Global Partnership for Education WP Series on Learning

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Literacy for All in 100 Days? A Research-based Strategy for Fast Progress in Low-income Countries
(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2013-05-30) Abadzi, Helen
In low-income countries many students are marginalized very early and remain illiterate. In grades 1-3 they attend rarely, though they may officially drop out in grade 4. Many others graduate from primary school without having learned letter values. The worrisome outcomes, despite much donor investment in low-income countries, have prompted scrutiny of the methods, and textbooks used to make students literate. This document offers insights from cognitive neuroscience and evidence suggesting that students can be taught basic literacy within the first semester of grade 1, if taught in consistently spelled languages. Teaching students at risk of dropout to read as early as possible enhances equity. However, the reading methods used in many countries are complex and hard for teachers to execute. They pertain to high-income countries and to certain western European languages. English but also French, Portuguese, and Dutch have complex spelling systems. English in particular requires three years of learning time. (French requires about two). Reading instruction for English is expensive and complex. Lists of whole words must be learned, vocabulary and early training in predictions are needed in order to make sense of words that cannot be sounded out. Learning must be started at kindergarten, parents must help at home, and many weaker students require remedial instruction. Since English is an official language in many countries, the travails of learning to read in this language have been considered the normal fate of reading. Overall, reading methods must be resilient to the vicissitudes of implementation. Many activities work well in higher-income countries or small pilots, but at scale-up they sink. Governments and donors should train up to existing capacity, rather than try to raise capacity to the requirements of complex methods.
Raising Literacy from 20 Percent to 80 Percent? A Science-Based Strategy for GPE Partner Countries
(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2013-05-30) Abadzi, Helen
Governments and donors have been working hard to develop efficient learning programs and resolve the learning crisis. Scientific lessons have already been implemented in a few countries. Global Partnership for Education (GPE) gave technical advice to Cambodia and the Gambia on reading (also on math); the reading pilots resulted in very satisfactory outcomes and expressions of appreciation by governments. Not surprisingly, other GPE partner countries have directly requested technical advice. With sharp messages and close coordination, the current mountain of problems can be reduced to a molehill in five years. Basic reading can be taught efficiently and quickly, by the middle of grade one. If such an outcome seems unbelievable, it is only because reading is taught through models tailor-made for certain western European languages. Students are to learn basic reading in local languages within the first 100 days of grade one. At the same time, they will learn the official language orally. In grade two they will receive a bridging course to transition eventually to the formal language. The many older illiterate students are to be remediated through the same 100-day program ('literate school in 100 days') and similarly receive a bridging course to the official language. One issue that is often voiced by government officials is that language of instruction for early grade reading is desirable, but students should exit early and not spend years studying in a local language. Given the need for basic literacy, it is certainly possible to follow the policy option that government's desire. In higher-income countries, students get exposed to print before school, so they progress fast in automaticity and text interpretation. Commensurately, the poor are expected to progress quickly into meaning and content. The early learning failure in low income countries is due to missing 'low level' building-block skills.
Visual and Linguistic Factors in Literacy Acquisition : Instructional Implications for Beginning Readers in Low-income Countries
(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2013) Marinelli, Chiara Valeria; Martelli, Marialuisa; Praphamontripong, Prachayani; Zoccolotti, Pierluigi; Abadzi, Helen
Improving the quality of literacy teaching may require intervening at different levels, for example, encouraging school attendance and optimizing textbook format and teaching methods. Reading is a complex task involving perceptual, motor, linguistic, phonological, and memory components, each of which has a crucial role in determining reading rate. High poverty rates continue to have a negative impact on human resource development and education quality in Africa, further complicating the ability of most countries to reach the Education for All (EFA) and Millennium Development Goals (MDG). Moreover, Africa and Asia are hosts to most of the world's multilingual countries, in which textbook availability in major indigenous languages is sorely lacking. Therefore, it is important to take all possible steps to maximize the effectiveness of teaching interventions. In parallel, also the quality of textbooks is a crucial factor for quality education, especially in developing countries. It is important to dispose of well-written and well-designed textbooks, because the quality of textbook can be an important predictor of student learning and can contribute to the effective use of instructional time and classroom teaching. This review examines the evidence regarding variables influencing acquisition of decoding and comprehension reading skills. One important caveat is in order. While the educational, psychological and neuroscience literature on reading is extensive, it largely depends upon studies on English speaking individuals. The first part of the review focuses on studies of visual psychophysics and examines the visual limitations affecting reading and its development. The second part of the review draws on the psychological and neuroscience literature to examine the role of several variables influencing reading acquisition, such as letter knowledge, teaching method, teacher's competence, orthographic consistency.
