Education Reporting Toolkit

The Center for Education has revised the indicators and narratives that are collected through the Performance Plan and Report (PPR). These revisions are meant to reduce and simplify the reporting burden for Missions and other Operating Units (OUs) engaged in education-related programming. The revisions also give OUs more leeway to adapt standard indicators to their context and keep PPR expectations relevant to USAID’s external reporting obligations. The table below shows key changes for fiscal year (FY) 2023 and the reasoning for making those changes.

The USAID education reporting guidance addresses the Agency’s Education Policy, the U.S. Government Strategy on International Basic Education, and other reporting needs that apply to USAID education programming. The most recent version of this guidance can always be found on the Education Reporting Toolkit.

Download the Reporting Guidance

Purpose and Audience

The primary audience for this guidance is technical and program staff from OUs who manage education-related programming, regardless of funding source. This guidance may also be of interest to those in fields such as child protection, youth empowerment, or higher education engagement, among others. Portions will be of interest to implementing partners, particularly the standard and supplemental indicators.

Although this guidance discusses topics associated with the PPR, this document does not replace existing PPR guidance or USAID monitoring policy in Automated Directives System (ADS) 201. It highlights and adds context to existing guidance to facilitate strong reporting on education sector content.

Since the Education Policy is, and will continue to be, central to USAID’s education programming, it is essential that OUs, and to an extent implementing partners, understand what is changing and why. Full and proper uptake of indicators and qualitative narratives is necessary to reflect current and future programming and to encourage internal learning.

Additional Resources

In addition to this guidance, readers are strongly encouraged to consult the Education Reporting Toolkit, hosted online on EducationLinks. It contains a complete listing of all new and revised indicators and qualitative narratives, as well as Performance Indicator Reference Sheets (PIRS).

The Helpdesk is a direct line of communication to monitoring and evaluation professionals at the Center for Education. Readers are encouraged to reach out with any questions or concerns they have about education reporting requirements. They are also encouraged to document challenges and best practices they uncover while working with the new reporting materials—indicators, narratives, and PIRS—and to share feedback with the Center through the Helpdesk.

Standard foreign assistance indicators are a type of performance indicator to facilitate portfolio-level reporting. They are useful for this purpose because they are (in principle) representative of USAID’s portfolio as a whole, and because definitions are consistent and known. The Center for Education and other Washington Bureaus have defined standard indicators to collect data from OUs using common methods and definitions. This allows us to aggregate and compare results from education programming across OUs. Full PIRS for active standard indicators for education programming can be found in the Compendium of Standard Indicators, which is available on EducationLinks.

compendium of standard indicators

Disaggregates are a way of breaking out data by categories of strategic priority. Reporting of disaggregates facilitates reporting on marginalized or vulnerable populations, such as learners with disabilities or learners affected by crisis or conflict. Every disaggregate listed in standard indicator PIRS addresses a specific USAID policy or reporting commitment.  

Disaggregates vary from indicator to indicator, but several common disaggregates are associated with many indicators. These include sex, persons with disabilities, and individuals affected by crisis or conflict. The PIRS for each indicator explains when OUs should report on these and other disaggregates.

COMPENDIUM OF DISAGGREGATES

The Center for Education created this “cheat sheet” as a handy resource to help Missions quickly identify reporting needs for education-related programming. The cheat sheet presents all standard indicators for education reporting, organized by indicator type. It shows which indicators to report on for different school levels. It also shows which indicators require baselines and clarifies the disaggregate groups for each indicator.  

Supplemental indicators are a category of indicators that were pioneered by the Center for Education in 2018 in an attempt to bring some of the benefits of standardization to non-aggregatable custom indicators. Supplemental indicators do not need to be reported in the PPR and will not be used for aggregate reporting. Supplemental indicator PIRS are offered as a resource to OUs who wish to capitalize on accumulated knowledge of best practices and avoid the need to “reinvent the wheel” of developing technically sound PIRS and methodologies for priorities that are not a match for standard indicators.

