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14 Jan 2020
Journal Article

What Works to Improve Early Grade Literacy in Latin America and the Caribbean? A Systematic Review and Meta‐Analysis

Rebecca Stone, Thomas De Hoop, Andrea Coombes, and Pooja Reddy Nakamura

Improvements in students’ learning achievement have lagged behind in low‐and middle‐income countries despite significant progress in school enrollment numbers. Approximately 250 million children across the world are not acquiring basic reading and math skills, even though about 50% of them have spent at least four years in school. Educational policies on early grade literacy (EGL) in Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) have long suffered from a disjuncture between school practice and research.

This systematic review examines the effectiveness and fidelity of implementation of various programs in the LAC region that aim to improve EGL outcomes, including teacher training, school feeding, computer‐aided instruction, nutrition, and technology‐in‐education.

Key Findings

Overall, programs did not have statistically significant effects on EGL outcomes. But there are instances in which programs may have positive or negative effects.

For example, teacher training did not show positive effects on EGL outcomes, but a study from Chile showed that teacher training can possibly positively affect EGL outcomes in high‐income economies when it is well implemented and complemented by sustained coaching. Similarly, nutrition programs did not improve EGL outcomes. However, a study from Guatemala showed positive effects on EGL, possibly because Guatemala has high rates of stunting and wasting.

Although there is no statistically significant effect of technology‐in‐education programs on EGL outcomes in the LAC region, a study from Peru showed that the distribution of laptops to children can have adverse effects, particularly when not complemented by additional programs.

Other studies showed that phonemic awareness, phonics, fluency, and comprehension are associated with reading ability. Furthermore, poverty and child labor are negatively correlated with EGL outcomes. This finding supports the result that nutrition programs may be effective in settings with high rates of stunting and wasting.

What Works to Improve Early Grade Literacy in Latin America and the Caribbean? A Systematic Review and Meta‐Analysis

Related Projects

Project

USAID/Latin America and Caribbean Reads Capacity Program (LRCP)

Literacy is a fundamental skill that serves as the foundation for an individual’s future learning and, collectively, for a country’s social and economic development. The USAID/LAC Reads Capacity Program aims to increase the impact, scale, and sustainability of early grade reading interventions in the Latin American and Caribbean region through the development of state-of-the-art knowledge resources.

Related Work

14 May 2018
Video

lac-reads-hp-feature-01.jpg

Image of children in a classroom

LAC Reads Capacity Program: Improving Early Grade Reading in Latin America and the Caribbean

The LAC Reads Capacity Program, funded by USAID, was created to research early grade reading and increase the size, scale, and sustainability of reading interventions throughout the Latin America and Caribbean region. Rebecca Stone and Josefina Vijil talk about key findings from their work on the region’s first systematic review of the literature on early grade reading.
Topic: 
Reading and Literacy, International, International Education, International Reading and Literacy
15 Jan 2017
Report

Landscape Report on Early Grade Literacy

Millions of children across the world are unable to read a single word even after up to four years of schooling. The goal of this landscape report is to review and summarize available empirical evidence on early grade literacy acquisition and instruction in developing countries.
Topic: 
Reading and Literacy, International, International Early Childhood and Child Development, International Reading and Literacy

Further Reading

  • Literacy Around the World
  • LAC Reads Capacity Program: Improving Early Grade Reading in Latin America and the Caribbean
  • USAID/Latin America and Caribbean Reads Capacity Program (LRCP)
  • An Examination of Early Grade Reading Assessments in Central Asia: Using Factor Analysis to Determine the Latent Data Structure in Kyrgyz, Russian, and Tajik
  • Reading: Global Focus on Science and Solutions
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Rebecca Stone

Principal Researcher
Image of Thomas de Hoop

Thomas De Hoop

Principal Economist

Topic

Education
Reading and Literacy
International
International Education
International Reading and Literacy

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