Literacy Boost Kenya: Baseline Report 2013

This report examines the results of a primary school learner background survey and reading assessment conducted in early 2013. The survey and reading assessment covered 944 grade 2 learners throughout 51 schools in World Vision Kenya’s Kalawa ADP in Mbooni East District, Makueni County and Mutomo ADP in Mutomo and Ikutha Districts of the broader Kitui District, Kitui County. The 51 schools are randomly split by clusters into 26 primary schools designated to receive Save the Children (SC)’s Literacy Boost program in partnership with World Vision Malawi, and 25 comparison primary schools to receive no intervention this school year.

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. As part of Literacy Boost, learners are periodically assessed in each of these skills through an adaptable assessment tool to inform programming and estimate program impact. The data gathered from these schools is analyzed to present a snapshot of the emergent literacy skills of grade 2 learners in these schools and to inform the adaptation of SC’s Literacy Boost program to this context.