The Influence of Teacher Practice on Reading and Numeracy Outcomes in Kenya’s Early Grades

This article examines whether improvement in reading and numeracy in Kenyan early learning is linked through teacher practice. A structured evidence synthesis was conducted using 15 Kenya-only endline, final, or end-of-project evaluation reports published from 2015 to 2024. The grey-literature evidence base was kept separate from 12 peer-reviewed studies used to develop and interpret the conceptual argument. Numerical indicators were extracted for learner literacy or numeracy and for teacher practice, implementation, coaching, training uptake, instructional quality, or closely related classroom processes. Because the reports differed in age group, assessment instrument, intervention design, and statistical model, results were not pooled. Direct lower-primary evidence received greater inferential weight than evaluations of older primary learners and out-of-school adolescents. Across studies, structured pedagogy, coaching, aligned materials, lesson progression, and enacted classroom practice were repeatedly associated with stronger literacy or numeracy performance. However, iMlango, Sightsavers, KEEP II, and Wasichana Wetu Wafaulu also show that training, technology, or high teaching quality scores do not necessarily yield statistically significant differential learning gains. The evidence therefore supports teacher practice as a plausible common pathway, but not a simple causal claim that reading gains cause mathematics gains.