Lessons from LAC Reads: Leer Juntos, Aprender Juntos in Peru and Guatemala

The program adapted Save the Children's Literacy Boost approach, incorporating instruction in the mother tongue while adjusting to the linguistic background of teachers and students. This approach had previously shown promise of effectiveness in 14 countries. The evaluation focused on the impact of two specific intervention components: in-school teacher training and coaching, and community action. The in-school component included training teachers in mother tongue or Spanish reading instruction techniques and the five core skills of reading, as well as mentoring and coaching teachers. Reading materials in mother tongue and Spanish were also provided. The community component included reading camps, reading festivals, reading contests, and varied reading activities led by community volunteers, as well as peer-assisted reading time with reading buddies and parent and community workshops. After 2.5 years, based on third-grade reading assessments, survey results, and qualitative findings from a randomized controlled trial, evaluators found that the in-school component had a positive impact on students' reading skills in Peru but not in Guatemala. In Peru, the in-school component had favorable impacts on some of the reading outcomes measured, and these were largely driven by improvements in girls' reading skills. The effect sizes were comparable to those of other interventions in developing countries aiming to improve foundational reading skills and reading comprehension in the early grades. The community component did not have a measurable impact on students' reading skills in Peru or Guatemala. However, it did improve some dimensions of the literacy environment in students' homes, such as children reading together with siblings at home. The implementation of the community component was hindered by persistent difficulties with recruiting and retaining volunteers and barriers to children's attendance at the activities, which decreased the fidelity of the community component. The estimated cost-effectiveness of the in-school component was $136 per student per 0.10 standard deviation increase in emergent reading skills, which is in the high range compared to other education interventions to improve student performance that have been rigorously evaluated in LAC. Lessons learned from the evaluation suggest that training teachers on foundational reading skills instruction can be a useful mechanism to help improve reading outcomes in LAC countries where teachers might not receive it as part of their pre-service training.