COMPENDIUM OF SUPPLEMENTAL indicators

SPSD Narratives, Key Issue Narratives, and Indicator Performance Narratives are collectively referred to as qualitative narratives (QNs). These narratives help the Center for Education understand and communicate aspects of programming and achievements that are not easily conveyed through numbers, such as systems strengthening and partnerships development. 

Education QNs include:

• The ES.1 Basic Education SPSD Narrative, which is used to describe programming and achievements that relate to basic education programming, as defined in the USAID Education Policy and Implementation Guidance. 
• The ES.2 Higher Education SPSD Narrative, which is for reporting results of the Education Policy and other programming designed to strengthen the capacity of higher education institutions (HEIs) to be central actors in development by conducting and applying research, delivering quality education, and engaging with communities. This narrative should be reported regardless of whether ES.2 or other SPSD area funds were used.
• The Engaging Higher Education Institutions (EHEI) Key Issue Narrative, which is a cross-cutting narrative and is applicable regardless of technical sector or funding stream. It focuses on monitoring results against the Education Policy and reporting programming where HEIs are a development partner in efforts to advance any development objective. 

You can find complete instructions and formatting preferences for these narratives in the Compendium of Qualitative Narratives.

COMPENDIUM OF QUALITATIVE NARRATIVES

The Helpdesk is a direct line of communication to monitoring and evaluation professionals at the Center for Education. Readers are encouraged to reach out with any questions or concerns they have about education reporting requirements. They are also encouraged to document challenges and best practices they uncover while working with the reporting materials—indicators, narratives, and PIRS—and to share feedback with the Center through the Helpdesk.

Contact the Helpdesk

Internationally Linked Benchmarking

• Global Proficiency Framework (GPF)
• Policy Linking for Measuring Global Learning Outcomes

Distance Learning

• Toolkit for Designing a Comprehensive Distance Learning Strategy
• Delivering Distance Learning in Emergencies: An Overview

Crisis and Conflict

• Indicators for Conflict-Sensitive Programs
• Rapid Education and Risk Analysis (RERA) Toolkit
• Equity of Access Indicator Guidance
• Social and Emotional Learning and Soft Skills
• Returning to Learning during Crises: Decision-making and Planning Tools for Education Leaders
• Analysis of Indicators Used in USAID Education Projects in Crisis and Conflict Environments
• Data Collection and Evidence Building to Support Education in Emergencies
• Safer Learning Environments (SLE) Assessment Toolkit

Equity and Inclusion

• Advancing Gender Equality in and through Education Data Brief
• Integrating LGBTQI+ Considerations into Programming
• School-Related Gender-Based Violence Measurement Toolkit
• Youth and Gender Analysis Toolkit
• Gender Equality and Inclusiveness in Learning Materials

Persons with Disabilities

• Advancing Disability Inclusive Education Data Brief
• Disability Communication Tips
• How-To Note: Collecting Data on Disability in Education Programming
• Disability Identification Tool Selection Guide
• How-To Note: Disability Inclusive Education
• USAID Standards for Accessibility

Pre-primary

• Developing High-Quality Pre-Primary Programs: USAID Education How-to-Note

Youth

• Standard Indicator Resources: Measuring Quality of Employment
• Global Impact Investing Network (GIIN) Quality Jobs Framework
• How to Measure Skills for Youth Workforce Development
• Integrating Mental Health and Psychosocial Support into Youth Programming: A Toolkit
• Toolkit for Measuring Employment and Earnings Using the Workforce Outcomes Reporting Questionnaire (WORQ)
• YouthPower WORQ Discussion Group
• Key Soft Skills that Foster Youth Workforce Success
• Key Soft Skills for Cross-sectoral Youth Outcomes
• Getting Employment to Work for Self-Reliance: A USAID Framework for Programming

Higher Education

• Higher Education Program Framework
• USAID Education FY 2021 Data Brief: Advancing Higher Education
• USAID Higher Education Programming Map
• Guidance on Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning (MEL) in USAID Scholarship Activities
• Higher Education Storytelling Toolkit

Private Sector Engagement (PSE)

• PSE MEL: Standard Agency PSE Indicators and Harmonizing Indicator Tool
• EducationLinks PSE Main Page

Climate Change

• Mapping Education and Climate Change Indicators