, the proportion of zero scores in 
the project group ranged from 29.9% on listening comprehension to 88.6% in reading 
comprehension. Results for the comparison group were similar with zero scores ranging 
from 23.9% on letter sound to 90.4% on reading comprehension. Over 70% of students 
in both groups were unable to decode one unfamiliar word on the non-word subtask, 
which helps to explain the low oral reading fluency and reading comprehension scores. 
There was little improvement on the non-word and ORF subtasks since baseline13; and, 
an additional 9.2% of students in project schools scored zero at endline for the letter 
sound subtask. This result could be explained by the schools closures that took place 
during the project and could have caused learning regression.
Figure 7: Proportion of students scoring zero on each EGRA subtask
13 Difference-in-difference treatment effect: letter name (effect=.019, p=.634), letter sound 
(effect=.092, p=.012), nonword (effect=-0.026, p=.441), orf (effect=-0.026, p=.441), reading 
comprehension (effect=-0.029, p=0.207), listening comprehension (effect=0.029, p=0.433).
Letter
Name
Letter
Sound Nonword
Oral
Reading
Fluency
Reading
Comprehen
sion
Listening
Comprehen
sion
Project 48.9% 33.2% 70.9% 73.1% 88.6% 29.9%
Comparison 52.7% 23.9% 72.3% 73.0% 90.4% 24.9%
0%
10%
20%
30%
40%
50%
60%
70%
80%
90%
100%
Proportion Scoring Zero
Et4d ALIGN Cameroon Endline Survey Report 29
Discussion on factors associated with EGRA scores
Using variables identified at baseline, we examined the relationship of EGRA scores with 
the following factors: gender, age, school type, home language, school location, 
household poverty score, and home literacy environment. There were stark and 
statistically significant differences in scores in relation to gender, age and parental 
literacy (described in detail below). Pupils whose home language was English had 
higher mean scores across all subtasks and a lower percentage of zero scores although 
there were no statistically significant differences. Similar to the indicator achievement 
results, the geographic location of the school was associated with EGRA scores. Pupils 
in schools within Kumbo had notably higher mean scores and lower zero scores.
Students in the wealthiest quintile performed considerably better than students in other 
quintiles, while only listening comprehension was statistically significant. Other variables 
that showed positive relationships with mean scores, but not significant differences was 
eating before school, having time to read at home, and having reading materials at 
home. There were no significant trends with results by school type (public versus private 
schools) or for students who had homework help. Pupils who had time to read at home 
read 16.9 correct letter sounds per minute (clspm) while those who did not read 6.9 
clspm, and the difference was statistically significant.
Pupil gender. Similar to baseline results, pupil gender was found to be highly significant 
across all fluency timed tests. As Figure 8 illustrates, female pupils had consistently 
higher mean scores on letter name, letter sounds, non-word and oral reading fluency. 
The differences between female and male fluency scores were statistically significant. 
Girls also had a consistently lower percentage of zero scores compared to boys. At 
baseline, there were fewer girls enrolled in school, but girls who attended performed 
better than male counterparts. The endline results also found that female students are 
acquiring foundational literacy skills as a faster rate than male students. With regards to 
comprehension scores, there were no statistically significant differences between 
genders (similar to baseline results).
Figure 8: Mean scores by gender
15.2
20.2
6.5 7 6.2
10.7
2.8 2.7
0
5
10
15
20
25
Letter Name* Letter Sound* Nonword* Oral Reading
Fluency
Female Male
Et4d ALIGN Cameroon Endline Survey Report 30
A significant relationship exists between the age of the student and EGRA scores. The 
mean scores of students who were within the Grade 3 age range (7-9 years old) were 
significantly higher than students above or below the Grade 3 age. Students aged 7-9
read over twice as many letter names and letter sounds, and four times as many words 
and non-words as overage students (10+). Students within Grade 3 age range 
comprehended 5.2% of comprehension questions compared to 0.8% of comprehension 
questions among overage students. The differences were statistically significant for all 
subtasks, except for Listening Comprehension.
Figure 9: Mean scores by school-age of student
12.4
18.4
5.9 6.3 5.1
37.7
7.8 9.4
1.8 1.5 0.8
28.5
0
5
10
15
20
25
30
35
40
At grade level (7-9 yrs) Beyond expected grade level
Et4d ALIGN Cameroon Endline Survey Report 31
Parental literacy. Pupils with a mother or father who can read scored significantly 
higher across all EGRA subtasks (See Figures 10 and 11). For students with fathers 
who can read, the greatest differences were on the letter sound subtask (+8.5 clspm) 
and in listening comprehension, (+20.9 percentage points). Students with mothers who 
could read showed similar gains across all subtasks, averaging an increase of 9.3 letter 
sounds and 18.7 percentage points higher in listening comprehension than students with 
mothers who could not read. The scores for father literacy were statistically significant 
for all subtasks, while for mother literacy they were statistically significant for all timed 
fluency subtasks (letter name, letter sound, nonword and oral reading fluency).
Figure 10: Mean scores by father literacy
Figure 11: Mean scores by mother literacy
11.7
16.8
5.2 5.6 4.4
37.5
5.4
8.3
2.2 1.4 1
16.6
0
5
10
15
20
25
30
35
40
Father can read Father can't read
11.6
16.5
5.2 5.5 4.4
36.6
3.5
7.2
0.6 0.4 0
17.9
0
5
10
15
20
25
30
35
40
Mother can read Mother can't read
Et4d ALIGN Cameroon Endline Survey Report 32
The regression coefficients in Table 10 further demonstrate the strong correlation 
between parental literacy and EGRA scores. Based on regression analysis controlling 
for differences in gender, students with a literate mother or father read 3.3 more words 
per minute on the oral reading fluency (ORF) subtask and correctly answered 2.5% 
more comprehension questions. Grade 3-aged (7-9 years) also showed positive 
correlations with ORF and comprehension scores. Students between ages of 7-9 read 
2.5 more cwpm and comprehended 2% more than overage or underage students. The 
number of books checked out of the library did not show any substantial effect on 
fluency or comprehension scores. 
Table 10: Regression coefficients14 for fluency and comprehension 
Variable ORF Reading Comprehension
Coefficients 95% CI Coefficients 95% CI
In age (7-9 yrs) 2.48 1.04, 3.92 2.04 0.59, 3.49
Father can read 3.35 1.56, 5.14 2.66 0.83, 4.48
Mother can read 3.25 1,18, 5.31 2.43 0.34, 4.52
Number of 
books check￾out*
0.98 0.21, 1.75 0.51 -0.20, 1.22
*Effect of this variable has been controlled for gender, SES, help with homework and 
school type.
The number of books checked out of the mobile reading activity was positively correlated 
with fluency scores. For every book checked out of the mobile library, fluency scores 
increased by 0.98 correct words per minute. This small increase could be due to the 
level of the books that were provided. Parents reported that the level of difficulty of the 
books was too high for Class 2 and Class 3 students, which may have impacted their 
ability to read the books. In fact, parents reported that they were more suitable for older 
siblings, but continued to check out books. When ALIGN received this feedback, they 
trained librarians to review the level of books and attempted to provide more age￾appropriate materials; however, there may not have been a sufficient quantity of 
materials or time to see impact on reading fluency levels.
The treatment effect of the program was quite low (1.9% improvement since baseline) 
due to several limitations beyond the project’s control. Therefore, it is no surprise that 
the factors associated with improved literacy outcomes --school-age, gender, parental 
literacy, and geographic location-- are factors that existed prior to the project and are not 
related to ALIGN interventions. With more refresher training and follow up coaching, 
uninterrupted schooling (including summer catch-up programs), and appropriate reading 
materials, literacy results could be improved in future programs.
Stallings Survey Results
Proportion of teachers meeting the MGD 1.1 improved quality of instruction
indicator. Based on research of effective classrooms, which found that effective 
learning takes place when teachers spend at least 50% of classroom time on active 
teaching, the MGD 1.1 indicator for improved quality of instruction is defined as the 
14 All regression coefficients have been controlled for gender differences in performance.
Et4d ALIGN Cameroon Endline Survey Report 33
percent of teachers engaged in “active instruction” for 50%+ of classroom time (See 
methodology section for definition of “active instruction”). 
Figure 12 shows the proportion of teachers in project and comparison schools meeting 
the improved quality of instruction indicator based on Stallings survey results. At endline, 
39% (95% CI (32.2, 45.4)) of project schools teachers met this indicator compared to 
44% of teachers (95% CI(35.8, 52.2)) in comparison schools. There was a significant 
decline in the quality of teaching in project schools compared to baseline results, which 
showed 52% of project schools meeting the standard indicator. Meanwhile, the 
comparison group improved from 37.3% at baseline to 44% at endline, an increase of 
6.7%.
As a result, the difference-in-difference treatment effect was -15% (-0.154) and is 
significant (p=0.031). Despite refresher trainings, the school closures likely explain this 
negative result in project schools. In comparison schools, the improvement from 
baseline to endline (from 37.3% to 44%) could be a result of the replication of the ALIGN 
training in comparison schools by the Bui divisional basic education staff as well as 
transfer of ALIGN teachers to non-ALIGN schools. It is important to note that these 
results are based on a single classroom observation and the subjects and level of the 
classes varied. Thus, the results could vary depending on the period, subject, grade or 
other factors.
Figure 12: Proportion of teachers meeting quality of instruction indicator
Stallings results by teaching activity. Four types of classroom activities were 
observed during Stallings snapshot observations: 1) active teaching, 2) passive 
teaching, 3) classroom management, and 4) teacher off-task. The percentage of 
38.6%
43.8%
0%
10%
20%
30%
40%
50%
Project Comparison
Meet MGD 1.1 Indicator
Et4d ALIGN Cameroon Endline Survey Report 34
classroom time devoted to each activity by school type is shown in Figure 13. Both 
project and comparison schools spent over 80% of the time on active teaching or 
classroom management. Comparison schools spent a slightly higher percentage of time 
on active teaching (43% compared to 41% for project schools), while project schools 
spent more time on classroom management (45% versus 40% for the comparison 
schools). Passive teaching was rarely observed in both types of schools, but was more 
often observed in comparison schools than in project schools. Unlike the baseline which 
found teachers off-task six percent of the time in both school types, there were 
significantly more teachers off-task at endline with a higher proportion in comparison 
schools (10.1 off-task) compared to project schools (8% off-task).
Figure 13: Stallings results by teaching activity
40.9%
42.7%
5.7%
7.3%
45.4%
39.8%
8.0%
10.1%
0% 20% 40% 60% 80% 100%
Project
Comparison
Active teaching Passive teaching Teacher classroom management Teacher off-task
Et4d ALIGN Cameroon Endline Survey Report 35
Percent of classroom time devoted to active teaching by activity
While the differences in classroom instruction time devoted to active teaching were not 
significant between project and comparison schools, there were some differences in 
types of activities teachers most often engaged in (See Figure 14). Teachers in the 
project group spent 15% of active instruction time on discussion and 10% of the time on 
practice and drill. Meanwhile, teachers in comparison schools spent 14% of the time on 
discussion and 15% on practice and drill. There were no significant differences on time 
spent on demonstration/lecture and reading aloud. Reading aloud, which is one of the 
most effective early grade reading strategies, accounted for 4% of active instruction time
in both school types. About 50% of teachers observed were in the early grades (1-3) and 
of these, 35% used a read aloud strategy during the observation, while 28.8% of 
teachers in later grades used read aloud as a strategy.
Figure 14: Percent of classroom time devoted to each active teaching activity
4.4% 4.3%
10.9% 9.3%
15.2%
13.6%
10.3% 15.3%
0%
5%
10%
15%
20%
25%
30%
35%
40%
45%
Project Comparison
Practice & Drill
Discussion/ Q&A
Demonstration / Lecture
Reading aloud
Et4d ALIGN Cameroon Endline Survey Report 36
Percent of classroom time devoted to classroom management
The classroom management category includes the composite activities highlighted in 
Figure 15. The most common activity observed in project schools was classroom 
management alone, representing 19% of observations. This includes activities in which 
no pupils are involved such as lesson planning, organizing the classroom and grading 
assignments. Classroom management involving pupils was the second most common 
activity observed in project schools accounting for 17.8% of snapshots. This can include 
distributing materials, facilitating clapping or songs intended to maintain order, and other 
similar activities. These two activities were also most commonly observed in comparison 
schools with 16.5% of the time spent on classroom management alone and 17.6% of 
classroom time spent on classroom management involving pupils. Seven percent of 
classroom time in project schools and 4% in comparison schools were spent on giving 
verbal directions to pupils, while less than 2% of classroom time was spent on 
disciplining students.
