Level 1 Placement Assessment, Assessor Guide: Accelerated Quality Education for Liberian Children

The program is implemented by USAID/Liberia, in collaboration with the Ministry of Education (MOE). The Level 1 Placement Assessment is a critical component of this program, designed to determine the educational level of students and place them in the appropriate class. The assessment process involves two main steps: oral individual assessment and whole group test administration. The oral individual assessment is conducted with one assessor per student, where the student is administered a letter identification, number identification, and reading passage test. The time limits for each section are 1 minute for letter and number identification, and 3 minutes for the reading passage. If a student fails the oral test, they are placed in Level 1. The whole group test administration involves a written literacy and numeracy test, which is administered to a group of students. The test consists of multiple-choice questions, with suggested time limits for each question. The assessor reads each question out loud, and the group is moved to the next question after the stated time limit. The literacy section of the test assesses students' ability to identify letters, words, and sentences. Students are presented with pictures and asked to write the first or last letter to complete each word. They are also asked to circle the two words that rhyme in each line, and to identify the correct form of the verb in a sentence. Additionally, students are asked to circle the pronoun in each sentence and to identify the adjective in each sentence. The numeracy section of the test assesses students' basic arithmetic skills, including addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division. However, the provided test directions do not include specific numeracy questions. The assessment results are used to determine the educational level of students and place them in the appropriate class. Students who have never attended school or have only attended Grade 1 are registered for Level 1 classes. Students who have attended Grade 2 are administered the Level 1 Assessment, while students who have attended Grade 3 or higher are administered the Level 2 Assessment. The Accelerated Quality Education for Liberian Children program aims to improve educational outcomes for Liberian children by providing them with access to quality education. The Level 1 Placement Assessment is a critical component of this program, designed to ensure that students are placed in the appropriate class and receive the necessary support to succeed in their educational journey.