USAID Uganda School Health and Reading Program, Systemic, Sustained Reading Achievement

Briefer: Final Early Grade Reading Assessment Results from the USAID/Uganda School Health and Reading Program. This briefer compares English and local language reading fluency and comprehension among program and control learners from Primary 1 to Primary 4 (when the program ended) and beyond to Primary 5. It also goes back and compares Primary 2 results for later cohorts. Major findings: • By the end of Primary (P4), program learners were more than twice as likely to be reading 60 or more words per minute in English than learners from control schools. • P4 Program learners were also able to answer almost twice as many comprehension questions correctly in English than control learners. • Program results are proving to be sustainable. P2 learners in subsequent cohorts registered reading gains similar to those found in the initial cohort, and control schools brought into the program also registered gains. Furthermore, these gains are being maintained into P5 (though the program ended in P4)