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Contents Summary ..................................................................................................................................... 3 Key highlights: ............................................................................................................................. 5 1. Assessment and reading proficiency – Concepts and definitions ........................................ 6 1.1 What is the role of assessment in the learning process? ..................................................... 6 2. Classroom assessment of Early Grade Reading Skills ........................................................... 13 2.1. What is the learning trajectory of early grade reading skills? ............................................. 13 2.2. Why is it important to conduct classroom assessments of early grade reading? .............. 16 2.3 Use of assessment results for feedback provision ............................................................... 19 2.4 Use of assessment results for instruction adjustment ........................................................ 20 3. Mapping of assessment tools with respect to early grade reading skills.............................. 21 3.1 Overview table of existing tools ............................................................................................ 21 3.2. Assessment tools .................................................................................................................. 22 4. Supporting teachers in the effective practice of literacy classroom assessment ................. 25 4.1 Teacher assessment competencies ....................................................................................... 25 4.2 Country cases. Teacher training on classroom assessment competencies ........................ 26 5. Key issues in the development and use of EGR classroom assessment ............................... 29 5.1 Language of Instruction ........................................................................................................ 29 5.2 Alignment with curriculum’s scope and sequence .............................................................. 30 5.3 Assessment translation and adaptation .............................................................................. 32 5.4. Use of technology ................................................................................................................. 33 5.5 Assessment, inclusion, and assessment accommodations ................................................ 36 6. Conclusion ................................................................................................................................ 38 7. References ................................................................................................................................ 39 8. Additional publicly available resources on classroom assessment ...................................... 43 1 Acknowledgments This document was developed by Diego Luna Bazaldua (Senior Education Specialist; HEDGE), Victoria Levin (Senior Economist; HLCED), Julia Liberman (Senior Education Specialist; HAEE2), and Priyal Mukesh Gala (Consultant; HEDGE). The team worked under the overall guidance of Omar Arias (Practice Manager, Education Global Knowledge and Innovation team). Maria Qureshi (Consultant; HEDGE) provided support in addressing feedback from peer reviewers and colleagues. Peer reviewers include Tobias Linden (Practice Manager, HEAED), Ruth Karimi Charo (Senior Education Specialist, HAEE2), Marguerite Clarke (Senior Education Specialist, HSAED), Elisabeth Sedmik (Analyst, HMNED), and Maria Jose Vargas (Analyst, HLCED). Additional valuable inputs were received from Hanna Alasuutari, Michael Crawford, Angela Demas, Laura Gregory, Anna Boni, Syedah Aroob Iqbal, Harry Patrinos, Adelle Pushparatnam, Ana Teresa del Toro Mijares, Sergio Venegas Marin, Tracy Wilichowski, and other members of the Education Global Practice who participated in discussions on the paper. The initial development of this note was sponsored by the Russia Education Aid for Development (READ) Trust Fund. This note and additional knowledge products on classroom assessment were finalized with the support of the Foundational Learning Compact (FLC) Trust Fund. 2 Summary Education is one of the main drivers of personal and social development worldwide, particularly when it is part of a multisectoral approach to improve human capital and promote shared prosperity. Education can help reduce poverty by providing significant returns in terms of earnings, economic growth, innovation, and social cohesion (World Bank, 2018). It is essential to focus on all critical elements of the education system to ensure that education fulfills its potential to foster development. For this system to work correctly, countries must ensure that all children are enrolled and attend school, teachers are trained and supported in delivering effective instruction, schools have adequate infrastructure and learning environment, there is strong and prepared school leadership, and governments can procure and distribute relevant teaching and learning materials. While necessary, those elements are not enough to ensure that the education system is effectively fulfilling its function; for that, the schooling process should result in students showing gains in their knowledge and skills as they advance in their learning trajectory. Among the skills that students can expect to acquire in school, language skills linked to reading comprehension represent a prerequisite for success in all other academic subjects and in everyday life. Reading with comprehension is probably the most important skill any child should learn in her early school years. Students who can read with comprehension are more likely to succeed in school, increase their knowledge in other school subjects, and develop more complex skills. Simultaneously, the ability to read is linked to educational attainment (Park & Kyei, 2011), which, in turn, tends to have a long-term positive impact on human capital (Carlson & McChesney, 2015). However, despite the importance of reading skills, many children around the world are attending school without being able to read with comprehension. Indeed, even before the COVID-19 pandemic, many countries experienced high rates of learning poverty, which is defined as the inability of a student to read and comprehend a simple text by the age of ten years old (World Bank, 2019). The prolonged closures of schools to prevent the spread of coronavirus disease is estimated to exacerbate this learning crisis and is likely to disproportionately affect the most vulnerable students (Azevedo et al. 2020). With new efforts to bring students back to school and recover any learning losses that happened due to school closures, it is imperative to monitor and improve the teaching and learning process in the classroom, particularly for foundational reading skills, in order to promote accelerated recovery of learning losses. Learning assessment plays a central role in the learning process and the evaluation of reading skills, among other school-level factors such as school leadership, teacher training, school infrastructure, availability of teaching and learning materials, just to name a few. Defined as the process through which different stakeholders can produce information about what students know, understand, and can do, learning assessment can help stakeholders make informed decisions to improve students’ learning process. Different types of learning assessment have specific objectives and different roles to play in supporting learning, with classroom assessment providing regular feedback and informing instruction, high-stakes examinations certifying knowledge and skills and selecting students for the next education level, and large-scale assessments monitoring learning outcomes at the system level and informing education policy decisions. Learning assessment in the classroom produces regular and timely information to enable teachers to adjust instruction and deliver personalized feedback. More specifically, classroom assessment provides timely evidence that enables teachers to make informed decisions regarding the instruction and learning processes that happen in the classroom, including adjustment of , time allocation for specific learning contents, communication of constructive feedback to students, implementation of additional classroom and school activities to support students, among others, based on learning standards and objectives defined by the 3 curriculum. Without classroom assessment activities conducted on an ongoing basis throughout the school year, teachers and students would have fewer opportunities to identify students’ misconceptions and effectively support their learning. This document focuses primarily on how classroom assessment activities can measure students’ literacy skills as they progress along a learning trajectory towards reading fluently and with comprehension by the end of primary school grades. The document addresses considerations regarding the design and implementation of early grade reading classroom assessment, provides examples of assessment activities from a variety of countries and contexts, and discusses the importance of incorporating classroom assessment practices into teacher training and professional development opportunities for teachers. This document aims to develop a shared understanding with World Bank staff and counterparts on how classroom assessment activities can support the development and evaluation of reading skills in early grades. As such, this document is one of the global products included in the operationalization of the Literacy Policy Package, a comprehensive and coherent set of tools and interventions focused on curriculum, instruction, and learning assessment to improve literacy rates and achieve the Learning Target of halving the rate of learning poverty by 2030 (World Bank, 2021b). The structure of the document is as follows. The first section presents definitions and addresses basic questions on classroom assessment. Section 2 covers the intersection between assessment and early grade reading by discussing how learning assessment can measure early grade reading skills following the reading learning trajectory. Section 3 compares some of the most common early grade literacy assessment tools with respect to the early grade reading skills and developmental phases. Section 4 of the document addresses teacher training considerations in developing, scoring, and using early grade reading assessment. Additional issues in assessing reading skills in the classroom and using assessment results to improve teaching and learning are reviewed in section 5. Throughout the document, country cases are presented to demonstrate how assessment activities can be implemented in the classroom in different contexts. 4 Key highlights • Reading is a foundational skill necessary for learning. Acquisition of foundational literacy skills, such as language comprehension, the concept of print, phonological and phonemic awareness, alphabetic principle, fluency, comprehension, and writing, prepare children for success and facilitate their ability to learn throughout the lifecycle. • Learning assessment provides information to teachers and other stakeholders on student learning that helps them make informed decisions at the classroom, school, and the broader education system level. The three main types of learning assessment activities are classroom assessments, system-level large- scale assessments, and high-stakes examinations. Of these different assessment activities, classroom assessment is the most relevant for foundational learning. • Classroom assessment provides timely information to teachers to improve instruction and provides feedback to students on their learning process. There are three types of classroom assessment: diagnostic, formative, and summative. • Effective classroom assessment reflects the curriculum’s scope and sequence, identifies the learning content or skills to assess, measures these skills with an adequate level of difficulty, includes clear guidelines for assessment scoring and score interpretation, and helps to determine student learning and progress. • A coherent curriculum, instruction, and assessment package is essential to support the timely acquisition of early grade reading skills. Close alignment between language of instruction policies, the learning trajectory of early grade reading skills, and early grade reading classroom assessment is important for improving instruction. • Evidence suggests that children who learn to read and write in their home language (L1) achieve higher reading comprehension and higher literacy skills in the official language of instruction (L2). Language of instruction policies, and the planning and design of early grade classroom assessment should consider aspects such as the L1 for most students and their familiarity with L2. • It is essential to design or adapt the assessment to the local context rather than implementing «off the shelf» assessment solutions to reach a clearer understanding of results produced by early grade reading assessment tools. • Teachers are at the center of the relationship between learning assessment and student achievement. There is a strong connection between teachers’ capacity to understand and use assessment results with the improvement of their classroom practices, which can increase student achievement. Assessment competency among teachers includes the capacity to comprehend learning assessment concepts and the skills to design and administer classroom assessments as well as use classroom assessment results to make informed decisions that improve student learning. 5 1. Assessment and reading proficiency – Concepts and definitions 1.1 What is the role of assessment in the learning process? Any education process that happens in the classroom requires three basic elements to ensure that learning takes place: first, a curriculum with learning standards that follow a clear learning trajectory towards specific learning goals and reflect educational policies considered a priority in a particular context; second, teachers with adequate subject matter knowledge and teaching skills to deliver high-quality instruction while also promoting a positive learning environment in the classroom; and third, the implementation of learning assessment activities to determine if learning is occurring as expected and identify any learning gaps. Additional aspects and supports, such as prepared learners, adequate infrastructure, teaching and learning materials, language of instruction policies, or programs to ensure students’ well-being, as well as and efficient management and governance that ensures everything works smoothly together also have an impact on the teaching and learning process. However, without learning assessment taking place, it is not possible to know if these language of instruction policies, resources, and efforts are having an impact on learning outcomes and what adjustments are needed to improve progress over time. 1.1.1. What is learning assessment? Learning assessment is the process of collecting and evaluating information that helps identify what students know, understand, and can do per curriculum standards to make informed decisions in the educational process. Learning assessment is effective when it provides adequate quality information that improves education and student achievement (Clarke, 2012). An integrated learning assessment system is a comprehensive system of multiple assessment activities that stakeholders manage at various levels of the education system to inform instructional and programmatic decisions. The purpose of an integrated assessment system includes, among others, supporting learning and instruction in the classroom, evaluating programs and their impact, monitoring learning trends at the system level, and using assessment results for high-stakes decisions (Riley-Ayers, 2014). 1.1.2. What are the main types of learning assessments? Clarke (2012) and Clarke and Luna Bazaldua (2021) identify three main types of learning assessment activities that countries may implement to gather information about students’ knowledge and skills: • Classroom assessment provides immediate feedback to students regarding their learning progress and to teachers to adjust and improve classroom instruction. • System-level large-scale assessment provides feedback regarding the achievement of learning goals at the system level, identifies factors linked to student achievement, and monitors the education system’s overall performance. • High-stakes examinations help to make decisions about individual students’ educational progress, including the certification of completion of studies at a certain education level or the selection of students for the next education level. 