This report summarizes the findings of the 2018 Early Grade Reading and Mathematics Initiative (RAMP) Lot Quality Assurance Sampling Assessment, measuring impact between 2017 and 2018. The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and UK Aid have funded RAMP as a national effort designed to improve the reading and mathematics skills and performance of students in Jordan from kindergarten 2 through grade 3 (K2–G3). This five-year program began on January 1, 2015, and is scheduled to end on December 31, 2019. Her Majesty Queen Rania Al-Abdullah formally launched RAMP as part of the broader Ministry of Education (MoE) initiative to improve education. The Research Triangle Institute (RTI) International leads implementation with its partners: Queen Rania Teacher’s Academy, ChangeAgent for Arab Development and Education Reform, We Love Reading, The Kaizen Company, Mercy Corps, Dajani Consulting, and Prodigy Consulting. The RAMP team and the MOE conducted a Lot Quality Assurance Sampling (LQAS) assessment in November 2018. Approximately 200 assessors (most of whom were MOE supervisors) were trained to collect reading and mathematics performance data across all 42 field directorates in the kingdom. For this activity, an approach was used at the school level, which led to a final sample of more than 39,000 Grade 2 and Grade 3 students in 2,076 schools. Performance comparisons made on three key indicators (reading comprehension, oral reading fluency, and mathematics) provides illustrative evidence of the gains made by RAMP schools over one school year. Large gains were seen on reading comprehension with the percent of students reaching the comprehension benchmark, increasing from 43% in 2017 to 55% in 2018. Gains in terms of oral reading fluency increased from 13% in 2017 to 19% in 2018. The smallest gains were in terms of mathematics (where the percent of students reaching the benchmark improved only slightly from 28% in 2017 to 30% in 2018).

Over the course of four years (ending in 2016), the Department of Education (DepEd) in the Philippines grew increasingly self-sufficient at managing all aspects of early grade reading assessments (EGRAs). As DepEd’s capacity developed over time, the role of the technical assistance provided through the Education Data for Decision Making project (EdData II) shifted, diminished, and then disappeared altogether. International development professionals sometimes cite the cliché, “If we were truly successful, we would be working ourselves out of a job.” That sentiment now informs USAID’s goal to help each country on a journey to self-reliance. The EdData II project’s work in the Philippines provides some examples of what such a journey might include.

Improving early grade reading and writing outcomes has implications more far-reaching than simply raising scores on national and international assessments. Reading is a fundamental tool for thinking and learning, which has an integrated and cumulative effect on comprehension in all subject areas. Providing students with a strong foundation in reading increases the likelihood of future academic and workforce success. By providing Palestinian teachers with additional strategies and resources to build essential primary students’ reading and writing skills, the US Agency for International Development (USAID) Early Grade Reading (EGR) Project supported the goal of the USAID mission in the West Bank/Gaza of “providing a new generation of Palestinians with quality education and competencies that would enable them to thrive in the global economy and empower them to participate actively in a well-governed society.” Specifically, EGR addressed USAID’s strategic Sub-objective 3.1.5 to improve “service delivery in the education sector through increased access to quality education, especially in marginalized areas of the West Bank; a higher quality of teaching, learning and education management practices; and improved quality and relevancy of the education system at all levels.” EGR also directly supports USAID’s global goal to improve early grade reading skills. In support of the overarching goals, EGR’s project goal was to facilitate change in classroom delivery of early grade reading and writing instruction through three inter-connected component areas including evidence-based standards and curriculum revisions, instructional improvements, and parental engagement activities designed to improve student reading and writing competencies in Kindergarten (KG)–Grade 2 in the West Bank. EGR offered a scalable model of early grade reading instruction in 104 West Bank public schools among 351 teachers who taught 9,679 students. EGR collected data through reviews of curricular and standards’ documents, studies in schools, and assessments of students’ reading competencies. The project developed book leveling criteria to ensure the age- and grade-level appropriateness of reading materials, which facilitated the development or procurement of over 100,000 books for schools. EGR provided the Ministry of Education and Higher Education (MOEHE) with training modules in early grade reading and writing skills, a reading remediation manual, and a school-based professional development model. The project created innovative materials for parents to use to enhance their children’s reading skills. Despite its abbreviated timeframe, the project provided the MOEHE with a wealth of educational data, materials, and resources, including many interventions offered for the first time in the Palestinian educational system.

RTI International and its partner AMIDEAST supported the Ministry of Education and Higher Education (MOEHE) in the implementation of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID)/West Bank Early Grade Reading (EGR) project. The EGR program goal was to facilitate change in classroom delivery of early grade reading and writing instruction through an integrated process of instruction and assessment designed to improve student reading and writing competencies in Kindergarten (KG)–Grade 2 in the West Bank. EGR worked to equip the coaches, teachers, and principals with the tools and strategies that would enable them to provide effective reading and writing instruction that results in changing classroom delivery of early grade reading and writing instruction. The EGR coaching model outlined the support provided to teachers to implement new instructional strategies that were introduced in EGR training sessions to strengthen students’ reading and writing skills. A good coach helps teachers grow professionally and develop their skills. EGR views coaching as an interactive process that supports teachers to set goals, strengthen classroom practices, and provide encouragement to overcome challenges and celebrate successes. As an interactive process, coaching goes beyond training teachers; it involves continuously checking in with the teachers to ensure they have the support and guidance needed to be successful in the classroom. EGR’s coaching model includes classroom observations followed by delivery of descriptive feedback, teacher-to-teacher collaboration through participation in teacher learning circles, and access to a variety of online resources.

