Literacy Boost Lao, P.D.R.: Baseline Report 2013

This report examines the results of a student background survey and reading assessment conducted in October 2013. The survey and reading assessment covered 714 grade 2 learners throughout 40 schools in two provinces in Lao P.D.R. Twenty-five of the schools are located in Bolikhamxay province, in a Save the Children International (SCI) intervention area, and 15 are located in Attapeu province, in a World Food Program (WFP) intervention area. The 40 schools are split into 23 primary schools designated to receive Save the Children’s Literacy Boost program and 17 comparison primary schools receiving no intervention. The Literacy Boost program includes teacher training, community reading activities, and age-appropriate local language material creation to support emergent literacy skills among early-grade children.

In both Attapeu and Bolikhamxay children in comparison and intervention schools are found to be similar almost all background characteristics and literacy skills. The only difference noted was that comparison students in Attapeu have higher average socioeconomic status than intervention students. Taking this slight difference into account, we confirm that comparison students in both provinces will serve as an appropriate control groups against which to compare learning growth for Literacy Boost students.