6 All types of learning assessment activities can provide relevant information about what students know and can do. However, only classroom assessments can provide timely, low-cost, ongoing information that teachers can use to constantly monitor students’ progress toward specific learning goals. Moreover, classroom assessment is particularly relevant to timely inform about students’ acquisition and mastering of foundational literacy and numeracy skills in the early primary grades; this foundational learning captured by classroom assessment is essential for improved student achievement in large-scale assessments and high- stakes examinations as students continue their learning trajectory in upper primary grades and transition to secondary and higher education. On the other side, the implementation of large-scale assessments and high-stakes examinations tend to happen either on an annual basis or less frequently, are administered to students in specific school grades, and their cost is considerable higher compared to assessment activities that teachers implement in the classroom. This document discusses classroom assessment activities with a particular focus on their use to measure foundational literacy skills. Nevertheless, the principles of classroom assessment of foundational literacy can be transferred to foundational numeracy and other subject areas of the curriculum. This document is complemented by other products part of the Literacy Policy Package designed to support language of instruction policies for learning, curriculum, instruction, and large-scale assessment activities (World Bank, 2021a). Consistent with the classification of learning assessment activities proposed by Clarke (2012) and Clarke and Luna-Bazaldua (2021), Box 1 summarizes some key properties of classroom assessment. Box 1: Key properties of classroom assessment • Purpose: To provide timely and constructive feedback to students about what they know and can do, as well as the specific areas where they need to improve to progress in the attainment of learning goals. At the same time, classroom assessment can inform teachers when and how they should adapt their classroom instruction according to their students’ needs. • Administration: Compared to other types of learning assessment, classroom assessment is relatively inexpensive and logistically simple to administer by teachers in the classroom as part of the daily classroom practice, homework, or classroom projects. Teachers and other stakeholders must ensure that information from classroom assessments is shared with students, other members of the school community, and policymakers while complying with local regulations on data privacy. • Training: As teachers usually conduct classroom assessment as part of daily instruction, its practice involves competencies about how to develop, score, interpret, and use these assessments to support the teaching and learning processes. For these assessments to be useful, teachers must acquire knowledge and skills on assessment during their initial teacher education and continuous professional development. Likewise, teachers need to master competencies related to effective approaches to check for students’ understanding and provide constructive feedback to students as part of their teaching practice. 7 1.1.3. What are the main types of classroom assessment? Depending on their purpose and timing, classroom assessment activities are classified as diagnostic, formative, or summative. i. Diagnostic assessment provides real-time information on students’ prior knowledge and misconceptions before the start of a learning activity. Diagnostic assessment is also known as pre-assessment, given that it can be conducted as a one-time test at the beginning of a lesson, unit, or the beginning of the academic year (Tookoian, 2018). Diagnostic assessment aims at understanding the students’ initial learning status that helps inform and plan effective instruction. Thus, teachers use diagnostic assessment information to set learning expectations and adjust their lesson plans. Moreover, diagnostic assessment provides information that enables teachers to deliver differentiated instruction that builds on students’ strengths and offers tailored support according to their learning gaps. Diagnostic assessment is usually a low-stakes activity that helps students to know their initial knowledge level as they start their learning process (Tookoian, 2018). ii. Formative assessment provides real-time information on students’ knowledge, skills, and attitudes, which can be used to tailor instruction and support learning in individual classrooms. Formative assessment is also known as continuous assessment, given that it is embedded in instruction, integrated into daily learning lessons, used on an ongoing basis during the classroom practice (Airasian & Russell, 2007; as cited in Clarke, 2012). Formative assessment provides feedback to both teachers and students over the school year to adjust teaching to the students’ level, so the students have more opportunities to achieve intended instructional outcomes. Students can use formative assessment results to reflect on their learning, identify their misconceptions, and attempt to improve subsequent steps towards the learning goals described in the curriculum (Linquanti,2014). Research shows a strong relationship between high-quality formative classroom assessment practices and better student achievement (Black & William, 1998 as cited in Clarke, 2012; Hattie & Yates, 2013). Additional evidence shows that constructive feedback given as part of formative assessment activities improves students’ understanding of the learning goals and helps them to focus on acquiring the knowledge and skills to reach those goals (Ramaprasad, 1983, as cited in Boston, 2002; Sadler, 1989, as cited in Boston, 2002). Moreover, formative assessment practices are also key in establishing inclusive classrooms where all children are encouraged to learn by building on their strengths and supported based on their needs (World Bank, 2020). Conditional on the context and resources available, teachers can implement one or multiple types of formative assessment activities either with an individual student, small groups of students, or the entire classroom. For instance, teachers can rely on: • Oral questioning during class to determine how each student understands specific learning contents. At the simplest level, formative assessment can be based on oral questions to check for understanding of the learning contents. Checking for understanding allows teachers to give immediate feedback to students and correct any misconceptions. • Turn and Talk activities in which the teacher poses a question to the students, requests them to turn to a peer and share an answer, and allows both students to discuss. After an initial exchange of ideas, students switch peers with others in the classroom to continue this group activity. This activity can enable students to engage in knowledge exchange among peers and receive peer feedback. • Classroom discussion to promote collective inquiry and class participation. Classroom discussion can support peer-to-peer learning and motivate students to express their understanding of learning contents in social groups. • Homework to practice and reinforce at home the learning contents that had been reviewed in the classroom. Homework activities can also promote parental oversee and engagement with the learning process. • Short quizzes using the same set of questions to understand whether the whole classroom comprehends key concepts. • Group projects to put into practice theoretical concepts with practical applications and foster peer collaboration. 8 iii. Summative assessment is defined as evaluations that measure cumulative student learning and progress after a learning period, particularly in contexts that involve longer timeframes. The administration of summative assessments often consists of cumulative tests or projects between learning units or at the end of the school calendar year. The information produced by summative assessment can help inform if students have attained specific learning goals described in the curriculum and whether they are ready to move on to the next unit or grade of instruction (Linquanti, 2014). See Table 1 for a comparison of diagnostic, formative, and summative classroom assessments. Table 1. Classroom assessment types and their main characteristics Diagnostic Formative Summative Time Before or right at the Ongoing administration during At the end of the school year or beginning of the school year or the school year. end of a learning unit. a new learning unit. Use Identification of students’ Continuous monitoring of Understanding of students’ initial knowledge, skills, and student learning, provision of cumulative learning and preconceptions. feedback, and adjustment of acquired skills with respect to instruction. expected learning goals. Content A set of learning contents Specific learning contents A comprehensive and and skills students must have aligned with the concomitant cumulative set of learning before the start of a new instructional objectives contents and skills. learning cycle. covered in the classroom. Source: Authors’ compilation. Classroom assessment activities can be implemented to obtain information regarding student learning progress in all school grades and all school subjects throughout the school year. One curriculum area where classroom assessment is particularly important is literacy and language, given the position of reading and writing skills as a foundational competency in most curricula and its relevance for all other school subjects. The next section provides a summary of the foundational early grade literacy skills that are needed for reading with comprehension. 9 1.1.4. What system-level factors can enable classroom assessment activities? Ministries of Education have competing priorities to improve their education systems. Nevertheless, evidence shows that consolidating a sustained assessment system can be a cost-effective policy effort to enhance student learning outcomes and boost system quality (Clarke, 2012). While diagnostic, formative and summative assessments happen in the classroom, policymakers can support their implementation by ensuring that education systems meet some preconditions, including the existence of policies, resources, institutions, practices, and tools, that foster the effective use of classroom assessments and strengthen the broader assessment system. • The main system-level factors that Ministries of Education can strengthen links between curriculum, teaching, and assessment, using a policy-led approach through: A curriculum or learning standards document. The curriculum, its learning objectives, and its learning standards are the building blocks that outline what students are expected to learn, the scope and sequence of learning trajectories. Therefore, having a comprehensive curriculum for all subjects and school grades is an optimal starting point to justify why to carry out assessments in the classroom, to guide decisions around what learning standards to assess, when to conduct classroom assessment activities, and how to measure specific knowledge and skills effectively. • Guidelines for classroom assessment. The existence of publicly available guidelines that describe activities part of the development, implementation, scoring, and use of classroom assessment results can increase a shared understanding among teachers and other stakeholders about the relevance of these activities. This can provide a broad framework that sets out the types of assessment activities that teachers should implement in the classroom. It can also cover key principles in classroom assessment frameworks and assessment contents that reflect the curriculum’s principles for learning. • This document may also refer to the existing laws and regulations that govern classroom assessment activities, the institutions that support teachers in implementing classroom assessments, the alignment of classroom assessment activities with other policies and elements of the education system, the dissemination plans and intended uses of classroom assessment results, and data privacy aspects of assessment results. There is a need to ensure that responsibility for classroom assessment policy is assigned to bodies within or outside the Ministry of Education closely linked to practice in schools. System-wide resources for teachers. Ministries of Education can develop a wide range of teaching and learning resources for teachers to support and simplify the implementation of classroom assessment activities and to increase their understanding of the linkage between curriculum, teaching and assessment. These resources may include frameworks of performance levels and learning objectives for each subject and school grade, item banks with examples of multiple-choice and open-ended items and tasks, rubrics with scoring criteria, student textbooks, teacher guides, structured lesson plans, and computer-based assessments with instant reports on student performance. It could also include curriculum expected trajectory maps, glossaries of technical terms on learning assessment, practical examples of different types of classroom assessment activities, trackers of student learning progress, guidance on using assessment results for school-based remediation plans for students, among others. • Teacher training resources. Ministries of Education, universities, teacher training centers, and other organizations can provide initial teacher education and continuous professional development opportunities to teachers to improve their assessment competencies and ensure adequate implementation of classroom assessment activities. Similarly, teachers should have the opportunity to attend conferences and workshops on learning assessment and be able to access online classroom assessment resources. 10 Countries are at different maturity levels in consolidating these enabling factors, from education systems with limited or no availability of most elements to advanced systems with sufficient resources to facilitate classroom assessment activities (see Table 2). Countries at the lowest maturity level may incorporate planned reforms to ensure that the education system is ready to improve classroom assessment activities. Policymakers must consider that systemic efforts and reforms to reinforce these enabling elements will have additional short- and long-term benefits in other areas of the education system, including the sustainability of assessment practices, classroom tools and training opportunities for teachers, and the overall capacity to deliver quality education services. Table 2. Maturity of enabling context factors for classroom assessment activities Latent Emerging Established Advanced Curriculum or learning standards document There is no official There is an official There is an official There is an official curriculum curriculum or standards curriculum or curriculum or or standards document, but it is not standards document standards document document. clear what students that specifies what that specifies what are expected to learn students are expected students are expected or to what level of to learn, but the level of to learn and to what performance. performance required level of performance. is not clear. Guidelines for classroom assessment There is no system- There is an informal A formal system- A widely available, level document that system-level document level document formal system-level provides guidelines that provides guidelines provides guidelines for document provides for classroom for classroom classroom assessment, guidelines for assessment. assessment. but it is restricted in its classroom assessment. availability. System-wide resources for teachers There are no There are scarce system- There are some system- There are a variety systemwide wide resources for wide resources for of system-wide resources for teachers for classroom teachers for classroom resources available for teachers for assessment. assessment. teachers for classroom classroom assessment. assessment. Teacher training resources There are no There are a few system- There are some system- There are a variety system-level level mechanisms to level mechanisms to of system-level mechanisms ensure that teachers ensure that teachers mechanisms to ensure to ensure that develop skills and develop skills and that teachers develop teachers develop expertise in classroom expertise in classroom skills and expertise in skills and expertise assessment. assessment. classroom assessment. in classroom assessment. Source: Adapted from Clarke (2012). 11 1.1.5. What characteristics of classroom assessment are key to ensuring quality? Classroom assessment activities are usually labeled as “informal” assessments or “of the moment” assessments because they naturally occur during classroom instruction (New Zealand Ministry of Education, 2021). Nevertheless, high-quality classroom assessments can also be planned, constructed, and implemented in a way that their results accurately inform the teaching and learning process. In this way, a high-quality classroom assessment has the following characteristics: • It is aligned with curriculum learning standards. The assessment can inform about the achievement of the curriculum’s learning goals. These learning goals and learning standards in the curriculum are, in turn, the product of educational policies that dictate what the learning priorities of each country are. Because the curriculum should also be a reference for developing other learning materials (e.g., lesson plans, teacher guides, and student textbooks), these materials can also inform or include examples of classroom activities to assess learning. For new classroom assessment tools developed to support teachers in their practice, they need to specify the instructional objectives or the learning goals of the curriculum they are meant to measure. • It identifies the learning content or skills to be assessed. Assessment activities must capture specific learning content (for instance, alphabet knowledge, concepts of simple and complex syllables) or skills (for instance, the capacity to link sounds to printed letters, the ability to read simple words) specified by the curriculum. This information can help teachers define the type of task or combination of tasks (for instance, oral checks for understanding in the classroom, quizzes, homework, group projects, or portfolio of evidence) best suited to determine students’ learning status. • It measures the desired learning content with an adequate level of difficulty. The complexity of the assessment activities should be consistent and informative of what students reasonably should know and be able to do. Extremely easy or extremely difficult tasks will not capture students’ actual capacity. For instance, letter identification tasks in early grades are more appropriate when starting with the most common letters in the language writing system and proceeding with less frequent letters. • It includes guidelines for scoring and score interpretation. Assessment scoring usually requires rules to identify a correct answer or to define different levels of student performance in a task. Moreover, assessment scores are more useful when accompanied by score interpretation guidelines explaining what students with low and high scores know and can do. The score interpretation should help teachers and students know if the curriculum learning goals have been achieved, adjustments to instruction, and next steps in the learning process. In some instances, the score interpretation guidelines can help identify the source of difficulty of students exhibiting low performance. 