world vision india pro-lit baseline report...2.1 sampling the baseline assessment encompassed1159...

World Vision India

Pro-Lit Baseline Report:

Hindi & English Reading Skills of

Grade 2 & 3 Students in

Agra, Aparajita, Borio, and Dumka ADPs

December 2014

NT Murty, Liju Varkey Jacob, and Jarret Guajardo

With Special Thanks to Simha Boneti, Matthew Isaac, Sandip Kumar, Pankaj

Kumar Das, Amit Rajdeep, Anil Kachhap, Sandeep Kumar, Ejji Babu, Jalandar

Satpute, and Sameer Sekhar

Thank you to our team of assessors: Agra-Kanishq, Anugrah, Sanjay, Jagan, Neetu

and Babita. Lalitpur- Kammod, Ram, Hakim, Indrapal, Pooran, Sardar and Sanat.

Dumka- Ujjwal, Rajesh, Bapon, Kimmi, Usha and Nima. Borio- Stephen, Bablu,

Probodh, Gulshan, Bablu, Premsons and Bablu

© 2014 Save the Children

3

Executive Summary This report examines the results of a baseline student background survey and reading

assessment conducted in August and September 2014 as part of World Vision’s Literacy Boost

(LB) initiative which is run as the project called Promoting Literacy for Children, or Pro-Lit. .

The survey and reading assessment covered 1159 grade 2 & 3 students in 80 government

primary schools in Uttar Pradesh State (Agra and Aparajita ADPs) and Jharkhand State (Borio

and Dumka ADPs). As part of Literacy Boost, students will be periodically assessed in each of

these skills through an adaptable assessment tool to inform programming and estimate program

impact.

The findings related to student background suggest that student enrollment and attendance in

these schools is low. The overwhelming majority of students in Agra and Aparajita speak Hindi

as their mother tongue, while students in Borio and Dumka either speak Santhali or Kortha at

home. Most students have not had access to Early Childhood Care & Development (ECCD).

Most students engage in chores or work for their family. In all ADPs, many more girls than boys

engage in chores or work. Community literacy interactions are low across the four ADPs, with

few students reporting exchanging books or reading with family members or other community

members.

For print in the household, textbooks are ubiquitous but storybooks are less prevalent and a

wider diversity of child-friendly reading materials is non-existent. Most students come from

households with at least one person who can read, and households with at least one person

who encourages the student to study, but fewer students come from households with

household members who read or tell stories to them. Even when household members read or

tell stories to students, the readers do not as often ask the students questions about the story.

In terms of reading skills, students across the four ADPs perform poorly on even the most

foundational skill of letter knowledge, and only a tiny proportion of students can read and

understand connected text. A large proportion of students have absolutely no literacy skills –

i.e. they cannot identify any of the Hindi or English letters or words. Therefore, the major focus

of Pro-Lit should be helping teachers, community members, and volunteers to build students’

letter knowledge and – in the case of Borio and Dumka – students’ oral Hindi skills.

Male students, those with more household members engaging in literacy-supporting activities

(higher HLE), those with previous ECCD experience, and those who speak Hindi at home

showed significantly higher ability on average in their reading skills. In addition, students from

schools that are located further from the district center scored lower on almost all skills.

Students who reported more frequent studying at home scored higher on the majority of skills.

Finally, in terms of equity analysis, girls and non-Hindi speakers are often at a disadvantage. However, the two most consistent relationships with lower reading skills are lack of prior

ECCD experience and fewer household members regularly engaging the child in literacy-

supportive activities. Detailed recommendations for programming based on assessment findings

are included in Section 10.

4

Table of Contents

Executive Summary .......................................................................................................... 3

1. Introduction and Context ............................................................................................. 6

1.1 Context ....................................................................................................................... 6

2. Methodology ................................................................................................................. 10

2.1 Sampling ................................................................................................................... 10

2.2 Measurement ........................................................................................................... 11

2.3 Analysis ..................................................................................................................... 12

3.Agra ................................................................................................................................ 13

3.1 Student Background and Home Literacy Environment ........................................ 13

3.2 Reading Skills ........................................................................................................... 15

4. Aparajita ....................................................................................................................... 17


4.2 Reading Skills ........................................................................................................... 19

5. Borio .............................................................................................................................. 21


5.2 Reading Skills ........................................................................................................... 23

6. Dumka........................................................................................................................... 25


6.2 Reading Skills ........................................................................................................... 27

7. Individual Skill Analysis ............................................................................................... 29

7.1 Letter knowledge/recognition ..................................................................................... 29

7.2 Most Used Words and Invented Words ...................................................................... 31

7.3 Proportion of Readers and Nonreaders ..................................................................... 31

7.4 Listening Comprehension for Nonreaders ................................................................. 32

7.5 Reading Fluency and Accuracy for Readers ............................................................... 33

7.6 Reading Comprehension ............................................................................................. 34

8. Equity Analysis and Other Relationships between Student/School Characteristics

and Reading Skills ............................................................................................................ 35

9. School Situation Analysis ............................................................................................ 38

9.1 Students and Teachers ............................................................................................ 38

9.2 School Infrastructure ............................................................................................... 40

9.3 Language .................................................................................................................. 40

9.4 Comparability of Schools ........................................................................................ 42

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10. Recommendations ..................................................................................................... 42

Appendix A: Inter-rater Reliability ................................................................................ 45

Appendix B: Chores and study time by ADP ............................................................... 46

Appendix C: Multilevel Regression Output .................................................................. 51

6

1. Introduction and Context

This report examines the results of a baseline student background survey and reading

assessment conducted in August and September 2014 as part of World Vision’s Literacy Boost

(LB) initiative which is run as the project called Promoting Literacy for Children, or Pro-Lit. .

The survey and reading assessment covered 1159 grade 2 & 3 students in 80 government

primary schools in Uttar Pradesh State (Agra and Aparajita ADPs) and Jharkhand State (Borio

and Dumka ADPs). The 80 schools are split into 40 primary schools designated to receive the

Literacy Boost program during the initial pilot phase, and 40 comparison primary schools which

will receive the Literacy Boost program after the 1-year pilot phase. Schools were selected

randomly into the two groups for a randomized control trial (RCT) design.

This data serves as a baseline assessment for Pro-Lit, which includes community reading

activities and age-appropriate local language material creation to support emergent literacy

skills among early-grade children. These skills include letter awareness, single word reading of

most used words, decoding of invented words, reading fluency, reading accuracy, and reading

comprehension. As part of Literacy Boost, students will be periodically assessed in each of

these skills through an adaptable assessment tool to inform programming and estimate program

impact.

The key research questions to be explored in this report include the following:

• What can the baseline tell us about students’ emergent reading skills? What does this

mean for LB programming?

• How do students’ reading skills vary by student background, school environment, home

literacy environment, and other dimensions of equity? What does this mean for

targeting Literacy Boost’s two strands of intervention (i.e. Community Action and

school-based activities)?

To investigate these questions, this report first describes the context of Agra and Aparajita

ADPs (Uttar Pradesh State) and Borio and Dumka ADPs (located in Jharkand State). Next, this

report gives an overview of the research methods used; including sampling, measurement, and

analysis. The next section of the report focuses on each ADP: the report first describes students’ background characteristics and school environment. After this, students’ scores for

each of the reading skills are analyzed to determine which skills students have mastered and

which skills require additional improvement. Finally, the report investigates any/all correlations

between reading skills and student background variables using multilevel regression analysis.

1.1 Context

Pro-Lit will be implemented across the two northern Indian states of Uttar Pradesh and

Jharkhand.

7

Uttar Pradesh State

With a population of 200 million people, Uttar Pradesh, India’s most populous state could be a

country in its own right. Over 30% of its inhabitants live below the poverty line and thus its

problems are large, too. According to the Pratham 2012 Assessment, literacy rates are a

stunningly low 57%, among the worst in the country. Despite the fact that 96.5% of 6-14 year-

olds are in school, 74% of second graders cannot read simple words in Hindi and over 62% of

fifth graders cannot read a simple second grade text. These are some of the reasons why WV-

India chose UP as one project site.

