1. Lessons on using the EGRS in early grade assessment
Nompumelelo Mohohlwane
24 October 2018

2. Outline Part 1:What does schooling in SA look like?
Language in South Africa
Literature and research on reading in SA
Part 2: Assessing reading
Why does assessing reading matter?
Status of assessment in classroom
Assessing components of reading
Part 3: Evaluating reading at scale
Importance of evaluating reading at scale
Measurement examples
Recommendations

3. Complex language dynamics in SA ANA 2013 Language of Assessment
Only 23% of South Africans speak English or Afrikaans as their Home Language (Statistics South Africa 2012).
68%, are African language speakers and learn in an African language in the FP
This is similarly reflected in schooling.
LoLT switch in Grade - Increases drastically from 23% in the Foundation Phase to 90%

4. Language Inequality in SA
Only 58% of Africans reported being able to read and write in Home Language. This is 95% for Whites
Direct relationship between English proficiency and earning in SA
Study showed men reading and writing in English earn 55% more
Those with English proficiency & post-schooling qualification earn 97% more
Apartheid-era policies - inequalities can be seen along a number of correlated dimensions, including
Language,
Geographical location,
Socioeconomic status,
Race
Former department
The mastery of English is therefore far more significant and meaningful for the majority of South African’s than mastery of Home Language.

5. Language Inequality in SA
International literature: Benefit of initial learning in Home Lang
Taylor and von Fintel (2016)
learners with home language instruction in the Foundation Phase performed better in English in Grade 4, 5 and 6.
Spaull (2016)
Learners tested in both HL & then English in Grade 3
Average for HL test was 33%, worse in English
The mastery of English is therefore far more significant and meaningful for the majority of South African’s than mastery of Home Language.
These findings provide empirical evidence for the efficacy of the current language policy in education.
Question is better than who?
What is the threshold of performance
Spaull (2016) poor quality of learner performance in Grade 3, prior to any language switch. (1 month apart)
Low quality of learning in South African schools in the Foundation Phase – not just the switch in Grade 4 .

6. Why does assessing reading matter?
Specific ways to assess reading – important for classroom practice
Schreiner (2003) suggests that automaticity in cognitive function frees up 90% of working memory for higher-order skills
NCS (CAPS) requires assessment but:
Lack of reading & writing opportunities in class
Chorusing rather than individual reading
Weak assessment of reading
Little systematic instruction of phonics
The lack of reading homework
Minimal reading of extended texts in the early grades
Low expectations about reading
Assessing components of reading & timing these
Automaticity and fluency develop through practice
If learners perform slowly on these tasks, this suggests that their decoding skills are not yet well developed
Children in primary school who can hardly read and write
Children who struggle with higher order thinking
Passive, dependent learners
An education system producing mainly semi-literate and semi-numerate children; about 30% of children in Grade 4 are illiterate

7. Components of reading

8. Measurement of Reading
Curriculum provides requirements for assessing but no specific standardised tool
EGRA – most widely used tool
Letter sound recognition
Word recognition
Non-word recognition
Oral Reading Fluency & comprehension
Significance of standardizing learner assessments
classroom
At scale
Part 3: Evaluating reading at scale
Importance of evaluating reading at scale
Measurement examples
Recommendations

9. Measurement of Reading
EGRS Test Design
Letter knowledge:
Word and non-word reading
Oral reading fluency
Oral reading fluency questions

10. Measurement of Reading

11. Measurement of Reading
Benchmarks for reading in English are known – based on evidence
Learners at the 50th percentile should read 107 words correct a minute (Hasbrouck & Tindal, 2006)
But these do not exist for African language
Insufficient understanding of African lang typology
Gaps in current tools to measure reading in African languages
Expertise required for testing is vested in different sections/departments
Education expertise not working specifically in testing
African language specialists working outside education
Linguistics often not specializing in African languages (important for EGRS)
Fieldwork expertise: testing at scale has specific implications
While English has The complexity of the consonant systems in the three African languages is shown in Table 1 below.

12. Measurement of Reading
Test design
English has a complex vowel system
African languages only have 5-7 vowels
English has 21 single consonants & 6 digraphs,
African languages have a combination of single consonants, and many digraphs, trigraphs and 4-5 letter phonemes.
E.g hl, tl, ty, mb, nk, ndl,hlw, tsh, kgw), ntlh, ntšhw, mpfh
Timeframes for testing
Breadth versus depth
Fieldworker expertise

13. Recommendations
Reading in African languages is under-researched and under-theorized. This has implications for measuring literacy
Need for empirical language-specific norms and benchmarks for indigenous African languages
Need for dedicated academic attention to theory & tools for measurement (both educational & social factors)
Need for careful collaboration in design and lessons learnt (ceiling and floor effects)
Need for developing/improving standardized tools
Need to share evaluation data for further analysis and

14. Thank you