The Gambia : Early Grade Reading Assessment

Abstract

In most major international assessments (e.g., Programme for International Student Assessment-Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development [PISAOECD], and Progress in International Reading Literacy Study -International Evaluation of Educational Achievement [PIRLS-IEA]) children's reading skills are not assessed before fourth grade. For students who are poor readers, it is often too late to carry out efficient and effective remedial instruction. Indeed, to be efficient, remedial instruction should be conducted as early as possible. In addition, most major assessments are only composed of reading comprehension tasks, and do not take into account the level of word reading fluency (including accuracy and speed) and listening comprehension. However, research suggests that reading comprehension is associated with capacity in these complementary tasks. A large-scale reading assessment was conducted in Gambia with 1,200 first, second, and third graders (randomly selected from 40 schools) who were learning to read in English. Three analyses were carried out. The first involved a comparison within the group, in which the effect of control variables including gender, home language, and socioeconomic status was examined in relation to the children s results. In the second analysis, the pattern of correlations between the different tasks (and between these tasks and some control variables) was examined. Finally, regression analyses were carried out in order to determine the predictors of isolated-word and word-in-context reading, and reading comprehension.