Lee Conmigo: Improving reading skills through community reading circles in El Salvador

• In Event: Scaling and sustaining private innovations in public education systems

Proposal

Lee Conmigo is a program that to supports Salvadoran children to improve their reading skills and recover from the learning loss resulting from the Covid-19 pandemic. The program establishes reading circles in community settings, delivering twenty 90-minute sessions with the children from the community.

The first stage of Lee Conmigo targeted 4,000 children between the ages of 6 and 9 years, in rural or semi urban areas, who presented reading levels lower than expected for their age. The program encompasses a total of 326 reading circles.

The Lee Conmigo model consists of the following components:

• Provide academic reinforcement in community spaces through reading circles.
• Equip caregivers with strategies to keep children reading and close to literate environments.
• Establish local alliances to ensure the continuity of the project through internal uptake of the initiative.

The program has helped increase the likelihood that children will learn to read, especially at younger ages 6-7 years). The recipients of the program had an increased probability of learning to read of 25% with no statistically significant differences between geographic regions.

Children who received the program also verified an increase in reading ability of approximately 10 words per minute, compared to the control group.

The program increased the likelihood that children will be at an advanced level of achievement by 14%, and improved reading comprehension increased by 15 percentage points.

The project was financed by a fund created in response to the Covid-19 pandemic with the contribution of more than 30 private sector companies and individual donors.

Author

• Karla Segovia, FUSAL