The Innovation for Improving Early Grade Reading Activity (IIEGRA), Baseline Survey

The oral reading fluency (ORF) subtask measures how quickly and accurately a student can read. It is a core reading skill measurement because it brings together lower-level reading skills (such as decoding and familiar word recognition) with how quickly and easily the student can read a given word (called automaticity).

Students were given a short, written passage on a topic that is familiar to them. They were asked to read it out loud “quickly but carefully”. If they were unable to read at least five words correctly, they were stopped and considered “non-readers”. The test administrator timed the student, making note of any mistakes the student makes while reading the words aloud. The Literacy Boost score is reported only for "readers" (not non-readers) as correct words per minute (cwpm). For IIEGRA, readers were allowed up to 500 second to finish reading the passage.

The initial sound subtask is a measure of a student’s ability to identify the first sound in a word. It also measures a student’s ability to separate words into sounds and to manipulate those sounds.

Students were presented with 10 sets of 3 similar-beginning-sounding words, of which 2 words had similar-beginning-sounds. The test administrator records the number of correct words identified. This task is untimed in Literacy Boost.

The letter names subtask tests students’ ability to recognize letters and accurately speak their corresponding name.

Students were presented with a sheet listing 50 letters from the Bangla alphabet and were asked to say out loud the letter sound for as many as they could. The test administrator counted the number of letters the child pronounced correctly. For IIEGRA, students were allowed up to 300 seconds to identify the letter names.

The familiar word reading subtask presents the student with words they are expected to be able to read at their grade level and have likely encountered before.

The student was instructed to read aloud as many words as they could. The test administrator counted the number of words the child got correct. For IIEGRA, students were allowed up to 300 seconds to identify the familiar words.

Students were presented with 10 sets of 3 words, of which 2 words had ending rhymes. The test administrator records the number of correct words identified. This task is untimed in Literacy Boost.

Listening comprehension is a measure of students’ oral language skills, which also contribute to reading.

In this subtask, the test administrator read a passage to the student, who did not see it. The student then responded to questions or statements read by the test administrator. The IIEGRA study only assessed students for listening comprehension if they were unable to correctly read five words of the passage used to assess oral reading fluency (ORF) in the first 30 seconds. This represents 42% of the grade 1 sample, 21% of the grade 2 sample, and 9% percent of the grade 3 sample.

Accuracy measures the percentage of words in the reading passage read correctly. The Literacy Boost Reading Assessment task only assesses students for accuracy if they were able to correctly read five words of the reading passage in the first 30 seconds. This represents 58% of the grade 1 sample, 79% of the grade 2 sample, and 91% percent of the grade 3 sample. In other words, 42%, 21% and 9% of students in grades 1, 2, and 3 respectively, were non-readers who did not score well enough to be tested.

Comprehension is the main goal of reading—understanding what is read. Comprehension is a complex task that requires some ability in all other reading skills.

This subtask is paired with the ORF subtask. Unlike EGRA, the Literacy Boost Reading Assessment task only assesses students for comprehension if they were able to correctly read five words of the reading passage in the first 30 seconds. This represents 58% of the grade 1 sample, 79% of the grade 2 sample, and 91% percent of the grade 3 sample. In other words, 42%, 21% and 9% of students in grades 1, 2, and 3 respectively, were non-readers who did not score well enough to be tested.

Those students who met this criterion were asked 10 questions about a passage that included literal, inferential, and evaluative questions. The reading comprehension score is the number of those questions answered correctly. This task is untimed in Literacy Boost.