Figure 15: Time devoted to classroom management by activity
6.8% 4.2%
1.7%
1.6%
17.8%
17.6%
19.1%
16.5%
0%
5%
10%
15%
20%
25%
30%
35%
40%
45%
50%
Project Comparison
Classroom management alone
Classroom management
Discipline
Verbal directions
Et4d ALIGN Cameroon Endline Survey Report 37
Percent of classroom time devoted to off-task behavior
Endline results found a substantial percentage of teachers off-task in both project and 
comparison schools. As Figure 16 demonstrates, the majority of this off-task time is 
spent with the teacher outside of the classroom. At baseline, 3% of classroom time was 
spent with the teacher outside of the room. This number has doubled at endline with 6% 
of classroom time in project schools and 7% in comparison schools spent with teachers 
outside of the classroom. Teacher social interaction was lower than or similar to baseline 
levels. While 2.7% of classroom instruction time was spent on teacher social interaction
at baseline, at endline the figures were 1.8% in project schools and 2.6% in comparison 
schools.
One reason teachers were “outside of the classroom” was to instruct other classes in 
multigrade classrooms or adjoining classrooms. Although they were still teaching, they 
were recorded as “teacher outside of the classroom” for the classroom being observed, 
following baseline protocol. Based on this finding, the significant increase in percentage 
of teachers outside of the classroom at endline could potentially be due to an increase in 
the number of multigrade classes. Multigrade classes existed in 25% of classrooms 
observed15. In multigrade classes, 48% of teachers were outside of the classroom 
compared to mono-grade teachers in which 28% were found outside of the classroom.
Figure 16: Percent of classroom time devoted to off-task behavior
15 Data on multigrade classes was not collected at baseline; so, it is not possible to determine 
whether there was an actual increase since baseline. However, it is likely given the high 
proportion of student and teacher absences, resulting in smaller class sizes and fewer teachers to 
manage multiple classes.
0.4% 0.4%
1.8% 2.6%
5.8%
7.1%
0%
2%
4%
6%
8%
10%
12%
Project Comparison
Teacher out of the room
Teacher social interaction or teacher uninvolved
Social Interaction
Et4d ALIGN Cameroon Endline Survey Report 38
Discussion of factors associated with improved quality of instruction. Regression 
analysis of teacher characteristics with improved quality of instruction results did not 
reveal any statistically significant findings (See Annex B). However, it appears that 
permanent private school teachers, grade 2 teachers and classrooms with higher mean 
attendance ratios were variables that had a greater probability of meeting the indicator. 
Teachers trained in the Fantastic Phonics approach showed a 28% greater probability of 
meeting the indicator compared to those not trained. These factors are not strong 
predictors of meeting the outcome indicator.
Proportion of classrooms meeting the MGD 1.2 improved student attentiveness 
indicator. Based on the amount of classroom time in which more than five students 
were off-task (MGD 1.2 performance indicator), the endline results in Figure 17 show no 
significant differences between project and comparison schools (similar to baseline 
results). At baseline, 33.1%% of classrooms in project schools and 29.8% of comparison 
schools met the indicator. At endline, the off-task standard was met in 16.8% (95% 
CI(13.2, 23.1)) of classrooms observed in project schools, and in 16.4% (95% CI(12.1, 
20.6)) of classrooms in comparison schools. The difference-in-difference treatment effect 
is -0.026 and is not statistically significant (p=0.492), which means the project schools 
performed 2.6% lower than comparison schools between baseline and endline.
Figure 17:Proportion of classrooms meeting student attentiveness indicator
16.8% 16.4%
0%
20%
40%
60%
80%
100%
Project Comparison
Meet MGD 1.2 Indicator
Et4d ALIGN Cameroon Endline Survey Report 39
Proportion of pupils off-task by activity. Three types of pupil activities are considered 
off-task: discipline, pupil uninvolved and social interaction. It is possible to observe 
several different types of off-task behavior simultaneously in any given classroom. 
Figure 18 shows off-task behavior separated by activity. The results are similar in both 
project and comparison schools. In both school types, social interactions were observed 
in 12% of observations, while pupils were uninvolved in 7-9% of classroom observations. 
Discipline was observed 1% of the time in project schools and 0.7% of classroom time in 
comparison schools.
Figure 18: Pupil off-task behavior by activity16
16 Note: The total exceeds the total percentage of time off-task since students performed more 
than one off-task activity during the classroom observation. 
12.3% 11.7%
7.3% 8.7%
1.0% 0.7%
0%
5%
10%
15%
20%
25%
Project Comparison
Discipline
Pupil Uninvolved
Social Interaction
Et4d ALIGN Cameroon Endline Survey Report 40
Discussion of factors associated with student off-task behavior. Based on 
regression analysis of all activities in the Stallings classroom observation snapshot, 
several teaching techniques were found to be statistically and positively correlated to 
rates of pupil off-task behavior. Active teaching in general, and more specifically, reading 
aloud, demonstration and discussion teaching methods, were all associated with
reduced rates of pupil off-task behavior. As illustrated in Table 11, all active teaching 
activities were associated with a 3.0 - 3.5 percent reduction in pupil off-task behavior. 
Conversely, classroom management and teacher being outside of the classroom were 
associated with higher rates of pupil off-task behavior. A ten percentage point increase 
in teacher out of the room or uninvolved is associated with a 2.9 percent increase in 
pupils off-task. These findings echo results from the baseline study.
Table 11: Predictors of pupil off-task behavior
Predictors of pupil off-task behavior Coefficient p-value
Active teaching -0.032 <0.000
Reading Aloud -0.035 0.018
Demonstration -0.029 0.001
Discussion -0.035 <0.000
Practice & Drill -0.007 0.357
Assignment/Seat work -0.003 0.135
Copying -0.004 0.202
Verbal direction -0.041 0.005
Discipline 0.141 <0.000
Classroom Management 0.028 <0.000
Teacher out of the room 0.029 0.008
None of the student and teacher demographic variables analyzed were found to 
significantly influence student attentiveness (See Annex B). Thus, it appears teacher 
gender, class size, teacher school tenure, teacher, teacher training background, teacher 
place of origin, prevalence of teaching and learning aids and other classroom factors 
have little impact on pupil off-task behavior. While active teaching methods appear to 
have a positive correlation with on-task behavior, the relationship is quite small. 
Teachers’ off-task behavior may have also influenced students’ off-task behavior. More 
research is necessary to determine the best method for addressing off- task behavior of 
teachers and students.
Dietary Diversity Survey (DDS) Results
Proportion of students meeting ALIGN MGD SO2 Minimum Acceptable Diet 
indicator. In order to meet the ALIGN MGD SO2 minimum acceptable diet indicator, 
both the minimum frequency (3 or more feedings) and minimum diet diversity (4 or more 
food groups) must be met. 
Table 12 shows the proportion of pupils consuming a minimum acceptable diet based on 
DDS results. The proportion of pupils meeting the indicator at baseline was 69% in both 
project and comparison schools. At endline, this proportion increased to 75% for project 
schools and decreased slightly to 67% in comparison schools. The difference-in￾difference treatment effect is 0.87 and this is statistically significant (p=0.020), meaning 
that there are 8.7% more students in project schools consuming a minimum acceptable 
diet as a result of the ALIGN school-feeding program.
Et4d ALIGN Cameroon Endline Survey Report 41
Table 12: Proportion of pupils consuming a minimum acceptable diet
Project 95% CI Comparison 95% CI
Pupils with 
minimum 
Acceptable 
Diet
75.2% (70.0,79.7) 67.4% (62.1,72.4)
Female 
(n=556)
73.1% (66.5,78.7) 65.0% (57.7,71.7)
Male (n=565) 77.3% (70.7,82.7) 69.7% (61.9,76.5)
Proportion of students meeting minimum meal frequency. Per the results in Table 
13, over 90% of students in both school types met the minimum meal frequency 
requirement, defined as 3 or more feedings of solid, semi-solid or soft food daily. A 
higher percentage of females met the indicator in the comparison group versus the 
treatment group, but this difference was not statistically. There was no difference in the 
meal frequency of males in both groups.
Table 13: Proportion of pupils meeting the minimum meal frequency
Project 95% CI Comparison 95% CI
Pupils having 
3 or more 
food daily
91.1% (87.1,94.1) 94.3% (91.4,96.3)
Female 
(n=556)
88.9% (83.1,92.9) 95.2% (92.1,97.1)
Male (n=565) 93.4% (88.7,96.2) 93.3% (89.3,95.9)
Proportion of students meeting food group diversity requirements. As illustrated in 
Table 14, a significantly higher proportion of pupils in project schools met the food 
diversity requirements than pupils in the comparison group. In project schools, 80.5% of 
pupils ate four or more food groups compared to 69.4% of pupils in comparison schools. 
Girls and boys in project schools showed similar trends with 79% of girls and 80% of 
boys meeting the indicator compared to 70.9% of girls and 67.8% of boys in comparison 
schools. This difference is only statistically significant for boys.
Table 14: Proportion of students meeting food group diversity requirements.
Project 95% CI Comparison 95% CI
Pupils having 
4 or more 
food groups
80.5% (75.8,84.4) 69.4% (64.4,73.9)
Female 
(n=556)
79.9% (74.1,84.7) 70.9% (63.1,77.5)
Male (n=565) 81.0% (75.4,85.6) 67.8% (61.6,73.4)
Mean number of food groups and meals consumed. According to the endline results 
in Table 15, pupils consumed an average of 4 food groups and ate three times a day. At 
baseline, students in both school types consumed 4.5 food groups and 3 meals daily. 
Hence, there was no significant change between baseline and endline results.
Et4d ALIGN Cameroon Endline Survey Report 42
Results in Table 16 show no notable differences between the project and comparison 
schools for either indicator. Pupils who identified their consumption as normal (e.g., a 
typical day’s consumption) in project schools ate 4.5 food groups and consumed 3.4 
meals, while students in comparison schools consumed 4.4 food groups and 3.5 meals. 
Pupils who described their previous day’s consumption as abnormal (e.g., unusual) ate 
3.2 food groups and consumed 2.8 meals in project schools, and 3 food groups and 3.1 
meals in comparison schools. There were no differences in consumption by gender.
Table 15: Mean number of food groups and meals consumed
Project 
Mean
95% CI Comparison
Mean
95% CI
Foods groups consumed 4.1 (4.0,4.2) 3.9 (3.8,4.1)
Pupils with normal 4.5 (4.4,5.5) 4.4 (4.3,4.5)
Pupils with abnormal 3.2 (3.1,3.4) 3.0 (2.9,3.1)
Female (n=556) 4.2 (4.0,4.3) 4.0 (3.9,4.2)
Male (n=565) 4.1 (4.0,4.2) 3.9 (3.8,4.0)
Consumption occurrences 3.3 (3.1,3.4) 3.4 (3.3,3.5)
Pupils with normal 3.4 (3.3,3.5) 3.5 (3.4,3.6)
Pupils with abnormal 2.8 (2.6,3.0) 3.1 (3.0,3.3)
Female (n=556) 3.2 (3.1,3.3) 3.4 (3.3,3.6)
Male (n=565) 3.3 (3.2,3.4) 3.3 (3.2,3.4)
Types of food groups consumed. According to the nine types of food groups in Figure 
19, the most commonly eaten food groups were starchy staples, yellow or orange flesh 
foods, dark leafy greens, other fruits and vegetables, and legumes, nuts and seeds. 
Similar to baseline results, more than 60% of students consumed foods from each 
category. Also similar to baseline results, the least common food groups eaten were 
milk, eggs and organ meats.
