adjustment factor as weight (see Annex 7.4.c). By increasing the representation of the underrepresented groups we ensure that the statistical analyses for the whole sample keep similar proportions to those found in the population in terms of the type of school that students attend.

In this sample, 48 percent are girls and 52 percent boys; two thirds have had access to some kind of pre-primary education. The age-range goes from 7 to 13 years old, but 74.2 percent are in or below the normative age for their grade (8 years old). The vast majority (85 percent) learned Spanish as their first language, 8.4 percent are native Ashaninka speakers, 5.7 percent are from Quechua origin, and less than one percent spoke another indigenous language (see Annex 7.4.b).

# **3.2. Instruments**

Reading performance was assessed through an oral fluency test and the Ministry of Education’s written comprehension test used in the Census Evaluation of 2006 (ECE). The instruments were administered in the first half of the 2007 academic year, between May and June.<sup>26</sup>

## **_a. Oral test_**

The oral test measures both reading fluency and comprehension. It consists of a simple, short story –in this case of 60 words– which the child is asked to read aloud. It was administered one child at a time by a trained evaluator, without the presence of the teacher, parents or other students. The evaluator measured the time the child took to finish the passage, and registered the number of words read minus the words read incorrectly (if the child spontaneously corrects his or her mistake, it counts as a correct word). If the child gets stuck in one word, the evaluator can read the word to allow the child to continue, but it will not count as a correctly read word.

Students were given up to 4 minutes to finish the passage, unless they were not able to read the first words. If children are not given the opportunity to finish the passage they are less likely to respond correctly the comprehension questions (especially those inquiring about how the story ends), and thus the correlation between fluency and comprehension would be less valid. However, we thought it was unnecessary to grant unlimited time for students to finish reading because after a while it only creates pressure on the child.

This test uses a measure of _reading fluency_ that corresponds to the words read correctly per minute by the student. The total score for the oral test was calculated by dividing the sixty seconds allowed for the test by the actual number of seconds that the student took to finish reading the passage and then multiplying the result by the number of words read. If the student did not finish the passage in 60 seconds, then fluency is equal to the number of words read correctly in 60 seconds. For instance, if a student finished reading the text in 30 seconds, the total score would be (60/30)*60=120 words read per minute; and if a student read only 30 words in 60 seconds, the score would be 30. Some students finish reading the text in less than 60 seconds but made mistakes. For example, one can finish the text in 30 seconds but make two mistakes, reading only 58 words correctly. In that case, the total score would be (58/30)*60=116.

Comprehension was evaluated with two direct measures: passage recall and question answering. After reading the passage, students were asked to narrate the story in their own words and points were assigned based on the amount and accuracy of the information recalled. One point was assigned for each of the four main events included in the narration (the dog went walking with its

> 26 This is why in this study the ECE was applied to third graders even though it measures reading performance of second grade students at the end of the school year.

27