Landscape Report on Early Grade Literacy

The goal of this landscape report is to review and summarize available empirical evidence on early grade literacy acquisition and instruction in developing countries. To achieve this goal, papers with empirical data were searched, identified, screened, and reviewed on topics that included student-level factors (e.g., emergent literacy, oral language), larger contextual factors within which the student is embedded (e.g., home literacy environment, language of instruction, and larger system issues such as teacher education), and long-run considerations (e.g., sustainability, costs, and scaling up). The available empirical evidence was, then, rated by topic as strong, moderate, emerging, or limited. The vast majority of studies reviewed were project-based work with a comprehensive, multicomponent approach, incorporating the 5Ts— teaching, time, texts, tongue, and test. The Big 5 skills identified in the National Reading Panel Report (National Institute of Child Health and Human Development [NICHD], 2000)—phonological awareness, phonics, reading fluency, vocabulary, and reading comprehension—were central in these projects.