# **Measuring beginner reading skills:**

**_An empirical evaluation of alternative instruments and their potential use for policymaking and accountability in Peru_**

## **<mark>EXECUTIVE SUMMARY</mark>**

This research was undertaken in the context of a broader body of work (the Peru Recurso 3 Programmatic AAA) aimed at strengthening accountability through the use of results-based standards in education, health and nutrition. In order to improve educational quality and learning outcomes, the Peruvian Government has adopted a strategy focused on clarifying standards and establishing a stronger accountability system, with greater local participation. This study aims to provide a vehicle for The World Bank team to continue the dialogue with the Ministry of Education (MINEDU) regarding how to improve current reading measures, what reading standards are most appropriate, and how the results might be best presented at the school and individual level.

Today, the Government sees universal testing as the best way to provide feedback to policymakers, sector officials, teachers, parents and other stakeholders, in line with its policy of increasing local participation in monitoring service delivery. In 2006, it established a census evaluation system to document the 2nd grade reading performance of each child and school. The ECE (for its initials in Spanish: “Evaluación Censal Escolar”) targets the entire second and third grade student population and provides a critical starting point for benchmarking the performance of schools. On the other hand, in several studies and seminars The World Bank has recommended the use of easy-to-administer oral fluency tests to track the students’ progress throughout the school year, and as a vehicle to engage parents in monitoring their children’s learning. In the past, the two testing approaches have been erroneously taken as alternate, irreconcilable choices, but this paper shows how the two measures can produce helpful, complementary information, finding their combined use more valuable than the choice of either one alone.

Based on a comprehensive literature review and analysis of reading performance data collected in a sample of 475 third-graders in the region of Junin, Peru, this paper stresses the importance of measuring reading skills in the early grades of primary school as a way to produce reliable information that can be used to guide policymaking, strengthen accountability, and ultimately improve quality of education.

The study included an individually administered oral fluency test similar to the one proposed by the Bank in previous studies, and a group-administered written test designed by MINEDU for the 2006 Census Evaluation. Through psychometric analysis, the authors establish that both the oral and written tests adequately measure students’ reading abilities, though there is room for improvement of both instruments. For instance, the paper suggests adding more items to the ECE test with increasing degrees of difficulty, making sure that all skill levels are adequately measured and that the test complies with the assumptions of the Rasch measurement model preferred by MINEDU. For the oral test, it recommends using longer passages, asking more questions of varied difficulty, and bilingual testing in the case of non-native Spanish speakers.

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