8

The state official language is Hindi and the official language-of-instruction (LoI) in schools is also

Hindi. Teachers are fluent in Hindi language only. Under Pro-Lit, teachers in target schools will

use Hindi as the instruction language and WV will follow the curriculum of the State

Government.

Agra ADP

• Urban, 29 slums

• Population: 45,000

• Education Programming: Improving school infrastructure, providing remedial classes,

strengthening PTAs

• Literacy rate: 78% among males and 59% among females1

Aparajita ADP

• Rural, 46 villages


• Education Programming: Providing bicycles and solar lights for schoolchildren,

enrollment campaign


1 Indian Census, 2011


9

Jharkhand State

The second site, Jharkhand State, was selected because WV-I wants to learn how to effectively

address the very important issue of linguistic diversity in formal education. When the language

of instruction in a school differs from the language children speak at home, those children will,

generally, have poor learning outcomes. It is estimated that, currently, about 780 different

languages are spoken in daily use in India and 86 different scripts are in use. In Jharkhand ADPs,

Santhali and Hindi are the most common languages.

Borio ADP



• Education Programming: Improving girls’ education and SMC empowerment


Dumka ADP



• Education Programming: Enrollment campaigns and SMC empowerment




10

2. Methodology

2.1 Sampling

The baseline assessment encompassed1159 grade 2 and 3students, divided between 40 schools

set to receive the Literacy Boost intervention during the pilot phase (n of students = 577) and

40 comparison schools (n of students = 582) which will receive the Literacy Boost intervention

after the pilot phase. This breaks down to 10 pilot intervention schools and 10 comparison

schools per each of Agra, Aparajita, Borio, and Dumka ADPs.

To select schools within each ADP, 20 schools were identified that matched the selection

criteria of being a government school and being as similar as possible in terms of student

population, number of teachers, number of grades, etc. After the initial identification of 20

schools, a stakeholder meeting was called to publically select 10 schools for the Phase I pilot

and 10 schools to receive the program in Phase II. During this process, some schools were grouped into clusters due to their proximity to each other, and were randomly selected as a

whole unit for either the Phase I or Phase II group. Thus, the Phase II schools will serve as

comparison schools for an impact evaluation of the Pro-Lit project after the Phase I pilot.

Literacy Boost and comparison schools in these ADPs are receiving many additional

interventions from World Vision India or other organizations that will affect the

Borio block under

Sahibganj District

11

implementation of LB activities. The activities that are taking place include SMC (School

Management Committee) empowerment, improving girls’ education, enrollment campaigns,

improving school infrastructure, and provision of bicycles, lamps, and other materials for

children in school.

At each of the Literacy Boost and comparison schools where data was collected, 5 boys and 5

girls from grade 2 and 5 boys and 5 girls from grade 3 were sampled for a total of 20 students.

Normally, 10 boys and 10 girls from grade 2 would have been sampled, but in this context

enrollment and attendance is so low that it was difficult to find 20 children in these government

primary schools. Thus, the decision was made to sample from both grade 2 and grade 3.

However, even this strategy did not guarantee 20 students in the sample due to extremely low

enrollments and attendance. The average sample of students from each ADP is shown in Table

1 below.

Table 1: Average number of children sampled per school

Agra Aparajita Borio Dumka

18 19 10 12

2.2 Measurement

For the student assessment, all students in the sample were asked about their background

characteristics (age, household possessions, household building materials, etc.). Students also

were asked about their family members and reading habits in their home (who they had seen

reading in the week prior to the assessment, who had read to them, etc.).

After collecting this background data, all students were given an emergent literacy test

composed of six components administered through five sub-tests: letter awareness, single word

recognition (reading of most used words), decoding of invented words, reading fluency &

accuracy (words per minute read correctly and total percentage of passage read correctly; both

within the same sub-test), and a set of comprehension questions linked to the fluency & accuracy passage. The same set of comprehension questions were administered for both those

students who could read independently (reading comprehension) and those who could not and

who therefore had the assessor read to them (listening comprehension). All instructions were

given in Hindi in Uttar Pradesh ADPs, and in either Hindi or Santhali in Jharkhand ADPs.

All students were assessed on letter identification, most used words, invented words, reading

fluency & accuracy, and listening/reading comprehension in Hindi. Students in Uttar Pradesh and

Jharkhand were assessed on a different list of most used words due to the use of a different

Hindi textbook in each state. Students were also assessed on letter identification, most used

words, and invented words in English (all English tests were the same between states).Table 2

below summarizes the various components of the Literacy Boost survey and assessment, and

Appendix A provides information on inter-rater reliability.

12

Table 2: Literacy Boost Survey and Assessment Components

Assessment

Component Details

General background Sex, age, language spoken at home, work/chores

School-related Attendance, repetition history

Socioeconomic status Type of home, household size, household amenities/possessions

Health Sickness, breakfast, vision, hearing

Access to print Materials present in home, types of materials

Reading activities at

home

Presence and percentage of family members who children see

read, and who engage in literacy activities with children

Alphabet knowledge Number of letters/sounds known of 49 Hindi letters and 26

English letters

Single word reading Number of Hindi and English single words read correctly (20

per each language)

Decoding skills Number of Hindi and English invented words read correctly

(20 per each language)

Fluency Number of words in a short Hindi story read correctly in a

minute

Accuracy Percentage of words in a short Hindi story read correctly

Comprehension Questions related to Hindi short story read aloud by assessor

2.3 Analysis

The primary purpose of this analysis is to describe average student characteristics, students’ in-

school and out-of-school environment, and students’ reading skills so that the Literacy Boost

program can be adapted to fit the realities of this context.

Summary statistics, accompanied by two-tailed t-tests assuming unequal variance between

groups, were used to analyze students’ background, in-school and out-of-school environment,

and performance in each of the reading sub-tests. This report also employed multilevel

regression models to explore relationships between literacy skills and student background

characteristics, school environment, and home literacy environment (HLE).

13

3. Agra

3.1 Student Background and Home Literacy Environment

Table 3 below presents major background statistics from Agra ADP. The proportion of boys

and girls is nearly equal. Sixteen percent of students did not know their age, but of the 84% of

students who did, grade 2 students are age 9 on average and grade 3 students are age 10 on

average. All students speak Hindi at home. Only one-third of students report having previously

attended ECCD, and almost one-fifth of students have repeated at least one grade. While

almost half of students perform chores or work for their family, almost all students report

having enough time to study. Many more girls (54%) than boys (34%) are engaged in chores.

More details on time spent on chores and study, and the types of chores engaged in, can be

found in Appendix B. The proportion of students exchanging books in the community is very

low, and only half or less than half of students are engaged with literacy activities with others in

their community.

Table 3: Agra student background

Characteristic %

% female 55%

Age in years 9.4

% speaks Hindi at home 100%

% has previously attended ECCD/Aaganwadi center 32%

% reports school is 'far' from home 37%

% has ever repeated a grade 18%

% does chores or work for family 43%

Avg. number of types of chores done 1.4

% reports has enough study time 90%

% exchanges books with others in community 19%

% others in community read to child 47%

% reads to others in community 43%

% helps others read 51%

In Agra, the Pro-Lit program should increase communities’ access to child-friendly

reading materials and encourage community members (and children) to more

frequently read with each other through initiatives such as Reading Buddies and

Community (parental) Awareness sessions. Community (parental) Awareness

sessions should give parents suggestions for how to integrate literacy practice into

children’s chore responsibilities. The scheduling of community activities should be

sensitive to the chore responsibilities of children, especially for girls. In terms of

integrated programming, there is a need for increased access to quality ECCD opportunities for children.

Figures 1 and 2 below summarize the home literacy environment of students in Agra ADP.

Figure 1 displays the types of print students report seeing in their household. Students in Agra

14

have an average of three types of print. While almost all students report having textbooks at

home, fewer have storybooks and arts & crafts books, and almost none have other child-

friendly types of print (such as comic books). Pro-Lit should expand access to a variety of

child-friendly types of print so that all children are able to read fun, engaging

material.

Figure 2 shows the proportion of students who have at least one person in their household

recalled to be engaging in various literacy-supporting activities in the past week. Most students

come from households where at least one person can read, and where at least one person is

encouraging them to study. However, fewer students have someone who is regularly reading to

them or telling them oral stories, and even less have someone who does this and asks the

student questions about the story afterward. Given the high proportion of households

with literate members, Pro-Lit should encourage family members to more

frequently read to children and tell them stories, at the same time modeling how

questions and other simple strategies can more effectively engage the child in the

story.