How to Speed up Arabic Literacy for Lower-Income Students?: Some Insights from Cognitive Neuroscience
(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2012-11-20) Abadzi, Helen
Students in low-income countries often have trouble learning to read; 80-90 percent of second and third graders in some countries cannot even read a single word and may know few if any letters (RTI 2009, 2010, 2011a, 2011b). The reasons are linked to limited instructional time, textbooks or parental help, potentially poor nutrition, or complex teaching methods that originated in high-income countries. Despite relative affluence, the academic performance in the Arab world has been a problem, with countries scoring on international tests much lower than expected based on per capita income level. Similarly Early Grade Reading Assessments (EGRA) in various countries has shown lower reading speeds than one would expect. In Pakistan and Afghanistan, which use the Arabic script, the issues are similar. The interaction of the perceptual and linguistic complexities turns Arabic reading into a complex multistage exercise. A reader of the Arabic script must: (a) decipher the text, (b) predict the vowels and keep multiple alternative words in working memory to test and decide on meaning, and (c) make linguistic sense in the case of Arabic. This process means that readers need to identify words faster than in other scripts in order to make sense of the text, but in fact they identify them more slowly. Not surprisingly, some studies suggest that the Arabic script may be read more slowly than visually simpler scripts or linear scripts. Education for All implies that nearly all students must somehow learn fluent reading very quickly when they start school in order to then progress to higher level topics. This must be achievable in all the languages and scripts used in low-income countries. By focusing on these lower-level variables this is doable.
Effective Teacher Training in Low-Income Countries: The Power of Observational Learning Research
(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2012-11-01) Abadzi, Helen
The Education for All (EFA) initiative depends on students being taught by suitably and sufficiently trained teachers. But time-on-task studies conducted in low-income countries show that relatively little time is being spent on instruction, including the critical teaching of reading. Teachers may be absent often and may avoid teaching when in school (Abadzi 2007). They may engage with the few students who can do the work, neglecting the rest (Llambiri 2006, Abadzi and Llambiri 2011). They may fail to use textbooks even when they exist and spend class time copying on the blackboard. The same issues affect supervisors and principals (Abadzi 2006). As a result, students may graduate or drop out illiterate. The investments in teacher training are potentially valuable, but need to be linked to results. Thus far evidence is limited. Preservice training often lasts 6-9 months compared to 3-4 years in higher-income countries and may be insufficient to remedy students' academic deficits or teach them how to teach. The poor results have disappointed governments and donors. The persistent teacher training problems worldwide make it imperative to seek new means for changing behaviors, particularly for poorly paid teachers with limited education. This must be done relatively quickly and efficiently so that teachers can impart basic skills to their students. Since feasible educational methods seem to have been exhausted, it is useful to look for solutions in the field that studies behavior. Even for better educated teachers in lower-income countries, the capacity for formulating and solving complex problems such as those presented in teaching real classrooms may be limited compared to some 'ideal' model (Feldon 2007).
Developing Cross-Language Metrics for Reading Fluency Measurement: Some Issues and Options
(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2012-07-10) Abadzi, Helen
Since 2005, over 70 oral reading fluency tests have been given in many languages and scripts, either as part of the Early Grade Reading Assessment (EGRA) or as individual one-minute tests. Particularly in multilingual countries, reading speed and comprehension measures have been taken in multiple languages and also in multiple scripts. The development of language has a significant genetic component, which tends to create common grammatical structures. Then languages must conform to information processing limitations, notably to working memory capacity. On the basis of such features, it may be possible to develop common standards for performance improvement compare findings cross linguistically. Languages are most comparable when large chunks are used rather than single words. To arrive at some comparisons, several methods may be tried. These include: a) counting actual words in connected texts or in lists, using some conventions if needed; b) using computational solutions to arrive at coefficients of certain languages vis a vis others, such as 1 Swahili word being equivalent roughly to 1.3 English words; c) using in multiple languages lists of words of a defined length, e.g. 4 letters; d) measuring phonemes or syllables per minute, possibly dividing by average word length; and e) rapid serial visual presentation, potentially also measuring perception at the letter feature level. Overall, reading rate as words per minute seems to be a valid and reliable indicator of achievement, with 45-60 words being a range that is usable as a benchmark.
Remedial Education Programs to Accelerate Learning for All
(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2012-05-01) Schwartz, Analice C.
Students from low income background often fall behind early on their education journey. Without adequate and timely support to address their learning needs they continue to perform poorly. Eventually the students lagging behind, will keep failing to learn the basic literacy and numeracy skills, and most likely will end up dropping out of school illiterate. The majority of Global Education Partnership (GPE) countries have acknowledged in their education sector plans and strategies the need to address the problem of low learning levels, and of students not going efficiently through the public education system, which has resulted in wastage of financial and human resources. Ideally interventions that aimed to improve learning of low performing students should be included in the framework of a country's educational policies in alignment with other institutional arrangements such as teacher training, curriculum, assessment, available pedagogic materials, instructional time, language of instruction (when applicable), among others. However, many of these countries are yet to draft policies that will specifically focus on helping low performers. Currently, it can be concluded that academic improvements from remedial support may help students to pass the grade or yield fast improvements, however such interventions by themselves may have not been sufficient to raise achievement at adequate levels. Remedial education programs will likely be most effective when included as part of a country's overall strategic plan to deliver quality education for all of its students. Overall, the renewed focus on low performers, many times victims of teacher neglect and other social exclusion experiences, by the means of directing programs and resources to address learning gaps is already a huge step towards achieving learning for all.
