Download RESULT OF EARLY GRADE READING

The Gambia Early Grade
Reading Assessment
(EGRA) Programme
Presented at the Second EGRA Workshop
Held at Washington DC
12 – 14th March 2008
By:
Baboucarr Bouy
&
Burama L. J. Jammeh
Permanent Secretary
Director of Curriculum Research, Evaluation,
Development and In-service Training
Department of State for Basic and Secondary Education
The Gambia
OUTLINE OF PRESENTATION
1.
2.
3.
4.
Introduction (a) Location, size and education system of
The Gambia (b) EGRA initiative
Description of sample/group, time and process
Summary of EGRA tasks including students’
Survey/Interview
Summary of results from EGRA tasks showing
comparison of results according to:
a)
b)
c)
d)
e)
5.
6.
7.
School type (Government, Mission & Private)
Region
Socioeconomic status
Pre-Grade 1 education (Nursery attendance)
Parent literacy
The Implications
Follow-up to the Assessment Activity
Way forward
INTRODUCTION: Location & Size of The
Gambia
• The
Gambia lies
on the
Atlantic
Coast
• It only
shares
boarder
with
Senegal
INTRODUCTION CONTD.
• It runs in and
divides
Senegal into
north and
south
• River
Gambia is
navigable divides the
country into
north and
south bank
INTRODUCTION Contd.
• Population=1.36 million: Male 48.6% Female 51.4%
Area:
11,000sq Km
• Conventional western system & Madrassah system
• Nine year Basic education divided in Lower and Upper Basic
• Age group 7 – 12 yrs Lower Basic
• Age group 13 – 15 yrs. Upper Basic
•
•
Three years of senior secondary ( Age group 16 – 18 yrs)
Four years University
CONVENTIONAL SCHOOL STATISTICS (2005/06)
Sch. Type / level
LBS
UBS
SSS
Total
No. of Schools
406
150
53
609
No. of Teachers
4956
1288
595
6839
No. of Students
182,627 64,392 26,600 273,619
•
•
•
MADRASSAH STATISTICS
Number of Registered Schools = 199
Enrolment
=
60,334
No. of teachers
=
1,321
INTRODUCTION TO EGRA
• Started with our acceptance of a World Bank invitation for the Gambia’s
participation in the EGRA pilot phase
• At a time of great concern for pupils’ inability to read even at the level of
Grade 7
• A team of six officers (including the Permanent Secretary) joined
Senegalese team in Dakar (16th -21st April 2007) for training, reviewing
and adaptation of the EGRA protocol (assessment instrument) developed
by RTI.
• From Dakar, The Gambian team identified additional 14 officials (adding
up to 20) to constitute a National EGRA Team
• In country training, further adaptation, piloting and finalisation of EGRA
protocols was facilitated by Dr. Amber Gove of RTI
• The training, among other things, included participatory discussions on
modification of the protocols, survey questionnaires & methodology, data
coding, pre-testing/piloting and preliminary data analysis using the pilot
results.
• Higher level of consultations throughout the exercise
DESCRIPTION OF SAMPLE/GROUP, TIME AND PROCESS
• 1200 children in Grades 1, 2 and 3 in 40 schools corresponding to 10%
of the total number of Lower Basic/Basic cycle schools across the
country
• 40 schools, selected by (a) stratified (to ensure that all types and
categories of schools - public, mission and private schools) are
represented and (b) random methods (to ensure that the schools have
equal chance to be selected).
• The Sample consist of 34 public, 2 private, 4 mission schools
• 1200 students, 30 per school (10 per grade)
• Administered by 20 Gambian Education Sector Personnel, Teacher
Training College and other staff who participated in 5 days of
training/adaptation (9 for Team Leaders),+2 days of pre-tests
• 5 Teams of 4 persons including 3 enumerators and one team leader –
all with a written and agreed contractual mandate and responsibilities
•
•
•
Administrative coordinator: The Permanent Secretary (Mr Baboucarr Bouy)
EGRA Expert: Amber Gove
National counterpart: Director of Curriculum (Burama Jammeh)
THE ASSESSMENT TASKS & SCORING
•
Pre-reading skills
–
–
•
Text Direction: The score is determined by the students finger placement on the
correct place to start reading and his/her finger movement towards correct direction
for reading a text
Knowledge of letters/alphabet name. Score calculated by the number of correct
letters named by a student per minutes
Phonemic Awareness Tasks
–
–
•
Identification task: students to pronounce each sound of a spoken word. The
scores were calculated by the number of phonemes correctly identified
Counting Task: students are asked to provide the number of sounds included in
set of words. The scores were calculated by the sum of correct phonemes correctly
pronounced or sounded out.
Tasks on Reading skills
–
–
–
Familiar word reading of a list of familiar words selected from early grade reading
materials. The score determined by counting the number of correct words a student
can read aloud in a minute
Pseudo word (invented words) reading of a list of 50 pseudo words. The score
was calculated by counting the number of pseudo words a student can read aloud
correctly in one minute.