92%

46%

2%

32%

70% 63%

3% 5% 2% 0%

10%20%30%40%50%60%70%80%90%

100%

% r

ep

ort

ing

typ

e o

f b

oo

k in

th

e

ho

use

ho

ld

Figure 1: Types of Print in the Household

15

3.2 Reading Skills

Figure 3 below displays the average reading skills of students in Agra ADP. Only for Hindi

letters are students able to correctly identify more than half of the test items on average.

English foundational skills are significantly worse than Hindi foundational skills, and the percent

of students who qualified as readers (those who were able to read at least five words correctly

in the first 30 seconds of the Hindi reading passage sub-test) is only 16%. Only about half of

those qualified as readers with comprehension, those able to correctly answer at least 75% of

the literal reading comprehension questions connected to the reading passage. Of the 84% of

students who qualified as nonreaders, the average listening comprehension score was 33% of

questions correct. Students in Agra need help with their foundational reading skills,

starting with a focus on letter awareness. While letter knowledge is prioritized, it

will be important not to build this skill in isolation but to explicitly link it to other

skills from decoding all the way to comprehension.

88% 96%

73%

51%

68%

46%

0%

20%

40%

60%

80%

100%

seen reading encouragedchild to study

read to thechild

read to thechild and asked

questions

told a story tothe child

told a story tochild and asked

questions

% o

f st

ud

en

ts

Figure 2: % of Students Reporting in the Past Week at Least One Household Member…

16

***Statistically significant difference at p<0.001

Figure 2 below presents the average scores of advanced reading skills for the 16% of students

who qualified as readers. On average, this subset of students can read 50 words correctly per

minute with 95% accuracy, and answer 75% of reading comprehension questions correctly.

These students represent a valuable resource for helping their non-reading peers

catch up. These readers can act as models or even as Reading Buddies for their

non-reading peers.

57

24 22 16

9

38

10 3

0

20

40

60

80

100

% letterscorrect***

% most usedwords

correct***

% inventedwords

correct***

% readers % readers withcomprehension%

ite

ms

corr

ect

(o

r %

re

ade

rs/r

ead

ers

w

ith

co

mp

reh

en

sio

n)

Figure 3: Foundational Skills and % of Readers and Readers with Comprehension

Hindi

English

50

95

74

0

20

40

60

80

100

Hindi WCPM Hindi Accuracy Hindi ReadingComprehension

% it

em

s co

rre

ct (

or

wo

rds

corr

ect

pe

r m

inu

te)

Figure 4: Advanced Reading Skills among Readers Only (16% of students)

17

4. Aparajita


Table 4 below presents major background statistics from Aparajita ADP. The proportion of

boys and girls is nearly equal. Forty-seven percent of students did not know their age, but of

the 53% of students who did, grade 2 students are age 7 on average and grade 3 students are

age 8 on average. Eighty-four percent of students speak Hindi at home, although 13% of

students could not name the language they spoke at home. According to National Office staff, it

is likely that these children speak the Bundelkhandi language, which has many similarities with

Hindi.

Only little over one-third of students report having previously attended ECCD, and 11% of

students have repeated at least one grade. While 70% of students perform chores or work for

their family, almost all students report having enough time to study. Many more girls (80%) than

boys (60%) are engaged in chores. More details on time spent on chores and study, and the

types of chores engaged in, can be found in Appendix B. The proportion of students exchanging

books in the community is very low, and only half or less than half of students are engaged with

literacy activities with others in their community. It is a good sign that 60% of students have

someone in the community who reads to them, but Pro-Lit should help increase this number.

Table 4: Aparajita student background

Characteristic %

% female 50%

Age in years 7.8


% has previously attended ECCD/Aaganwadi

center 37%




Number of types of chores 2.4






In Aparajita, the Pro-Lit program should increase communities’ access to child-friendly reading materials and encourage community members (and children) to

more frequently read with each other through initiatives such as Reading Buddies

and Parental Awareness sessions. Parental awareness sessions should give parents

suggestions for how to integrate literacy practice into children’s chore

responsibilities. The scheduling of community activities should be sensitive to the

18

chore responsibilities of children, especially for girls. All activities should be

sensitive to the special needs of the minority of non-Hindi speakers in this area. In

terms of integrated programming, there is a need for increased access to quality

ECCD opportunities for children.

Figures 5 and 6 below summarize the home literacy environment of students in Aparajita ADP.

Figure 5 displays the types of print students report seeing in their household. Students in

Aparajita have an average of two types of print. While almost all students report having

textbooks at home, less than half report having other types of books, and almost none have

certain types of child-friendly print such as comic books. Pro-Lit should expand access to a variety of child-friendly types of print so that all children are able to read fun,

engaging material.



come from households where at least one person can read, and where at least one person is

encouraging them to study. However, fewer students have someone who is reading to them or

telling them oral stories, and even less have someone who does this and asks the student

questions about the story afterward. Given the high proportion of households with

literate members, Pro-Lit should encourage family members to more frequently

read to children and tell them stories, at the same time modeling how questions

and other simple strategies can more effectively engage the child in the story.

98%

43%

0% 5%

37% 33%

3% 3% 2% 0%

10%20%30%40%50%60%70%80%90%

100%

% r

ep

ort

ing

typ

e o

f b

oo

k in

th

e

ho

use

ho

ld


19

4.2 Reading Skills

Figure 7 below displays the average reading skills of students in Aparajita ADP. Only for Hindi

letters are students able to correctly identify a degree of test items on average. English

foundational skills are significantly worse than Hindi foundational skills, and the percent of

students who qualified as readers (those who were able to read at least five words correctly in

the first 30 seconds of the Hindi reading passage sub-test) is only 4%. Only about one-quarter

of those qualified as readers with comprehension, those able to correctly answer at least 75%

of the literal reading comprehension questions connected to the reading passage. Of the 94% of

students who qualified as nonreaders, the average listening comprehension score was 32% of

questions correct. Students in Aparajita need help with their foundational reading

skills, starting with a focus on letter awareness.While letter knowledge is

prioritized, it will be important not to build this skill in isolation but to explicitly

link it to other skills from decoding all the way to comprehension.

88% 96%

79%

60% 51%

25%

0%

20%

40%

60%

80%

100%

120%


read to thechild

read to thechild and

askedquestions


told a story tochild and

askedquestions

% o

f st

ud

en

ts


20



who qualified as readers. On average, this subset of students can read 25 words correct per

minute with 88% accuracy, and answer 49% of reading comprehension questions correctly.

These students appear to be just beginning to develop their advanced reading skills

and as such will need engaging opportunities for further practice. This practice

should include the opportunity to answer questions about what they read so

students can improve their comprehension.

46

7 5 4 1 13

1 0 0

20

40

60

80

100

% letterscorrect***

% most usedwords

correct***

% inventedwords

correct***

% readers % readers withcomprehension%

ite

ms

corr

ect

(o

r %

re

ade

rs/r

ead

ers

w

ith

co

mp

reh

en

sio

n)

Figure 7: Foundational Skills and % of Readers and Readers with Comprehension

Hindi

English

25

88

49

0

20

40

60

80

100

Hindi WCPM Hindi Accuracy Hindi ReadingComprehension%

ite

ms

corr

ect

(o

r w

ord

s co

rre

ct p

er

min

ute

)


21

5. Borio


Table 5 below presents major background statistics from Borio ADP. The proportion of boys

and girls is nearly equal. Fifty-five percent of students did not know their age, but of the 45% of

students who did, grade 2 students are between 7 and 8 years old on average and grade 3

students are between 8 and 9 years old on average. Only 10% of students speak Hindi at home,

while 66% speak Santhali. Thirty-two percent of students report speaking another language,

most likely Kortha.

Less than half of students report having previously attended ECCD, and 9% of students have

repeated at least one grade. While 67% of students perform chores or work for their family,

almost all students report having enough time to study. Many more girls (78%) than boys (57%)

are engaged in chores. More details on time spent on chores and study, and the types of chores

engaged in, can be found in Appendix B. The proportion of students exchanging books in the

community is very low, as is the proportion of students are engaged with literacy activities with

others in their community.

