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Research has indicated that reading aloud to young students can enhance their foundational reading skills and their reading motivation, but such research has been lacking in African contexts. In this study, we assessed the efficacy of story read-aloud lessons in improving students' foundational reading skills in Nigeria. The experiment took place in a cluster randomized trial of 199 schools in Northern Nigeria. In treatment schools, second-grade teachers conducted weekly read-aloud lessons as an addition to the core learning curriculum. In control schools, second-grade teachers implemented only the core curriculum, without weekly read-aloud lessons. We found that story read-alouds led to positive effects on listening comprehension, letter sound recognition, nonword decoding, and reading fluency, with effect sizes between 0.17 and 0.33 standard deviations. These outcomes suggest that enhanced student motivation from read-alouds may enhance text-based skills. To identify the effects of increased teacher experience on read-aloud effectiveness, we employed a two-period difference-in-differences approach. We found that increased teacher experience explained between 26% and 51% of the overall read-aloud effect, depending on the literacy subskill. We also found that the read-aloud effects coupled with increased teacher experience had an equalizing effect on the reading outcomes of students from divergent home literacy environments.

This article investigates the rollout of universal primary education (UPE) policies in Ethiopia, Malawi, and Uganda to assess their long-term causal effects on schooling attainment. Consequently, we employ a fuzzy regression discontinuity design (RDD) to assess the effect that increased schooling helps lower adolescent sexual activity, marriage, and births, as well as adult labor force activity among women. Our findings show that the UPE policies were effective in increasing educational attainment across all three countries between 0.6 and 1.5 years of completed schooling. Additionally, we show that increased schooling induced by UPE had lowered sexual activity, child birth, and marriage rates during adolescence. We find that the effects of schooling do not significantly improve labor force participation and employment.

High school graduation rates are a central policy topic in the United States and have been shown to be stagnant for the past three decades. Using student-level administrative data from New York City Public Schools, I examine the impact of compulsory school attendance on high school graduation rates and grade attainment, focusing the analysis on ninth and tenth grade cohorts. I exploit the interaction between the school start-age cutoff and compulsory attendance age requirement to identify the effect of compulsory schooling. I find that an additional year in compulsory attendance leads to an increase of 9 to 12 percent in the probability of progressing to grades 11 and 12, and raises the probability of graduating from high school by 9 to 14 percent, depending on the specification.

Research has indicated that reading aloud to young students can enhance their foundational reading skills and their reading motivation, but such research has been lacking in African contexts. In this study, we assessed the efficacy of story read‐aloud lessons in improving students' foundational reading skills in Nigeria. The experiment took place in a cluster randomized trial of 199 schools in Northern Nigeria. In treatment schools, second‐grade teachers conducted weekly read‐aloud lessons as an addition to the core learning curriculum. In control schools, second‐grade teachers implemented only the core curriculum, without weekly read‐aloud lessons. We found that story read‐alouds led to positive effects on listening comprehension, letter sound recognition, nonword decoding, and reading fluency, with effect sizes between 0.17 and 0.33 standard deviations. These outcomes suggest that enhanced student motivation from read‐alouds may enhance text‐based skills. To identify the effects of increased teacher experience on read‐aloud effectiveness, we employed a two‐period difference‐in‐differences approach. We found that increased teacher experience explained between 26% and 51% of the overall read‐aloud effect, depending on the literacy subskill. We also found that the read‐aloud effects coupled with increased teacher experience had an equalizing effect on the reading outcomes of students from divergent home literacy environments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Star forage chopper machine (SFCM) was modified and tested to reduce the power required and to improve forage cutting efficiency, also, it will reduce the environmental and health impacts by replacing diesel-based farm machines with electrically operated ones. Power transmission assembly, rotating cutter head knives and straw outlet position modified, and newly constructed feed rollers were added and positioned to control plant material chopping process. The performance of SFCM was evaluated based on its ability to chop rice straw and cotton stalks under three different feed rates 0. 8, 1.2 and 1.5 t/h four different knife speed, 78.6 (750), 91.1 (1000), 115.2 (1250) and 136.2 (1500) m/s (rpm). Minimum cut lengths were 1.35 and 1.27 cm for rice straw and were achieved by using the highest feed rate of 1.5 t/h with the maximum of knife speed 136.2 m/s with using toothed blades and normal (flail) blades respectively. At higher feed rates, either power required cutting rice straw or cotton stalks increased with increasing knife speed under the two types of new knifes. Minimum power required to cut rice straw were 1.81 and 1.76 kW and were achieved by using feeding rate of 0. 8 t/h with knife speed of78.6 m/s for toothed blades and normal (flail) blades respectively. Rice straw and cotton stalks cutting efficiency decreased with increasing feeding rates and increased with increasing knife speeds. Specific energy for cutting rice straw and cotton stalks decreased with increasing feeding rates and decreased also with increasing knife speeds. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]