Figure 19:Food group consumption
0%
10%
20%
30%
40%
50%
60%
70%
80%
90%
100%
Starchy
staples
Yellow or
orange
flesh
foods
Dark
leafy
greens
Other
fruits and
veg
Legumes,
nuts,
seeds
Flesh
meats
and fish
Milk Eggs Organ
meats
Any consumption Standardized consumption
Et4d ALIGN Cameroon Endline Survey Report 43
Discussion of factors associated with minimum acceptable diet. According to 
results of regression analysis in Table 17, no factor was found to be a significant 
predictor of pupils meeting the indicator. In this sample, the odds of boys having a 
minimum acceptable diet were about 20% less than girls. Students living in Kumbo had 
a 27.9% higher probability of having a minimum acceptable diet than students outside of 
Kumbo. Students who were within school age (7-9) had a 1% lower probability of 
meeting the indicator compared to older or younger students, which implies the 
differences are insignificant. The analysis did not reveal any relationship with school 
type, pupil class level, wealth, or whether the pupil had a normal day of consumption.
Table 16: Predictors of pupils who have a minimum acceptable diet
Predictors of pupils who have the minimum acceptable 
diet
Coefficient 
Odds ratio
p-value
Boys 0.798 0.278
Live in Kumbo 1.279 0.407
Age of the student 0.998 0.688
Question 2 Results and Discussion: For each selected indicator, how much 
progress has been made against the baseline targets?
Based on endline results in Table 18, the ALIGN project exceeded the targets for the two 
strategic objectives and outcome indicators: (SO1) improved literacy and (SO2) 
increased use of health and dietary practices. Simultaneously, ALIGN performed below 
the target for improved quality of instruction and improved student attentiveness.
The ALIGN project aimed to improve literacy of school-age children from 7.5% meeting 
the indicator to 9% at the end of the project for MGD SO1. At endline, 10.8% achieved 
the literacy outcome, thus surpassing the target by 1.8%. For the improved quality of 
instruction outcome, the project aimed to engage 63% of teachers in “active instruction” 
for 50%+ of classroom time. At endline, only 39% of teachers met the target, which is a 
significant decline in teacher performance since the baseline (52%). This unexpected
result could be explained by the school closures that took place between November
2016 and June 2017, and the lag time between teacher training and implementation of 
the new teaching methods. Additionally, multigrade classes further impact teachers’ 
ability to stay engaged in active instruction for half of the class period.
For MGD 1.2 improved student attentiveness, the targeted percentage of classroom time 
in which more than five students were off-task was 6%. The proportion of classrooms 
meeting this indicator was 31% at baseline and 17% at endline. Thus, although the 
project missed the target, there was significant improvement in student attentiveness by 
the end of the project.
The project also exceeded the MGD SO2 target (74%) by 1.2%, with 75.2% of school￾aged children receiving a minimum acceptable diet at endline compared to 69% of 
students at baseline. 
Et4d ALIGN Cameroon Endline Survey Report 44
Table 17: Endline results against targets and baseline for outcome indicators
Standard Outcome Performance Indicator Target Baseline Endline
MGD SO1 
Standard 
24
Improved 
Literacy of 
School-Age 
Children
Percent of students who, by 
the end of two grades of 
primary schooling, 
demonstrate that they can 
read and understand the 
meaning of grade level text 
9% 7.5% 10.8%
MGD 1.1 
Custom 1
Improved Quality 
of Instruction
Percent of teachers engaged 
in “active instruction” for 50%+ 
of classroom time 
63% 52% 39%
MGD 1.2 
Custom 4
Improved Student 
Attentiveness
Percent of classroom time in 
which 5 or fewer students are 
“off-task”
6% 31% 17%
MGD SO2 
Standard 
23
Increased Use of 
Health and 
Dietary Practices
Percent of school-aged 
children receiving a minimum 
acceptable diet
74% 69% 75.2%
Table 19 shows endline results for eight output performance indicators. The endline 
results, with the exception of MGD Standard 5 (which is based on the final evaluation 
data collection), are all from project monitoring data. Based on the data provided by 
ALIGN, the project met or exceeded all targets. 
MGD Standard indicators 3, 9, 18 and Custom indicators 7, 10 and 11. For outputs 
related to increasing knowledge and skills of school and community members, the 
project exceeded the targets. This was accomplished through involving the broader 
community in their training and awareness-raising activities. According to interviews with 
Nascent staff, “the school community was enthusiastic and engaged with our trainings 
more than we anticipated” (especially, for health, nutrition and hygiene trainings). For 
example, the project targeted 3,456 people to train in child health and nutrition and 
culminated with 13,039 persons trained.
MGD Standard 5 indicator. ALIGN fell short of meeting this indicator, which is 
measured by the percentage of teachers demonstrating improved quality of instruction 
(active instruction for 50%+ of classroom time). Of the 648 teachers targeted, 230 (35%) 
meet the standard. This is partially due to a reduction in the number of teachers in 
ALIGN schools. In 2016-2017, there was an average of 725 teachers in ALIGN schools. 
However, due to the political unrest and insecurity, some teachers transferred to schools 
in safer areas, reducing the teacher count to about 550 in May 2018. Another 
explanation, also noted above for the MGD 1.1 standard indicator, is due to school 
closures, which created lag time between the training and implementation, as well as 
disruption in teaching and learning. Lastly, ALIGN’s training implementation focused 
heavily on class 1-3 teachers, as research demonstrates these are the most crucial 
grades for early grade reading development.
Custom 5 indicator. In relation to this indicator, all 92 schools were very active in 
organizing after-school literacy activities. The project monitored whether schools had 
book clubs, reading competitions, after-school tutoring and other activities (mobile 
Et4d ALIGN Cameroon Endline Survey Report 45
reading activity). Reading clubs were established by trained library assistants and are 
functional in all 92 project schools. The reading clubs are well equipped with books 
through the mobile reading activity. The mobile reading activity, which was initiated in 
March 2017 to address school closures, saw a marked increase in participation. 
Following a slow launch in March 2017, by the end of March 2018, there were 14,789 
students participating, representing 81% of all students enrolled in ALIGN schools. 
Additionally, reading competitions have been carried out in all 92 ALIGN schools, and 
276 school reading champions were competing in sub-divisional competitions at the time 
of the evaluation. One champion in each division and class (levels 1-3) will be selected.
Table 18: Endline results against targets and baseline for selected output indicators
Standard Output Performance Indicator Target Baseline Endline
MGD 
Standard 3
Increased skill 
and 
knowledge 
among school 
administrators
Number of school 
administrators who 
demonstrate use of new 
techniques as a result of 
USDA assistance
156 0 271
MGD 
Standard 5
Improved skill 
and 
knowledge 
among 
teachers
Number of teachers who 
demonstrate use of new 
and quality teaching 
techniques or tools as a 
result of USDA assistance
648 0 230
MGD 
Standard 9
Increased 
engagement 
of local orgs. 
and 
community 
groups
Number of Parent-Teacher 
Associations or similar 
school governance 
structures supported as a 
result of USDA assistance
92 0 92
MGD 
Standard 
18
Increased 
knowledge of 
good nutrition 
practices
Number of people trained 
in child health and nutrition 
as a result of USDA 
assistance
3,456 0 13,039
Custom 5 Increased 
extracurricular 
activities
Number of schools 
organizing after-school 
literacy activities as a 
result of USDA assistance
92 0 92
Custom 7 Increased 
community 
understanding 
of benefits
Number of information 
sessions held regarding 
education benefits held as 
a result of USDA 
assistance
276 0 407
Custom 10 
(& MGD 
Std. #18)
Improved 
knowledge of 
health and 
hygiene 
practices
Number of individuals 
trained in hygiene as a 
result of USDA assistance
5,520 0 6,082
Custom 11 
(& MGD 
Std. #18)
Increased 
knowledge of 
safe food prep 
and storage 
practices
Number of individuals 
trained in safe food 
preparation and food 
storage as a result of 
USDA assistance
2,200 0 2,523
Et4d ALIGN Cameroon Endline Survey Report 46
Question 3 Results and Discussion: Qualitatively, what changes do 
stakeholders associate with ALIGN’s programming?
Our key question to stakeholders was, “What changes have you observed in your school 
(or at the school-level) as a result of the ALIGN project?” Across all interviews with 
district-level stakeholders, Nascent staff, head teachers, teachers and PTAs, there was 
consensus that the ALIGN project has infused positive changes in ALIGN-supported
schools and communities. The schools are grateful for the project interventions, 
particularly the take-home food rations, the mobile reading activity, gardening 
techniques, and the water and sanitation facilities. Considering the low number of 
stakeholders interviewed, it was not possible to aggregate responses. However, the 
responses have been grouped into six outcomes most often reported by stakeholders, 
which are also aligned with the project results:
1. Improved literacy
2. Improved health and hygiene practices
3. Improved agricultural practices
4. Increased school attendance and enrollment
5. Improved school infrastructure (including water and sanitation facilities)
6. Increased community engagement
Improved literacy
One major outcome of the ALIGN program, consistently reported by teachers and head 
teachers, was the culture of reading that was stimulated by the mobile reading activity. 
ALIGN introduced a temporary mobile reading activity in March 2017 as a mitigation 
measure to help children continue building their reading skills while schools remained 
closed. The enthusiastic buy-in of the mobile reading activity resulted in a culture of 
reading among children, parents and siblings. Assisted by ALIGN-trained library 
managers and school staff, parents would sign out library books for their children every 
two weeks. The mobile reading activity really increased children’s desire to read. 
Students, teachers and parents continued visiting the school library once schools 
reopened in September 2017.
According to teachers and head teachers, the mobile reading activity also improved 
parents’ interest in reading. Since parents were asked to read the book with their child, 
parents became very much involved with reading and learning how read. Parents who 
did not know how to read would select picture books and tell stories based on the 
illustrations. To support parents with obtaining literacy skills, one school established an 
adult literacy program.
Additionally, students increased their desire to read at school. One head teacher 
reported that students wanted to spend so much time reading that they increased the 
school time allocated for reading.
There were numerous changes observed in the classroom as a result of applying the 
new Fantastic Phonics pedagogy. One teacher observed an improvement in her 
students’ ability to read sight words, especially three-letter words. Teachers claimed that 
through applying the approach, they improved their own knowledge and pronunciation of 
letter sounds. Both trained and untrained teachers benefited since the Ministry of Basic 
Education replicated the methodology in schools for all teachers. 
Et4d ALIGN Cameroon Endline Survey Report 47
The textbooks, notebooks and pencils were further cited as another contribution of the 
project to improved teaching and learning. In the past, many students did not have 
textbooks because their parents could not afford them. Now, according to one PTA 
member, “All children are holding a textbook. They are able to read; and, they are happy 
to read”.
While e-readers were only piloted in four schools, several teachers and district 
representatives stated that the e-readers helped teachers and students to become more 
competent with using technology and that it was an exciting supplementary reading tool.
Another notable change observed by Nascent program staff was improved teacher 
assignments. Due to increased awareness about the importance of the early grades, 
head teachers are now assigning the best teachers to Classes 1 and 2, while typically
the most inexperienced teachers taught the lower grades.
Additionally, student performance has improved on Class 6 exams. According to Ministry 
and ALIGN staff, ALIGN received a letter of appreciation from the Bui Division thanking 
them for improved scores on Class 6 exams. 
Improved health and hygiene practices
Head teachers and teachers reported that children are healthier, more active, energetic 
and have fewer health-related absences. The school and community trainings on health 
and hygiene, provision of food at school and home, and the deworming medicine all 
contributed to these outcomes. 
School stakeholders reported that students have improved their hygiene practices, 
especially hand washing. With the new hand-washing stations provided by the ALIGN 
project and continued training, hand washing has become a daily habit among students 
compared to the past when it was a rare occurrence. Teachers and PTA members 
reported that students wash their hands before eating, after using the toilet, and at 
home. In one school, a student is in charge of distributing the soap to classmates and 
ensuring that every student washes his or her hands. As a result, there have been fewer 
incidences of intestinal illness. One PTA member stated, “In our environment, we used 
to have children reporting cases of stomach running, numerous times a year, but 
because of the new hygiene practices, we have not had any cases reported this year.”