Word reading in context: A student is asked to read one short narrative paragraph.
The score was calculated by counting the number of words a student can read
aloud correctly in one minute.
THE TASKS AND SCORES
• Comprehension Task (Reading and listening comprehension)
– Reading comprehension :Student is asked to read text aloud after which
was asked five simple questions on the passage. The score was the number
of questions answered correctly
– Listening Comprehension: Student is asked to aloud text similar to the
one used to assess reading comprehension and was asked three simple
questions about the passage. The score was the number of questions
answered correctly.
• Task on Spelling skills: the examiner reads a short sentence then
asked student to write down the spelling. The score was determined by
spelling of two key words, spacing between words, direction of the writing,
capitalisation and punctuation
STUDENTS’ SURVEY/INTERVIEW: Include students’ respond to questions
concerning:
• Cultural and linguistic environment (e.g. home language & parents’
literacy
• Socio-economic Situation (SES) variable created based on the total
number of yes responses for 14 items including e.g. presence of articles
in the home such as water taps, electricity, refrigerators, televisions,
fixed-line telephones; and ownership of a car, bike, or mobile phone.
– The two SES categories provided in the analysis are:
• lower SES category (SES scores lower than 8) and
• Higher SES category (scores equal to or more than 8)
RESULT
The result presented here provides a snapshot of the
reading ability in our schools including:
School types variations – Government, Mission &
Private
Comparison of results in the six Regions (see map in
next slide)
Comparison of results by socioeconomic status
Comparison of results by gender
The effect of nursery school attendance
Comparison or result by parents literacy
Note: The first two (School & regional comparison)
were analysed by Gambians trained by Dr. Amber
Gove of RTI. Such comparisons are important for
our local intervention strategies
Knowledge of Text Direction & Pre-reading skills
Text Direction
• Finger placement 88%
• Finger movement 87%
No. of Letters per
minute
Pre-reading Skills: Correct letters per
minute - Max: 100
70
60
50
40
30
20
10
0
Mean
Mode
Standard deviation
Government
Private
School Type
Mission
Pre-reading skills
No.of correct letters/minute
Correct letter/munite by Region: Max 100
45
40
35
30
25
20
15
Region
Mean
Mode
1
39.49
0
2
23.47
0
3
19.18
0
4
18.95
0
5
0.91
0
6
23.03
0
Mean
Mode
10
5
0
Region 1 Region 2 Region 3 Region 4 Region 5 Region 6
Phonemic awareness: Identification task
Government
Private
Mission
Identification task: Correct No. of phomemes
identified - Max 5
Mean
1.28
2.23
1.93
Mode
0
2
2
1.34
1.49
1.30
Mission
Private
Standard deviation
Mode
Mean
Government
0
0.5
1
1.5
No. of sounds
2
2.5
Standard
deviation
Phonemic awareness identification Task:
Correct sounds identified by region - Max 5
No. of sounds identified
2.5
2
1.5
Mean
Mode
1
0.5
0
Region 1
Region 2
Region 3
Region 4
Region 5
Region 6
Result on Reading Task by school type
Familiar word reading: Correct words per minute
Mission
Private
Mode
Mean
Government
0
5
10
15
20
No. of correct words /minute
25
Reading Task Result by Region
Familiar word reading: Correct words/minute
No. of correct words
12
10
8
Mean
6
Mode
4
2
0
Region 1 Region 2 Region 3 Region 4 Region 5 Region 6
Passage Reading Task by School Type
Correct words (Passage) per minute
No. of correct words
45
40
35
30
25
Mean
20
15
Mode
10
5
0
Government
Private
Mission
Reading Task Result by Region
Correct words (passage) per minute by Region- Max 30 words
Region 6
Region 5
Region 4
Region 3
Mode
Region 2
Mean
Region 1
0
5
10
15
No. of correct words (in Pasage)
20
Comprehension Task Result by School Type
Correct answers to comprehension questions - Max 3
2.5
2
1.5
1
0.5
Mission
Private
0
Government
Mean correct
answers
3
Comprehension Task Results
Answers to comprehension questions by Region
No. of correct answers
2.5
2
1.5
Mean
Mode
1
0.5
0
Region 1 Region 2 Region 3 Region 4 Region 5 Region 6
Ph
Ph o n
on em
em e
e Cou
Id
en ntin
tif
i c g: %
Ps
L a
eu ett tion
Is do ers/ : %
ol
wo M
a
t
W
ed rd inu
W s/M te
R ord
ea s
i
or
ds nut
di in
Li ng Co /M e
st
en Co nte inu
in mp xt/ te
g
M
C reh in
om e
ut
pr nsi e
eh on
en :%
Sp sio
el n:%
li
Sp ng
el 1: %
lin
g
2:
%
Mean Scores
Comparison of Results by Socioeconomic Group
Mean Score from EGRA Task by socioeconomic status
70
60
50
40
30
Higher Socioecononomic status
N= 271