12 2. Classroom assessment of Early Grade Reading Skills Reading with comprehension is probably the most important skill any child should learn in the early school years. Children need to learn to read before they can read to learn. The ability to read is a gateway to all types of academic learning and learning opportunities outside of the classroom. Without basic reading proficiency, children will most likely fail to become numerate and may experience great difficulty in mastering key socioemotional skills like self-regulation (World Bank, 2021b). The assessment of foundational literacy skills in early school grades refers to the set of activities that allow different stakeholders to know students’ mastery of basic skills that, once acquired, will enable students to read a text with fluency and comprehension. Because the acquisition of these basic literacy skills in school follows a specific trajectory, it is important for classroom assessment tools to reflect this trajectory in order to provide accurate information on the skills students have mastered and those that require further practice. When early grade reading assessment is performed following a reading progression framework, the assessment results can help stakeholders answer the next questions: • Can the student understand and interpret the oral language of instruction in the classroom? • Can the student identify letters by their name? • Can the student link written letters and syllables with their corresponding sounds? • Can the student read isolated words? • Can the student read simple sentences? • Can the student accurately read a passage at the expected pace for their school grade? • Can the student read a passage and retrieve, interpret and reflect on information it contains? 2.1. What is the learning trajectory of early grade reading skills? Early Grade Reading (EGR) skills are the foundational literacy skills acquired as part of the learning trajectory to support stronger reading ability as students transition from initial to upper school grades. While some aspects linked to psychological development in the early years may or may not require explicit instruction (for instance, some psychomotor skills, working memory, or self-control), most early grade reading skills are acquired when children go through a formal learning process that usually occurs at school. As students acquire foundational reading skills in school, teachers need to also pay attention to instilling a positive attitude towards reading and enjoy reading for fun and as part of school activities (Moats, 2000). Adults, including parents and teachers, can promote this positive attitude by encouraging children to read in school and at home, reading together with children, and reading for fun themselves. 13 There is a path to follow to be able to read with comprehension. Reading skills are cumulative and follow a specific learning trajectory. These two properties imply that students must acquire and reinforce the most fundamental reading skills before learning the more complex ones. Literacy curriculum specialists have organized these skills in progressive and coherent learning trajectories usually reflected in preschool and primary school curricula. Consequently, EGR assessment needs to be aligned to the curriculum and reflect this progression, starting with tasks linked to more basic oral language recognition skills and concluding with tasks in which students are expected to read fluently and retrieve, interpret and reflect information included in a passage. EGR skills start with those linked to the comprehension of oral language, followed by the concept of print. While children develop these EGR skills at different speeds, they will read with comprehension after going through four sequential developmental reading and writing phases: pre-alphabetic, early alphabetic, late alphabetic, and full orthographic phase. To be mapped within a curriculum, these EGR skills must be aligned to learning goals and learning standards. In turn, these goals indicate the observable behaviors that students need to demonstrate as a result of instruction (Moats, 2000; Evans et al.,2019). These behaviors can be assessed as part of everyday classroom practice to understand if students are acquiring and strengthening their reading skills. Table 3 presents the four reading phases aligned with the EGR skills and instructional goals. Additional examples of assessments for each reading skill are included in the annex A and B. A marker of success in the acquisition of reading skills is the ability to read and understand a written passage and use the acquired information to solve new tasks and problems. Therefore, literacy proficiency is regarded as a gateway to learning in other school subject areas (RTI International, 2015). When children do not acquire adequate foundational literacy skills in the early school grades, they are more likely to fall behind in the later grades if no additional support is offered to address their learning gaps. Moreover, when students cannot follow the expected reading trajectory at the end of grade 1, they would need to achieve two times the reading fluency gains in the next school year to catch up at the same time they have to acquire new knowledge in other school subjects (Maldonado and Rosales, 2018). Therefore, timely acquisition of EGR skills impacts the overall schooling experience and education quality. 14 Table 3: Foundational literacy skills aligned with sequential reading phases Phases EGR skills with Instructional Goals Skill assessment Pre-Alphabetic: Young Concept of print includes knowledge of how print This skill is assessed by determining if the child children improve control and books work, correct orientation of a book, understands the concept of a book, the idea of the of the oral language, start text direction, identification of illustrations, cover directionality of text, and other mechanical visual to recognize rhymes and page, lower- and upper-case letters, and other features such as spacing and punctuation. songs, depend heavily on aspects of printed language and communication pictures and graphical representations, and rely Oral language comprehension is the ability on context in which words to understand the use of oral language for occur to support their initial communication. The child should learn words at This skill is assessed by determining if the child can understanding of letters and home and school. The child also should learn how understand basic oral vocabulary and is able to words. spoken words describe the world. respond to questions about a text read to them. Phonemic Awareness refers to the ability to hear, This skill is assessed by determining if the child classify, and manipulate words and sounds in oral understands how letters represent sounds. A child language. should be aware of speech sounds such as rhyming, alliteration, syllables within words, and identify the beginning and ending sounds within words. Phonemic Awareness is auditory and does not involve words in print. Early-alphabetic: Children Phonics includes the ability to comprehend This skill is assessed by requiring the child to start to grow mindful of letter-sound representations and individual determine the correspondence between letters and letter-sound relationships relationships between letters and sounds. the sound linked to them. that make up spoken words. Based on their knowledge The alphabetic principle includes linkages This skill is assessed by asking the child to recognize of speech sounds and between letters, syllables, and complete words uppercase and lowercase letters, identify syllables letter shapes, they begin to with sounds, and the skill to use sounds and map and their sound, and divide words into parts. read and spell words using them to letters and words. consonants salient in speech. Late-alphabetic: Children Word Recognition. Children acquire automatic This skill is assessed by requiring the child to read comprehend of syllables, word recognition and knowledge through learning common words. word parts, and meanings of root words, prefixes, suffixes, and how they affect words that help them rapidly the spelling and meaning of words. recognize whole words within simple sentences. Children start to gain fluency Reading Fluency. It refers to the capability to This skill is assessed by requiring the child to read in reading. They begin to string words together in phrases and read them out loud short and long passages and tracking identify patterns in reading, fluently. As children become more fluent and the number of words accurately read per minute. along with the knowledge accurate in their reading, they are expected to be Teachers can take notes on the number of words and meaning of words. able to read more and faster. correctly and incorrectly read, words skipped, and adherence to written and spoken language rules when reading. Full orthographic: Children Reading Comprehension. The goal of reading This skill is assessed by requiring the child to read have built up their literacy comprehension is to read and understand short and long passages and asking them questions skills to show the capacity to phrases, sentences, and paragraphs that convey about the text. Questions can focus on literal read passages and retrieve, meaning. information included in the passage, comprehension interpret and reflect on of vocabulary in the context of the passage, information from them inferences drawn from the information read, and (Moats, 2000) organization and logic of the text as a whole and sections within it. Writing is the ability to express ideas in a written Depending on the developmental stage of writing form. Writing is an essential skill that supports skills, these can be assessed with a variety of tasks, reading. Evidence suggests that students who including copying letters from a model, writing practice using phonics to write are also better words, writing sentences, and writing short and long at using phonics to read. Moreover, reading and texts following orthographic and grammatical rules writing go hand in hand, and therefore students of the language. should begin writing as soon as they can form letters. Source: Adapted from Ehri (1999) & Moats (2000) 15 2.2. Why is it important to conduct classroom assessments of early grade reading? Early grade literacy skills are progressive and cumulative, which implies that more basic skills (e.g., the capacity to comprehend oral language or identify letters) must be acquired and mastered before learning more complex ones (e.g., the ability to read a passage with fluency and comprehension). Therefore, timely measures, based on reliable classroom assessment information, to support the acquisition of foundational literacy skills can have long-lasting positive effects on students; at the same time, supporting students in early grades can prevent adverse outcomes such as grade repetition or dropout (Clay, 2000; Gove & Wetterberg, 2011). 2.2.2. What are the purposes of EGR classroom assessment? The specific uses of EGR classroom assessment are: • Location of a student in the reading skill trajectory. When an EGR assessment includes multiple tasks to measure a sequence of progressively complex literacy skills, results can help students and teachers to locate where students stand in the acquisition of these skills in one or more languages assessed. • Instruction adjustment. Assessment results can help teachers to center the instruction on reviewing learning contents linked to specific literacy skills in which students present difficulties. • Feedback provision. Assessment findings can help teachers provide individualized constructive feedback to students and their caregivers regarding their performance. The feedback provision is also an opportunity to suggest additional instructional materials and activities to support learning at home. Moreover, the feedback provided can help students to monitor their own learning progress. • Additional tailored support. Assessment results can inform the design of individualized learning plans with realistic learning goals, particularly for students showing the lowest levels of performance. For instance, teachers and school staff could implement additional afterschool literacy programs or provide literacy packages to practice at home for students struggling to master these skills. As exemplified in Box 2 and Annex A, New Zealand’s Ministry of Education has developed classroom assessment materials and activities to support teachers’ classroom practice on topics related to the development of early grade literacy skills. These assessment activities have to be aligned with the curriculum’s learning standards, follow the reading learning trajectory, present reading materials and assessment activities with an adequate difficulty level for students, include assessment scoring guidelines for teachers, and suggestions on constructive feedback to be provided to students. 16 Box 2: Example of Classroom Assessment of Reading in New Zealand The Ministry of Education of New Zealand has a comprehensive national literacy curriculum that maps the acquisition of reading and writing skills for students in grades 1 to 10 (which correspond to the ages 5 to 14), as shown in Annex A. The MOE also provides teachers with a wide variety of classroom assessment guidance and assessment resources mapped to this national reading curriculum. Teachers and schools can select assessment resources suitable for their students based on their grade, reading level, skills assessed by the tool, and local context. In addition, the Ministry also offers similar assessment tools and curriculum mapping for subjects and skills such as writing and mathematics. The assessment resource map provided to the teachers includes information on the available curriculum progress tools, including a Learning Progression Framework (LPF) and the Progress and Consistency Tool (PaCT). The LPF is an online tool aligned with the curriculum. It includes aspects of reading (including learning contents and literacy skills) and learning stages that should be considered when assessing students’ progress. PaCT helps teachers report students’ progress in reading, writing, and mathematics following a national rating scale. Moreover, the MOE provides a list of assessment tools such as observation surveys, additional tests, and proficiency benchmarks. The curriculum map also includes information on average scores for each of the assessment tools by school grade. Teachers are encouraged to use this curriculum map and a complimentary online assessment tool selector produced by the MOE. This tool selector helps teachers and schools to choose the assessment materials they would like to use in the classroom based on the purpose of the assessment, learning content, and skills to be assessed. It also provides additional information to teachers on which assessment tools are most frequently used, curriculum learning contents covered, and allows for tool comparison. Suppose that a teacher in grade 3 is exploring classroom assessment activities for students in relation to the English language curriculum. The teacher would need to focus on the students’ current reading level and judge where students would be best placed on their learning progression. Then, the teacher would have to determine what elements of the curriculum will be assessed, the purpose of the assessment, and how students will demonstrate their knowledge and skills through a classroom assessment activity. After the teacher has made these necessary judgments, they can use the guidance and tools provided by the MOE to select a classroom reading assessment that fits the students’ needs and is appropriate in complexity to their reading level. For example, in the reading activity “Matariki,” students are expected to read a passage accompanied by images depicting celebrations and beliefs associated with the Māori New Year (see Figure 3). This classroom reading activity has been charted by the MOE as in level 2 of the reading assessment map (see Annex A), and it is considered adequate for students in grade 3. Teachers have additional printed guidance regarding classroom activities that can be implemented to assess if students can independently locate, connect, and use ideas and information from the text. Teachers also obtain information about setting learning goals using this passage and find out how to conduct the reading activity with the students. Besides, teachers obtain texts similar in content to “Matariki” and the connection between this reading passage and other areas of the curriculum (for instance, a topic to be reviewed in the social sciences class). In terms of some specific classroom assessment activities suggested for this reading, teachers are encouraged to: • Determine if students can divide multi-syllabic words into syllables that appear in the passage (Alphabetic Principle). Explore if students can infer the meaning of unfamiliar words based on the context of the reading passage (Word Recognition). • Ask students to summarize the main points of the reading using a chart or a Venn diagram (Reading Comprehension). • Request students to make connections between different reading sections and between text and images shown in this reading passage (Reading Comprehension). • Ask students to connect to their own experience celebrating the new year, explaining similarities and differences to the Matariki new year celebrations (Reading Comprehension). Teachers can review examples showing how to ask questions related to this passage or how to model an answer. Teachers receive information about ideal responses to the classroom assessment activities that require students to produce charts or Venn diagrams. 17 Figure 3: Matariki. Māori New Year. Source: Teepa (2010). 