Table 5: Borio student background

Characteristic %

% female 48%

Age in years 8.0


% speaks Santhali at home 66%

% speaks other language at home (likely Kortha) 32%











In Borio, the Pro-Lit program should increase communities’ access to child-friendly

reading materials and encourage community members (and children) to more

frequently read with each other through initiatives such as Reading Buddies and

Community (parental) Awareness sessions. Community (parental) awareness



sensitive to the chore responsibilities of children, especially for girls.

22

All activities should be sensitive to the special needs of non-Hindi speakers in this

area. Although the official language of teaching in the schools is Hindi, not all non-

Hindi speaking children are able to understand Hindi well. Therefore programming

should focus on ensuring children have adequate Hindi speaking and listening skills

through singing, oral stories and any other appropriate methods.

In terms of integrated programming, there is a need for increased access to quality


Figures 9 and 10 below summarize the home literacy environment of students in Borio ADP.

Figure 9displays the types of print students report seeing in their household. Students in Borio

have an average of only one type of print. While almost all students report having textbooks at

home, below 10% of children in Borio report having every other type of book. Here Borio

ADP needs a special focus on creating reading materials as well as to ensuring that

all children have access to child-friendly reading materials to improve their reading

skills.


recalled to be engaging in various literacy-supporting activities in the past week. About two-

thirds of students come from households where at least one person can read, and almost all

students from a household where at least one person is encouraging them to study. However,

less than half of students have someone who is reading to them or telling them oral stories, and

even less than a third have someone who does this and asks the student questions about the

story afterward. Given the relatively high proportion of households with literate

members, Pro-Lit should encourage family members to more frequently read to

children and tell them stories, at the same time modeling how questions and other

simple strategies can more effectively engage the child in the story.

89%

4% 0% 3% 10% 9%

1% 0% 0% 0%

10%20%30%40%50%60%70%80%90%

100%

% r

ep

ort

ing

typ

e o

f b

oo

k in

th

e

ho

use

ho

ld


23

5.2 Reading Skills

Figure 11 below displays the average reading skills of students in Borio ADP. Even on the most basic sub-test, Hindi and English letters, students cannot identify a majority of the items. English

foundational skills are significantly worse than Hindi foundational skills, and the percent of

students who qualified as readers (those who were able to read at least five words correctly in

the first 30 seconds of the Hindi reading passage sub-test) is only 14%. Less than half of those

qualified as readers with comprehension, those able to correctly answer at least 75% of the

literal reading comprehension questions connected to the reading passage.

Of the 86% of students who qualified as nonreaders, the average listening comprehension score

was only 14% of questions correct, indicating that students lack basic oral Hindi skills as well.

Students in Borio need help with their foundational reading skills, starting with a

focus on letter awareness but also with a focus on building their Hindi oral skills.

While letter knowledge and oral skills are prioritized, it will be important not to

build these skills in isolation but to explicitly link them to other skills from decoding

all the way to comprehension.

69%

91%

42%

29% 34%

17%

0%

20%

40%

60%

80%

100%


read to thechild


questions



questions

% o

f st

ud

en

ts


24



who qualified as readers. On average, this subset of students can read 49words correct per

minute with 93% accuracy, and answer 56% of reading comprehension questions correctly. While these students appear to have developed their reading fluency and accuracy,

they still lack a mastery of reading comprehension. They will need increased

opportunities to answer questions about what they read so they can improve their

comprehension.

37

21 19 14

6

33

11 6

0

20

40

60

80

100

% letterscorrect***

% most usedwords

correct***

% inventedwords

correct***

% readers % readers withcomprehension

% it

em

s co

rre

ct (

or

% r

ead

ers

/re

ade

rs

wit

h c

om

pre

he

nsi

on

) Figure 11: Foundational Skills and % of Readers

and Readers with Comprehension

Hindi

English

49

93

56

0

20

40

60

80

100

Hindi WCPM Hindi Accuracy Hindi ReadingComprehension

% it

em

s co

rre

ct (

or

wo

rds

corr

ect

pe

r m

inu

te)


25

6. Dumka


Table 6 below presents major background statistics from Dumka ADP. The proportion of boys

and girls is nearly equal. Seventy-three percent of students did not know their age, but of the

27% of students who did, grade 2 students are age 7 on average and grade 3 students are age 8

on average. Only 14% of students speak Hindi at home, while 52% speak Santhali. Forty-two

percent of students report speaking another language, most likely Kortha.

Two-thirds of students report having previously attended ECCD, and 24% of students have

repeated at least one grade. While 82% of students perform chores or work for their family,

almost all students report having enough time to study. Many more girls (90%) than boys (72%)

are engaged in chores. More details on time spent on chores and study, and the types of chores

engaged in, can be found in Appendix B. The proportion of students exchanging books in the

community is very low, and the proportion of students are engaged with literacy activities with

others in their community is 50% or less.

Table 6: Dumka student background

Characteristic %

% female 53%

Age in years 7.5


% speaks Santhali at home 52%

% speaks other language at home (likely Kortha) 42%











In Dumka, the Pro-Lit program should increase communities’ access to child-

friendly reading materials and encourage community members (and children) to

more frequently read with each other through initiatives such as Reading Buddies

and Community (parental) Awareness sessions. Community (parental) awareness



sensitive to the chore responsibilities of children, especially for girls.

26

All activities should be sensitive to the special needs of non-Hindi speakers in this

area. Although the official language of teaching in the schools is Hindi, not all non-

Hindi speaking children are able to understand Hindi well. Therefore programming

should focus on ensuring children have adequate Hindi speaking and listening skills

through singing, oral stories and any other appropriate methods.



Figures 13 and 14 below summarize the home literacy environment of students in Dumka ADP. Figure 13displays the types of print students report seeing in their household. Students in

Dumka have an average of only one type of print. While all students report having textbooks at

home, less than half report having other types of books, and almost none have certain types of

child-friendly print such as comic books. Pro-Lit should expand access to a variety of

child-friendly types of print so that all children are able to read fun, engaging

material.



come from households where at least one person can read, and almost all students from a

household where at least one person is encouraging them to study. However, a smaller number

of students have someone who is reading to them or telling them oral stories, and even less

than a third have someone who does this and asks the student questions about the story

afterward. Given the relatively high proportion of households with literate members,

Pro-Lit should encourage family members to more frequently read to children and

tell them stories, at the same time modeling how questions and other simple

strategies can more effectively engage the child in the story.

100%

39%

7% 22%

40% 26%

6%

45%

1% 0%

20%

40%

60%

80%

100%

% r

ep

ort

ing

typ

e o

f b

oo

k in

th

e

ho

use

ho

ld


27

6.2 Reading Skills

Figure 15 below displays the average reading skills of students in Dumka ADP. Even on the

most basic sub-test, Hindi and English letters, students cannot identify a majority of the items.

English foundational skills are significantly worse than Hindi foundational skills, and the percent

of students who qualified as readers (those who were able to read at least five words correctly

in the first 30 seconds of the Hindi reading passage sub-test) is only 9%. A tiny fraction of those

qualified as readers with comprehension, those able to correctly answer at least 75% of the

literal reading comprehension questions connected to the reading passage. Of the 91% of

students who qualified as nonreaders, the average listening comprehension score was only 12%

of questions correct, indicating that students lack basic oral Hindi skills as well. Students in

Dumka need help with their foundational reading skills, starting with a focus on

letter awareness but also with a focus on building their Hindi oral skills. While

letter knowledge and oral skills are prioritized, it will be important not to build

these skills in isolation but to explicitly link them to other skills from decoding all

the way to comprehension.

83% 96%

76%

61% 60%

40%

0%

20%

40%

60%

80%

100%

120%


read to thechild


questions



questions

% o

f st

ud

en

ts


28



who qualified as readers. On average, this subset of students can read 29 words correct per

minute with 90% accuracy, and answer 32% of reading comprehension questions correctly. These students appear to be just beginning to develop their advanced reading skills

and as such will need engaging opportunities for further practice. This practice

should include the opportunity to answer questions about what they read so they

can improve their comprehension.

