Evaluation of leer juntos, aprender juntos early grade reading intervention in Guatemala : final report

Save the Children developed the program based on its Literacy Boost model and implemented it in the K’iche’-speaking region of Guatemala. The program’s in-school component aims to train and coach teachers to improve reading instruction in the early grades. The community action component aims to strengthen parental and community involvement and increase children’s opportunities to practice reading outside school. We randomly assigned schools to one of three evaluation groups: Group A schools implemented both program components; Group B schools implemented only the in-school component; and Group C schools did not implement the program. To assess the impact of the community action component, we compared Group A with Group B. To assess the impact of the in-school component, we compared Group B with Group C. Within each school, we followed a group of children from 1st grade to 3rd grade. We found no impacts of either component of the Leer Juntos, Aprender Juntos program on children’s reading skills in Guatemala. This finding does not mean that the children in these schools did not learn. Rather, it shows that, on average, children in the schools in each evaluation group made similar progress with their reading skills.