18 2.3 Use of assessment results for feedback provision Classroom assessment activities are the most beneficial to improve student learning when assessment results are used to provide feedback to students. This feedback should inform about their performance and efforts to reach their individual learning goals. According to Wiggins (2012), as teachers use assessment results provide constructive feedback, they should consider the following seven characteristics of effective feedback provision: • Goal-referenced. The information provided to students should help them get closer to their learning goals. For example, a teacher can indicate to students: “The objective of reading this text is to make connections to other contents you have learned in school. So, as you read this passage again, ask yourself, where have I read about these concepts before? How are these ideas connected to what I have learned in the science class?” • Tangible. Feedback is more effective when it can produce tangible results. For example, a teacher could provide general feedback to students on a letter recognition activity by saying that their ability to identify letters “needs improvement,” but that feedback would not be very helpful. Students need to understand the specific areas where they need improvements when it comes to letter identification, such as shape differences among similar letters (for instance, shape differences between “b,” “d,” “p,” and “q”), shape differences between uppercase and lowercase letters (for instance, “K” versus “k”), or similarities and differences in letters and their corresponding sounds (for instance, differences in sound between “c” and “s”). • Actionable. The information should allow students to take concrete actions and guide them about how to use their knew knowledge. For example, a teacher can provide feedback to a student by saying, “good job, you did well in drawing conclusions from the text included in your homework. As a next step, you can read this other article, which is a more detailed explanation of the topics covered in your homework, to expand your understanding about the topic for your final project.” This feedback provides information to students on what are next actions and how their performance is linked to a long-term goal. • User-Friendly. Feedback is more effective when the students understand the information without making them feel overwhelmed. For example, a teacher must ensure that feedback provided to the students is not excessive or too technical, particularly when students need clear and direct information about how to progress in their studies. • Timely. Feedback is effective when it is provided timely rather than too late. For example, after the administration and scoring of a diagnostic assessment at the beginning of a new learning cycle, teachers should take immediate action by informing students about their performance and suggesting additional learning resources to facilitate their learning process and prevent falling behind the rest of the class. • Ongoing. Feedback is effective when students can continuously adjust their performance based on the feedback received. For example, a teacher can provide feedback after every check for understanding classroom activity and continue monitoring if students show learning progress. • Consistent. Feedback is effective when students receive consistent information. For example, based on the learning objectives included in the curriculum, teachers could use a set of rubrics to assess students and provide feedback based on the rubric guidelines throughout the year. Lesson plans can also include guidance for teachers on how to provide feedback consistent with the activity’s learning objectives. 19 2.4 Use of assessment results for instruction adjustment Once teachers have gathered evidence on student learning through classroom assessment results, they can use these findings to guide the teaching process in the following ways: • Adjusting instruction. As teachers analyze the assessment results, they can contrast student performance with respect to the learning standards in the curriculum and make necessary adjustments to their planning and teaching practices. These adjustments can be made when teachers notice students are confused with the assessment content or when students find the assessment too difficult for them. Changes in teaching behaviors may include provision of additional time to complete an assessment task, in-depth revisions of specific learning contents previously covered in class, or inclusion of additional topics to reinforce areas where students show difficulties. • Identifying the needs of students. Assessment results can help teachers identify individual students’ progress and needs depending on whether they have achieved certain learning goals or if their mastery pace is slower than anticipated. This information helps the teacher adjust academic expectations for students, make changes to individualized learning targets for each student, and differentiate instruction. • Identifying misconceptions in student learning and supporting them to develop understanding. Assessment results can help to determine if students have misunderstood learning content that is impacting their learning and may halt their progress. Box 7 in section 5 includes an example that illustrates how teachers can use classroom assessment results to improve the teaching and learning processes in their classroom. 20 3. Mapping of assessment tools with respect to early grade reading skills As part of their work to measure educational outcomes, international development organizations and civil society organizations have produced assessment tools of early childhood development (ECD) and early grade reading that can be used and adjusted for assessing literacy skills in the classroom. This section presents a classification of tasks included in some widely used assessment tools in low- and middle-income countries with respect to the developmental phases and reading skills presented in Table 3. The objective of this section is to provide readers with comparable information regarding EGR assessment tools to support the selection instruments aligned to specific information needs. The list of tools presented here is not exhaustive; readers and encouraged to search for additional assessment tools and activities developed for specific contexts and languages. Once one an assessment tool is selected, it may require to be translated and adapted to the local context of the target student population. During the adaptation process, it is also important to include additional information regarding the skills measured in each task, assessment scoring procedures and assessment score interpretation. It is also important to pilot any tools before their use, ensure students understand the tasks included in the assessment, and teachers understand the tool administration, scoring, and interpretation of results. Finally, although publicly available, some of these tools and their supporting materials require signing a memorandum of understanding with their corresponding organization for their use. 3.1 Overview table of existing tools Most of the assessment tools covered in this section were not initially developed to be used in the classroom as part of the day-to-day teaching practices. Some of these tools have been developed to be used as part of household surveys, and others were designed to capture early childhood developmental outcomes. Nevertheless, the literacy tasks included in these tools could help classroom practice if they are aligned with the curriculum’s learning standards. Their adaption needs to include guidelines for scoring and score interpretation, and their use may be followed by feedback provision to the students and adjustments to instruction. Table 4 includes a summary of the different assessment tools covered in this section with a checkmark on the reading skills they measure. Table 4: Mapping of EGR skills measured in different assessment tools Phases Literacy Skills MELQO AIM-ECD SDI EGRA FLM IDELA ASER EY ASER Pre-Alphabetic Concept of print x x x x x Oral language comprehension x x x x x Phonological and phonemic awareness x x x x Early alphabetic Phonics x Alphabetic principle x x x x x x x Late alphabetic Automatic word recognition x x x x Reading fluency x x x x x Full orthographic Reading comprehension x x x Writing x x x Source: Authors’ compilation. Note: MELQO stands for Measuring Early Learning Quality and Outcomes, AIM-ECD for Anchor Items for Measurement of Early Childhood Development, SDI for Service Delivery Indicators, EGRA for Early Grade Reading Assessment, FLM for Foundational Learning Module, IDELA for International Development and Early Learning Assessment, ASER for Annual Status of Education Report, and EY ASER for Early Years Annual Status of Education Report 21 3.2. Assessment tools Measuring Early Learning Quality and Outcomes (MELQO). This project was designed to produce relevant data on children’s development outcomes and learning at the start of school with specific relevance to inform national early childhood development (ECD) policy and inform global monitoring in low- and middle-income countries. MELQO has developed modules measuring child development and learning for children between four and six years old, including the Measure of Development and Early Learning (MODEL) and the Measure of Early Learning Environments (MELE) (UNESCO, UNICEF, Brookings Institution & World Bank, 2017). The MELQO model can be translated into the local languages with the help of experts, and it has been adapted and implemented in many countries globally. MODEL contains items indexing early literacy, early numeracy, executive functioning, and social/emotional development. MODEL includes both a child direct assessment module and a caregiver report module. The tasks listed in Table 4 correspond to the child direct assessment module of MELQO. By drawing items from the MELQO instruments, the World Bank Early Childhood Development Measurement team has produced the Anchor Items for Measurement of Early Childhood Development (AIM-ECD) caregiver report and child direct assessment tools. AIM-ECD captures developmental outcomes for children aged 4-6 using items and tasks that have been found to work well across different contexts (Pushparatnam et al., 2021). Reading skills and tasks included in this tool: • Oral language comprehension. Children are assessed in their expressive language (e.g., requested to name things they eat or animals they know) and receptive language (e.g., answering questions about a story read to them). • Phonological and phonemic awareness. Children are asked to express the initial sound of familiar words. • Alphabetic principle. Children are asked to point at letters as requested by the enumerator. In addition, a second task requires children to recognize letters by their sound. • Writing. Children are asked to write their name on a piece of paper. Service Delivery Indicators (SDI) Learning Assessment. The World Bank’s Service Delivery Indicators initiative aims to highlight the performance of service providers in health and education. As part of this project, learning assessment tools of teachers and students were developed to identify service providers (in other words, teachers) and end users’ (in other words, students in grade 4) knowledge and foundational skills in reading, writing, and arithmetic. In the past, the SDI has been conducted in Kenya, Niger, Nigeria, Madagascar, Senegal, Tanzania, Togo, and Uganda. Currently, its use is being scaled up in more low- and middle-income countries around the world. The SDI reading component includes tasks to determine students’ reading skills. Reading skills and tasks included in this tool: • Alphabetic Principle. Children are requested to identify written letters from the alphabet; note that children are not required to recognize the letter by the sound they make. • Automatic Word Recognition. Children are asked to identify familiar written words. • Reading Fluency. Children have to read simple sentences correctly. 22 Foundational Learning Module (FLM) included in the Multiple Indicator Cluster Survey (MICS). UNICEF developed the MICS as a set of international household survey tools to support the monitoring of the status of children and women around the world and tracking progress towards the elimination of disparities and inequities. The Foundational Learning Module (FLM) within MICS is a literacy and numeracy assessment for children aged 5 to 17, which is administered to a randomly selected child in this age range in each surveyed household. FLM module provides data that are comparable over time and across countries (UNICEF, 2019). MICS has been implemented in over 100 countries through face-to-face interviews conducted in households. Since its conception, FLM has been included in at least 20 MICS surveys globally. The FLM measures the expected reading and numeracy skills of children in grade 2. As part of the reading task, children read a short story and answer reading comprehension questions. The results determine whether the interviewed children can read and understand grade 2-level texts (UNICEF, 2019). Reading skills and tasks included in this tool: • Reading Fluency. Children are expected to read 90% of the words in one short reading passage within a time limit. • Reading Comprehension. Children respond to literal and inferential questions about a passage they have read. International Development and Early Learning Assessment (IDELA). This child direct assessment tool developed by Save The Children measures early child development and learning outcomes. IDELA is used to determine what skills children bring to school, measure development and early learning, and understand equity issues in children aged 3.5 to 6 years old. It has been used globally in more than 78 countries and can be administered in paper and pencil format or electronically. IDELA measures four developmental domains: psychomotor development, early literacy, early numeracy, and social-emotional development (Save the Children, 2017). IDELA’s early literacy assessment includes items that measure print awareness, expressive vocabulary, letter recognition, phonological awareness, and listening comprehension. Reading skills and tasks included in this tool: • Oral language comprehension. Children are assessed in their expressive vocabulary (e.g., names of market/shop items, names of animals) and their ability to answer questions to an oral story read to them. • Concept of Print. Children are assessed on their intuitive understanding of how to use a book. • Phonological Awareness. Children identify the initial sound of a word. • Alphabetic Principle. Children recognize and point at printed letters. • Writing. Children are asked to write their name. Annual Status of Education Report (ASER). This is the first of several citizen-led assessment tools developed by citizen groups. ASER was developed in India and has been administered there since 2005. Over the years, the implementation of ASER has expanded to other South Asian countries, including Pakistan and Bangladesh. The primary purpose of ASER is to provide information on children’s learning outcomes in foundational literacy and numeracy skills for children aged 3 to 16 years old. ASER is conducted in India in 16 languages: Assamese, Bengali, English, Garo, Gujarati, Gurmukhi, Hindi, Kannada, Malayalam, Marathi, Meitei, Mizo, Nepali, Odiya, Tamil, and Telegu (ASER, 2010). The literacy component assesses the following foundational skills: letter recognition, identification of simple words, reading of simple sentences, and reading a lengthier text (ASER, 2010). Other citizen-led assessments designed based on ASER cover similar reading skills. 23 Reading skills and tasks included in this tool: • Alphabetic Principle. Children are asked to identify some printed letters; note that children are not required to recognize the letter by the sound they make. • Word Recognition. Children are requested to read simple printed words. • Reading Fluency. Children read a short passage from a grade 1 text and a lengthier passage with complex vocabulary from a grade 2 text. Early Years ASER. In 2019, the ASER Center developed a new early childhood assessment to track young children’s foundational skills and development in the age range 4 to 8 years old. This tool is meant to capture children’s schooling status by exploring competencies identified as significant predictors of schooling success. Early Years ASER is administered in households using a short tool and has been administered in 24 states in India (ASER, 2020). Similar to other tools that measure early childhood developmental outcomes, it covers several domains: early language, early numeracy, cognitive development, and social-emotional development. The early language assessment includes tasks that are foundational steps towards reading with comprehension: picture description, listening comprehension, and reading. Reading skills and tasks included in this tool: • Oral language comprehension. Children are asked to describe pictures in their local language orally and answer questions to an oral story read to them. • Alphabetic Principle. Children have to read printed letters; note that children are not required to recognize the letter by the sound they make. • Word Recognition. Children are asked to read printed familiar words. • Reading Fluency. Children read a short paragraph from a grade 1 text. • Reading Comprehension. After reading a short text, children answer some questions. 24 4. Supporting teachers in the effective practice of literacy classroom assessment Despite the importance of assessment as a feedback mechanism of the teaching and learning process, formal training in formative assessment strategies is probably one of the areas of greatest need for teachers (Mertler, 2009). According to Weiss et al. (1994), 40% of nearly 6,000 teachers surveyed in the United States reported a lack of preparation in the use of learning assessments. In recent years, there has been an increase in the expectations regarding teachers’ assessment competencies. Evidence suggests that teachers’ assessment skills are generally weak because most initial teacher education programs and continuous professional development opportunities do not focus on strengthening teachers’ assessment competencies (Mertler, 2003, 2009; Stabler-Havener, 2018). Thus, it is imperative to offer teachers hands-on training to strengthen teachers’ learning assessment competencies that will enable them to carry out classroom assessment activities effectively. 