Experience Conducting EGRAs with Children with Disabilities Kristina

Experience Conducting EGRAs with Children with Disabilities Kristina Solum CIES 2018 EDUCATION EQUITY RESEARCH INITIATIVE

School-to-School International STS is committed to improving the lives and learning of girls and boys worldwide through thoughtful research, practice, and partnership. EDUCATION EQUITY RESEARCH INITIATIVE

Our Work with Students with Disabilities ACR GCD Round 2 Focus Area – Children with Disabilities Projects for children who are blind or have low vision: 1. Bookshare India: Improving Reading Skills Among Primary Students with Low Vision or Blindness Beneficent Technologies, India 2. Reading Beyond Sight: Improving Reading Scores of Children with Visual Impairment in Early Primary Education Resources for the Blind, Philippines 3. Lesotho Literacy for Young Visually Impaired Persons Catholic Relief Services, Lesotho Project for children who are deaf or hard of hearing: 1. Moroccan Sign Language Assistive Technology for Reading Improvement of Children who are Deaf/Hard of Hearing Institute for Disabilities Research and Training EDUCATION EQUITY RESEARCH INITIATIVE

Where are we going today…. EGRAs for students who are blind or have low-vision 1. Adaptation Process 2. Piloting Experiences 3. Operational Data Collection 4. Results! 5. Next steps EGRAs for students who are deaf and hard of hearing 1. Considerations for assessment 2. EGRSLA 3. Baseline results 4. Next steps EDUCATION EQUITY RESEARCH INITIATIVE

EGRA adaptation process for students who are blind or have low-vision DPOs and local experts • Existing tools: what aspects need to be adapted? • Learning standards used by schools (if any)? • Identification process (i. e. large print or braille) • Timing norms 2 min/3 min EDUCATION EQUITY RESEARCH INITIATIVE

Piloting Experiences Assessor selection and training (limited pool of braille readers) Small samples for projects Quality control process for tools and stimuli Determining allowable accommodations EDUCATION EQUITY RESEARCH INITIATIVE

Operational Data Collection Multiple stimuli for different needs Documenting accommodations • Large print vs. braille, uncontracted vs. contracted • Stands, viewers, magnifiers Students • First time many students to take a standardized assessment Sensitive information • Students asked about their backgrounds, when they entered school etc. EDUCATION EQUITY RESEARCH INITIATIVE

RBI – Philippines EGRA Results 120. 0 100. 0 Average gain scores – Filipino EGRA 100. 3 97. 1 80. 0 56. 0 60. 0 50. 7 48. 9 40. 0 28. 6 20. 0 2. 6 0. 0 Letter Sound Identification (CLSP 3 M)* 0. 9 0. 7 0. 1 Intervention components 1. Provision of assistive technologies (printer, computer, electronic brailler, braille display, magnifiers) 2. Teacher training and coaching 3. Parent sensitization workshops Nonword Reading ORF (CWP 3 M)* Reading Comprehension Listening (CNWP 3 M)* (correct out of five)* Comprehension (correct out of four)* Intervention Comparison EDUCATION EQUITY RESEARCH INITIATIVE

RBI – Philippines EGRA Results by group Gain scores for Oral Reading Fluency – Filipino 116. 6 97. 1 84. 0 66. 3 50. 7 39. 5 Intervention Comparison Large Print* Intervention Comparison Braille* Intervention Comparison All Students* EDUCATION EQUITY RESEARCH INITIATIVE

Assessing student who are blind or have lowvision Collect data! Select and train assessors Adapt stories and words Develop appropriate stimuli Determine acceptable accommodations and tracking EDUCATION EQUITY RESEARCH INITIATIVE

Unique considerations students who are deaf or hard of hearing Bilingual – bimodal assessment Lack of data about depth of sign language knowledge of students or teachers Diverse school environments – approach to curriculum and language Regional variations in the signed language used by the schools Students lack of testing experience EDUCATION EQUITY RESEARCH INITIATIVE

EGRSLA – assessing students who are deaf or hard of hearing Response options What are acceptable response options? Regional variations to consider. Assessor selection Needs to be fluent in sign language and the assessment language Tech needs IRR, Story display, student surveys Language of the assessment Is the assessment clear to students? Sensitive information Students asked about their backgrounds and language use, including parents and friends EDUCATION EQUITY RESEARCH INITIATIVE

Results from EGRSLA Baseline in Morocco Subtask Grade 1 (N=65) Mean Letter name identification Grade 2 (N=78) Total (N=143) Zero Mean Score 55. 9 2 79. 3 0 68. 7 2 13. 9 4 17. 3 0 15. 8 4 Familiar word reading (CFWP 2 M) 12. 6 30 18. 9 22 16. 0 52 Reading passage (CWP 2 M) 4. 8 49 13. 1 46 9. 3 95 Reading passage comprehension 0. 3 54 0. 5 56 0. 4 110 0. 2 58 0. 5 60 0. 4 118 6. 4 7 7. 6 18 7. 0 25 (CLNP 2 M) Syllable identification (correct out of 25) (correct out of five) MSL comprehension (correct out of five) MSL vocabulary (correct out of ten) Key learnings: • Students are learning the early reading skills—letter and syllable identification—but struggle with words and connected text • Students can’t comprehend the MSL story—tech or content? • MSL vocab wasn’t as easy as we thought • Teachers did not report being fluent in MSL EDUCATION EQUITY RESEARCH INITIATIVE

Next steps for assessing students who are deaf or hard of hearing More research needed: • Reading vs. language development? • Language environment and policy for students? • What subtasks are meaningful to use? • How to interpret the bilingual/bimodal results? • Appropriate timing for fluency subtasks? EDUCATION EQUITY RESEARCH INITIATIVE

Partners and Collaborators • Brookings Institution • INEE • International Rescue Committee • New York University • PAL Network • RESULTS • RTI International • UNESCO Institute for Statistics • UNHCR • UNICEF • USAID/ ECCN • University of Arizona • Wittgenstein Centre • World Vision EDUCATION EQUITY RESEARCH INITIATIVE

Steering Committee • Carina Omoeva, FHI 360 (co-lead) • Eric Eversmann, Save the Children (co-lead) • Carol da Silva, Save the Children • Stephen Luke, FHI 360 • Amy Mulcahy-Dunn, RTI • Anne Smiley, FHI 360 LEARN MORE: www. educationequity 2030. org FOLLOW US @equity 2030 | #equity 2030 SUPPORT US educationequity@fhi 360. org • Communications Coordinator: Jane Sullivan 16 EDUCATION EQUITY RESEARCH INITIATIVE

THANK YOU! LEARN MORE www. educationequity 2030. org FOLLOW US @equity 2030 | #equity 2030 Kristina Solum ksolum@sts-international. org SUPPORT US educationequity@fhi 360. org EDUCATION EQUITY RESEARCH INITIATIVE