Early Grade Reading Assessment in Uganda: From program to system

• In Event: Scaling up early grade reading interventions in Uganda

Proposal

The USAID/Uganda/School Health and Reading Program (SHRP – 2012 to 2019) is a large scale reading reform effort that works through existing ministry systems to support a local language reading program in 4,081 schools . The program followed a demanding impact evaluation data collection schedule which included annual large scale Early Grade Reading Assessments (EGRA) in 12 local languages and English. Baseline data were collected in February at the beginning of Primary 1 (P1) for every cluster of 4 languages (either in 2013, 2014 or 2015 as the language clusters were phased into the program) and follow up data collected at the end of the school year every October since then – the last round of data collection is taking place in October, 2018.
Starting in October, 2016, the Uganda National Examinations Board (UNEB) undertook its own EGRA to monitor reading achievement under the Global Partnership funded Uganda Teacher and School Effectiveness Project (UTSEP). Though the program began informal discussions with the Uganda National Examinations Board (UNEB) on pupil assessment, reading assessment in particular, early in the program it was never part of the program’s plan for UNEB to undertake their own EGRA. In fact, when the program started, the history of discussions with UNEB around national assessment efforts were somewhat tense.
So how did the UNEB EGRA come about? This presentation will discuss how conditions came together including a focus on building trust between the program and UNEB and UNEB’s increased familiarity with and capacity to undertake EGRA that came about as UNEB supported annual program EGRA efforts. We will discuss adaptations that UNEB made to the assessment to fit the context – including changes to study design, instruments, and data collection.

Author

• Amos Opaman, Uganda National Examinations Board