The good health and hygiene practices have transferred to the students’ homes, as they 
spread awareness about the importance of proper hygiene.
According to stakeholders interviewed, parents are also applying what they have learned 
in the nutrition and food preparation workshops at home to create sanitary and healthy 
meals for their children. Parents who were trained how to prepare the food in a safe 
manner for the school’s kitchen are following the same safety guidelines when cooking 
at home. Parents are also introducing a variety of ingredients into their own cooking to 
create nutritious meals, and now children are bringing fruits and veggies to school to 
complete their diet. Children have learned what constitutes a diverse diet and are 
requesting fruit and vegetables from their parents to stay healthy.
Et4d ALIGN Cameroon Endline Survey Report 48
Another change observed in schools is a clean school environment. According to a PTA 
member, the ALIGN field agent17 regularly checks the cleanliness of the school 
environment. They make sure everybody is making an effort to maintain the cleanliness 
of the school (e.g., using trash bins). Pupils, parents and teachers seemed proud of this 
change. The oil cans provided by USDA are now converted into trash cans and the rule 
of not throwing trash on the floor seems to be well enforced (See Figures 20 and 21).
Figure 21: Students using donated oil cans 
as trash bins
Improved agricultural practices at school and home
As a result of participating in ALIGN school gardens, teachers and parents have 
improved their agricultural practices. They are now transferring the knowledge gained 
from school gardens to their home gardens and increasing the yield. Manure and seeds
provided by ALIGN helped them to improve the yield of the school garden. The school 
gardens in some schools have been productive enough to provide food to supplement 
the USDA commodities. In another school, revenue generated from the school garden 
enabled them to pay for a night watch to guard the school grounds.
Increased attendance and enrollment
Annual focus group discussions with parents, teachers and traditional authorities in 
March 201718 discovered the most frequent reasons for 
student absences are: late, non-payment of school fees, 
lack of parental awareness of benefits of education, pupil 
health issues, attendance at funerals or traditional 
festivals, and helping family with chores or farm work at 
home. ALIGN has addressed most, if not all, of these 
issues.
School-feeding, take-home rations for girls in Classes 5 
and 6, enrollment campaigns and informal discussions 
with parents and teachers during the mobile reading 
activity all helped to increase attendance and student 
enrollment. The Ministry of Basic Education estimates 
that around 5% of students in the Bui division transferred 
to Nascent schools to benefit from the program (See 
17 The evaluation team was not able to confirm this, as we did not visit the schools directly due to 
security precautions. 18 Nascent Solutions Inc. (2017). ALIGN Cameroon April 2017 – September 2017 Semi-annual 
report. Submitted to USDA on November 15, 2017.
“The number of children in 
project schools has 
multiplied. Children have left 
other schools to attend 
Nascent schools. The impact 
is very visible. If you go to 
schools where children have 
transferred, you are going to 
discover they are wearing 
uniforms from another 
school.” 
Official at Ministry of Basic 
Education
Figure 20: Clean school environment
Et4d ALIGN Cameroon Endline Survey Report 49
textbox). The Ministry of Basic Education also informed that the dropout and
absenteeism rates have reduced drastically. Note that this statistic was not supported 
with actual MOE data.
Head teachers also claimed that absenteeism rates have been reduced and enrollment 
and attendance have increased. Teachers and head teachers attribute these results to 
the school meals and clean water, which motivate students to travel long distances to 
attend school. PTA members attribute the increased attendance and enrollment to the 
food as well as the school garden. Since the school provides food, students are able to 
attend school on time rather than wait for a meal to be prepared at home. Now that 
schools are operating a school garden, parents view education as relevant to them and 
are eager to send their children to school.
The enrollment campaign and take-home food rations also significantly contributed to 
increasing enrollment for girls and tribal populations. The PTA educated parents about 
the importance of educating girls, rather than keeping them home to help with chores or 
farm work. This really helped girls in Muslim communities to attend school. 
According to Nascent staff, “The enrollment campaign 
went far beyond the project schools”. One of the 
unexpected outcomes of the project was a new 
community school that was established specifically for 
children in the Mbororo tribe, a semi-nomadic cattle￾rearing community that traditionally did not send their 
children to school, so they remained illiterate. At the 
request of the tribe, ALIGN supported the planned
construction of the school, provided training to volunteer 
teachers, and 200 children were enrolled in the first year 
who had never attended school. This is a significant 
accomplishment of the ALIGN project. Mbororo children 
have also enrolled in other ALIGN schools (See textbox).
Improved school infrastructure
According to district representatives interviewed, the biggest success of the project was 
solving the water issue. The provision of water and sanitation facilities (boreholes/wells, 
solar pumping systems, hand washing stations, and water extension networks) 
increased access to clean water for drinking, cooking, hand washing, and removing 
waste. Beneficiaries stated that due to clean water, they are visiting the hospital less 
frequently. Children can wash their hands, drink clean water and keep their environment 
clean. Teachers are also teaching children how to use water to keep their body and 
environment clean. A district representative stated, “It is difficult to teach these 
messages if the children have no access to water”. As a result of the improved 
knowledge, children have become ambassadors of good hygiene for their family and 
community, spreading knowledge of hygienic practices.
In one Islamic community with no access to water, the PTA allowed community 
members to use the borehole and organized a maintenance crew. This enabled the 
people to conduct off-season gardening.
Despite these accomplishments, access to water is still a challenge frequently reported 
by teachers and head teachers. Unfortunately, there are many schools that did not meet 
the minimum criteria to receive water and sanitation facilities. In these schools, classes 
“We are in a community, where 
we are mixed with the Mbororo
(tribe). Formally, they did not 
like to attend school, but now 
so many of them are coming, 
and they represent a quarter of 
our school. They have 
understood the importance of 
education, and they are even 
more punctual than other 
children.” 
PTA member
Et4d ALIGN Cameroon Endline Survey Report 50
are disrupted because the students must fetch water and there is inadequate water to 
maintain the school garden or proper hygiene.
In addition to water and sanitation facilities, some schools reported receiving school 
infrastructure repairs. At the beginning of the project, one ALIGN school was near 
collapsing. Now, it has been renovated thanks to the ALIGN project, and the head 
teacher is very grateful.
Increased community engagement
ALIGN trained 184 community mobilizers to conduct formal enrollment campaigns 
reaching an estimated 38,000 community members with messages on the benefits of 
education19. During the teacher strike and crisis, ALIGN conducted informal community￾based enrollment advocacy led by PTAs, community leaders, as well as teachers and 
head teachers. ALIGN’s holistic approach to community engagement involving multiple 
outreach strategies and stakeholders resulted in increased participation of parents and 
community members in ALIGN-supported schools.
According to district representatives, parents are now more involved in school activities, 
such as assisting with the school farm, cooking, paying for community teachers and 
night watch guards, and bringing extra food to the schools. District representatives have 
also noticed massive attendance during PTA meetings and school assemblies in ALIGN￾supported schools compared to non-ALIGN schools.
Head teachers played a key role in increasing community engagement. One head 
teacher shared his perspective, “After the training on school management, I realized my 
role as an administrator is to create committees and to coordinate their activities”. 
Teachers also played a role in encouraging parents to support their children’s education. 
When parents came to school to collect books from the mobile reading activity or to 
participate in other ALIGN activities, teachers took the opportunity to speak with parents 
about the importance of limiting chores, so that children have enough time to complete 
their homework, or reminded them to equip students with basic school supplies (e.g., a 
notebook or pencil).
Many stakeholders stated that the take-home food rations and school meals helped 
parents to become more enthusiastic about sending their 
children to school, especially for girls in Muslim communities. 
Training parents in vegetable gardening techniques to work in 
school gardens also made parents eager to participate in 
trainings so they could apply it to their own farming practices.
According to Nascent staff, the PTA played a significant role in 
promoting education by running the enrolment campaign. The 
PTA organized meetings to sensitize the community about the 
value of education. These meetings were well attended by all 
community members, including non-project school parents and 
family members. As a result of increased awareness and participating in ALIGN 
activities, parents are more supportive of the school and PTA. Some parents have 
19 Nascent Solutions. (2017). ALIGN October 2016 – March 2017 Semi-annual Report. Submitted 
May 15, 2007 
“The parents are happy 
with what they have 
learned (gardening 
techniques) because they 
can improve their own 
(farming) practice. It is a 
fantastic program!” 
Teacher
Et4d ALIGN Cameroon Endline Survey Report 51
offered to pay for a schools’ electricity. Many parents who in the past would not pay for 
their children’s school fees are now paying. Parents have supplemented school meals 
with vegetables and fruit from their home gardens or farms, or provided cooking oil. 
Overall, there is a sense of community ownership of ALIGN-supported schools. 
Question 4 Results and Discussion: In which programming areas, do 
stakeholders anticipate that ALIGN’s programming is sustainable?
All stakeholders were asked this key evaluation question, as well as what 
recommendations they had for future USDA McGovern-Dole programs. Stakeholders 
agreed that to a certain extent all ALIGN activities will be sustained, including the school
library and mobile reading activity, parts of the school feeding program (e.g., 
management of school gardens and farms as well the agriculture practices learned), 
skills and knowledge gained from ALIGN trainings (in literacy, health and hygiene, 
nutrition), and the use of the water and sanitation facilities. However, all stakeholders 
noted the challenge to maintain school meals at the level of the ALIGN project (e.g., five 
days per week for all students). Most schools could manage no more than two meals per 
week with existing resources and stated that they would require additional land, inputs, 
and support from the government to sustain the school feeding program20. Stakeholders’ 
views on each of these components and their recommendations for future programs are 
highlighted below.
Library initiative
Head teachers, teachers, PTAs and Nascent staff all reported that the school libraries 
can be maintained since the school staff have been managing the libraries very well 
throughout the project. Currently, librarians maintain files on the books borrowed and if 
they are not returned within two weeks, the parents are charged a fine. Therefore, there 
is an incentive to return the books and it helps to maintain the school library. In addition 
to maintaining the books received from the ALIGN project, schools are taking the 
initiative to expand their libraries with book donations from other donors and NGOs. 
Stakeholders believe adding more books will make it sustainable. Teachers 
recommended that going forward the books should be leveled: “The librarian should 
level the books with color, and the children should be advised to take books at their 
level.” Some schools, which do not have a dedicated room for the library books (e.g., 
they are kept in the head teachers’ office) also suggested that a library be constructed to 
maintain the books.
School-feeding program
Based on discussions with stakeholders, the school-feeding program can be broken into 
three areas for sustainability: 1) improved gardening and kitchen management
techniques, 2) management of school gardens, and 3) provision of school meals.
Improved gardening and kitchen management techniques. All stakeholders believed the
improved gardening techniques would be easily sustained. According to one PTA 
member, “The capacity building will remain. People have learned how to cook food in 
large volume, store the food, and grow some spices. Once you’ve got the skills, they 
20 Communities did not express a need for labor, but for seeds and crops that are not locally 
available or that are not available year round.
Et4d ALIGN Cameroon Endline Survey Report 52
cannot be unlearned.” As discussed in Question 3, the parents, PTA members and 
teachers who benefited from the garden training unanimously said that they have 
applied the new techniques and seeds to their home gardens, which has resulted in 
increased yields. Schools have also increased yields from school farms and gardens 
with the new methods they have learned from ALIGN. Thus, they will continue applying 
what they have learned. A district representative from the agricultural division suggested 
that the number of agricultural staff be increased in future programs so that they can 
further improve yields in all schools and expand the scope of activities to create a 
cooperative. This could make the schools more dynamic and generate more revenue. 
They could also plant fruit trees (e.g., guava, papaya, and oranges) to add to the 
diversity of school meals.
Management of school garden. As noted above, schools have the requisite skills and 
capabilities to manage school gardens. To make the school-feeding program
sustainable, they would need a larger plot of land to produce enough crops to feed all 
students. While some schools have acquired enough land for farming, others do not 
have any farmland and are renting plots. Nascent has been facilitating discussions with 
the local council and community to identify additional donated land for cultivation, but it 
appears to date this issue has not been resolved in many schools and government 
intervention is clearly necessary.