38

17 17 9

1

29

7 3

0

20

40

60

80

100

% letterscorrect***

% most usedwords

correct***

% inventedwords

correct***

% readers % readers withcomprehension

% it

em

s co

rre

ct (

or

% r

ead

ers

/re

ade

rs

wit

h c

om

pre

he

nsi

on

) Figure 15: Foundational Skills and % of Readers

and Readers with Comprehension

Hindi

English

29

90

32

0

20

40

60

80

100

Hindi WCPM Hindi Accuracy Hindi ReadingComprehension%

ite

ms

corr

ect

(o

r w

ord

s co

rre

ct p

er

min

ute

)


29

7. Individual Skill Analysis

This section takes a closer look at each of the reading skills assessed in order to identify trends

across all four ADPs.

7.1 Letter knowledge/recognition This sub-test examined students’ letter awareness. Students were shown a chart of 49 Hindi

letters and all 26 English lowercase letters and asked to name the letter or pronounce the

letter sound. This was the only skill which showed a degree of variation in scores. As shown in

Figure 17 below, there is a large group of students who know zero Hindi letters or almost zero

Hindi letters. On the other end of the spectrum, there is a group of students who know all or

almost all of their Hindi letters. The latter group is a potential asset for delivering

remedial help to the former group.

Figure 17: Distribution of Hindi Letter Scores

While non-Hindi speaking students performed worse across all letters, the pattern of most

difficult letters was similar between non-Hindi and Hindi speaking students with the exception

of the few letters highlighted in yellow in Table 7 below.

05

10

15

20

Perc

ent

0 .2 .4 .6 .8 1% Hindi letters correct

30

Table 7: 10 most difficult letters and the proportion of

students correctly identifying the letter

Non-Hindi Speaker Hindi Speaker

क्ष 19% क्ष 31%

त्र 20% ष 35%

ष 23% त्र 36%

ज्ञ 24% ऋ 38%

औ 25% ओ 43%

ओ 25% श 44%

ध 26% ङ 44%

ड 28% औ 45%

ण 30% ध 46%

ङ 30% थ 46%

With English letters, the group of students who know zero or almost zero letters is much

larger and there is no noteworthy group of students who know all or almost all of their English

letters. This is shown in Figure 18 below. Although the Indian curriculum has students

begin to learn English in grade 1, almost all students are starting from zero even in

grade 2 and 3.

Figure 18: Distribution of English Letter Scores

010

20

30

40

Perc

ent

0 .2 .4 .6 .8 1% English letters correct

31

7.2 Most Used Words and Invented Words The most used words (MUW) sub-test consists of a chart of 20 words that the student is asked

to read. These 20 words were identified as ‘most used’ by tabulating the number of times a

word appeared in students’ language arts textbooks. The invented word sub-test consists of a

chart of 20 words that are not real words, but rather invented words which follow the same

patterns of the language. The purpose of this sub-test is to test students’ ability to decode an

entirely new word using their knowledge of phonics.

Unsurprisingly, as students score low on their letter knowledge they score even lower on their

ability to read single familiar words and to decode unfamiliar invented words. While grade 3

students do perform better than grade 2 students, the difference is marginal and most all

students are in need of remedial help to bring them up to pace with the curriculum. Similar to

English letters, the distribution of these skills is clustered close to zero. This means that a

very large proportion of students are scoring at or near zero on these tests.

**Statistically significant difference at p<0.01, *** at p<0.001

7.3 Proportion of Readers and Nonreaders

While all students took the letters, most used words, and invented word tests in Hindi and

English, the reading passage sub-test was administered in Hindi only and separated students in

to ‘readers’ who were allowed to take the test, and ‘nonreaders’ who were stopped as their

reading skills were too poor to take the test. The passage was a fictional story consisting of 119

words. Within the first 30 seconds of telling students to read the Hindi reading passage,

assessors quickly counted the number of words read correctly by the student. If the number of

words read correctly in the first 30 seconds was less than five, the assessor stopped the

student and instead read the story to the student. However, if the student was able to read at

least five words correctly in the first 30 seconds, the student was allowed to continue reading

10 3

10 1

26

11

23

6

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

90

100

Hindi MUW*** English MUW** Hindi InventedWords**

English InventedWords**

% it

em

s co

rre

ct

FIgure 19: Hindi and English MUW and Invented Words, by Grade

Grade 2

Grade 3

32

until finishing the entire passage. Figure 20 below shows that only a very small proportion of

students were able to read at least five words correctly in 30 seconds, and thus qualified as

readers.


Interestingly, the proportion of readers did not vary by mother tongue. This means that Hindi-

speaking students were just as likely to be readers as non-Hindi-speaking students. However,

the overall proportion of readers is extremely low and students need the most help

building their foundational skills in order to begin to read connected text.

7.4 Listening Comprehension for Nonreaders

When given a Hindi reading passage of 119 words, the majority of students (89%) failed to read

at least five words correct in the first 30 seconds and thus the reading passage test was

aborted. Instead, for these ‘nonreaders’ the assessor read the passage aloud and followed up with a series of ten listening comprehension questions: one summary question that asked the

students to retell the story in their own words, six literal questions that asked about details

directly mentioned in the story, two inferential questions that asked about information

indirectly alluded to in the story, and one evaluative question that asked the students’ opinion

and to support that opinion with information from the story.

As shown in Figure 21, non-reading students scored very low on this measure of listening

comprehension. Unsurprisingly, the non-Hindi speaking students scored significantly lower than

the Hindi-speaking students. But again, despite variation in home language and type of

comprehension question, the vast majority of student need help building their oral

Hindi skills and their ability to engage with all types of comprehension questions.

5%

18%

0%

20%

40%

60%

80%

100%

Grade 2*** Grade 3***

% o

f st

ud

en

ts

Figure 20: Proportion of students who qualified as 'readers'

33

*Statistically significant difference at p<0.05, *** at p<0.001

Students scored the worst on the summary and inferential types of listening comprehension

questions. They fared little better on the literal comprehension questions, and were best able

to express their opinion about the story on the evaluative question. Students will need practice with a wide variety of comprehension questions to complement the need

for increased oral interaction in Hindi.

7.5 Reading Fluency and Accuracy for Readers

The 11% of students who could read at least five words correctly in the first 30 seconds of the

reading passage subtest were allowed to continue reading until they finished the passage. This

group of ‘readers’ comprised 16% of Agra students, 4% of Aparajita students, 14% of Borio

students, and 9% of Dumka students. Assessors measured the reading speed (words correct

per minute) and accuracy (percent of words read correctly).

7%

18%

5%

31%

12%

35%

19%

52%

0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

70%

80%

90%

100%

Summary* Literal*** Inferential*** Evaluative***

Fre

qu

ency

of

corr

ect

resp

on

ses

Figure 21: Listening Comprehension by Home Language and Type of Question

Non-Hindi Speaker

Hindi Speaker

n = 1037

44

93

0

50

100

Hindi WCPM Hindi Accuracy

WC

PM

or

% w

ord

s co

rre

ct (

accu

racy

)

Figure 22: Hindi Words Correct per Minute and Accuracy

34

Scores are similar regardless of whether or not the student spoke Hindi at home. This should

be an example for other students that being a non-native speaker of the language

should not be a barrier to learning to read well in these settings. Non-Hindi

speakers can learn to read just as well as Hindi speakers.

7.6 Reading Comprehension

For the11% of readers, the assessor allowed the student to continue reading to the end of the

story and did not read any of the story for the student. The assessor then followed up with a

series of ten reading comprehension questions: one summary question that asked the students

to retell the story in their own words, six literal questions that asked about details directly mentioned in the story, two inferential questions that asked about information indirectly

alluded to in the story, and one evaluative question that asked the students’ opinion and to

support that opinion with information from the story.

While reading speed and accuracy were similar between non-Hindi speaking students and Hindi

speaking students, the reading comprehension skills of non-Hindi speaking students was much

worse in terms of literal, inferential, and evaluative comprehension. Non-Hindi students

need support in all types of comprehension, and even Hindi speaking students need

support in summary and inferential types of questions.

