Intervention that Works: Keeping up the Momentum

Zewdu Gebrekidan, July 2013

followed by categories of achieved proficiency levels.

Discontinuity Rate: The largest proportions

The IIRR-EGRA was conducted in Second and Third Grade students in Oromiya region of Adolla, Dillo, Goro Dola, Moyale, and Yabello woredas where IIRR and its partners are operating for the third time in series. A sample of 379 students drawn from 19 schools, their teachers and school directors participated in the study. Data collection was carried out in June, 2013. Students took tests on reading which was administered on a one-to-one basis and responded to interview. Teachers and school directors also responded to questionnaires. The main purpose of the study was to measure the pre-reading and reading ability of the students using oral tests. It is a follow up of similar studies conducted in 2011 and 2012 hence measures progress over time. The reading test was adapted from EGRA Ethiopia (conducted in May, 2010) and was composed of six parts: letter naming, word reading, invented words reading, connected words reading, reading comprehension, and listening comprehension. The first four parts were measuring fluency and timed to one minute each: Letter Per Minute (LPM), Word Per Minute (FWPM), Incorrect Word Per Minute (IWPM) and Connected Word Per Minute (CWPM). The remaining two measured the understanding levels of the students. The students were presented to read 100 letters, 50 words, 50 incorrect words and 62 context words based on Second Grade text. The same tools were used in the baseline and midterm studies conducted in 2011 and 2012. The analysis dealt with the fluency and understanding levels of the subtasks and made subgroup comparisons by sex, grade, school, woreda and some back ground variables. Descriptive and inferential statistics were applied. Frequency, mean, and percentile scores are presented below

of early stop cases appeared in passage reading (21.1%) followed by invented words reading (15%), and familiar words reading (11.3%). The sub task that showed the lowest percentage of early stop cases was subtask letter name knowledge where only 5 (1.6%) students were unable to read a single letter of the first line. In all cases when compared with the previous studies the proportion of nonreaders decreased.

Mean Fluency Scores: The mean letter

name knowledge was 75.3 while it was 67.9 and 34.2 in 2012 and 2011 respectively. The mean familiar words reading is 38.1 while it was 33.1 and 12.4 in 2012 and 2011 respectively. The mean invented words reading is 24.5 while it was 20.1 and 9.2 in 2012 and 2011 respectively. The mean oral reading fluency is 40.1 while it was 30.3 and 13.2 in 2012 and 2011 respectively. In all the subtasks the mean scores were found improving over time. the students were able to read at least 103.4 letters per minute, 66.7 familiar words per minute, 50.7 invented words per minute and 75.6 connected words per minute. The bottoms 25% were able to read at most 60 letters while the bottoms 10% were not able to read a single word from the passage. The top 25% of the students were able to read at least 63.8 connected words. In all cases except at the tenth percentile improvements are

Fluency Percentile Scores: The top 10% of

observed when compared with the past two studies. Fluency Scores by Subgroups: The mean fluency scores for Third Grade students were found better than that of Second Grad students in all the subtasks indicating grade gains. This is line with the previous two studies. In all the subtasks boys performed better than girls and the mean differences were found statistically significant. There still exist wide variations between schools. The mean oral reading fluency for the best performing school increased to 55.4 from 43.8 while that of the least performing one to 24.1 from 4.8. Ten schools scored 42.2 and above as compared to eight schools that scored 30.8 and above in the 2012 study.

and in both grade levels boys performed better than girls in all cases the mean differences were statistically significant. In all the three studies the listening comprehension scores remained the same. On the other hand there is still a gap between the listening and reading comprehension scores indicating the existence of teaching gap but when compared with the previous studies the gap is getting slightly narrower.

Interventions: Following the Baseline EGRA

Proficiency

Levels: Zero scores have continued to decrease to some extent while the benchmark proportion has substantially increased. Only 5 students were unable to name any letter. Overall the percentage of students who were unable to read a single word were: 1.6% in letter name knowledge and 21.1% in oral reading fluency. On the other hand those who achieved the benchmark level were 38.3% in familiar word reading and 29.8% in oral reading fluency. In each category a major progress was observed from the past studies.

study, IIRR/PEP project started intervention to improve the reading capability. The intervention was done on three major education actors, i.e. teachers, parents and students. In the past year these activities were intensified and refresher trainings were conducted on teaching reading at early grade. Additional children story books were distributed. All woredas made reading promotion part of their regular activity and included in their annual plan and implementation checklist. This year also, the trainings were found successful since there were signs observed in most schools to make reading a priority. Additional periods were allotted to reading; reading shades were established and reading competitions within and between schools were conducted.

Comprehension:

The mean reading comprehension score is 2.82 (47.2%) with a range of 0 to 6 (100%) while it was 2.3 (33.3%) and 0.72 (12.1%) in the 2012 and 2011 studies respectively. Third Grade students performed better than Second Grade
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Recommendations: Training should be sustained, intensive and related to practice. It should expand teachers knowledge of how children learn to read. There should be sufficient materials in the hands of students and their teachers.