Provision of school meals. As a result of the limited farmland and resources, most 
schools reported that they are only able to provide meals for about two days per week. 
To provide meals for five days consumption would require the USDA and/or Cameroon 
government to provide additional inputs and land. Some PTAs met with the local 
authority and discussed various options to increase the quantity of food available for the 
pupils. Possible solutions included increasing the size of the school farm or requesting a 
financial contribution from parents. PTA members felt that it was not possible to request 
additional contributions from parents since they are already paying salaries for 
community teachers. If the government paid community teachers, then the current 
revenue could be used for the school-feeding program. Additionally, there are some 
ingredients that are not locally available, such as cooking oil, which is very expensive to 
purchase, yet crucial. In fact, in the project area there is no production of palm oil or 
other cooking oil; so, even with an active school farm, cooking oil would still need to be 
procured from the market. 
Many stakeholders, including district representatives, 
believed that if the government made school-feeding a 
national priority, it would be a great achievement and 
the essential resources would become available to 
sustain the school-feeding program. At the national 
level, Nascent has been trying to support a change in 
the national policy and the ministry is recognizing that a 
school-feeding program would most likely improve 
learning outcomes. The ministry also feels that a 
“homegrown” policy would need to be in place, which 
requires the proper infrastructure. However, the government of Cameroon does not feel 
ready to maintain the school feeding program without external donor assistance.
At the local and regional level, Nascent has been working actively with the local 
government to draft a school feeding policy framework, and the stakeholders are hoping 
that the ALIGN intervention will demonstrate the feasibility of such policy. The 
“If the government could take 
over the issue of feeding 
students and make it a national 
issue, it would be a great 
achievement!”
Bui District official
Et4d ALIGN Cameroon Endline Survey Report 53
stakeholders interviewed who have participated in the governance activity to draft an 
education and school meal policy have all reported on the importance of the activity and 
the steps taken so far to institutionalize it at the regional level. 
Skills and Knowledge
Most stakeholders believe that the nutrition, health and hygiene practices acquired 
through ALIGN trainings will be sustained. According to Nascent, the health and hygiene 
training has been replicated at many levels, including the community. 
Numerous stakeholders (e.g., Nascent, Caritas, 
district representatives, teachers and head teachers) 
asserted that the knowledge and skills teachers have 
acquired from the literacy trainings will be sustained. 
The PTA provided two recommendations to improve 
literacy outcomes of future programs: 1) empower 
parents to be able to evaluate their children’s progress and train them so that learning 
can continue at home; 2) change the policy on transferred teachers so that the number 
of teachers assigned to a school is based on a teacher-student class size ratio.
Teachers and head teachers requested additional ICT interventions, particularly more e￾readers, as well as books and teaching resources to enrich the learning environment for 
teachers and students.
Water and Sanitation
Stakeholders reported that the water systems installed are sustainable and will continue 
to be used for consumption, cleaning, washing, cooking and other activities. All the solar 
pumps provided by Caritas over the years are still functioning and the boreholes are 
providing good quality water. Some stakeholders thought maintenance could be an 
issue, despite communities having received a toolkit and user manual. Caritas assured 
that they would remain an active partner of schools beyond the life of the project.
For future projects, teachers and head teachers recommended boreholes in every 
school and more infrastructure improvement for dilapidated schools.
Additional observations
The stakeholders seemed to have the capacity to maintain most of the activities, even if 
refresher training will remain necessary as new parents arrive to the school, or if 
teachers and head teachers are transferred. Some questions were raised on their 
capacity to monitor and manage the school-feeding program on their own even if the 
commodities were provided at no cost.
Because a tremendous number of individuals were trained directly by Nascent staff, or 
by the training participants, most people at the community level are very well informed of 
the benefits of the project and are committed to continuing the activities after the ALIGN 
project ends.
The methods used for each activity included in the ALIGN project have been extremely 
well documented. This is indeed one of the strong components of the project, along with 
the capacity building, which took place at the community level. 
”The teachers have learned so 
much. Their skills will remain. 
They have taught other 
teachers.”
Teacher
Et4d ALIGN Cameroon Endline Survey Report 54
The training materials included all the technical information for each activity, such as 
commodity management, food preparation in large quantity, food safety, health and 
hygiene practices, school management, as well as methods for replicating the training 
with other teachers or PTA members. For the most part, the training material could
probably be used with minimal modification for replication in non-project schools. 
Currently, the project documentation remains with Nascent and it is not clear if the local
stakeholders were to assume responsibility for the project activities if they would be able 
to maintain the documentation and improve upon it. There is also a lot of knowledge 
exchange between schools and among communities, thanks to their collective 
participation in trainings. At this stage, unfortunately, there is no notion of a network 
between the schools, which could enable the dissemination of best practices; and, we 
fear that over the years the skills needed to manage such a project could be lost as PTA 
members rotate or teachers are transferred to other schools. 
Conclusions 
Considering the three-year ALIGN project was condensed into two years due to the 
teacher strike and school closures, which stalled activities, it did achieve sustainable 
outcomes within that short timeframe in terms of improving knowledge, skills and 
creating a culture of reading. ALIGN fell short of achieving all of its expected outcomes, 
particularly for improved quality of instruction and improved student attentiveness largely 
due to effects of the crisis, but it did achieve its two main strategic objectives for 
improving literacy and health outcomes, as measured by the targets established at 
baseline.
Teachers faced many challenges throughout the project that hampered their ability to 
improve the quality of instruction, including the security situation which caused many 
teachers in ALIGN schools to transfer. For those who remained in ALIGN-supported 
schools, they struggled to manage multiple classes and to provide active instruction for 
50% or more of the class time. The percentage of teachers found off task because they 
were “out of the classroom” (likely teaching other classes) doubled from baseline to 
endline, potentially resulting from an increased number of multigrade classes. We also 
found high teacher and student absenteeism rates in schools visited causing us to 
increase our sample size to reach the desired number of students and teachers. Thus, 
teacher shortages are likely an issue in the ALIGN project areas.
While the project did exceed its target for the improved literacy of school-age children 
strategic objective, the mean scores and treatment effect of the program were quite low 
(1.9% improvement since baseline) due to the limitations described above. Therefore, it 
is no surprise that the factors associated with improved literacy outcomes --school-age, 
gender, parental literacy, and geographic location-- are factors that existed prior to the 
project and are not related to ALIGN interventions. Although the mobile reading activity
was a success and an innovative way to keep students learning while out of school 
during the crisis, the effect on actual fluency scores was very low, with students gaining 
one more correct word per minute for every book read. Since the level of the books were 
reported as being too difficult for Class 3 students, this could explain why the books had 
a low impact, or perhaps the lack of parental literacy could have also contributed to 
these outcomes. Moreover, reading aloud in school, which is one of the most effective 
Et4d ALIGN Cameroon Endline Survey Report 55
early grade reading strategies, accounted for 4% of active instruction time in both school 
types, and was used by 35% of early grade teachers21. With more teacher refresher 
training and follow up coaching on use of evidence-based reading instruction, 
uninterrupted schooling (including summer catch-up programs), and appropriate reading 
materials, literacy results could be improved in future USDA McGovern Dole programs. 
Furthermore, the use of e-readers was considered to be an effective and attractive 
intervention that could be explored as a way to improve reading outcomes.
In terms of the second strategic objective, ALIGN achieved its target for increasing the 
percentage of students with a minimum acceptable diet and increasing the use of health 
and dietary practices. The school feeding program, particularly the increased knowledge 
and skills of managing school gardens and the nutritious school meals, was very much 
appreciated by beneficiaries. Now the question is how to sustain the level of meals 
provided by the ALIGN program in order to maintain project outcomes (e.g., increased 
enrollment, improved attendance, improved nutrition and health of students, etc.). The 
findings from the qualitative interviews clearly indicate that more government and USDA 
intervention is needed to build on the foundational elements of the project and to bring 
ALIGN to full scale and sustainability with increased Cameroon government support.
21 About 50% of teachers observed were in the early grades (1-3) and of these, 35% used a read 
aloud strategy during the observation. However, on average the strategy was used for only 4% of 
classroom time.
Et4d ALIGN Cameroon Endline Survey Report 56
ANNEX A: EGRA Scores by Student Characteristics
Table 19: Annex A: EGRA Mean Scores and Zero Scores by Student Characteristics
Letter name Letter sound Non-Word Oral reading 
Fluency
Reading 
Comprehension
Listening 
Comprehension
Mean 
CLPM
% Zero 
Score
Mean
CSPM
% Zero 
Score
Mean 
CWPM
% Zero 
Score
Mean 
CWPM
% Zero 
Score
Mean 
% 
Correct
% Zero 
Score
Mean 
% 
Correct
% Zero 
Score
Gender
Female 15.2* 35.7% 20.2* 23.9% 6.5* 61.9% 7.0 64.9% 5.7 83.8% 36.6 24.7%
Male 6.2 61.7%* 10.7 42.3%* 2.8 79.7%* 2.7 81.1%* 2.0 93.1% 31.6 34.9%
Age
At grade level (7-
9 years)
12.4 42.2% 18.48 27.3% 5.9* 63.8% 6.3* 66.3% 5.1* 85.2% 37.4 24.2%
Beyond expected 
grade level
7.8 58.6% 9.4 38.2% 1.9 85.1%* 1.5 87.7%* 1.1 96.2%* 28.5 39.9%
School Type
Private (n = 134) 10.0 50.4% 17.8 25.8% 4.9 68.4% 4.4 70.7% 3.8 86.8% 38.2 17.3%
Public (n = 432) 10.3 51.0% 16.3 27.2% 4.1 73.1% 4.5 73.9% 3.3 90.9% 32.4 29.7%
Home Language
English 14.9 38.1% 22.3 23.3% 6.8 62.2% 10.2 62.6% 7.7 79.1% 44.3 16.6%
Other language 10.2 50.2% 14.7 34.1%* 4.4 71.6% 4.2 73.9% 3.4 89.6% 33.1 31.1%
School Location
Kumbo 15.5 40.3% 18.2 36.7% 7.1 61.4% 9.1 62.2% 7.5 77.1% 43.4 20.1%
Outside of 
Kumbo
8.8 52.1% 14.3 32.0% 3.7 74.4% 3.3 77.2% 2.5 92.8%* 30.8 33.5%
Household poverty score
Wealthiest 
Quartile
13.7 41.9% 19.5 31.1% 6.4 63.4% 7.1 64.4% 6.4 81.1% 42.2* 22.7%
Other quartile 9.3 51.9% 13.6 34.3% 3.8 74.2% 3.8 77.0% 2.7 91.9% 30.8 33.0%
Ate before school
Yes 10.8 47.7% 15.8 33.0% 4.9 69.8% 5.1 72.4% 4.2* 87.6% 34.7 29.7%
No 9.0 56.9% 12.0 36.3% 2.7 78.6% 2.9 77.9% 0.8 85.9% 30.3 31.8%
Time to read at school