*Statistically significant difference at p<0.05, ** at p<0.01

Students reading with comprehension is the ultimate goal of Literacy Boost. As

such, a new composite measure to focus attention on this goal as well as to track progress in

terms of equity, in terms of all children reading with comprehension, is displayed. Literacy

Boost classifies students into four different categories. Non-readers are those students who

were not tested on the reading passage because they could not read at least five words correct

48% 45%

31%

63%

51%

70%

56%

89%

0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

70%

80%

90%

100%

Summary Literal** Inferential* Evaluative*

Fre

qu

ency

of

corr

ect

re

spo

nse

s

Figure 23: Reading Comprehension by Home Language and Type of Question

Non-Hindi Speaker

Hindi Speaker

n = 122

35

in 30 seconds. Readers are those students who were tested on the reading passage but who

answered less than 75% of the literal reading comprehension questions correctly. Readers with

comprehension are those readers who could answer at least 75% of the literal reading

comprehension questions correctly. Readers with advanced comprehension is a special subset

of readers with comprehension; thesestudents who could also answer at least 75% of the

advanced comprehension questions correctly (summary, inferential, and evaluative). Figure 24

presents a snapshot of the state of how many students are achieving the overall goal of reading

comprehension.

The situation in these four ADPs is serious. Almost all students fall into the nonreader

category. Literacy Boost should empower teachers, community volunteers, and

parents to build on students’ foundational reading skills while all the time linking

these basic skills with comprehension.

8. Equity Analysis and Other Relationships between Student/School

Characteristics and Reading Skills

A series of multilevel regressions was used to investigate the relationship between students’

background, home literacy environment, and school variables on one hand and reading skills on

the other hand. The full output from these regressions can be found in Appendix C.

Figure 25 illustrates some results from this analysis. Apart from students in grade 3 having

higher skills than students in grade 2, male students, those with more household members

engaging in literacy-supporting activities (higher HLE), those with previous early childhood

development (ECCD) experience, and those who spoke Hindi showed significantly higher skills

on average in at least three skills. This graph shows how multiple layers of disadvantage may be

82%

95%

10%

3%

1%

1%

7%

1%

0% 20% 40% 60% 80% 100%

Grade 3

Grade 2

Figure 24: Readers with Comprehension by Grade

Nonreader Reader Reader with Comprehension Reader with Advanced Comprehension

36

holding some students back – and giving others an extra boost. To the extent possible, Pro-

Lit programming should provide activities and materials appeal to both boys and

girls, educate parents about the benefits of regular literacy-supportive activities

with their children, and ensure that opportunities are available to non-Hindi

speaking children to overcome their additional challenges to learning to read in

Hindi.

All differences shown here are statistically significant at p<0.05 or lower.

Besides the relationships shown here, teacher certification and having a playground at the

school more weakly predicted higher skills in a number of subtests. Strangely, students’ who

self-reported that it took them a long time to arrive at school, those from large class sizes, and

those reporting less types of reading materials in the household also scored higher on some

subtests. More research needed to explain these unintuitive findings.

Figure 26 below displays two additional strong relationships which were found: students from

schools that are farther from the district center scored lower on almost all skills, but those

who reported more frequent studying at home scored higher on the majority of skills. This

dynamic is shown in the graphic here. Pro-Lit should ensure that more distant schools

can take advantage of programming to the same extent as less remote schools.

The program should also use this evidence to educate parents about the potential

benefits of regular study time.

22% 26%

31% 37%

47%

0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

70%

80%

90%

100%

Non-HindiSpeaking Girl, Low

HLE, No ECD

Non-HindiSpeaking Boy, Low

HLE, No ECD

Non-HindiSpeaking Boy, High

HLE, No ECD

Non-HindiSpeaking Boy, High

HLE, ECD

Hindi SpeakingBoy, High HLE, ECD

% o

f H

ind

i le

tte

rs c

orr

ect

Figure 25: Predicted Score for Children of Different Backgrounds

37

All differences shown here are statistically significant at p<0.05 or lower.

Table 8 below shows the trends found between reading skills and seven dimensions of potential

inequity (sex, socio-economic status, diversity of reading materials in the home, number of

household members engaging the student in literacy-supportive activities, chores, prior ECD

attendance, and language). Blank boxes indicate that no group was found to have a significant

disadvantage in that skill. The analysis shows that girls and non-Hindi speakers are often at a

disadvantage, but that the most consistent relationship is that between lower reading skills and

lack of prior ECD experience and less household members regularly engaging the child in

literacy-supportive activities. Pro-Lit programming should take into account these

disparities, especially when making decisions that impact the access of certain

populations to programs and considering the role of equity-supporting messages in

programming.

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

15 30 45

Wo

rds

corr

ect

per

min

ute

Kilometers distance between school and district center

Figure 26: Predicted Scores by Study Habits and School Distance from District Center

Does not study in themorning and afternoon

Studies a little in themorning and afternoon

Studies a lot in the morningand afternoon

38

Table 8: Who is Falling Behind?

Sex Socio-

Economi

c Status

Reading

Materials

House-

hold

Practices

Chores

&

Work

Load

Previous

ECD

Attendance

Languag

e

Hindi Letters Girls~ Less

practices***

No ECD* Non-Hindi

Speaker*

Hindi MUW Less

practices*

No ECD**

Hindi Invented

Words

Less

practices~

No ECD**

Hindi Reader Less

practices*

No ECD~

Hindi Listening

Comprehension

Girls** Less

practices***

No ECD~ Non-Hindi

Speaker~

Hindi WCPM Girls~ Less

practices*

Hindi Accuracy

Hindi Reading

Comprehension

Less

practices*

No ECD** Non-Hindi

Speaker~

~Statistically significant findings at p<0.1, * at p<0.05, ** at p<0.01, *** at p<0.001

9. School Situation Analysis

This section presents a series of tables displaying information collected about the sample of 80

schools and surrounding communities themselves. Because the number of units is so low,

statistical inference will not be used for analysis in this section. Rather, the purpose is to

highlight important aspects of these environments and considerations for programming.

9.1 Students and Teachers

Table 9 below shows that enrollment in these ADP schools is very low, and attendance is even

lower. Note that while all schools in Uttar Pradesh are grades 1-5, most schools in Jharkhand

are also 1-5 but some have grades 1-8. Teacher turnover appears low, but this may be due to

the fact that the assessment took place at the beginning of the year and will need to be verified.

Interestingly, schools report receiving fairly recent in-service training for teachers (the

overwhelming majority of most recent trainings were in 2013/2014).

39

Table 9: Students, Teachers, and Communities

Average Figures by ADP Agra Aparajita Borio Dumka

Grade 1-3 boys enrollment 20 32 20 16

Grade 1-3 girls enrollment 23 33 16 17

Grade 1-3 boys present 12 19 11 10

Grade 1-3 girls present 15 18 9 10

Number of teachers (most teachers teach many subjects) 2.6 2.6 2.6 2.5

School has one teacher per grade (% of schools) 20% 10% 45% 0%

Teachers are certified (% of schools) 45% 95% 75% 100%

Number of new teachers at beginning of year <1 <1 0 <1

Number of teachers transferred in and out this year <1 1 0 <1

Teachers receive yearly or biyearly in-service

training from MoE (% of schools)

100% 90% 85% 55%

Number of villages in school catchment area 4.8 1.5 2.3 1.7

Children in these villages attend other primary

schools too (% of schools)

70% 5% 30% 10%

Distance to furthest village in catchment area (km) 1 0 1.6 0.5

Distance to furthest village in catchment area

(minutes)

14 11 15 8

School has active PTA or SMC 100% 95% 100% 100%

WV or other organizations serve these communities 85% 100% 25% 100%

As the Pro-Lit program will target all children in the school catchment area,

another source of information will be needed to properly estimate the number of

children who will attend the reading clubs in order to estimate the number of clubs

and therefore volunteers to run the clubs.

Low teacher turnover is a good sign. Nevertheless, Pro-Lit should train all of the

grade 1-3 teachers in all of the target schools for maximum certainty that students

will have access to a Pro-Lit trained teacher throughout their early grades career.

40

9.2 School Infrastructure

Most schools lack reading corners and many lack libraries that allow students to borrow books.

The relatively high proportion of schools observed to have reading corners in Jharkhand will

need verification, as assessors may have misunderstood this question.