The Foundations of Numerical and Mathematical Abilities: A Literature Review
(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2012-04-08) Ansari, Daniel
The processing of numerical information is a dominant feature of everyday life. Whether it is in the context of financial transactions, such as shopping for groceries or in gauging how many people are in a room, we are constantly using numerical information to guide our behavior and make decisions. While there has been much more attention placed on literacy and its importance for life success, there is clear evidence to suggest that basic numerical and mathematical skills play a critical role in determining an individual's life success. Furthermore, there is abundant evidence that low numeracy skills are associated with substantial costs to society at large (Butterworth, Varma, and Laurillard; Bynner and Parsons, 1997; Duncan et al., 2007). In view of this, a better understanding of how the ability to process numerical information develops could lead to improvements in how these skills are taught and used by individuals to improve their lives across the globe. As an extension of this, improving numerical skills among individuals will have benefits for society at large as it will lead to a stronger working force and thus measurable economic improvements. The focus of the review will be on the foundations of number processing abilities upon which higher-level abilities, such as mental arithmetic are built. In this way, the literature review does not provide a comprehensive overview of the development of numerical and mathematical skills, but rather explore the foundational systems underlying numerical and mathematical abilities. By doing so the review aims to identify key variables that characterize foundational competencies of numerical abilities that can be used in the context of educational assessments and become targets for educational interventions. It is a central contention of the present review that in order to improve the early acquisition of numerical competencies, a focus on foundational systems is necessary. If the foundations are well set then the system can develop optimally.
Reading Fluency Measurements in EFA FTI Partner Countries: Outcomes and Improvement Prospects
(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2011-09) Abadzi, Helen
Students in lower-income countries often acquire limited literacy in school and often drop out illiterate. For those who stay, the problem is not detected until it is too late to intervene. Oral reading fluency tests given in the early grades can quickly and inexpensively assess student literacy. For this reason, one-minute reading studies have been popular. A search carried out in early 2010 showed that over 50 fluency studies have been conducted in various countries, and that norms have been established in the U.S., Mexico, and Chile. The studies often reported data in ways that were not easily comparable, and few had collected nationally representative data. However, the findings consistently showed very limited achievement. A multi-country study matching reading and instructional time data showed that the deficits are largely due to limited reading practice. The findings also suggest that few governments have taken action to improve reading outcomes on the basis of test scores. However, a number of pilot reading programs that emphasized phonics and practice were financed by donors and implemented by Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs). These brought about substantial improvements within a few months. Their success suggests that it is eminently feasible to raise student outcomes significantly through evidence based reading methods. Overall, the oral reading fluency tests have shown good psychometric properties, although reading achievement typically shows much variability within classes and sampling procedures could improve. Cross-linguistic comparability is rough and approximate, but overall it is possible to monitor reading outcomes across time and countries.
Learning Essentials for International Education: A Compendium of Summaries
(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2010-03-23) Abadzi, Helen
The sound of children's voices reciting in unison could be heard from afar, as our mission approached a school in rural Cambodia. Inside a second-grade classroom, students took turns at the blackboard. One pointed with a stick at a list of words written by the teacher, while the rest recited. A colleague approached, wrote on the blackboard the same words in a different order, and asked the children to read. Suddenly, there was silence. Most kids had merely memorized the sequence of the words and could not even identify single letters. This scene is frequent. In the poorer schools of low-income countries, many students remain illiterate for years, until they finally drop out. With some care, the process is observable. Typically the teacher writes on the board some letters or words and asks students to repeat them. The letters may be scribbled, the children often sit at a distance, textbooks may be insufficient, and children may not have anyone at home to help them read. But they do repeat the words in unison, getting cues from a few knowledgeable classmates. The teachers stand by the blackboard, address students at large, and call on the few who perform well. How come this issue has not attracted attention? One reason is that in the middle-class schools of capitals students perform much better. Soon after our rural observations, we observed second graders in a middleclass school of Pnom Penh fluently handling the extremely complex Khmer script. However, the schools of the poor have less time for their students. There is teacher absenteeism, a lack of textbooks to take home, parental inability to make up for school weaknesses, no specific curricular time for reading. The result has been chronic illiteracy, high dropout and high repetition rates. To reduce repetition and maximize enrollments, some donors advise governments to promote students automatically.