International Literacy Day focuses on assessment; data show next step is quality reading instruction

Millions of parents in developing countries send their children to school—whether in a modern classroom or in the shade of a tree or in a hut on a mountainside—believing their children are learning to read.

What if parents were told that their child, after as many as five years in school, still was not able to read a single word in the language of instruction?

That is one of the findings of Early Reading: Igniting Education for All, released to mark International Literacy Day on September 8. “I was shocked,” said Amber Gove, a senior research analyst at RTI International and coauthor with Peter Cvelich of the report. Gove presented the findings to a standing room only audience of more than 200 people at the Brookings Institution in Washington, DC. “Access is not enough,” Gove said.

Since 1990, the international education community has focused its attention on the Education for All initiative, and in 2000, universal primary education was adopted as a United Nations Millennium Development Goal to be met by all nations by 2015. While more and more nations are coming close to meet-ing the goal of compulsory school attendance in the primary grades, the report’s findings depict a world where in many places there are classrooms, teachers, and students, but the spark that lights the fire of learning—reading—is missing.

“Now we have data on what is needed as a next step,” said International Reading Association (IRA) President Patricia Edwards. “We need to focus on reading instruction. The fact is, we should be celebrating because now we have a better idea of what to do next.” Edwards was a panelist, along with United States Agency for International Development (USAID) Director of the Office of Education David Barth, Jamaica Teachers Association General Secretary Adolph Cameron, and Senior Fellow and Director of the Center for Universal Education (CUE) Rebecca Winthrop, who moderated the discussion. Gove was also part of the panel.

In addition to Edwards, President-elect Vicki Risko and Vice President Carrice Cummins attended the event along with students, educators, policy-makers, and representatives of nonprofit organizations. IRA and CUE at Brookings hosted the occasion.

Edwards acknowledged that Early Reading, which analyzed data from more than 44 countries, accurately reflected what is occurring globally in the primary grades, but added, “Not being able to read a single word doesn’t mean that they [the students] weren’t in school, nor does it mean that they can’t learn. It means that they haven’t been taught.”

She called for more attention and funding for teaching and instruction. Development aid must focus on quality and not simply access to schools. In addition, the report showed that more teachers in developing countries need instruction in how to teach reading.

Edwards also acknowledged the importance of assessment in moving forward an agenda focused on quality. She described several projects in Africa that IRA is involved in and talked about the importance of more research into how the world reads—the topic of her column in the August/September issue of Reading Today.

A quality agenda

Scaling up the use of clear, measurable, actionable assessments can drive a quality agenda forward, Gove said. RTI International, a nonprofit re-search organization, has developed an Early Grades Reading Assessment (EGRA), a 15-minute individual oral assessment of five foundational reading skills. It has been used in Haiti, Guyana, The Gambia, South Africa, and numerous other countries.

Such assessments can be readily used in developing countries where children may not be able to perform pencil-and-paper tests such as the Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study or Progress in International Reading Literacy Study. Furthermore, research shows that it is the early grades that are critical when it comes to learning how to read. Once EGRA results are known—and particularly if they are shared with parents and the community—steps can be taken to improve the educational system.

Gove summarized them with a five “T’s” mnemonic:

1. Test to find out what skills students lack.
2. Teach teachers to teach reading.
3. Teach children in their mother tongue.
4. Texts are sorely needed: Put more books in the hands of children.
5. Time spent in the classroom must be maximized. Often children in poor countries simply do not have enough instructional time to make any meaningful headway in learning to read.

Other obvious but sometimes overlooked challenges to improving educational outcomes include overcrowded classrooms, lack of parental involvement, health issues, natural disasters, wars, and unstable governments with few resources for any quality of life endeavors.

After the event, Barth, of USAID, said the report was something of a “good news, bad news” situation. The bad news is how poorly nations performed on the assessments, but the good news is that the report shows that some relatively simple strategies can be put in place to quickly improve outcomes—most notably teacher training interventions. He also said transparency in making results known to parents and communities, as well as governments, is a major step in the right direction.

Edwards, who recently visited China, Nigeria, and South Africa, said in an interview after the event that she feels more in-depth conversations should take place within countries on how to improve their educational systems and that ministries of education should develop their own data collection and  teacher education programs that emphasize instruction relevant to their needs, she said.
In one of the question-and-answer sessions after the program, a member of the audience asked Gove to include another “T,” Toddlers. Early literacy instruction begins in the home and shouldn’t wait until a child is in kindergarten or first grade, she said.

Edwards is also an avid proponent of family literacy, having authored two nationally acclaimed programs aimed at involving parents—even nonreading parents—in their children’s literacy development. She said that teachers are important, but the first teachers are the most important teachers—parents.

In addition to the event at Brookings, IRA also sponsored two webinars that provided an opportunity worldwide for all to log on and participate. The webinars emphasized the need for community collaboration for successful literacy programs.

Rotarian Richard Carson described how Rotary Clubs and IRA councils are working together to promote literacy. IRA member and Rotarian Judy Back-lund told about a project supported by Rotary clubs in her area to both build a school in Duk County in the Sudan, and provide teacher education to teachers working there. IRA councils in other areas also held celebrations, including a program in the Philippines, which emphasized the long-standing focus on developing support for more teachers.

A complete transcript of remarks by presenters at the event at the Brookings Institution is available at www.brookings.edu/events/2010/0908_early_reading.aspx.

Adapted from Early Reading: Igniting Education for All by Amber Gove and Peter Cvelich, RTI International (www.rti.org)

• Education quality is at the heart of development. A 10% increase in the share of students reaching basic literacy translates into a 0.3 percentage point higher annual growth rate for a country.
•   Substantial gains in enrollment have led many to believe that education in low-income countries is no longer in crisis. The reality is that children in low-income countries are completing primary school at only 67% of the rate of high-income countries. At this rate it will take 30 years for the low-income countries to catch up.
•   In some countries, upward of 70% to 90% of students tested at the end of two to three years of school were unable to correctly read a single word within the first line of a simple paragraph.
•   Information about learning outcomes for low-income countries is sparse. Two thirds of low-income and half of lower middle-income countries have never participated in a regional or international assessment.
•   Early grade reading assessment can show policymakers where major deficits are in reading performance, allowing them to revise curriculums or train teachers, and can serve as a proxy measure for education quality in general.

For information on IRA’s international outreach efforts, visit www.reading.org/General/InternationalOutreach.aspx.

International Literacy Day. (October 2010). Reading Today, 28(2), 1, 6, 7