Proposing benchmarks for early grade reading skills in Liberia

A two day workshop on March 6 and 7, 2014 brought together 60 MOE officials, district education officers, donor agency representatives, NGOs active in the education sector, Liberia Teacher Training Program (LTTP) project staff, and outside experts, to begin a process of defining benchmarks for specific skill areas of early grade reading. The objectives of the workshop were to: 1) Share the most recent assessment results from LTTP’s reading intervention; 2) Orient and engage a cross section of Liberian stakeholders in a participatory process of setting reading benchmarks for grades 1, 2 and 3. At the end of the workshop, all the groups’ points of view were recorded and areas of convergence and divergence in recommended benchmarks were identified and discussed so as to generate further convergence. This report shares those results, showing the full range of points of view advocated by the participants, and concluding with the recommendations of the authors as to what may be useful “converged” benchmarks for early grade reading in Liberia at the present time.