Pro-Lit should help establish more reading corners and libraries. Pro-Lit should

work with school administrations to establish procedures to facilitate student book

borrowing from school libraries. Where possible, World Vision India should also

advocate with the government for more playgrounds to be built where they are

rare, as play is often linked to improved learning. Finally, given the link between

lower reading scores and longer distance from district centers, Pro-Lit should

ensure that its own programming equally serves both near and distant schools and

communities.

Table 10: School Infrastructure

Average Figures by ADP (% of schools) Agra Aparajita Borio Dumka

School has classroom reading corners 10% 5% 45% 45%

School has library 85% 55% 60% 100%

School has library that students can borrow from 55% 20% 35% 75%

School has electricity 30% 30% 5% 0%

School has playground 90% 30% 15% 30%

School has midday meal 100% 100% 100% 85%

Distance to nearest district center in km 4.1 45 20 26

Distance to nearest road in km 0 0.5 2 2

Multiple languages of instruction used in school 50% 5% 25% 0%

9.3 Language

Table 11 presents language dynamics both in and out of school. Most teachers can speak the

language of the students. There is a lack of textbooks in English or Santhali. Across ADPs, there

are few reading materials available in the community that are written in the home language of

students. This is especially true for child-friendly types of reading materials such as storybooks,

arts & crafts books, and comics.

Pro-Lit should advocate with the government for more English textbooks if

students are to learn to read in English. Eventually, Pro-Lit may also consider

engaging in a degree of English and Santhali language materials creation.

41

Table 11: Language

Average Figures by ADP (% of schools) Agra Aparajita Borio Dumka

In general, teachers speak the language of the

students

100% 95% 85% 100%

School has textbooks for student use 100% 75% 90% 100%

Textbooks are in Hindi 100% 85% 90% 100%

Textbooks are in Santhali 0% 0% 0% 0%

Textbooks are in English 55% 5% 0% 80%

Textbooks available in home language of students 25% 0% 5% 5%

Religious materials available in home language of

students

10% 0% 0% 20%

Magazines available in home language of students 20% 0% 45% 0%

Newspapers available in home language of students 25% 0% 10% 0%

Storybooks available in home language of students 15% 0% 15% 5%

Arts and crafts books available in home language of

students

10% 0% 0% 0%

Comics available in home language of students 15% 0% 0% 0%

Booklets available in home language of students 10% 0% 0% 5%

Health books available in home language of students 15% 0% 0% 10%

No materials available in home language of students 75% 100% 35% 40%

School headmasters report that there are many or some opportunities to

hear/speak/read/write in the official language of instruction outside of school in Agra and

Aparajita, but that there are very few or no opportunities in Borio and Dumka. In Agra and

Dumka most headmasters report that the communities view learning to read in the language of

instruction as very important, but in Aparajita and Borio only somewhat important. Slightly

more headmastsers across ADPs report that communities view learning to read in the home

language as somewhat important versus very important. Only in Borio do headmastsers report

that the communities support learning to read in the home language more than in the language

of instruction; elsewhere there is equal or greater support for learning to read in the language

of instruction. Pro-Lit should leverage this interest in learning to read in the language

of instruction to explain to community members the important role they can play

in supporting their children’s learning.

42

9.4 Comparability of Schools

There are no statistically significant differences between LB and comparison groups in terms of

background characteristics or reading skills.

Of all of the school survey variables, only a few are is statistically significantly different between

LB and comparison schools. The number of teachers transferred in the academic year is slightly

lower in LB schools, the number of schools with a home language other than Hindi or Santhali

is higher in the LB group, the number of schools serving communities where children attend

more than one primary school is higher in the LB group, and there may be slightly more female

teachers in the LB group. These variables will be controlled for during endline impact

analysis, and it appears overall that the sample of LB and comparison schools is

very similar.

10. Recommendations

Programmatic Recommendations

Overall recommendations:

Provide activities and materials that appeal to both boys and girls.

Educate parents and caregivers about the benefits of regular literacy-supportive

activities with their children.

Ensure that opportunities are available to non-Hindi speaking children to overcome their additional challenges to learning to read in Hindi.

Materials creation/production

Expand access to a variety of child-friendly types of print so that all children are

able to read fun, engaging material.

Develop a wide range of appropriate reading materials in Santhali language (e.g.

materials for all different levels of reading ability) to be utilized in Reading Clubs.

Community (parental) Awareness Sessions

The scheduling of community activities should be sensitive to the chore responsibilities of children, especially for girls.

Community (parental) awareness sessions should give parents suggestions for

how to integrate literacy practice into children’s chore responsibilities.

Community (parental) awareness sessions should emphasize that non-Hindi speakers are just as capable of learning to read in Hindi as Hindi speakers. The

equal performance of Hindi and non-Hindi readers in terms of fluency and

accuracy should be an example for other students that being a non-native

speaker of the language should not be a barrier to learning to read well in these

settings.

43

Community (parental) awareness sessions should use evidence about the link

between study time and higher reading skills to educate parents about the

potential benefits of scheduling regular study time for their children.

Home-based activities

Given the high proportion of households with literate members, encourage

family members to more frequently read to children and tell them stories, at the

same time modeling how a variety of types of questions and other simple

strategies can more effectively engage the child in the story.

Community-based activities

Encourage community members (and children) to more frequently read with

each other through initiatives such as Reading Buddies and Parental /Community Awareness sessions.

Language-specific suggestions

All activities should be sensitive to the special needs of non-Hindi speakers in

Jharkhand, ensuring children are supported to develop adequate Hindi speaking

and listening skills through singing, oral stories and any other appropriate

methods.

Literacy skills development for children

Students who can already read in Agra represent a valuable resource for helping

their non-reading peers catch up. These readers can act as models or even as

Reading Buddies for their non-reading peers.

Students who can already read in Aparajita, Borio, and Dumka appear to be just

beginning to develop their advanced reading skills and as such will need engaging

opportunities for further practice. This practice should include the opportunity

to answer questions about what they read so they can improve their

comprehension.

Focus programming on foundational reading skills, starting with letter awareness

(but also on building Hindi oral skills in Jharkhand). While letter knowledge and oral skills are prioritized, it is important not to build these skills in isolation but

to explicitly link them to other skills from decoding all the way to

comprehension.

Recognize that even many grade 3 students need remedial assistance, with nearly

one-quarter of all students starting from zero.

Students will need practice with a wide variety of comprehension questions to

complement the need for increased oral interaction in Hindi.

For reading comprehension, non-Hindi students need support in all types of

comprehension, and even Hindi speaking students need support in summary and

inferential types of questions.

44

School-related recommendations:

Ensure that more distant schools can take advantage of programming to the same extent as less remote schools.

If Pro-Lit will target all children in school catchment areas, low school

enrollment means that another source of information will be needed to properly

estimate the number of children who will attend the reading clubs in order to

estimate the number of clubs and therefore volunteers to run the clubs.

Train all of the grade 1-3 teachers in all of the target schools for maximum

certainty that students will have access to a Literacy Boost trained teacher

throughout their early grades career.

Help establish more reading corners and libraries.

Potential Points of Advocacy

Work with school administration/s to establish procedures to facilitate student book

borrowing from school libraries.

Advocate with the government for more playgrounds to be built where they are rare, as

play is often linked to improved learning

Advocate with the government for more English textbooks if students are to learn to read in English. Eventually, Pro-Lit may also consider engaging in a degree of English

language materials creation.

Cross-cutting themes and Integrated Programming


ECCD opportunities for children. Lack of ECCD experience is significantly correlated

with lower reading skills.

While poor reading skills are widespread, girls are especially at risk. Girls also perform more chores than boys, which may influence their performance in school. Pro-Lit

should work to develop an additional lesson about the importance of educating girls, in

the Community Awareness curriculum.

45

Appendix A: Inter-rater Reliability To test inter-rater reliability, 13 percent of students (145 out of 1159) were assessed by two

assessors simultaneously. Long one-way ANOVA techniques were used to calculate the intra-

class correlation within pairs of assessors for a measure of reliability. Using Fleiss’ benchmarks

for excellent (ICC>0.75), good or fair (0.75>=ICCA>0.4), and poor (0.4>=ICC); all but one of

the literacy outcome variables exhibited excellent inter-rater reliability. Fluency showed lower

inter-rater reliability, but still falls into the good/fair category. In future assessments,

assessors must be trained very carefully and monitored very closely on their

assessment of children’s reading speed.

