Considering National and Local Perspectives and Experience in Reading Assessment Development in Malawi

• In Event: Linguistic diversity & program strategies: Precursors & potential for foundational learning

Proposal

In the process of re-developing assessment tools in any circumstance, one of the first pieces of work is to thoroughly examine both the previously used assessments and their results. This paper will focus on the process of examining the previously used National Reading Assessment (NRA) and results from past administrations. Results of previous NRA administrations showed high proportions of zero scores on most tasks, across both grades 2 and 4, and in both English and Chichewa. In ten years, there have not been significant changes in the results in Malawi on the NRA despite large investment in foundational reading programming. In this presentation, we will discuss the factors we theorize are contributing to these results including an analysis of the vast differences in learning a language like Chichewa vs a language like English (Pretorius, 2019).
In addition to this analysis, the assessment content and standards of performance were evaluated alongside the current teaching and learning materials and practices in the country. In this presentation we will outline the process undertaken prior to, and during, the development of new assessment tasks and content as well as the considerations of the team in ensuring local contextualization where possible. The presenter will describe the process of engagement with local expertise throughout the stages of development and the effect this engagement had on the process and results.

Author

• Louise M Bahry, Avens Evaluation Group Ltd