4.1 Teacher assessment competencies Teacher assessment competency (also known as assessment literacy) is here understood as an individual’s capacity to comprehend and apply fundamental learning assessment concepts and processes judged as relevant in making educational decisions (Popham, 2011). According to The Standards for Teacher Competence in the Educational Assessment of Students (AFT, NCME, & NEA, 1990; as cited in Mertler, 2003; Brookhart 2011), assessment-competent teachers can: • Choose assessment methods that are appropriate for instructional decisions; • Develop assessments that are appropriate for instructional decisions; • Administer, score, and interpret the assessment results; • Use assessment results when making decisions about student progress, instruction planning, and developing curriculum; • Develop valid grading processes; • Communicate assessment results to students, parents, and other educators; • Recognize unethical, illegal, and inappropriate assessment methods; • Understand learning in the content area they teach; • Provide useful feedback to students on their work; • Help students use the assessment information to make sound educational decisions; • Analyze classroom questions and test items to decide the specific knowledge and skills required for students. Teachers that have acquired these assessment competencies can adjust and improve their teaching quality by enhancing their classroom practice based on assessment results, which in turn can improve students’ achievement (Braney, 2011; Mertler, 2003; Volante & Melahn, 2005; Popham, 2011; Stabler-Havener, 2018). However, according to some authors, most students in initial teacher education programs lack knowledge about assessment strategies because they are rarely exposed to assessment-related content in their coursework. In addition to theoretical contents, future teachers also require hands-on experiences, including 25 exposure to common student misconceptions or participation in curriculum and assessment content reviews. Having a mix of theoretical and practical training will help future teachers to use assessments as a tool for improving learning outcomes and for promoting learning progress (Siegel & Wissehr, 2011; Stabler-Havener, 2018). In addition to the training opportunities, teachers can benefit from the inclusion of suggestions for classroom assessment activities in structured lesson plans, teacher guides, textbooks, and other system-wide teaching and learning resources. Teachers can also be engaged in professional learning opportunities and collaborate with colleagues to strengthen assessment competencies. Box 3 illustrates how the municipality of Sobral, Brazil, used classroom assessment as one of the tools to systematically to improve the acquisition of reading skills. Box 3: The use of learning assessment for early grade reading in Sobral, Brazil According to a national assessment conducted in 2001 in Brazil, 40 percent of students in grade 3 in the municipality of Sobral could not read a simple word in Portuguese. To understand the national assessment results from a local perspective, the municipal government of Sobral realized that even though there had been substantial investments in the school inputs necessary to support learning, there was a need to focus on the overall education quality delivered to students. To overcome this situation, the municipal government of Sobral prioritized literacy by establishing seven education targets in 2001. Two of these seven targets to improve the local education system focused on the early grade literacy skills in Portuguese: to promote foundational literacy starting at grade 1, and to use remedial education to ensure that all students in grades 2 to 4 could read (Loureiro & Cruz, 2020). Large-scale and classroom assessments played a role in the progress towards these targets. On the one side, large-scale assessments informed the system-level pedagogical interventions implemented in Sobral since 2001. Different stakeholders have found these assessments to be informative and useful in improving the local education system. The feedback provided to schools and teachers has helped them to know the progress of each student and to identify learning gaps. On the other side, teachers in Sobral have also been administering monthly formative classroom assessment activities to monitor their students’ progression toward the learning goals described in the state curriculum. The ongoing assessment of students’ learning in the classroom has helped students acquire and improve their reading fluency through written and oral literacy assessments. The pedagogical use of assessment results in Sobral is reinforced through teacher professional development programs. As part of the teacher training, assessment results are analyzed and discussed by groups of teachers. Doing this thorough review of assessment results helps teachers understand which skills students still need to strengthen and develop pedagogical strategies to support students. Additional teacher training is focused on techniques for classroom observation and the use of scripted learning materials. In addition, teachers participate in monthly in-service training to understand learning objectives included in the curriculum, prepare and discuss scripted lesson plans, and review and improve learning assessment items (Loureiro & Cruz, 2020). 4.2 Country cases. Teacher training on classroom assessment competencies This section covers country cases in Finland and Ghana to illustrate initial teacher education and continuous professional development efforts to improve teachers’ classroom assessment competencies and strengthen education systems. The two examples show that it is possible to reform teacher policies and programs to strengthen core competencies of teachers in different contexts. In both cases, a combination of actions that addresses initial teacher education and continuous professional development with a combination of theoretical and practical experiences paired with supervision and mentoring from more experienced teachers is key to ensure that teachers are ready to teach and implement assessment activities effectively. 26 4.2.1. Ghana In 2018, Ghana published its National Teachers’ Standards to provide guidelines for initial teacher education (Ghana’s Ministry of Education, 2018). The updated standards include the vision, structure, theoretical and practical elements of a novel four-year Bachelor of Education curriculum implemented by Ghanaian universities and Colleges of Education nationwide. These standards define what teachers are expected to know and be able to do as part of their classroom practice in primary schools. The standards are divided into three main domains: professional values and attitudes, professional knowledge, and professional practice. Specific to assessment competencies for teachers, the standards indicate the urgency to develop the next competencies: • Capacity to integrate different types of formative and summative assessment in instructional practice to support student learning, • Aptitude to provide constructive feedback to students, • Ability to identify difficulties and misconceptions that students may have, and to provide additional sup- port to them, • Awareness and understanding of national and School goals and learning outcomes, • Competence to use learning objectives to assess students (National Teaching Council of Ghana, 2017). As part of the initial teacher education activities, second-year student teachers work with their teacher supervisor on learning assessment activities in classrooms. The overall objective is to learn how to conduct classroom assessment activities working with students with different learning needs. The learning outcome of the practical training is to demonstrate the skills required to implement classroom assessments and the capacity to produce a report on students’ learning progress. To achieve these goals, Ghanaian teachers in initial teacher education programs have to: • Identify students’ learning needs by observing the interaction between the teacher supervisor and students in the classroom. • Design classroom assessment tools for data collection. The assessment tools may include questionnaires of students’ background information, learning assessment activities (for instance, classroom exercises, homework, projects, and tests), and student observation tools. • Analyze data and write a report on students’ learning progress. The report must indicate whether students’ learning is increasing or decreasing over time, identification of areas where students are improving, identification of challenges faced by students, and suggestions for potential solutions. Ghanaian teachers may exhibit different competency levels in their teaching skills based on their training performance during the initial teacher education. Given this variability in teaching skills, the National Teachers’ Standards include a formative rubric to evaluate teachers’ teaching performance on four proficiency levels that go from those teachers that have not met the expected teaching performance to those that have exceeded expectations. Annex C presents the rubric elements directly linked to teachers’ assessment competencies, which include teachers’ capacity to use different assessment activities in the classroom, ability to provide feedback to students, understanding of students’ achievement levels, and use of assessments at the end of lessons to clarify and summarize key points. 27 4.2.2. Finland The Finnish education system efficiently delivers high-quality education services to students by concentrating many system-level efforts on supporting teachers to improve their classroom practice, particularly in developing effective instruction and implementing formative and summative classroom assessment activities. The Finnish law establishes that applicants to primary and secondary education teaching positions must have at least a master’s degree in teaching. Unlike Ghana, Finland does not have a national curriculum and unified learning standards for initial teacher education, but existing regulations include guidelines for general teaching competencies, including principles of classroom assessment. While each Finnish university has autonomy in defining its teacher training curriculum structure and contents, universities share some common curricula elements, including several theoretical and practical courses on pedagogical studies (Niemi & Kemmis, 2012; Sahlberg, 2010). The theoretical elements of the pedagogical studies curriculum include how to strengthen teaching skills, planning and implementation of instruction guided by the curriculum, human development and student learning, inclusive education, and the importance of fostering a supportive learning school community. The supervised practical elements of the curriculum include hands-on experience in schools to develop teaching skills and assess the learning process in the classroom, the development of positive attitudes and values towards teaching, and mentoring from experienced teachers (Niemi & Kemmis, 2012). Finnish teachers have additional continuous professional development opportunities to improve their teaching and assessment competencies by receiving mentoring and coaching, collaborating with experienced colleagues, and participating in continuous professional development activities. Box 4 exemplifies the contents of a ten-hour professional development course on classroom assessment at the University of Oulu in Finland. This online course is part of a comprehensive set of learning activities for teachers to enhance their professional competencies, including leadership skills, pedagogical skills, and skills for the 21st century. Box 4: Teacher professional development on learning assessment at the University of Oulu in Finland Course name: Assessment for Learning. Course objectives: • to understand the assessment process, • to explore different functions of assessment, • to get practical examples of versatile assessment methods and tools, and • to get ideas on how to integrate assessment in everyday schoolwork. Course contents: • Historical perspectives on the development of learning assessments. • Assessment during the learning process: - Planning of the learning process. - Setting the objectives and clarifying the principles of assessment activities. - Formative assessment. - Summative assessment. • Challenges in assessment implementation in the classroom. Teacher evaluation methods: • Attendance to lectures. • Completion of assignments. Source: University of Oulu (2021). 28 5. Key issues in the development and use of EGR classroom assessment 5.1 Language of Instruction Research suggests that learning to read in a language (L2) that is different from the learner’s home language (L1) follows a complex literacy acquisition process. For instance, learners would often use the language knowledge of their L1 as a base for the development of L2 reading and writing skills (Jiang, 2011). Evidence suggests that students’ reading proficiency in their L1 relates to the ability and acquisition of literacy skills in their L2; in general, students that had the opportunity to acquire literacy skills in their L1 also tend to show greater performance in L2 (Graham & van Ginkel, 2014). Therefore, instruction and assessment activities should be carefully integrated; these activities must consider whether students are learning to read in their first or second language and the relationship between them. Classroom assessment of foundational literacy skills in L1 is essential to inform and plan any actions linked to L2 instruction and the gradual transition in instruction and assessment from L1 to L2 (World Bank, 2021a). Besides, the speed at which learners acquire literacy skills differs based on the diversity and complexity of the relevant language(s). Therefore, policymakers in some countries have started to use L1 for instruction and acquisition of literacy skills in the early grades, then gradually transition to instruction in L2 for the latter grades (World Bank, 2021a). For instance, experts in South Africa have used EGRA results to determine the progression in the acquisition of reading skills in Nguni languages among students in grades 1 to 3. The information produced by this reading assessment has resulted in recommendations for policymakers on language of instruction policies and the relevance of using reading assessment information for the gradual instruction transition from Nguni languages to English (Ardington et al., 2020). In contexts where multiple home languages coexist, it becomes essential to plan and design classroom instruction and assessment activities in the language that most students are familiar and provide additional support to students who face challenges understanding the language of instruction (Gove et al., 2017). Box 5 describes two examples of multilingual countries that have taken steps to implement bilingual language of instruction policies. Box 5. Early grade reading assessment in a multilingual context: Ethiopia and Peru Ethiopia. Ethiopia’s instruction rate in L1 varies by region, ranging from 71.5% to 97.2%. Ethiopia’s language policy indicates that most students should receive either bilingual or trilingual education in their L1, Amharic (when it is not the L1), and English. According to Ethiopia’s education and training policy, continuous assessments are implemented by teachers to understand students’ learning progress. However, teachers often have little knowledge of formative classroom assessment strategies (Smith, Stone, & Comings, 2012). To overcome this limitation, the Ministry of Education initiated a professional development program where teachers spend sixty hours in professional development activities during each school year. The training is focused on improving the teaching and learning process and emphasizes active learning, practicing the development and use of continuous classroom assessments, and managing large class sizes (Ahmad, 2013). Peru. Peru is a linguistically diverse country, with over 55 indigenous communities that speak more than 47 different languages. Many children speak an L1 that is different from Spanish or Quechua, the two national languages of the country. As part of a broader reform in the education system between 2013 and 2016, Peru passed a law on bilingual intercultural education to provide students with quality education, recognizing the country’s multicultural status. As part of this reform, the Ministry of Education produced classroom assessment tools, teaching and learning materials such as books, textbooks, brochures for parents and students, and teacher guides in nineteen languages (Saavedra & Gutierrez, 2020). While the country still lacks enough bilingual teachers to cover the primary school student population, it has implemented and scaled up continuous professional development training focused on intercultural pedagogical approaches for teachers, which have proved to be successful at improving student learning outcomes (Saavedra & Gutierrez, 2020). Moreover, the comprehensive reform of the Peruvian education system has resulted in tangible progress. Nowadays, Peru has been one of the countries participating in the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) with the greatest improvements over time. 29 5.2 Alignment with curriculum’s scope and sequence As described in section 2.1, the acquisition of literacy skills happens in sequential developmental stages. There are some variations in the acquisition of these skills depending on the language and writing system, but the overall trajectory remains the same.. Therefore, the literacy curriculum should have a coherent vertical sequence going from more basic literacy skills (for example, teaching words and expanding oral language, teaching letters and letter-sound combinations) in the early grades to more advanced skills (for example, reading lengthier sentences and texts with comprehension) towards the end of primary school. Coherence with the curriculum implies that teachers ensure students’ acquisition of more basic reading skills before expecting them to master more complex ones. In that regard, classroom assessment aligned to a coherent curriculum can help determine what children can do and compare their performance with respect to learning standards. The integration of classroom assessment into everyday classroom instruction is necessary to ensure that teachers continuously monitor progress towards the learning goals described in the curriculum and reflected in the daily lesson plans. For instance, teachers may start classroom activities by asking children to identify letters or describe the sound of letters learned during the previous lessons. Based on how students respond, teachers may take remediation measures or focus on teaching new learning contents. Additionally, evidence suggests teachers should target instruction to students’ learning levels based on assessment results. The Teaching at the Right Level (TaRL) program focuses on targeted instruction supported by continuous formative assessment in the form of checks for understanding and other classroom activities that provide evidence of students’ learning. Research in India has shown that TaRL has positively impacted students’ acquisition of foundational literacy skills (Banerjee et al., 2007). For classroom assessment to support learning, the assessment’s content should closely align with what children are learning in the classroom, the curriculum learning goals, and the learning trajectory of literacy skills described in section 2.1. The curriculum alignment is supported through an assessment framework that maps key learning outcomes for the targeted knowledge domains and provides guidelines on how student learning can be measured. Box 6 shows how Georgia implemented a comprehensive early grade literacy program and the role of learning assessments linked to the curriculum. 