The US Agency for International Development (USAID) Early Grade Reading Project (EGR) cooperated closely with the Ministry of Education and Higher Education (MOEHE) to provide each student in EGR classrooms with age- and grade-level appropriate reading materials. In March 2018 EGR formed the Materials Development Technical Working Group (TWG) comprised of 10 members from four MOEHE General Directorates: General Education – Kindergarten (KG), Supervision and Educational Qualifications; National Institute of Education and Training (NIET); and Information Technology. The TWG methodically progressed through many stages before the complementary reading materials reached the classrooms: developing a book leveling instrument, inventorying the available books in the schools and in the market, leveling the available books, identifying the gaps, and finally developing and/or purchasing needed reading materials. By project end, EGR had developed or procured over 100,000 titles of leveled readers, decodable readers, big books, and read-aloud books to provide the 104 schools that EGR supports with complementary reading materials for KG-Grade 2 classrooms.

The US Agency for International Development (USAID) Early Grade Reading (EGR) Project in the West Bank completed its first year successfully with the completion of assessments and surveys, curriculum and standards reviews, and instructional materials in preparation for Year 2 implementation in schools. EGR worked closely with the Ministry of Education and Higher Education (MOEHE) to ensure their partnership in project activities. EGR administered two important assessments: a Time on Task (TOT) study, which determined the amount of time classroom teachers spent on reading and writing instruction, and the project baseline assessment, which provided a snapshot of the strengths and weaknesses of the students in the EGR-supported schools. The team also conducted a comprehensive review of the MOEHE’s standards and curricular documents related to early grade reading and writing to inform the development of the training materials and the complementary reading materials. By the end of the first year, EGR had established to support the MOEHE to implement a high-quality reading and writing program in 104 EGR-supported primary schools.

In partnership with the Ministry of Education and Higher Education (MOEHE), RTI International administered a baseline assessment of early grade reading skills in April and May 2018. The goal of the baseline assessment was to provide the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) West Bank Early Grade Reading (EGR) activity with a deeper understanding of the pre-literacy, reading, and writing abilities of kindergarten (KG), grade 1 (G1), and grade 2 (G2) students in the formal language of primary school instruction, Modern Standard Arabic (MSA). The baseline assessment also established the values of program performance indicators before the implementation of the EGR intervention, which will subsequently be compared to future values collected at midline and endline timepoints to evaluate the effectiveness of the program. The baseline assessment was conducted with 293 KG students, 1,492 G1 students, and 1,465 G2 students randomly selected and equally divided between girls and boys. The assessment measured the students’ pre-literacy and early grade reading ability and writing skills, including letter sound knowledge, word recognition, oral reading fluency (ORF), listening comprehension, reading comprehension, and writing.

The Ministry of Education and Higher Education (MOEHE) conducted the first EGRA assessment in the West Bank in March 2014 among a nationally representative sample of Grade 2 students, followed by a benchmarking exercise in September 2014. In 2018, the Early Grade Reading (EGR) project conducted a project baseline using an adapted EGRA 1 and MELQO 2 3 . Following this assessment, the MOEHE expressed interest in revising the 2014 provisional Grade 2 benchmarks and developing Grade 1 benchmarks. EGR conducted a technical benchmarking workshop in November 2018.

The purpose of this formative assessment is to contribute to the community outreach component of the EGR program by collecting and analysing information about target audiences, specifically their knowledge, attitudes and behavior. This information will contribute to the design of messages, techniques and tools that will resonate with the target audience. The assessment has collected information and identified current parent and family practices, explored the behaviors of reading in homes and communities in terms of resources available and activities organized, and engaged the targeted group in different aspects of the assessment to develop the correct recommendations enabling EGR to define and implement realistic and concrete community outreach activities.

This report presents the results of a baseline assessment of upper preschool and grade 1 student performance in pre-literacy and early grade reading. The assessment included samples drawn from three provinces in Cambodia: Kampong Thom, Siem Reap, and Battambang (control). The results will serve as a baseline for comparing the impact of early grade reading interventions being implemented in Kampong Thom and Siem Reap. The data reveal lower than expected levels of oral language ability among students in upper pre-school, especially given that Khmer is the mother tongue for nearly all students in the areas covered. For example, students responded correctly to only 3 out of 5 questions concerning a short passage that had been read to them. And in terms of their pre-literacy skills, when shown the letters they were supposed to learn in upper pre-school, students identified them with only 28% accuracy. Performance of grade 1 students on early literacy skills was also much lower than should be expected for the period during which the test was administered. For example, grade 1 students who were almost three-quarters of the way through the school year could only correctly identify letters 34% of the time and were identifying fewer than 10 letters per minute. When simpler forms of consonants and vowels were tested separately, grade 1 students performed better, but still correctly identified letters with less than 50% accuracy. Reading of familiar words in isolation or reading of a short grade-level passage were essentially non-existent.