Table A: Inter-rater Reliability

Measure Inter-Rater Reliability

Hindi Letters .99

Hindi Most Used Words .99

Hindi Invented Words .99

Hindi Reader or Nonreader .99

Hindi Listening Comprehension .98

Hindi Fluency .63

Hindi Accuracy .99

Hindi Reading Comprehension .98

English Letters .99

English Most Used Words .99

English Invented Words .99

46

Appendix B: Chores and study time by ADP

In terms of language, 76% of non-Hindi speaking children engage in chores while only 56% of Hindi-speaking children engage in chores.Boys and

girls have different chore responsibilities. Significantly more girls than boys perform nearly every type of chore. The exceptions are that more boys

than girls graze animals and work in shops, and equal numbers of boys and girls work in the fields, bring things from the shop, and work in other

families’ houses.

Agra and Aparajita ADP Children spend more time on chores in the evening than the morning and afternoon. Borio ADP children spend the most

time for chores almost equally in the morning and evening. The Dumka ADP scenario is different from these three ADPs as Dumka students spend

more time for work in the morning. This is useful guiding information for ADP intervention time planning according to the children availability,

especially for activities outside school.

The ADP dynamics of when children spend time on chores is reflected in terms of language as well. Hindi-speaking children appear to spend the

most time on chores in the evening while non-Hindi-speaking children spend the most time on chores in the morning and evening.Nearly all

children report having enough time for study (91%). However, certain groups of children – girls, non-Hindi speakers, and grade 2 children – are less

likely to report they have enough time. In planning Pro-Lit activities, ADPs must schedule for reading interventions/classes according

to students’ available time especially outside the schools.

47

Agra

Table B1: Types of chores performed

Chore %

Sweeping house 28%

Cleaning house 20%

Fetching wood or water 20%

Washing dishes or clothes 18%

Washing house 16%

Babysitting 14%

Working for another family 5%

Working in a shop 4%

Cooking 3%

Other chores 3%

Grazing animals 2%

Shopping in the market 1%

Fieldwork 0%

Morningchores

Afternoonchores

Eveningchores

Morning study Afternoonstudy

Evening study

Re

lati

ve t

ime

sp

en

t Figure B1: Relative time spent on chores and study at

various times of day

48

Aparajita


Chore %


Sweeping house 52%


Cleaning house 31%

Babysitting 24%

Grazing animals 17%

Cooking 8%

Fieldwork 6%

Washing house 3%




Other chores 0%

Morningchores

Afternoonchores

Eveningchores

Morningstudy

Afternoonstudy

Evening study

Re

lati

ve t

ime

sp

en

t

Figure B2: Relative time spent on chores and study at various times of day

49

Borio


Chore %

Sweeping house 48%



Grazing animals 29%

Fieldwork 27%

Babysitting 21%

Cooking 18%

Cleaning house 13%

Washing house 1%




Other chores 0%

Morningchores

Afternoonchores

Eveningchores

Morningstudy

Afternoonstudy

Evening study

Re

lati

ve t

ime

sp

en

t


50

Dumka


Chore %

Sweeping house 66%



Grazing animals 36%

Babysitting 30%

Fieldwork 27%

Cleaning house 13%

Cooking 10%

Washing house 1%

Other chores 1%




Morningchores

Afternoonchores

Eveningchores

Morningstudy

Afternoonstudy

Evening study

Re

lati

ve t

ime

sp

en

t


51

Appendix C: Multilevel Regression Output

(1) (2) (3) (4) (5) (6) (7) (8) (9) (10) (11) (12)

VARIABLES Hindi letters

English letters

Hindi MUW

English MUW

Hindi Invented

English Invented

Hindi Reader

Hindi Listening Comprehension

Hindi WCPM

Hindi Accuracy

Hindi Reading Comprehension

Hindi RWC

Grade 9.05*** 4.069*** 3.61*** 1.807*** 2.972*** 0.998** 0.145*** 0.516** 8.813~ 0.100* 2.212*** 0.07***

Female -1.841~ -0.980* -0.098 0.202 0.0218 -0.0782 -0.0169 -0.432** 8.284~ 0.0192 -0.337 -0.007

SES quintiles 0.593 0.128 -0.165 0.0437 -0.163 0.0379 -0.0100 0.125 0.288 -0.0155 -0.232 -0.006 Log Total reading material weighted -0.681 -0.488 -0.616 -0.519~ -0.628 -0.400* -0.0264 -0.303 -10.41 -0.0634** -0.393 -0.02~ Log weighted sum of % hholdmems doing lit activities 3.08*** 1.165** 0.554* 0.388* 0.519~ 0.209~ 0.0277* 0.497*** 9.183* -0.0258 1.267* 0.027**

Quintiles of choreload -0.146 -0.0261 0.0193 0.00557 0.0712 0.00313 0.00307 -0.0494 0.203 0.00738 -0.166 -0.004

Attended nursery school 2.849* 1.688** 1.193** 0.257 1.073** 0.110 0.0409~ 0.406~ -0.119 -0.0268 1.393** 0.043*

Speaks Hindi at home 4.861* -0.639 -0.547 -0.599~ -0.509 -0.448~ 0.0123 0.851** 0.924 0.0601 1.370* 0.0176

Has repeated grade 1 or 2 -2.483~ -0.107 -0.394 -0.104 -0.208 -0.210 -0.0128 -0.231 0.612 0.00404 -0.593 -0.007 Reports that school is far from their home -0.751 0.0139 1.268* 0.567~ 1.399** 0.244 0.0583* -0.116 1.820 -0.0289 0.417 0.033*

Study frequency 1.094* 0.538* 0.48*** 0.270** 0.344** 0.181** 0.0184** -0.0167 3.627* 0.0221 -0.0880 0.007*

Family size including child -0.0819 -0.101 -0.021 -0.0533 -0.0476 -0.0126 -0.0033 2.43e-05 -1.769 4.29e-05 -0.0851 -0.002

Grade 2 and 3 class size 0.180* 0.0777~ 0.052~ 0.0396 0.0452~ 0.0187 0.0023~ 0.00991 0.221 -0.00063 -0.0169 0.002* School has library that allows students to borrow -2.586 -1.433 -0.884 -0.274 -0.837 -0.169 -0.0356 -0.233 3.504 -0.00925 -2.024** -0.031*

Teachers are certified 4.892 2.525~ 1.485 0.690 0.989 0.406 0.0585 0.483 4.689 0.0566~ 1.443* 0.0354

School has reading corners 2.595 1.994 0.982 0.986~ 0.973 0.676 0.0594 -0.494~ -2.004 -0.0198 0.135 0.0167

School has playground 1.287 0.781 1.220~ 0.445 1.062~ 0.192 0.0386 0.385 -2.994 0.101~ 1.898~ 0.032~

School has electricity 0.190 -1.599 -0.610 -0.501 -0.637 -0.370 -0.0291 0.958** -0.561 -0.0294 1.102~ -

0.0221

Water is treated at school -1.704 -0.190 -0.489 -0.0774 -0.548 -0.0558 -0.0031 -0.173 2.736 -0.154 1.324 0.0328

Distance from district center in km -0.20*** -0.191*** -0.1*** -0.049*** -0.097*** -0.0231* -

0.004*** -0.000997 -0.70*** -0.00294* -0.0976**

-0.003**

*

Constant -

14.54** -4.558~

-6.964**

* -4.196** -4.904** -2.318* -

0.320*** -0.627 6.219 0.708*** -1.756 -0.18**

Observations 1,094 1,094 1,094 1,094 1,094 1,094 1,094 975 115 115 119 1,094

R-squared 0.201 0.227 0.187 0.139 0.178 0.093 0.134 0.158 0.315 0.273 0.451 0.112

Robust standard errors in parentheses, *** p<0.001, ** p<0.01, * p<0.05, ~ p<0.1

world vision india pro-lit baseline report...2.1 sampling the baseline assessment encompassed1159...

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