30 Box 6: Classroom assessment for early grade reading in Georgia Georgia: Georgia Primary Education Project (G-PriED) According to the Progress in International Reading Literacy Study (PIRLS) conducted in 2006, the average scores of grade 4 students in Georgia were significantly lower than the PIRLS scale average (Mullis et al., 2007). Some of the reasons that contributed to these results in Georgia were: 1. The reading curriculum in Georgia was going through major revisions. 2. Twenty-five percent of the students were from homes with no more than ten children’s books. 3. Less than 30 percent of the students reported reading daily for fun. 4. Less than 25 percent of the students started school with foundational literacy skills. 5. Reading was taught in schools fewer than three days a week. 6. The home language for a considerable share of students was not Georgian. To overcome some of these challenges, the Georgia Primary Education Project (G-PriED) was designed and implemented from 2011 to 2016 by the Government of Georgia in collaboration with international development partners to improve literacy and numeracy skills (Ome et al., 2016; Ome, Menedez, & Le, 2017). G-PriED attempted to shift the focus from a teacher-centered to student-centered classroom practice by implementing activities to support effective instructional practices in the classroom, formative assessment and updated achievement standards, use of technology for learning, and the development of in- school subject teacher experts in literacy and numeracy (Chemonics, 2018). One of the components of the G-PriED tied formative assessment to the national literacy curriculum. The intervention did this by supporting teachers to assess progress made in the classroom towards national reading standards. The teacher training part of the project was focused on techniques to assess learning using multiple assessment activities, such as oral checks for understanding, quizzes, and group activities. The training also introduced an online classroom diagnostic assessment platform called E-Assess, through which teachers could generate tailored assessment tools to fit their information needs. This platform provided teachers with additional formative assessment materials aligned with Georgia’s national reading standards. The teachers and members of the National Curriculum Department considered E-Assess as one of the most valuable resources to monitor student progress and adjust instruction in the classroom (Ome et al., 2016, 2017; Chemonics, 2018). 31 5.3 Assessment translation and adaptation The following aspects should be considered for adaptation of existing early grade reading classroom assessments to the local context: • Assessment content design should reflect the specific rules of a language and children’s understanding of those rules. • Assessment content should evaluate students on locally and culturally appropriate words, texts, and concepts. • Assessment content should consider the curriculum exposure that students have to the language of instruction, particularly in multicultural contexts. Some foundational reading assessment frameworks and tools, like USAID’s Early Grade Reading Assessment (EGRA), were initially designed as an instrument to measure children’s progress towards acquiring and mastering reading comprehension skills. The EGRA framework is flexible and permits both the adaptation of the assessment content to the local context and the use of the assessment tool as a classroom assessment for L1 and L2. An example of EGRA adaptation and implementation in classrooms in Liberia is presented in Box 7. Box 7: Implementation of EGRA Plus in Liberia While EGRA is a framework for the development of a reading assessment tool, many countries have been moving away from pure diagnostics to more focused interventions for changing and updating teacher instruction. Liberia provides an example of how this change occurs when a reading assessment framework is integrated into a comprehensive reading program aligned to the curriculum. System-level EGRA in 2008 evaluated Liberian students on seven skills: phonological awareness, listening comprehension, letter naming fluency, familiar word recognition and oral reading fluency, non-familiar word and nonsense word oral reading fluency, connected text oral reading fluency, and comprehension in connected text. The results revealed low literacy levels among grade 2 and 3 students in Liberia, with most students unable to read fluently and with comprehension. To address this challenge, the EGRA framework was adapted to implement an evidence-based reading instruction program using assessment tools aligned to the Liberian reading curriculum. The reading intervention focused on the development and implementation of daily reading lessons that teachers could deliver in their classrooms. Each lesson included a standard instructional routine and standardized scripted format. The intervention also required teachers to conduct continuous formative assessments and periodic summative assessments. The results from these assessments were used to guide professional development activities and to plan classroom instruction. All the elements in this project were adapted to the local context to help teachers check for students’ reading achievement and modify their instructional practices if necessary (Gove & Wetterberg, 2011). Linked to the assessment activities under this program, teachers were encouraged to: • Administer brief reading assessments to check the progress of each child in the acquisition of letter identification, oral reading fluency, and reading comprehension skills. Teachers did this by calling on students to respond to questions about the skill being taught during the daily lesson. • Summarize the progress for each student and share it with their parents to support learning at home. • Implement instruction and assessment-related routines described in the scripted reading lessons. These routines included correction procedures to minimize student confusion and a consistent approach for feedback provision to students. • Support coaches in the implementation of informal assessments with a few randomly selected students to monitor progress and evaluate teacher instruction. • Implement summative assessments every four weeks. Summative assessment results allowed teachers to know if students were learning and if additional teaching interventions were required when students were not performing at the expected level. Overall, the intervention had a high impact on the children’s ability to manipulate sounds, understand letter-sound correspondence, and read words. Likewise, the program promoted the acquisition of phonemic awareness, letter fluency, familiar word fluency, oral reading fluency, and reading comprehension skills. However, the program saw only a moderate impact on listening comprehension skills (Piper & Korda, 2010). 32 5.4. Use of technology Over the last decades, technology has evolved and made its way into classrooms. Technology plays a critical role in increasing reading comprehension when it effectively complements the work teachers do in the classroom (Edutopia team, 2008; as cited in Helmers, 2017). Expanding the use of technology in schools and classrooms to support in-person and remote classroom assessment activities has multiple benefits both for students and teachers: • It provides useful information on students’ literacy progress. Technology used in early grade reading in classrooms can help teachers know what learning content their students usually access, for how long they access that learning content, and their level of engagement with it. Additionally, online learning activities, quizzes, and reading comprehension questions inform teachers about what their students have understood and where they need more support (All Children Reading, 2016). • It facilitates personalized learning through self-paced modules with assessments. In most low- and middle-income countries, class sizes tend to be very large, making it difficult for teachers to focus their support on the individual learning needs of each student (All Children Reading, 2016). Integrating technology in early grades can help increase students’ access and exposure to content at their grade level by interacting with adaptive learning platforms. It also allows teachers to complement their instruction with technology-enabled adaptive content and track progress over time in a single student progress file, student dashboard, or learning management system (Read Alliance, 2017). Some examples of technology- based interventions to support literacy skills are illustrated in Box 8. 33 Box 8: Use of technology to support early grade reading assessment for learning Cambodia: The official language of instruction in Cambodian schools is Khmer (also known as Cambodian). E-Books for Khmer was an intervention that leveraged technology through tablets and the SmartBooks app (explicitly developed for this project). The objective of the intervention was to improve grade 2 and 3 students’ reading proficiency in semi-urban and rural areas of Cambodia. EGRA was conducted twice during the project to collect baseline and endline measures of student reading outcomes. Results from the EGRA suggested that students who had access to the SmartBooks app showed gains on all reading skills except for the letter identification skill (All Children Reading, 2017). The project had two features to support early grade reading. The first feature was to convert content from textbooks to e-books with interactive features to improve oral language skill development. These e-books were made accessible through the SmartBooks app on tablets in school libraries. Students could read e-books appropriate to their literacy level and play digital games and quizzes that helped assess their reading skills. As students advanced through the passages, they could access more complex reading materials that required more advanced literacy skills (All Children Reading, 2017). The second feature of the project was to train teachers on this technology-supported reading approach through manuals during a three-day training. Teachers also received additional learning and assessment materials, including templates to track students’ reading progress. One of the critical aspects of this project was integrating digital testing exercises that assessed children’s reading levels and provided teachers with valid and timely learning assessment results. Teachers further used these results to tailor their instruction based on individual student needs at a pace appropriate to their progress. The training and reading project helped teachers to develop flexible classroom tasks, teach students with actionable methods and techniques to improve their reading skills, and improve lesson planning and classroom activities for differentiated instruction. It also helped teachers create individual student profiles and track learning progress for each student (All Children Reading, 2017). Sindh, Pakistan: Sindh Reading Program (SRP) . When the SRP conducted a baseline early grade reading assessment in 2014, 41 percent of grade 3 students were not able to read a single word in either Sindhi or Urdu, and many families preferred to keep their children out of school with the belief that they would be more productive working than attending school (Chemonics International, 2019). The SRP was designed and implemented from 2013 to 2019 by USAID along with the government of Sindh and Sindh’s School Education and Literacy Department. The program’s objective was to improve student performance in early grade reading in Sindhi and Urdu for 400,000 children across eight districts in grades 1 and 2. The program focused on improving and innovating formative classroom assessment delivery, distributing supplementary learning materials, and encouraging family participation in children’s education at school and at home. The program also introduced technology-enhanced monthly formative assessment activities through a tablet-based application customized to Urdu and Sindh reading skills. The learning app helped teachers assess student performance under five reading skills: phonemic awareness, alphabetic principles, vocabulary, fluency ability, and comprehension. After conducting the formative assessment, the application provided teachers with instant feedback on students’ performance and customized tips to support students. In addition, teachers were trained on the use of the digital application through workshops and other hands-on exercises. (Chemonics International, 2019). Early evidence from the intervention showed increased oral reading fluency, non-word fluency, and reading comprehension in Sindhi and Urdu. In the case of the Urdu-speaking students, there was a significant increase in phonemic awareness. Overall, the end-line results showed a positive trend in student learning progress (Chemonics International, 2019). 34 Furthermore, the use of technology in early grade reading skills assessments has additional benefits to the teaching and learning process: • Assist in informing classroom practice. Technology-enhanced assessments can help teachers identify where the students are on the reading progression. It allows teachers to obtain detailed information on the students’ progress individually and compare progress among students. Some technologies provide feedback to teachers regarding recommended teaching and learning activities to implement in the classroom and customize lessons based on assessment data (Masters et al., 2017). • Assist in providing immediate feedback. Classroom assessments are helpful when results are delivered in a short amount of time to students and teachers. In many low- and middle-income countries, teachers find it difficult to assess students and provide immediate feedback because of the large student-to-teacher ratios in the classroom. Technology-enhanced assessments also help reduce the time that teachers spend on scoring and assessing student work, allowing them to focus more on class preparation and instruction (Russell, 2010; William, 2010; as cited in Neumann, Anthony, Erazo, & Neumann, 2019). • Assist in designing new forms of assessment. Technology-supported early grade reading assessments can aid in gathering new types of information on student performance. For example, technology can be beneficial in assessing students’ foundational listening comprehension skills in early grades required to develop more complex reading comprehension skills; with the use of tablets or computers, it is possible to assess students’ performance in listening comprehension tasks and determine their progress towards acquiring more advanced literacy skills (Masters et al., 2017). An example of technology integrated with early grade reading assessment is presented in Box 9 (Strigel, 2014). Box 9: Integration of technology in early grade reading assessments in Kenya RTI International developed Tangerine Teach in 2011 to help assess student learning in literacy and numeracy from grades one to four. Tangerine Teach is an electronic assessment software that tracks student progress over time through customized curriculum-based checks. It helps teachers identify what each student needs for their literacy progression through an android tablet. Pilot implementation of Tangerine Teach took place in Kenya; by 2021, the tool has been used in 65 countries in the Americas, Africa, and Asia. The content of this software is available in more than 100 languages. Tangerine Teach helps teachers to combine and analyze student data, thus giving them a better understanding of how to adjust classroom instruction in an effective and timely manner. Results from a randomized control trial in Kenya showed that 4.5 hours of initial training on Tangerine Teach helped teachers increase their familiarity with the software. Moreover, teachers embraced and adopted the use of tablets. According to Strigel (2014), teachers used the tablets 70% of the time during classroom instruction and 71% of the time for learning assessment. Another complementary tool called Tangerine Coach was developed to support teacher professional development. Through this tool, coaches were able to conduct learning assessments of students and use the students’ learning outcome data and the classroom observations to provide feedback to teachers to improve their classroom practice. 