Yes 11.6 45.9% 16.9* 30.1% 5.1 67.9% 5.2 70.3% 4.2 86.9% 36.3 28.2%
Et4d ALIGN Cameroon Endline Survey Report 57
No 7.4 58.3% 10.0 46.6% 3.0 80.4% 3.6 82.4% 2.7 94.5% 28.1 33.6%
Homework help
Yes 10.9 49.9% 15.9 30.0% 4.6 70.7% 4.6 75.1% 3.5 89.8% 38.0 19.1%
Sometimes and 
No
10.6 47.4% 15.2 35.5% 4.7 70.6% 5.1 71.4% 4.1 87.7% 32.0 36.8%
Reading material at home
Yes 13.2 43.3% 16.9 29.2% 6.1 63.3% 6.5 68.8% 5.2 83.4% 38.6 22.7%
Sometimes and 
No
9.7 50.9% 14.8 34.9% 4.1 73.7% 4.2 74.7% 3.3 90.5% 32.6 32.7%
Father can read and write
Yes 11.7* 46.4% 16.8* 31.8% 5.2* 68.2% 5.6* 70.6% 4.4* 87.3% 37.5* 25.2%
No 5.4 62.6% 8.3 39.9% 2.2 82.8%* 1.4 87.4%* 1.0 94.8% 16.6 57.0%*
Mother can read and write
Yes 11.6* 46.6% 16.5* 31.8% 5.2* 68.5% 5.5* 70.1% 4.4* 86.9% 36.6* 25.8%
No 3.5 64.8% 7.2 44.5% 0.6 88.3%* 0.4 95.2%* 0 100%* 17.9 57.6%*
Et4d ALIGN Cameroon Endline Survey Report 58
ANNEX B: Factors Associated with Stallings Observations 
Figure 22: Predictors of improved quality of instruction
Variables Odds Ratio p-value
Teacher Gender
Male 1.42 0.295
Type of employment contract
Government school – Civil Servant - -
Government school - Contract 1.52 0.640
Government school - PTA 0.89 0.895
Private school - Permanent 1.94 0.447
Private school - PTA 1.39 0.744
Other 8.33 0.046
Level of training
Grade 1 - -
Grade 2 2.4 0.346
None NA NA
Other 1.42 0.359
Mean year of experience in this school 1.07 0.067
Training received
Administration 1.11 0.827
E-reader 0.43 0.213
Fantastic Phonics 1.28 0.451
ICT 0.98 0.948
IST 0.64 0.249
Library 1.01 0.977
Other 1.44 0.257
None 1.33 0.464
Mean number of students enrolled 0.99 0.904
Mean number of students present 1.01 0.298
Mean attendance ratio 1.68 0.499
Blackboard in the classromm NA NA
Charts, pictures, maps on the wall 0.97 0.914
Figure 23: Predictors of student attentiveness
Variables Odds Ratio p-value
Teacher Gender
Male 0.055 0.158
Type of employment contract
Government school – Civil Servant - -
Government school - Contract 0.042 0.658
Government school - PTA -0.019 0.841
Private school - Permanent 0.086 0.353
Et4d ALIGN Cameroon Endline Survey Report 59
Private school - PTA 0.092 0.390
Other 0.205 0.061
Level of training
Grade 1 - -
Grade 2 0.143 0.179
None -0.267 0.024
Other 0.077 0.085
Mean year of experience in this school 0.002 0.609
Training received
Administration 0.067 0.245
E-reader -0.032 0.642
Fantastic Phonics 0.010 0.781
ICT 0.075 0.031
IST 0.036 0.410
Library 0.027 0.546
Other -0.016 0.669
None -0.025 0.585
Mean number of students enrolled -0.003 0.004
Mean number of students present -0.005 0.000
Mean attendance ratio -0.194 0.023
Blackboard in the classroom NA NA
Charts, pictures, maps on the wall 0.023 0.528
Table 20: Teacher and Classroom-level factors associated with pupil off-task behavior
Predictors of pupils off-tasks behaviors Coefficient p-value
Teacher Gender -0.004 0.167
Teacher Training (Grade 1 constrat level)
Grade 1 - -
Grade 2 -0.016 0.107
None 0.014 0.132
Other -0.008 0.340
Nbr. of years of experience in the school -0.006 0.081
From Bui division 0.004 0.481
Black board (100% of classroom) - -
Charts, pictures maps on classroom walls 0.001 0.730
% of students who have textbooks
10% or less - -
About 30% -0.006 0.166
About 50% -0.002 0.689
About 70% -0.003 0.571
90% or more -0.009 0.002
% of students who have notebooks
10% or less - -
About 30% -0.010 0.523
About 50% -0.013 0.390
Et4d ALIGN Cameroon Endline Survey Report 60
About 70% -0.002 0.894
90% or more -0.001 0.913
Teacher receive no training 0.004 0.110
Teacher receive Administration training -0.008 0.141
Teacher receive eReader training 0.002 0.731
Teacher receive Fantastic Phonics -0.002 0.597
Teacher receive ICT technology -0.006 0.036
Teacher receive IST in service training -0.005 0.176
Teacher receive Library training -0.003 0.436
Teacher receive other training -0.001 0.762
Number of students in classroom 0.005 0.003
Multigrade classroom 0.049 0.088
Et4d ALIGN Cameroon Endline Survey Report 61
ANNEX C: EGRA Instrument
EGRA – STUDENT QUESTIONNAIRE
Please spend two minutes making light conversation with the pupil. Tell the child about yourself, 
and ask questions about things he/she likes to do, etc.
Day month Year hour minute
1. Date: 2. Time at 
start
3. School Name: _________________________________________ 3a. School 
Code: 
4. Data collector name: ____________________________ 4a. Data collector 
team #:
5. Tangerine ID _______________
Pupil Assent
I work with Nascent Solutions, a group in Kumbo that is helping pupils. I am doing English 
testing to learn more about how to help pupils do better in English.
If you decide to take part you will be asked to do some short games of English letters, words, 
and stories.
It will take about 20 minutes. You can stop participating at any time.
These games will not count as marks for you. Your teacher will not know how you did. You will 
not receive anything for doing the games ut you may be helping us to improve your school in the 
future.
Your results will be secret. Your teacher and family are aware that you are taking part, but will 
not know how well you did. We will write a report about these exercises, but it will not include 
your name. The results will be erased from the tablet.
Do you have any questions? Are you ready to get started?
Yes No
6. Pupil gender (circle): Male Female
Ask the pupil each question verbally, as in an interview. DO NOT READ THE ANSWER OPTIONS TO THE 
PUPIL UNLESS INDICATED TO DO SO. Wait for the pupil to respond to each question, then mark the answer 
that corresponds to his or her response.
7. What is your class? (select) 1 2 3 4 5 6 If the pupil is not in Class 2, 
contact your Team Captain.
Et4d ALIGN Cameroon Endline Survey Report 62
8. How old are you? (select) 5 6 7 8 9 10
9. What Language do you speak 
at home most frequently English French Fulfulde Lamnso Noni Oku
Ot
he
r
Et4d ALIGN Cameroon Endline Survey Report 63
The following questions are asked after the EGRA evaluation
10. Did you eat before coming to school today? (Select) Yes No
Don’t 
know/
no 
response
11. Did the pupil participate in mobile reading (See 
librarian answer on DDS paper) Yes No
Not 
completed 
by librarian
12. How many times did the pupil check out books as part of mobile 
reading? (See librarian answer on DDS paper)
Not 
completed 
by librarian 
(NA)
13. Did you like the books that you borrowed with the 
mobile library? Yes No
Don’t 
know/
no 
response
14. Do you have an English reading textbook at your 
house? Yes No
Don’t 
know/
no 
response
15. Do you have a math textbook at your house? Yes No
Don’t 
know/
no 
response
16. Apart from school books, are there books, 
newspapers or other things for you to read at your 
house?
Yes No
Don’t 
know/
no 
response
17. Do you have time to read books in your classroom 
or school library every day? (select) Yes No
Don’t 
know/
no 
response
18. How many minutes do you spend per day ready? none
1 to
30 min
More 
than 30
Don’t 
know/
no 
respons
e 
19. Can your father read and write? Yes No
Don’t 
know/
no 
response
20. Can your mother read and write? Yes No
Don’t 
know/
no 
response
21. Does someone at home help you Yes/always/ Sometimes/ No/never Don’t 
Et4d ALIGN Cameroon Endline Survey Report 64
with your home work when you 
need help? (circle)
Usually kind of /
rarely
know/
no 
response
QUESTION ANSWER POINTS
22. How many people stay in your house? (A house is a 
socio-economic unit of one or more people—
regardless of blood or marital relationship—who 
have lived (or plan to live) together for at least six 
months out of the previous twelve in the same 
compound, who share resources, who usually eat 
together, and who recognize the same head.)
-Seven or more 
-Six 
-Five 
-Four 
-Three 
-One or two 
- Don’t know no response
0
10
12
16
20
29
NA
23. Does anyone in your house farm, keep animals, 
hunt, or fish?
-Yes 
-No 
- Don’t know no response
0
2
NA
24. What type of floor does your house have? (you may 
read the answer options to help the pupil to 
remember, if needed, show the pictures to the child)
-Dirt, ground, or other 
-Wood, cement, or tile 
- Don’t know no response 
0
6
NA
25. What do you usually use for cooking at your house? 
(you may read the answer options to help the pupil 
to remember, if needed, show the pictures to the 
child)
-Collected/gifted firewood, or 
other 
-Purchased firewood, 
kerosene/paraffin/petroleum
, charcoal, sawdust/wood 
chips, electricity, or does not 
cook 
-Gas 
- Don’t know no response 
0
9
19
NA
26. Does your house have an electric iron?
-No
-Yes
- Don’t know no response 
0
6
NA
27. Does your house have a radio or a television?
-No
-Only radio
-Television (regardless of 
radio)
- don’t know/no response
0
7
14
NA
28. Does your house have a wardrobe? (a piece of 
furniture to store clothes)
-No
-Yes
- don’t know/no response
0
6
NA
Comments (optional; to be used if there are unusual answers above): 
________________________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________
Et4d ALIGN Cameroon Endline Survey Report 65
Letter Name Knowledge
Show the child the sheet of letters in the student stimuli booklet as you read the 
instructions. Start the timer when the child reads the first letter. Follow along on your 
screen and mark any incorrect letters by touching that letter on the screen until it turns blue. 
Mark self-corrections as correct by touching the screen again until it returns to grey. Stay quiet, 
except if the child hesitates for 3 seconds. Then point to the next letter and say, “Please go on.” 
Mark the skipped letter as incorrect.
If the student provides the letter sound rather than the name, say: “Please tell me the NAME of 
the letter”. This prompt may be given only once during the exercise.
If the timer runs out before the last item is read, the screen will flash red and the timer will stop. 
Tell the child to stop. Mark the final letter read by touching it so that a bracket appears. Then 
press “Next.”
If the child reaches the last item before the screen flashes red, STOP the timer as soon as the 
child reads the last letter. The red bracket will automatically be placed on the last letter. Verify 
that your scores are correct, then press “Next”.
Early stop rule: If the child does not provide a single correct response for the first 10 items, the 
screen will flash red and the timer will stop. Say, “Thank you!”, discontinue this subtask, and go 
on to the next subtask.
Example: A v L
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
F u e R y a c m V s (10)
B Z I H k D J w X P (20)
L q O N g T U z M j (30)
t G W A l n O Q E f (40)
i Y r h C K v p d b (50)
x S h m E H A Y l G (60)
A d j o a d N S b v (70)
R E H S t h i o w F (80)
Here is a page full of letters of the alphabet. Please tell me the NAMES of as many letters as 
you can – not the SOUNDS of the letters, but the names.
For example, the name of this letter [point to A] is “A”
Let’s practice: Tell me the name of this letter [point to v]
If the pupil responds correctly, say: Good, the name of this letter is “VEE”
If the pupil does not respond correctly, say: The name of this letter is “VEE”
Now try another one: Tell me the name of this letter [point to L]
If the pupil responds correctly, say: Good, the name of this letter is “ELL”
If the pupil does not respond correctly, say: The name of this letter is “ELL”
Do you understand what you are to do?
When I say “Begin”, please name the letters as quickly and carefully as you can. Start here 
and continue this way. [Point to the first letter on the row after the example and draw your finger 
across the first line] If you come to a letter you do not know, move to the next letter. Ready? 
60 
second
Et4d ALIGN Cameroon Endline Survey Report 66
U T r s I p K s L N (90)
T n a t e I r O e c (100)
Time remaining on stopwatch at completion (number of SECONDS):
Number of Correct Letters:
Et4d ALIGN Cameroon Endline Survey Report 67
Letter Sound Knowledge
Show the child the sheet of letters in the student stimuli booklet as you read the 
instructions. Start the timer when the child reads the first letter. Follow along on your 
screen and mark any incorrect letters by touching that letter on the screen until it turns blue. 
Mark self-corrections as correct by touching the screen again until it returns to grey. Stay quiet, 
except if the child hesitates for 3 seconds. Then point to the next letter and say, “Please go on.” 