Low socioeconomic status N =
929
20
10
0
EGRA Tasks
Comparison of Results by Gender
Mean Score on EGRA Tasks by Gender
Spelling 2: %
Spelling 1: %
EGRA Tasks
Listening Comprehension:%
Reading Comprehension:%
Words in Context/Minute
Girls N= 638
Isolated Words/Minute
Boys N=560
Pseudo words / Minute
Letters/Minute
Phoneme Identification: %
Phoneme Counting: %
0
5
10
15
20
25
30
Mean Scores
35
40
45
50
Comparison of Results by Nursery School Attendance (Means and
Standard Deviation (STD) of EGRA Tasks) The nursery school attendance
was found to have a systematic positive effect
EGRA Tasks
Attended (N=468)
Did not attend (N=726)
Means
STD
Means
STD
Phoneme Counting: %
32.3
28.6
24.6
26.1
Phoneme Identification: %
32.6
29.1
23.9
26.9
Letters/Minute
29.3
26.0
21.4
20.8
Pseudo words/Minute
2.15
7.79
0.71
2.78
Isolated Words/Minute
4.25
11.4
1.46
4.25
Words in Context/Minute
8.52
20.8
2.86
8.23
Reading Comprehension:%
24.7
32.6
15.4
24.4
Listening Comprehension:%
50.2
38.9
37.8
37.7
Spelling 1: %
10.1
25.7
3.89
14.9
Spelling 2: %
25.0
21.5
21.6
15.9
Comparison of Results by Parents’ Literacy Status of
(Means of EGRA Tasks)
Effect of Parent Literacy
Spelling 2: %
Spelling 1: %
EGRA Tasks
Listening Comprehension:%
Reading Comprehension:%
Words in Context/Minute
Isolated Words/Minute
No literate parent (N= 485)
Pseudo words/Minute
At least one literate parent N =715
Letters/Minute
Phoneme Identification: %
Phoneme Counting: %
0
5
10
15
20
25
30
Mean Scores
35
40
45
50
THE IMPLICATIONS FOR EDUCATION
For educational policy,
• The relevance of EGRA protocol for assessments over other
assessments
• Teacher Training to address the main characteristics of the English
orthography as well as both the English phonological system and the
phonological system of the children’s home language
• To develop reading materials including only very frequent and simple
words with, as much as possible, regular Grapheme-phoneme
correspondence (GPC).
• Nursery school attendance found to have positive effect on the
subsequent reading capacity of the children
• The main basic reading and reading-related skills to be assessed as
early as possible - latest, by the end of the first year of primary school for
teachers to identify children with severe reading difficulties, for which
remedial programs could be developed
The Implications for future EGRA applications
• Lessons from the first attempt to be used as a base for improvements on
EGRA protocols
• To develop a test to assess the vocabulary level of the children.
• Arabic to be listed as a language spoken at home
FOLLOW-UP TO THE ASSESSMENT ACTIVITY
• A task force consisting of senior officials on
interventions to curb reading inabilities in schools
• Review workshop held to:
– identify reading gaps in instructional materials of schools
and teacher training college curricula
– identify best practices on the teaching of reading at early
grades in the country
• Handbook on Teaching Early Grade Reading
Abilities (EGRA) produced for training of teachers
• Teacher Training: About 3000 teachers, incl. head
teachers, senior teachers, Grades 1 – 3 teachers
and cluster monitors trained using the Handbooks
• Jolly Phonics programme initiated and more training
scheduled for March (this month)
WAYFORWARD
The Gambia intend to continue the interventions already started
• Revise and update the Early Grade Reading Ability (EGRA) Handbook
base on the comments received and to integrate Jolly Phonics
• Use the revised handbook to replicate the nationwide training of teachers
• Revised Grades 1 to 3 English Language text books to incorporate the
content of a revised EGRA Handbook to ensure sustainable phonemic
awareness
• Train teachers on EGRA protocols to facilitate their use of EGRA for
diagnostic, instructional, monitoring and remedial purposes in classroom
• Further assessment be conducted using the envisaged revised
instrument/EGRA protocols with a view to assessing impact of our
interventions to curb reading inabilities
• EGRA protocols be designed for the five main national language in order to
reinforce the use of these languages in teaching and learning process
• Electronic cassettes are needed for correct pronunciation of letter sounds
in order to increase phonemic awareness of teachers, pupils and parents
• Study methods of setting standards for reading & the way mechanics of
reading is addressed in the curriculum of successful countries
• Adequate funding is crucial for the realisation of this way forward
• The Gambia’s size & situation makes it suitable for comprehensive
experiments and impact assessment