35 5.5 Assessment, inclusion, and assessment accommodations One of the critical elements to support inclusion is flexible assessment systems and mechanisms that inform how all students are progressing in their learning. According to the standards for educational assessment, it is imperative to produce learning assessment tools that are accessible to all students based on universal design for learning (UDL) principles (American Educational Research Association, American Psychological Association, & National Council on Measurement in Education, 2014; Educational Testing Service, 2014). The overarching goal of UDL is to improve access to learning for all students by removing any barriers that may obstruct them from developing and demonstrating their full potential, including barriers in the learning assessment process, and having special provisions if considered appropriate and fair (CAST, 2012; as cited in Brookhart & Lazarus, 2017). According to Cyprus Recommendations and the University of Oregon, some general principles that can be considered when creating inclusive assessments are: • Student achievement should be measured by utilizing varied assessment methods that show what students know and can do. • Assessment should include a blend of methods that maximize the information about students’ strengths and areas requiring more support. • Assessment should focus on learning progress and teaching practices that promote inclusion. • Assessment should be reliable and meet the specific needs of individual students (UNESCO, 2017). When designed for the classroom, learning assessment should also consider an inclusive lens and a variety of accommodations and adaptations for students with disabilities to provide equal opportunities for all students. Example of accommodations and adaptations to classroom assessment activities may include producing additional guidelines for teachers, providing teacher training on inclusion practices, using alternative assessment practices when reasonable accommodation provisions are not possible, allowing for an extended time during assessment administration, using test forms in braille, facilitating large-print booklets and answer sheets, using magnification devices for visual materials, providing read-aloud supports, permitting audiobooks and the use of headphones to facilitate listening comprehension, having sign language interpreters. An example of adaptation of an early grade reading assessment for sign language is presented in Box 10. 36 Box 10: Learning assessment adaptation in Morocco With the help of the Institute for Disabilities Research and Training Inc (IDRT), All Children Reading developed an adaptation of the Early Grade Reading Assessment (EGRA) for children who are deaf or hard of hearing in 2015 using the Moroccan Sign Language (MSL). Some key priorities for IDRT were the development of software to be used as a dictionary to create MSL materials, software to train for teachers, and promoting a culture of inclusive learning assessment activities for students. The Early Grade Reading and Sign Language Assessment (EGRSLA) was administered to students in grades 1 and 2 to assess their skills in Moroccan Sign Language and Modern Standard Arabic. This assessment was piloted in 8 schools run by associations that support deaf students across Morocco. The EGRSLA implemented the following assessments and subtasks as a part of the pilot: • Language Assessment. Receptive vocabulary tasks. • Reading assessment. Letter name identification, syllable identification, familiar word reading, reading passage with comprehension questions, and sign language passage with comprehension questions. • Student Questionnaire. It provided contextual information, including data regarding the home language used by the students and their caregivers. Some of the adaptations made to the EGRSLA assessment for this project included: • Provision two minutes to complete each EGRSLA task as opposed to the suggested one-minute administration time included in the EGRA guidelines. • Sign language was used during the assessment administration because students learned to read with the support of sign language. • After the assessment took place, assessors scored students’ performance by analyzing their video- recorded answers. This approach allowed EGRSLA administrators to focus their attention on the assessment administration and monitor students’ needs during this activity. The following lessons were learned from this assessment pilot: • Expanding the assessment battery. Future assessments need to have clear planning and development of the subtasks and materials (for instance, videos, pictures, diagrams) to be included in the final assessment. • Assessment administration time. Precise guidelines are needed to inform how much time the students need to perform each EGRSLA task. • Proficiency levels. It is imperative to determine proficiency levels of sign language, particularly to define minimum proficiency for students to become fluent readers in different contexts. • Assessment of teachers. It is important to assess teachers’ knowledge and proficiency in sign language. • Better engagement with the deaf community. It is critical to have assessors with expertise in both reading and sign language that can support the assessment adaptation and assessment administration. The presence of test administrators able to communicate in sign language made students more comfortable during the assessment process (Josa & Solum, 2019). 37 6. Conclusion Reading comprehension is a complex literacy skill developed over time that requires the acquisition and improvement of more basic literacy skills. Global trends on learning outcomes have shown that more than half of students worldwide cannot comprehend what they read by the time they are concluding primary school; thus, it becomes essential to spend more efforts on improving the assessment of these early grade literacy skills in the classroom. This document provided an overview of classroom assessment activities and examples to illustrate their use to evaluate these foundational skills. The timely information from these assessment activities will help teachers identify children who are not on track to read with comprehension, obtain fine-grained details on the skills children have not mastered yet, and set learning targets and instruction plans to help students improve their learning process. These assessment findings will be critical for teachers, school principals, policymakers, and other stakeholders interested in decreasing learning poverty in their education systems by focusing on improving classroom practices. In this way, this document is part of a broader package of knowledge products and tools that aim to support curriculum, instruction, and assessment of literacy skills. Classroom assessment activities become more effective when they are accompanied by an integrated set of improvements in other aspects of the teaching and learning process in the classroom. 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Washington, D.C.: World Bank Group. 42 8. Additional publicly available resources on classroom assessment World Bank.  Systems Approach for Better Education Results (SABER) Student Assessment. It includes a set of resources on classroom assessments as part of a national assessment system.  1. Brief on Learning Assessment Systems. Website. https://documents1.worldbank.org/curated/ en/410721496308370728/pdf/SABER-Student-assessment.pdf 2. What Matters Framework. Website. https://openknowledge.worldbank.org/handle/10986/17471 3. Assessment System Diagnostic Rubrics. Website. http://wbgfiles.worldbank.org/documents/hdn/ed/ saber/supporting_doc/Background/SAS/SABER_SA_Rubrics_2015.zip 4. Assessment System Diagnostic Questionnaires for key informants. Website. http://wbgfiles.worldbank. org/documents/hdn/ed/saber/supporting_doc/Background/SAS/SABER_SA_Questionnaires_2015.zip Learning Assessment Platform (LeAP). Set of resources on Learning Assessment developed with the support of the Russia Education Aid for Development (READ) Trust Fund to guide policymakers and practitioners on this topic. Website. https://www.worldbank.org/en/programs/read/publications UNICEF.  FNL Hub. Set of resources on formative assessment to support the acquisition of foundational literacy and numeracy. Website. https://www.flnhub.org/focus-area/formative-assessments USAID.  Global Reading Network. Set of resources to support foundational literacy. It includes publicly available tools to support the instruction and learning of foundational reading skills, including a classroom observation toolkit, a toolkit for inclusive education practice, a handbook on the instruction of reading skills, guidance for teachers, and tailored products for parents. Website. https://www.globalreadingnetwork.net/resources Global Proficiency Framework. Set of resources developed in collaboration with UNESCO Institute for Statistics, World Bank, United Kingdom’s Foreign, Commonwealth, and Development Office (FCDO), Australian Council for Education Research (ACER), and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation to create a set of global learning standards for reading and mathematics. https://www.edu-links.org/resources/global-proficiency-framework-reading-and-mathematics Early Grade Reading Barometer. Set of resources, country reports, and data on the Early Grade Reading Assessment (EGRA) toolkit.  https://earlygradereadingbarometer.org/ 43 Annex B. Additional examples of classroom assessment activities of literacy skills Age (years) 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 Year Level Year 1 Year 2 Year 3 Year 4 Year 5 Year 6 Year 7 Year 8 Year 9 Year 10 Curriculum level Level 1 Level 2 Level 3 Level 4 Level 5 Curriculum Pro- Learning progression frameworks (LPF) aligned to the NZC break down the aspects of reading and illustrate the stages of learning. The LPF gress Tools (LPF underpin the Progress and Consistency Tool (PaCT) which captures teacher judgments on aspects of reading and recommends an overall and PaCT) judgment that a teacher confirms or reviews. e-asTTle e-asTTle Reading - Mean scores (aRs) at year end 1333 1390 1426 1453 1494 1519 1567 Observation Observation Survey of Early Survey Literacy Achievement – Re- vised Third Edition Raw test scores are converted to stanines. Supplementary STAR Reading Test – 2nd Edition (Revised 2013) Mean score at start of year Test of Achieve- ment in Reading Scale Score Mean (Term 1) 53.8 81.4 97.6 109.0 117.9 125.2 133.7 (STAR) per Year Level PAT Comp Progressive Achievement Test: Reading Comprehension – 2nd Edition (Revised 2008) Mean score at start of year Scale Score (patc) Mean (Term 1) per year Level 28.8 35.8 45 53.2 60.4 67 76.5 PAT Vocab Progressive Achievement Test: Reading Vocabulary – 2nd Edition (Revised 2008) Mean score at start of year Scale Score (patv) Mean (Term 1) per year 32.4 40.9 48.7 55 60.1 65.7 70.5 Assessment Tools Level PAT Listening Progressive Achievement Test: Listening Comprehension – (Revised 2010) Mean score at start of year Comprehension Scale Score Mean (Term 1) 47.3 50.3 52.1 54.4 56.1 58.5 63.3 65.4 per Year Level NMSSA The National Monitoring Study of Student Achievement tests students in years 4 and 8. NMSSA reports give useful information about national levels of student achievement and areas of difficulty. NMSSA NMSSA Reading Reading Running Records Ready to Read Series Junior School Journals Journals PM Benchmarks PM Benchmarks (Year 1 – 8) PROBE Tell Me Tell Me (SEA kit task) TORCH Tests of Reading Comprehension – 2nd Edition TORCH: 2 (Year 4 – 10) Neale Reading Neale Reading Analysis (Year 2 – 9) Cloze Cloze Reading Tests 1 – 3, Second Edition (Year 3 – 9) ARBs Assessment Resource Banks (ARBs) are a collection of classroom assessment resources for students working at curriculum levels 1 – 5 in reading. Schonell Schonell Reading (Year 1 – 5) M&PNWR Martin & Pratt Non-Word Reading Test (Year 2 – 10) BURT NZ revision Burt Word Reading Test - New Zealand Revision - Raw score converts to equivalent reading Notes: • Shaded regions indicate levels out of range of the tool • Mean scores have been given for some tools. Be aware that a mean score does not necessarily correlate with the curriculum expectation. When using a normed tool to assist with making a teacher judgment, teachers should refer to the cut scores for the tools where available. • Inclusion of a tool in this resource map does not indicate endorsement by the Ministry of Education. • The map is not intended to limit a school’s choice of tool. 44 Resources available to support teaching of reading Age (years) 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 Year Level Year 1 Year 2 Year 3 Year 4 Year 5 Year 6 Year 7 Year 8 Year 9 Year 10 Curriculum level Level 1 Level 2 Level 3 Level 4 Level 5 Core Instructional Ready to Read Series Reading Series Junior School Journals Journals Resources Literacy Lear- The Literacy Learning Progressions describe the reading knowledge and skills that students need to have developed ning Progres- at specific points in their schooling if they are to engage with the texts and tasks of the curriculum and make the sions expected progress. English The English Language Learning Progressions (ELLP) explain what ESOL specialists and mainstream teachers need to Language know about reading as part of English language learning. They will help teachers to choose reading content, vocabu- Learning Pro- lary, and tasks that are appropriate to each learner’s age, stage, and language-learning needs. gressions NZC Exemplars Exemplars of work for students who are expected to learn long-term within Level One of the New Zealand Curriculum. for Learners with Special Education Needs Source: New Zealand Ministry of Education (2021) https://curriculumprogresstools.education.govt.nz/lpfs/understanding-the-reading-framework/ https://assessment.tki.org.nz/Assessment-tools-and-resources/Assessment-resources-maps 45 Annex B. Additional examples of classroom assessment activities of literacy skills Literacy skills Learning objective to assess Concept of print. • Understand the correct orientation of a book, even if unable to read yet. • Comprehend the correct directionality of printed text of a specific written language (e.g., top to down and left to right in English), even if unable to read yet. • Is aware of the purposes of reading: information sharing, recreation, and enjoyment. • Understand the meaning of isolated spoken words. Oral language comprehension. • Comprehend spoken language at the word level. • Comprehend spoken language at the phrase level. • Recognize the meaning of common words in a short, continuous text read to the student. • Make simple inferences in a short, continuous text read to the student. Phonemic Awareness. • Understand initial sound within a spoken word. • Understand ending sound within a spoken word. • Identify syllables within a spoken word. • Recognize sound correspondence in rhymes. Phonics. • Sound out or sign written symbols. • Identify symbol-sound correspondences. • Identify symbol-morpheme correspondences. The alphabetic principle. • Identify letters by their name. • Recognize uppercase and lowercase written letters. • Identify individual syllables in a written word. • Split off a word into smaller units. Word Recognition. • Read isolated words. • Recognize words and non-words. • Understand the meaning of written words. • Match printed words with their visual representation. Reading fluency. • Read out loud continuous, short passages at pace and with accuracy. • Read out loud continuous, long passages at pace and with accuracy. Reading Comprehension. • Recognize the meaning of common words. • Retrieve explicit information in a text by direct- or synonymous word matching. • Make inferences in a text. • Identify the main and secondary ideas in a text. Adapted from the Global Proficiency Framework for Reading. USAID, UNESCO, UKAID, ACER, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, World Bank. (2020). Readers are referred to the appendix section of the Reading Global Proficiency Framework for additional grade-level examples of tasks and items. The examples of tasks shown below are for illustrative purposes. 46 Literacy skill. Oral Language Comprehension Learning objective. Recognize the meaning of common words in a short, continuous text read to the student. Make simple inferences in a short, continuous text read to the student. Task source: Adapted from IDELA (Save the Children, 2017) and AIM-ECD (Pushparatnam et al., 2021) Materials. None. Task. I am going to tell you an interesting story. After I have told you the story, I will ask you some questions. Listen carefully, okay? This story is called The Mouse and the Cat Once upon a time there was a fat cat. He always wore a red hat. Once when he was sleeping, a small mouse came silently and stole the hat. The cat woke up to see his hat gone, got very angry, and started chasing the mouse. After a while, the mouse was trapped under a table and could not find any way to escape. So the mouse cried to the cat, “Please don’t eat me cat. If you spare my life, I will return your hat.” So, after getting back his hat the cat said, “Never touch my hat again” and he went back to sleep in a happy mood. Now I am going to ask you some questions about the story. Please tell me what you think is the correct answer. 