Literacy Boost Zimbabwe: Baseline Report 2012

This report examines the results of a student background survey and reading assessment conducted between March 19th and March 30th, 2012. The survey and reading assessment covered 200 grade 3 students in six primary schools receiving Save the Children (SC)’s Literacy Boost program as well as four nearby comparison primary schools in the Hurungwe district of northern Zimbabwe. The data gathered from these schools is analyzed to present a snapshot of the emergent literacy skills of grade 3 students in these schools and to inform the adaptation of SC’s Literacy Boost program to this context.

Results indicate that comparison and Literacy Boost groups are statistically similar on most all measures of student background characteristics, home literacy environment, and literacy skill sub-tests. This will be important for drawing conclusions about the impact of Literacy Boost from the endline assessment.