Use of data to change instructional practices. One challenge that is not unique to Liberia is to make certain that teachers see the value of using data to inform instruction and then modify instruction based upon that student data when appropriate. Teachers needed support to make effective instructional decisions based on student data in the EGRA Plus: Liberia project. Coaches visited
teachers at least once per month during the course of the 2-year project. During these visits, the coaches provided feedback, modeled classroom teaching, and answered teachers’ questions about the implementation of the curriculum and the assessments.
Linking continuous assessment data to instructional decision making while one is learning a new program is not easy. The literature (e.g., Shepard, 2009; Stecker et al., 2005; Stecker et al., 2008; Wiliam et al., 2004) on formative/ continuous assessment in the United States indicates that using formative data to guide instruction can positively affect student achievement. Too often, however, teachers lack the skills necessary to link student data to instructional decisions—and therefore to use data effectively.
Fidelity of assessments. It is important that teachers new to the EGRA instrument understand the importance of standardized assessment
administration for the overall integrity of an intervention like EGRA Plus as well as for classroom continuous assessment. That is, EGRA teacher training and ongoing coaching should emphasize the need for teachers to apply EGRA consistently so that scores are meaningful in all classroom contexts.
Scaling up of EGRA use. Closely linked to the issue of fidelity, the Liberia experience confirmed that in planning to scale up from the pilot study to the randomized controlled trial, it was critical to work closely with the Ministry of Education so that the process became part of the national expectations for teachers and students. Any scaling-up plans must be included in the national
goals and professional development for teachers.
Social marketing as a key to success in building local accountability. The plan to harness local support was clearly outlined in the EGRA Plus design, an advantage for the project. However, social marketing can be challenging if not carefully planned.
To increase local support, building strong ties with community members and families from the very beginning of a new initiative is critical. In EGRA Plus, the primary vehicle for communicating to the community was report card data. This source of continuous assessment data provided natural links among school, home, and community. Because the data were easy to interpret, student success was demonstrated to everyone through the community reading events. The challenge is twofold: first, to make certain that the data to be shared are perceived as important by community members, educators, and families; and second, to make the data easy for everyone at the local level to understand.
Other social marketing approaches for building local support were the audio and video recordings and the PowerPoint presentation. To document an actual event as it unfolded, the project team had to plan far ahead to capture the footage, sound, and still photographs needed to retell the story in a credible and compelling way.
Summary and Conclusions
The concept of continuous assessment includes a range of tasks and teacher behaviors that are designed to take stock of student learning progress. The examples from EGRA Plus: Liberia demonstrate how data gathered from a variety of continuous assessment measures can become integral components of a highly effective reading intervention. Reading CBMs were the primary source of data that informed classroom instruction as well as student, classroom, and school-level reading achievement and progress in the project. The clear goals and benchmarks for progress were key factors in motivating schools, teachers, students, and families. Engaging the local community with these simple student and classroom reading progress data, working with local villages to improve or to build new libraries, broadcasting local radio shows that emphasized the importance of children learning to read, and organizing cluster-level reading competitions resulted in communities demonstrating strong support for, and interest in, their children learning to read. These actions created a dynamic accountability context for improved student learning.
The assessment measures, both outcome and continuous measures, were relatively inexpensive at the teacher level, simple to administer, and sustainable, as they did not require any sophisticated analyses to understand. However, effectively using data from the classroom continuous measures required substantive professional development and ongoing support for teachers. This training and support depended upon a commitment of resources accompanied by social marketing efforts implemented at a local level.
The social marketing component was key to sustainability as communities began to support the common goal that all children will learn to read by the end of grade 2. They also understood that the goal was defined by children reading a minimum of 60 correct words per minute in a grade 3–level passage. The goal was measurable, observable, and meaningful to educators, parents, and community stakeholders. Evidence from interview data with community and PTA members in EGRA Plus communities (Piper & Korda, 2011)
indicated that villagers would rally around a visible reading goal for children and support teacher efforts to ensure that all students in their school could celebrate the success of learning to read.
A relentless focus on examining student data regularly to determine whether they are meeting reading goals is very likely to result in an increase in the number of students who are adequately prepared to stay in school, an increase in students’ academic knowledge in core content subject areas, and continuation of students’ learning success beyond the primary grades so that they can contribute to building a more literate society.
We conclude that informal, continuous assessments can provide a strong foundation for accountability in student learning in all communities. With accountability and the resulting progress, countries can shift from a focus on
accesstoeducationtoaccess+achievinglearninggoals.
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