1. Who stole the cat’s hat? Answer: The mouse • Correct • Incorrect (includes no responses) • Child refused to answer 2. What was the color of the hat? Answer: Red • Correct • Incorrect (includes no responses) • Child refused to answer 3. Why was the cat chasing the mouse? Answer: Because the moue stole his hat • Correct • Incorrect (includes no responses) • Child refused to answer 4. Where did the cat trap the mouse? Answer: Under the table • Correct • Incorrect (includes no responses) • Child refused to answer 5. Why did the cat decide not to eat the mouse? Answer: Because the mouse gave back the hat • Correct • Incorrect (includes no responses) • Child refused to answer Additional administration notes: Read the story exactly as written in the enumerator booklet in a clear, natural reading voice (some inflection and animation as you would normally, but not exaggerated voices for characters). Try to read the story without stopping. If the child responds with irrelevant information in response to each question (for example, begins making up his/her own story or gives different answers), repeat the question once. If the child continues with irrelevant information, mark the response as incorrect and redirect the child by asking the next question. The child’s response does not need to match the listed correct response exactly, but the response should be correct based on what happened in the story (not on what could have happened or may sound reasonable). Adaptation & Translation notes: When translating the story, do not translate it literally. Focus on using simple child-friendly language that would be familiar to children in their local context. If cats and mice are not familiar animals in the context, they may be changed to more familiar animal characters. Other minor details (for instance, the color of the hat) may also be changed in order to ensure words are easy for children to understand. The plot of the story should not be changed, and events should not be added or removed. 47 Literacy skill. Phonemic Awareness. Learning objective. Understand initial sound within a spoken word. Task source: Adapted from AIM-ECD (Pushparatnam et al., 2021) Materials. None. Practice trial. Start with a practice trial to determine if the child understands the task. This is a listening activity. The word “sun” starts with /s/ (Say the sound, not the letter name). “Sun” starts with /s/ (Say the sound, not the letter name). Let’s find another word that begins with /s/. Which of the following words also starts with /s/: salad, bread, or dog? If the child responds correctly, provide the next feedback: “That’s right! Salad starts with /s/, just like “sun”. If the child gives an incorrect response, explain that: “Salad” starts with /s/, just like “sun”. Salad and Sun both start with the same sound /s/. Task. After the practice trial, ask the next questions to the child. Remember to not say the name of the initial word, instead say the sound of the word. 1. The word moon starts with /m/. Which of the following words also starts with /m/: sand, magic, or dad? Answer: magic • Correct • Incorrect (includes no responses) • Child refused to answer 2. The word cat starts with /k/. Which of the following words also starts with /k/: dog, head, or kite? Answer: kite • Correct • Incorrect (includes no responses) • Child refused to answer 3. The word jump starts with /j/. Which of the following words also starts with /j/: joke, talk, or cheese? Answer: joke • Correct • Incorrect (includes no responses) • Child refused to answer Additional administration notes: This task is all about the sounds in words, and not about how to spell words. Letter names are irrelevant for scoring and should not be used at all during this task. Adaptation & Translation notes: The sounds used in the examples may be adapted for other languages. Most languages have the sounds /s/ (IPA: /s/) /m/ (IPA: /m/), /k/ (IPA: /k/), and /j/ (IPA: /ʤ/). If these sounds are common in the language of assessment, it is appropriate to use them. If not, choose initial sounds that are common in the language of adaptation. Consonants work better than vowel sounds, and should be common in the language of adaptation. It is also possible to modify this task to focus on initial syllables rather than initial sounds. For languages where phonemic segmentation is unconventional, substituting syllables for sounds is acceptable. Literacy skill. Phonics. Learning objective. Identify symbol-sound correspondences. Task source: Adapted from EGRA (Dubeck & Gove, 2015). Materials. A printed piece of paper with letters listed in a list. Practice trial. Start with a practice trial to determine if the child understands the task. 48 Let’s start with one example. The sound of this letter [point to the letter T] is /t/. Then, similar to the letter T, tell me the sound of this letter [point to the letter M]: [If the child responds correctly, say:] Good, the sound of this letter is /m/. [If the child does not respond correctly, say:] The sound of this letter is /m/. Instructions. Set a timer for 60 seconds. When the time reaches 0, say “stop” to the child. If a child hesitates or stops on a word for 3 SECONDS, point to the next word and say “Go on”. Task. Here is a page full of letters of the English alphabet. Please tell me the SOUNDS of as many letters of the alphabet as you can. Not their names, but their sounds. Scoring sheet for assessment administrator: A B C D E F G H I J 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 K L M N O P Q R S T 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 U V W X Y Z 21 22 23 24 25 26 a b c d e f g h i j 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 k l m n o p q r s t 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 u v w x y z 47 48 49 50 51 52 Mark the number of incorrect letters: _______ / 52. Mark the number of self-corrections: _______ / 52. Mark the final number of correct letter-sound correspondence said in a minute: _______ / 52. Additional administration notes: Note that for convenience the EGRA framework uses the term “letter,” although the more accurate term is “grapheme,” which refers to individual letter sounds, or combinations of letters that make a unique sound. A grapheme can actually be a digraph (two letters that make one sound), such as the “ng” which is common in many languages. Adaptation & Translation notes: More letters or graphemes must be added or adjusted depending on the language of assessment. Literacy skill. The alphabetic principle. Learning objective. Identify letters by their name. Task source: Adapted from AIM-ECD (Pushparatnam et al., 2021). Materials. A printed piece of paper with letters listed in a grid. A blank sheet of paper to focus child’s attention on one letter at the time. Task. We will play an alphabet letter game. Here are some letters. I will point to each letter and you will tell me its name. Place the sheet with the printed letters in front of the child. Using another sheet of blank paper, uncover only one letter at the time. 49 1. What letter is this? Point at letter E. • Correct • Incorrect (includes no responses) • Child refused to answer 2. What letter is this? Point at letter T. • Correct • Incorrect (includes no responses) • Child refused to answer 3. What letter is this? Point at letter A. • Correct • Incorrect (includes no responses) • Child refused to answer 4. What letter is this? Point at letter O. • Correct • Incorrect (includes no responses) • Child refused to answer 5. What letter is this? Point at letter N. • Correct • Incorrect (includes no responses) • Child refused to answer 6. What letter is this? Point at letter I. • Correct • Incorrect (includes no responses) • Child refused to answer 7. What letter is this? Point at letter H. • Correct • Incorrect (includes no responses) • Child refused to answer 8. What letter is this? Point at letter S. • Correct • Incorrect (includes no responses) • Child refused to answer 9. What letter is this? Point at letter R. • Correct • Incorrect (includes no responses) • Child refused to answer 10. What letter is this? Point at letter L. • Correct • Incorrect (includes no responses) • Child refused to answer Additional administration notes: Point clearly to each letter while keeping the other rows covered. Continue pointing at each letter asking what letter it is. If the child reads the letters quickly before you point to them, you may score them as they read them out. Correct responses may be the name of the letter or the sound of the letter. Self-correcting is allowed. If the child changes his/her response, record and score the last response. Adaptation & Translation notes: The letters used must be adapted, even if the language being assessed uses the Roman alphabet. The letters used in this subtask should be from the primary language used/taught in school. When adapting the Letter Identification page in the stimulus book, use the font or handwriting style most familiar to children studying in school. Letters can be written in upper or lowercase. For English, French, Spanish, Portuguese, Arabic, or Russian, use the below chart to adapt the most common letters in their alphabet: English French Spanish Portuguese Arabic Russian 1. E E E E ‫ا‬ О 2. T A A A ‫ل‬ Е 3. A S O O ‫ن‬ А 4. O T S S ‫م‬ И 5. N I N R ‫ي‬ Н 6. I R R I ‫و‬ Т 7. H N I M ‫ه‬ С 8. S U L T ‫ب‬ Л 9. R L D N ‫ر‬ В 10. L O T U ‫ع‬ Р 50 Literacy skill. Word Recognition. Learning objective. Read isolated words. Task source: Adapted from EGRA (Dubeck & Gove, 2015). Materials. A printed piece of paper with letters listed in a list. Instructions. Set a timer for 60 seconds. When the time reaches 0, say “stop” to the child. If a child hesitates or stops on a word for 3 SECONDS, point to the next word and say “Go on” Task. Here are some words in English. I would like to read as many words as you can. Do not spell the words, just read them out loud. Scoring sheet for assessment administrator: sun cat fish mom run sky milk bird fly boy 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 pig king hot dog dad song man girl ice hat 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 tea bat ship cup toy head rat book thin new 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 doctor woman brother table tiger monkey paper sister mouse baby 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 father rabbit paper teacher dinner pencil open finger music apple 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 Mark the number of incorrect words: _______ / 50. Mark the number of self-corrections: _______ / 50. Mark the final number of words read in a minute: _______ / 50. Additional administration notes: Word length and spelling patterns are representative of those found in early grade readers. Adaptation & Translation notes: Depending on language characteristics, items should include a balance between decodable familiar words (e.g., “cat”) and common sight words (e.g., “the”), as well as parts of speech. Focus is on equality of difficulty among the items. Literacy skill. Reading fluency. Learning objective. Read out loud continuous, short passages at pace and with accuracy. Task source: Adapted from UNICEF (2019). Materials. A printed piece of paper with reading passage. Task. Here is a story. I want you to read it aloud as carefully as you can. You will start here (point to the first word on the first line) and you will read line by line (point to the direction for reading each line). 51 Moses is in class two. One day, Moses was going home from school. He saw more red flowers on the way. The flowers were near a tomato farm. Moses wanted to get some flowers for his mother. Moses ran fast across the farm to get the flowers. He fell down near a banana tree. Moses started crying. The farmer saw him and came. He gave Moses many flowers. Moses was very happy Scoring sheet for assessment administrator: Moses is in class two. One day, Moses was going 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 home from school. He saw more red flowers on the 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 way. The flowers were near a tomato farm. Moses wanted 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 to get some flowers for his mother. Moses ran fast 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 across the farm to get the flowers. He fell down 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 near a banana tree. Moses started crying. The farmer saw 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 him and came. He gave Moses many flowers. Moses was 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 70 very happy 71 72 Last word attempted: _______. Word number: ________. Total number of words incorrect or missed: ________. How well did the child read the story? The child read at least one word correctly ________. The child did not read any word correctly ________. The child did not try to read the story ________. Additional administration notes: As part of the reading task, students will read a short story and answer comprehension questions (not included in this example). The results will determine whether the assessed students can read and understand Grade 2-level texts. Adaptation & Translation notes: Text passage may be modified according to the country context. Several languages may be used to teach reading in Grade 2. The survey management must seek to form a group of experts who will develop reading material in languages in which they are fluent. This team will rely on their experience of the language and culture to write material that is relevant to the children. 52 Literacy skill. Reading comprehension. Learning objective. Read out loud continuous, short passages at pace and with accuracy. Task source: Adapted from Global Proficiency Framework (2020). Materials. Retrieve explicit information in a text by direct- or synonymous word matching. Make inferences in a text. Identify the main and secondary ideas in a text. Task. Here is a story. I want you to read it aloud. When you finish I will ask you some questions about what you have read. Abdul was walking home. It was a hot day and Abdul was cross. He was feeling tired and hungry. He sat down under a big mango tree. It was nice and cool, so he fell asleep. Suddenly, a big mango fell on him and woke him up. Abdul ate the mango. Now he was happy. Now, I will ask you some questions about this passage. 1. Where was Abdul walking? Answer: To his home. 2. What was the day like? Answer: Hot. 3. What did Abdul eat? Answer: A mango. 4. How did Abdul feel after eating? Answer: Happy. 5. Where did Abdul fall asleep? Answer: Under a (big, mango) tree. Additional administration notes: In this story, Abdul’s problem is that he is hot, tired, hungry, and cross. The consequence is that he lies under a cool tree to sleep. His problem is resolved when a mango drops on his head. This is a simple, straightforward story with a single character. While the outcome, Abdul’s happiness, might be predictable, the way the outcome happens is not. Adaptation & Translation notes: The character’s name, gender, and the kind of fruit tree can be changed to make them familiar to students. 53 Report card of student reading progress. School name: ________________________ School code: ________________________ Teacher name: ________________________ Assessment 1. Assessment 2. Oral Pho- Pho- Alpha- Word Reading Reading Oral Pho- Pho- Alpha- Word Reading Reading language nemic nics betic Reco- Fluency Compre- language nemic nics betic Recogni- Fluency Compre- compre- Aware- principle gnition hension compre- Aware- principle tion hension hension ness hension ness Number of items 5 3 52 10 50 72 5 5 3 52 10 50 72 5 Target 80 80 60 60 50 50 40 100 100 90 90 90 80 80 % of correct items Student 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 54 Annex C. Proficiency levels in the acquisition of classroom assessment competencies Assessment Not met Partially met Met expectation Exceeded Competency expectation expectation The teacher Does not use Uses questions to check Uses questions to Uses questions to uses variety questions to learners’ understanding check learners’ check learners’ of assessment check learners’ and provide feedback understanding and understanding and modes understanding nor but does not use self- provide feedback; provide feedback; and gives uses self-assessment assessment or peer- uses self-assessment uses self-assessment appropriate or peer-assessment assessment techniques and peer-assessment and peer-assessment feedback techniques or or homework to assess techniques as well techniques as well homework to learners’ understanding as homework to as homework to assess learners’ assess learners’ assess learners’ understanding. understanding. understanding of lesson; and encourages learners to pose and answer relevant questions. The teacher Directs questions to Directs questions to Directs questions to Directs questions to allows wait time individual learners, all learners in the class all learners in the all learners in the for learners calling out their but does not give them class, gives them class, gives them time to respond to names before the enough time to organize roughly the same equitably to organize questions question is asked their thoughts before amount of time to their thoughts and gives them no responding to questions organize their thoughts before responding to wait time to organize before responding to questions their thoughts questions before responding to questions The teacher Does not compare Compares learners’ Compares learners’ Compares learners’ demonstrates learners’ performance performance with performance with performance with awareness of with any local or inappropriate/ other appropriate local appropriate local and national and national assessment assessment outcomes assessment outcomes national assessment school levels of outcomes. and not local or national (previous performance outcomes (e.g., Early attainment by expected learning of learners in same Grade Mathematics/ learners outcomes. class or performance Reading tests, Basic of other local cohorts) Education Certificate and not national Examination). expected outcomes. The teacher Does not clarify Clarifies core points Clarifies core points Clarifies core points summarizes core points, does of lessons focusing on of lessons focusing on of lessons focusing on key points and not summarize or learning outcomes; learning outcomes; learning outcomes; evaluates lesson evaluate lesson. summarizes but does summarizes and guides learners to not evaluate the lesson. evaluates the lesson. summarize and evaluate the lesson. Adapted from Ghana’s Ministry of Education. (2018) 55