Mark the skipped letter as incorrect.
If the student provides the letter name rather than the name, say: “Please tell me the SOUND of 
the letter”. This prompt may be given only once during the exercise.
If the timer runs out before the last item is read, the screen will flash red and the timer will stop. 
Tell the child to stop. Mark the final letter read by touching it so that a bracket appears. Then 
press “Next.”
If the child reaches the last item before the screen flashes red, STOP the timer as soon as the 
child reads the last letter. The red bracket will automatically be placed on the last letter. Verify 
that your scores are correct, then press “Next”.
Early stop rule: If the child does not provide a single correct response for the first 10 items, the 
screen will flash red and the timer will stop. Say, “Thank you!”, discontinue this subtask, and go 
on to the next subtask..
Example: A v L
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
F u e R y a c m V s (10)
B Z I H k D J w X P (20)
L q O N g T U z M j (30)
t G W A l n O Q E f (40)
i Y r h C K v p d b (50)
x S h m E H A Y l G (60)
A d j o a d N S b v (70)
R E H S t h i o w F (80)
Here is a page full of letters of the alphabet. Please tell me the SOUNDS of as many letters as 
you can – not the NAMES of the letters, but the sounds.
For example, the sound of this letter [point to A] is “AH”
Let’s practice: Tell me the sound of this letter [point to v]
If the pupil responds correctly, say: Good, the sound of this letter is “VUH”
If the pupil does not respond correctly, say: The sound of this letter is “VUH”
Now try another one: Tell me the sound of this letter [point to L]
If the pupil responds correctly, say: Good, the sound of this letter is “LUH”
If the pupil does not respond correctly, say: The sound of this letter is “LUH”
Do you understand what you are to do?
When I say “Begin”, please say the letter sounds as quickly and carefully as you can. Start 
here and continue this way. [Point to the first letter on the row after the example and draw your 
finger across the first line] If you come to a letter sound you do not know, move to the next 
 
60 
second
Et4d ALIGN Cameroon Endline Survey Report 68
U T r s I p K s L N (90)
T n a t e I r O e c (100)
Time remaining on stopwatch at completion (number of SECONDS):
Number of Correct Letters Sound
Et4d ALIGN Cameroon Endline Survey Report 69
Nonword Decoding
Show the child the sheet of non-words in the student stimuli booklet. Read the 
instructions. Start the timer when the child reads the first word. Follow along on your 
screen and mark any incorrect non-words by touching that word on the screen until it turns blue. 
Mark self-corrections as correct by touching again until it returns to grey.
Stay quiet, except if the child hesitates for 3 seconds. Then point to the next word and say, 
“Please go on.” Mark the skipped word as incorrect.
If the timer runs out before the last item is read, the screen will flash red and the timer will stop. 
Tell the child to stop. Mark the final letter read by touching it so that a bracket appears, then 
press "Next".
If the child reaches the last item before the screen flashes red, stop the timer as soon as the child 
reads the last letter. Touch the last letter so the bracket appears, then press "Next".
Early stop rule: If the child does not provide a single correct response for the first 5 non-words, 
the screen will flash red and stop the timer. Say, “Thank you!”, discontinue this subtask, and go 
on to the next subtask.
Example: ut dif mab
1 2 3 4 5
hoy geg pim av ret (5)
mog nin tup daw ul (10)
saz mup ek pag ril (15)
ev gam mib zet fos (20)
lig el seb dof lub (25)
tid wab hoz ped uf (30)
gez daf pid von gax (35)
wob ib fap heg nar (40)
jek bew nep ut ren (45)
faw vub pes gep vad (50)
Here are some words with no meaning. Fake means they are not real words. Let’s play like they are real English 
words. I would like you to read as many as you can. Do not spell the words, but read them. For example, [point to 
the example word: ut ] this fake word is: “ut”
Let’s practice: Please read this word [point to the next word: dif ]
If the pupil says “dif”, say: Very good: “dif”
If the pupil does not say “dif” correctly, say: This fake word is “dif”
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
60 
second
Et4d ALIGN Cameroon Endline Survey Report 70
Time remaining on stopwatch at completion (number of SECONDS):
Number of Correct Non-Word
Et4d ALIGN Cameroon Endline Survey Report 71
Reading Fluency and Comprehension
Show the child the story in the stimuli booklet. Read the instructions to the child and 
conduct the examples. Start the timer when the child reads the first word.
Follow along on your screen and mark any incorrect word by touching that word on the screen -
it will turn blue. Mark self-corrections as correct by touching the word again - it will return to 
grey.
Stay quiet, except if the child hesitates for 3 seconds. Then point to the next word and 
say, “Please go on.” Mark the skipped word as incorrect.
If the timer runs out before the last item is read, the screen will flash red and the timer will stop. 
Tell the child to stop. Mark the final word read by touching it so that a red bracket appears, then 
press “Next”.
If the child reaches the last item before the screen flashes red, stop the timer as soon as the child 
reads the last word. If the child reaches the last item before the screen flashes red, stop the timer 
as soon as the child reads the last letter. The bracket will automatically appear on the last 
word. Verify your scores, and then press "Next".
When the reading fluency is complete, REMOVE the stimuli give the 
following instructions, give the pupil 15 sec to answer the question. Mark 
the question as ‘no response’, and go to the next question.
Now I am going to ask you a few questions about the story you have 
read. 
Try to answer the questions as best as you can.
Correct Incorrect No 
Response
Bonje likes school. She is happy to walk 
with Seka to school in the mornings. 
(15)
What does Bonje like?
[school, walking with Seka to 
school]
One day, Seka pretends to see a snake. 
Bonje is afraid. (11)
Why did Bonje feel afraid?
[Seka made her think there was 
a snake; she was afraid of the 
snake]
Seka laughs at her. Bonje gets angry and 
walks faster to be alone. (13)
What did Seka do that made 
Bonje angry?
[he laughed at her]
Here is a short story. I want you to read it aloud. When you have finished, I will ask you some questions about what 
you have read.
Do you understand what you are to do?
When I say “Begin”, read the story as quickly and carefully as you can. I will keep quiet and listen to you. Do you 
understand what you are to do? Ready? Begin.
60 
secon
Et4d ALIGN Cameroon Endline Survey Report 72
Early stop rule: If the child gives no correct answers on the first line, the screen will flash red and 
the timer will stop. Say, “Thank you!”, discontinue this subtask, and go on to the next subtask. 
No comprehension questions will appear on the next screen.
Seka feels bad. In the afternoon, Seka 
gives Bonje a flower to say sorry. (14)
What did Seka give Bonje to 
say sorry?
[a flower]
She smiles. They walk home together. 
(6)
How do you know Bonje 
forgave Seka?
[she smiled, she walked home 
with him]
Time remaining on stopwatch at completion (number of SECONDS):
Number of Correct Words: Number of Questions Correct: Number of Questions Asked:
Et4d ALIGN Cameroon Endline Survey Report 73
Listening Comprehension
Read the following passage to the pupil ONLY ONE TIME, slowly (about 1 word per second):
Ask the first question below. Mark the pupil’s response as Correct or Incorrect and move on to 
the next question. Give the pupil 15 seconds to answer each question. If the pupil does not 
answer within 15 seconds, mark the question as “no response” and move on to the next 
question.
Correct Incorrect No 
Response
Who did Chung go with to 
fetch water? [Buhven]
What did the boys first do 
at the river? [swam, went swimming]
What problem did Buhven 
have?
[he lost his bucket, couldn’t find 
his bucket]
How did the bucket get 
lost?
[they were careless when they 
got to the river, they were busy 
playing, they went swimming]
Where did Chung find the 
bucket? [behind the bush]
Number of Correct Answers:
I am going to read you a short story aloud ONCE and then ask you some questions. Please listen carefully and 
answer the questions as best you can.
Do you understand what you are to do?
“Chung and Buhven go to fetch water. They swim in the river. When it is time to go, Buhven can’t find his bucket. 
Chung finds the bucket behind a bush. The boys bring the water home.”
Et4d ALIGN Cameroon Endline Survey Report 74
Closing Remarks
This marks the end of the EGRA exam. 
Thank the pupil for his/her participation by saying, “I want to thank you for working so hard 
today!”
Hand the pupil a pencil and explain that it is a gift in appreciation of his/her effort. 
Say goodbye to the pupil and send him/her back to class.
ANNEX D: STALLINGS Instrument
Et4d ALIGN Cameroon Endline Survey Report 75
Classroom Observation Snapshot
Please spend five minutes introducing yourself and building rapport with the teacher.
Teacher Informed Consent
I work with Nascent Solutions, an organization based in Kumbo. I am researching teacher and 
classroom habits in primary schools in Bui division. I wish to observe your classroom 
environment and make notes. The information will be used to evaluate ALIGN project and to 
improve the design of future interventions
If you decide to participate you do not need to do anything special. Please continue with your 
normal teaching duties as if I’m not in the room. Please also encourage your pupils to continue 
as if I’m not in the room. The observation will take about 50 minutes. You can stop 
participating at any time.
This study likely does not involve any significant risks to you, your pupils, or classroom. You will 
not receive any compensation for participating, though the information will improve future 
training in which you may be invited to participate.
The information collected will be completely confidential. I will not record your name or the 
names of your pupils. Information about your individual classroom will not be shared with your 
head teacher, inspectors, pupils, or their parents. Any report including this information will not 
identify your specific classroom. The results will be erased from the tablet
Participation in this study is voluntary. You have the right not to participate at all or stop in the 
middle of the observation. Deciding not to participate or choosing to stop early will not result in 
any anticipated negative result for you, your job, or your relationship with Nascent Solutions.
Do you have any questions?
Do you give your consent to be observed in your classroom today?
Yes No
1. Teacher ID _______________
day month year
2. Date of observation: 
3. School name: ___________________________________________ 3a. 
School Code: 
4. Data collector name: ___________________________ 4a. Data 
collector team #:
6. Class observed (circle): 1 2 3 4 5 6
6b. Are you observing a multi-grade classroom? Yes No
Et4d ALIGN Cameroon Endline Survey Report 76
7. Teacher’s gender: Male Female
8. What type of 
employment 
contract do you 
have?
Government 
school – Civil 
Servant
Government 
school -
Contract
Governme
nt school -
PTA
Private 
school -
Perman
ent
Private 
school -
PTA
O
t
h
e
r
9. What is your level of training? Grade 1 Grade 
2 None
O
t
h
e
r
10. How many years have you 
taught in this school? __________ years
11. Which training did you receive as part of the ALIGN project in 2016 and 2017
 Administration
 E-reader
 Fantastic Phonics
 ICT
 In-service training 
(IST)
 Library
 Other
 None
12. Are you from Bui division? Yes No
13. What languages do you speak?
 English
 French
 Fulfulde
 Lamnso
 Noni
 Oku
 Other
Girls Boys Total
14. How many pupils are enrolled in 
this class?
15. How many pupils are present in 
this class today?
16. Is there a blackboard in the classroom? Yes No
17. Are there any charts, pictures, maps on the wall, etc.? Yes No
18. For the lesson you are observing, what percentage of pupils have textbooks or other printed 
material?
To answer question 18 and 19 ask the pupils to raise their textbooks and notebooks and count how 
many pupils have it. If the textbooks are with the teacher, ask the teacher to distribute them and then 
count them
90% or more About 70% About 50% About 30% 10% or less
19. For the lesson you are observing, what percentage of pupils have notebooks or other writing 
material ?
90% or more About 70% About 50% About 30% 10% 
or less
Comments (optional; to be used if there are unusual answers above): 
____________________________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________________________
Et4d ALIGN Cameroon Endline Survey Report 77
____________________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________
Observe 50 minutes of class and perform 10 snapshots. Finally select all the subjects that you 
have observed in 50 minutes.
