Tusome pilot remedial reading program: Successes and Challenges for Scaling a Program to support struggling readers

• In Event: Mitigating the learning crisis: Evidence and Lessons from literacy remedial programs in Kenya, Zambia, and Lebanon

Proposal

Schools in Kenya closed in 2020 for 9 months due to the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, and many learners had little to no access to instruction throughout this time. The Ministry of Education in Kenya has been working to combat the learning loss that ensued. During the 2022 school year, the ministry worked with the Tusome Early Grade Reading Activity, with funding from USAID, to design and implement a pilot remedial reading program. The program was designed to assist grade 3 learners who were struggling to learn the foundational skills for reading. Instruction focused on teaching English letter sounds and simple word reading, with one lesson per week devoted to vocabulary, connected-text reading, and comprehension.
The pilot remedial program included two treatment groups and a control group. Treatment 1 took place in 97 public schools across 12 counties and Treatment 2 took place in 96 learning centers across 20 counties, overseen by 23 youth bunges (youth-led organizations). Teachers in the program were trained and mentored by a combination of senior teachers, Sub-County Quality Assurance and Standards Officers (SCQASOs) and Tusome staff. Sixty control schools were also included as part of the pilot study.
The study evaluation involved administering a set of quantitative and qualitative instruments. Learners were assessed at baseline and endline using a simple instrument to measure word-reading and letter-sound knowledge skills. In addition, all teachers, mentors, and head teachers who participated in the program were interviewed using a quantitative questionnaire. A smaller sample of teachers, mentors, and head teachers participated in qualitative interviews. A set of control schools also was followed using the learner assessment tools as a means to compare the progress of learners in the two treatment groups with that of learners in schools not receiving the intervention.
Overall, the study found that the pilot remedial program implementation was quite successful at improving learners’ knowledge of letter sounds and simple word reading. All interviewees agreed the program was useful and should be continued and scaled to more learners and schools. Comparing the baseline and endline scores for both treatment groups to the control schools revealed significant gains on both skills in the intervention schools. The endline results showed that 60.3% of Treatment 1 learners and 73.8% of Treatment 2 learners moved from the letter level to proficient with word reading. In contrast, only 35.5% of learners in control schools reached the proficient with word reading at endline. Interview data showed teachers, mentors, and head teachers were pleased with the program and would like to continue it despite some challenges. Teachers noted that learners were engaged with the activities and showing improvements in self-efficacy as well as academically. When asked what aspects of the program should be continued, respondents generally said that the whole program should be continued and scaled to more grades and schools. The presentation will discuss the implementation success as well as challenges to be considered for scale.

Authors

• Jessica Mejia, RTI International

• Sarah Koko, RTI International