20. Subject(s) observed:
 Arabic 
 Citizenship/Civics
 English Language/Reading
 Environmental Education
 French Language
 General Knowledge
 Geography
 Handiwork/Art + Crafts/creativity
 Health Education
 History
 Home Economics
 ICT
 Manual Labor
 Mathematic
 Moral 
Education
 Religion
 Sports
 Other
Et4d ALIGN Cameroon Endline Survey Report 78
Number: ___ Classroom Observation Snapshot Time:
Locate the teacher, identify what he/she is doing, what materials are being used, and pupil involvement. 
Continue to scan the classroom to the right, noting pupil activity until you come back to the teacher. The 
observation should take around 15 seconds. Circle the appropriate codes below. Note anything out of the 
ordinary in Additional Comments.
T = Teacher P = Pupils 1 = One M = Multiple A = All
Material
Activity No
Material Textbook Notebook Blackboard Learning 
Aides
1. Reading Aloud T 1 M A 1 M A 1 M A 1 M A 1 M 
A
P 1 M 1 M 1 M 1 M 1 M 
2. Demonstration /
 Lecture
T 1 M A 1 M A 1 M A 1 M A 1 M 
A
P 1 M 1 M 1 M 1 M 1 M 
3. Discussion / 
Question & Answer
T 1 M A 1 M A 1 M A 1 M A 1 M 
A
P 1 M 1 M 1 M 1 M 1 M 
4. Practice & Drill T 1 M A 1 M A 1 M A 1 M A 1 M 
A
P 1 M 1 M 1 M 1 M 1 M 
5. Assignment / 
Seat Work
T 1 M A 1 M A 1 M A 1 M A 1 M 
A
P 1 M 1 M 1 M 1 M 1 M 
6. Copying T 1 M A 1 M A 1 M A 1 M A 1 M 
A
P 1 M 1 M 1 M 1 M 1 M 
7. Verbal Directions T 1 M A 1 M A 1 M A 1 M A 1 M 
A
P 1 M 1 M 1 M 1 M 1 M 
T = Teacher P = Pupils 1 = One
S = Small 
Group
(5 or less)
L = Large 
Group
(6 or more)
A = All
Activity People Involved
8. Social Interaction T 1 S L A
P 1 S L 
9. Pupil(s) Uninvolved P 1 S L 
10. Discipline T 1 S L A
11. Classroom 
Management
T 1 S L A
P 1 S L 
Et4d ALIGN Cameroon Endline Survey Report 79
12. Classroom Management Alone T
13. Teacher Social Interaction or Teacher Uninvolved T
14. Teacher Out of the Room T
Additional Comments:
Et4d ALIGN Cameroon Endline Survey Report 80
ANNEX E: DDS Instrument
Pupil Assent
I work with Nascent Solutions, a group in Kumbo that helps pupils. I am asking what you eat to 
help pupils become healthier. 
If you want to take part you will be asked questions about what you and your family ate 
yesterday. There is no right or wrong answer. It will take about 10 minutes. You can stop at 
any time.
Your answers will be secret. Your teacher and family are aware that you are doing the exercises, 
but will not know your answers. We will write a report about this, but it will not include your 
name. Your answers will be erased from the tablet Do you have any questions?
Do you have any questions? Are you ready to get started?
Yes No
Dietary Diversity
Please spend two minutes making light conversation with the pupil. Tell the child about yourself, 
and ask questions about things he/she likes to do, such as:
What do you like to play? What do you like to eat? What did you eat this morning?
Yesterday’s dietary intake
Now I want to talk to you about what you ate yesterday. Can you think of what you ate? I will ask you some 
questions. If you cannot remember I will help you. [Ask the pupils about what they ate yesterday. 
Remind them constantly that you are asking about yesterday, for the full day. You do not have to follow a script. Be 
sensible and think of questions that are necessary to get the information. If they cannot remember, you can help 
them. 
Start with colors: ask if they had something green or white, if they had any fruits or snacks, etc. You can also ask 
them what they normally eat. 
Only fill out the Dietary Recall sheet during the interview, and do not fill out the final column until you have finished 
all your interviews for the day.]
Example Questions:
A. What was the first thing you ate yesterday? 
a. Can you show me the size? [point to the volume measurements that approximate size. If they 
show you with their hand or fist, please approximate with the measurements provided.] 
b. What time was that? [morning, afternoon, evening. Also ask if it was at school, or before]
c. Did you have anything to drink? Any fruit? [think of typical morning items] 
d. Think of any items that were not mentioned but are commonly eaten together [milk with tea, jam 
on bread, etc.]? 
e. Fruits, meats, etc.?
B. When was the next time you ate? 
C. Did you eat again in the evening or before bed? 
D. Did you have any other snacks throughout the day? [picked mangoes from a tree, groundnuts, etc.] 
E. Did you buy any food on the street? [if they purchased street food, ask how much they paid for it, and who 
they bought it from] 
F. Was this a “normal amount” you ate? [We want to make sure that this food intake was like any typical day 
- no holiday celebration, wedding, or fasting] 
Et4d ALIGN Cameroon Endline Survey Report 81
Date: ____._____
School:_________________________________________
___
Child’s Name________________________________________________________________
Tangerine Id: ___.___.___.___.___.___ EGRA Surveyor 
initial____________________
DDS Surveyor Name ____________________ Number of people in household 
___________
Did the pupil participate in mobile reading Yes No 
How many times did the pupil check out books as part of mobile reading?
Number of meals: 
Group
number
Food Group Examples Standards Meet 
Standard
Yes/No
Any 
consumed
Yes/No
1 cereals, white 
roots, tubers, 
and plantains
corn, fufu, Irish potato, 
plantain, white yam, sweet 
white yam, cassava (gari), 
cocoyam, rice, bread.
1 cooking spoon
1 medium, 1 
slice.
2 yellow or orange 
flesh vegetables, 
tubers, oils, and 
fruits
sweet potato, sweet yellow 
yam, carrots, pepper sauce, 
pumpkin, squash, sweet red 
pepper; 
Fruits: papaya, mango, 
cantaloupe, 100% fruit juice; 
Other: red palm oil, yellow soup 
(red palm)
1 cooking spoon, 
1 medium
1/2 cup. 
For red palm oil, 
the standard is 1 
tbs.
For any soup, the 
standard is 1 cup
3 dark leafy green 
vegetables
Leaves: huckleberry, eru, 
pumpkin leaf, bitter leaf, 
spinach,
Soup: cocoyam leaf.
1 cooking spoon
1/2 cup. 
For any soup, the 
standard is 1 cup.
4 other fruits and 
vegetables
Fruits: pineapple, orange, 
guava, tree tomato, 
watermelon, banana, pear, 
sugar cane
Vegetables: young elephant 
grass, garden eggs, white 
carrot, onion, garlic, plum, 
Chinese cabbage, corn; Soups: 
tomato stew, okro soup, mixed 
vegetables.
1 cooking spoon
1 medium
1/2 cup. 
For any soup, the 
standard is 1 cup.
5 organ meats heart, liver, brain, lungs 1 tbsp
6 flesh meats and 
fish
beef, chicken, fish, snake, bush 
meat, pork, edible insect
1/2 palm
7 eggs eggs from any bird. 2 medium eggs
8 legumes, nuts, 
and seeds
cowpea, black beans, green 
beans, peanut butter
1 cooking spoon,
1 pack. 
Et4d ALIGN Cameroon Endline Survey Report 82
Soup: groundnut, melon seed 
(equsi), cowpea.
For equsi, the 
standard is 2 tbs. 
For any soup, the 
standard is 1 cup
9 milk and milk 
product
milk, cheese, yogurt, cream For liquid milk: 8 
tbsp.
For condensed: 2 
tbsp.
For powdered: 1 
tbsp.
1-8 Mixed foods Corn and bean, potato and 
bean
2 cooking spoon
Et4d ALIGN Cameroon Endline Survey Report 83
Et4d ALIGN Cameroon Endline Survey Report 84
ANNEX G: Biographical summary of evaluation team 
Et4d’s evaluation team has extensive experience working on large-scale complex 
evaluations, including RCTs, for government-funded and multilateral clients such as, the 
World Bank, USAID, and DFID, and is adept at collaborating with multiple stakeholders 
from, country offices, agency headquarters, and ministries of education. 
Project Director and Evaluation Lead
Isabelle Duston, MBA
Ms. Isabelle Duston, Et4d’s CEO, has 25 years of experience in managerial positions. 
Her work history is characterized by an ability to handle pressure and creatively solve 
problems, analyze situations and develop viable solutions and/or alternatives, and 
integrating technology where effective, while maintaining the highest levels of client 
satisfaction. Ms. Duston has substantial knowledge of data collection and quality control 
protocols. She has led the EGRA evaluation for the PEARL project implemented by the 
World Bank in five countries of the South Pacific (Kiribati, Tuvalu, Tonga, Samoa and the 
Solomon Islands), which included instrument design, instrument rendering in Tangerine, 
enumerator training, data collection, data analysis, and result dissemination. For 
Nascent, she acted as project manager and be the main point of contact and lead the 
enumerator training and the data collection. Ms. Duston also led the focus groups and 
ensured all key stakeholders can play an active role in the evaluation process.
Senior Evaluation and EGRA Specialist
Brenda Sinclair, Ed.D.
Dr. Brenda Sinclair is an International Education, Gender and Evaluation Specialist. She 
brings 18 years of experience designing, implementing and evaluating education 
development projects across the globe. Dr. Sinclair served as a teacher for five years --
including as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Africa, Senior Education Advisor in Indonesia, 
and program manager for education programs in Latin America prior to beginning her 
consulting practice in 2009. Over the past nine years, Dr. Sinclair has led performance 
evaluations of education and early grade reading programs in Africa, Asia, the Middle 
East and Latin America for multiple donors, including USAID, DFID, and the World Bank. 
Throughout her evaluations, she has analyzed results frameworks; designed and pilot 
tested data collection instruments, including EGRA; conducted interviews, surveys, 
focus group discussions, and classroom observations; and performed data analysis and 
report writing. With Et4d, Dr. Sinclair supported the World Bank Pearl project with 
EGRAs in the Pacific Islands and assisted with five country reports. For the Cameroon 
final evaluation, Dr. Brenda Sinclair developed the evaluation plan and methodology, 
developed the qualitative instruments, and drafted the final evaluation report with inputs 
from the evaluation team.
Data Analysis Lead
Michel Rousseau, Ph.D.
Professor Michel Rousseau has been a university professor since 2005. He has taught 
psychometrics, quantitative methods, and classroom assessment. Parallel to his work as 
a professor, he has also worked as a consultant for international development projects in 
many countries, mainly in Africa (Guinea, Senegal, Nigeria, Morocco, and Zambia). In 
those projects, he has worked on the development of assessment tests for impact 
evaluation as well as conducted test equating and other statistical analyses. With Et4d, 
he performed the data analysis for the PEARL project in the South Pacific for the early 
grade reading evaluations. Finally, he is the founder of GAUSS, a consultant company in 
Et4d ALIGN Cameroon Endline Survey Report 85
Quebec that offers services in the research and psychometrics fields. Professor Michel 
Rousseau guided the Et4d team on all issues related to sampling and conducted the 
quantitative analysis.
EGRA Trainer, Quality Assurance and Survey Coordinator Lead
Alice Michelazzi
Ms. Alice Michelazzi has led numerous data collection projects using technology in 
several African countries with leading firms such as Chemonics, Edintersect, STS and 
Montrose. With STS, she led qualitative instrument design workshops and lead the 
qualitative data collection using focus groups. In Tanzania she has been part of the 
baseline data collection for the first phase of the USDA FFE intervention in Mara Region 
implemented by PCI (2014). She also carried out the midline evaluation (2015). For 
Et4d, Ms. Michelazzi performed three EGRA enumerator training sessions for the 
PEARL project, and coordinated the data collection in two countries. As the instrument 
design assistant, Ms. Michelazzi worked with Ms. Duston, Dr. Sinclair and the 
NASCENT M&E team to develop or adapt the questionnaires and interview protocols. As 
the lead trainer, she trained and evaluated the enumerators in Cameroon in 
collaboration with Ms. Isabelle Duston. As the survey coordinator, she also defineed the 
quality assurance protocols to be followed by the survey coordinator during data 
collection and supervise the data collection for EGRA, as well as the focus groups.