Skip to Main Content

RTI uses cookies to offer you the best experience online. By and clicking “accept” on this website, you opt in and you agree to the use of cookies. If you would like to know more about how RTI uses cookies and how to manage them please view our Privacy Policy here. You can “opt out” or change your mind by visiting: http://optout.aboutads.info/. Click “accept” to agree.

Accept
RTI International
  • About
    • Office Locations
    • Executive Leadership
    • Corporate Governance
    • Partner with Us
      • U.S. Government
      • Clients and Funding Agencies
      • Industry and Commercial Clients
      • Foundations and Associations
      • Bilateral Agencies and Multilateral Banks
      • Universities and Academic Research Institutions
      • Suppliers and Small Businesses
    • Commitment to Quality
      • RTI's Client Listening Program
    • Ethics and Human Research Protection
    • Living Our Mission
    • Open Science Initiative
    • Veteran Opportunities at RTI

    About

  • Practice Areas
    • Health
      • Public Health and Well-Being
      • Health Care Transformation
      • Behavioral Health
      • Health Behavior Change
      • Precision Medicine
      • RTI Health Solutions (RTI-HS)
      • RTI Center for Community Health Evaluation and Economics Research
      • Health Equity
      • RTI Health Advance
    • Transformative Research Unit for Equity​
      • Equity Capacity Building Hub
      • Social and Economic Justice Research Collaborative
      • Narrative Research and Community Engagement Lab
    • Education and Workforce Development
      • Early Childhood
      • K-12 Education
      • Postsecondary Education
      • Career and Adult Education and Workforce Development
      • Education Policy, Systems, and Governance
      • Education Research Methodologies
      • Education Technologies
    • International Development
      • Energy for Development
      • Environment
      • Global Food Security, Agriculture, and Nutrition
      • Global Health
      • International Education
      • Monitoring, Evaluation, Research, Learning, and Adapting (MERLA)
      • Youth and Economic Opportunity
      • Building Resilience Against COVID-19 in Developing Countries
      • Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene (WASH)
      • RTI Center for Governance
    • Climate Change
      • Clean Energy Technology and Renewables
      • Climate Finance
      • Climate Justice and Equity
      • Climate Planning, Preparedness and Resilience
      • Climate Policy
      • Climate Vulnerability, Adaptation, and Mitigation
      • Economic Impacts of Climate Change
    • Water
      • Food-Energy-Water Nexus
      • Water Quality
      • WASH (Water, Sanitation, Hygiene)
      • Water Resources Management
    • Energy Research
      • Carbon Capture and Utilization
      • Biomass Conversion
      • Natural Gas
      • Energy Efficiency
      • Industrial Water
      • Syngas Processing
    • Environmental Sciences
      • Air Quality
      • RTI Center for Water Resources
      • Urban Sustainability
      • Toxics
      • Building Resiliency in the FEW Nexus
      • Climate Change Sciences and Analysis
      • Environmental Policy
      • Environmental Justice
      • Sustainable Materials & Waste Management Solutions
    • Justice Research and Policy
      • RTI Center for Community Safety and Crime Prevention
      • RTI Center for Policing Research and Investigative Science
      • Child Well-Being and Family Strengthening
      • RTI Center for Forensic Sciences
      • Evidence-Based Strategies to Reduce Firearm Violence
    • Food Security and Agriculture
      • Market Systems Strengthening
      • Food Safety
      • Food and Nutrition
      • Global Food Security, Agriculture, and Nutrition
      • Climate-Smart Agriculture
      • Agricultural Innovation
      • Obesity Prevention
    • Innovation Ecosystems
      • Innovation Advising
      • Innovation for Economic Growth
      • Innovation for Emerging and Developing Economies
      • Innovation for Organizations
      • Research, Technology, and Innovation Policy
      • Technology Acceleration
    • Military Support
      • Military Behavioral Health
      • Military Health and Human Performance
      • Military Sexual Assault, Harassment, and Domestic Violence Prevention
      • Wearable Sensor Technologies
      • Military Health System Transformation
      • North Carolina Center for Optimizing Military Performance

    Practice Areas

  • Services + Capabilities
    • Surveys and Data Collection
      • Survey Design
      • Instrument Development
      • Survey Methodologies
      • Data Collection
      • Establishment Surveys
      • Health Registries
      • Data Analysis and Reporting
      • Research Operations Center
    • Statistics and Data Science
      • Survey Statistics
      • Environmental Statistics
      • Coordinating Centers for Multisite Studies
      • Analysis and Design of Complex Data
      • Biostatistics
      • RTI Center for Data Science
    • Evaluation, Assessment and Analysis
      • Evaluation Design and Execution
      • Advanced Qualitative, Quantitative, and Mixed Methods
      • Evaluation, Monitoring, and Assessment
      • Economic Analysis
      • Evaluating Communication Interventions and Campaigns
      • Evidence Synthesis for Policy and Practice
      • Risk Assessment and Prediction
    • Program Design and Implementation
      • Systems Strengthening and Scaling
      • Capacity Assessment and Building
      • Policy Reform Support
      • Curriculum and Teacher Professional Development
      • Interventions and Prevention Programs
      • Implementation Science
    • Digital Solutions for Social Impact
      • Human-Centered Design of Digital Solutions
      • Digital Product Development
      • Digital Communication Campaigns
      • Digital Data Analytics
    • Research Technologies
      • Survey Technologies
      • Data Management and Decision Support Systems
      • Geospatial Science, Technology, and Visualization
      • ICT for Limited-Resource Settings
      • Mobile Applications
      • Web Applications
      • Bioinformatics
      • Interactive Computing
    • Drug Discovery and Development
      • Medicinal Chemistry
      • Molecular Design and Cheminformatics
      • Behavioral Pharmacology
      • Drug Metabolism and Pharmacokinetics (DMPK)
      • In Vitro Pharmacology, Bioassay Development, and High-Throughput Screening (HTS)
      • Isotope Labeling
      • Regulatory Consulting and Support for Medical Products
    • Analytical Laboratory Sciences
      • Bioanalytical and Toxicology Research
      • Forensic Sciences
      • Physicochemical Characterizations
      • Metabolomics
      • Proficiency Testing and Reference Materials
      • Microbiology
      • Analytical Chemistry and Pharmaceutics
    • Engineering & Technology R&D
      • Biomedical Technologies
      • Decarbonization Sciences
      • Environmental Exposure & Protection
      • Materials & Environment
      • Sustainable Energy Solutions

    Services + Capabilities

  • Impact
    • Newsroom
    • Insights Blog
    • Events
    • Publications
    • RTI Press
      • About the RTI Press
      • Instructions for Authors
      • RTI Press Collections
    • Projects
    • Global Reach
      • Asia
      • Eastern Europe and Central Asia
      • RTI International India
      • Africa
      • Middle East and North Africa (MENA)
      • Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC)

    Impact

  • Experts
    • Our Experts
    • In-Depth With Our Experts
    • Related News
    • Experts In the Media
    • RTI Fellow Program

    Experts

  • Emerging Issues
    • COVID-19 Research
    • Artificial Intelligence
    • Global Health Security
    • Cannabis Research
    • Opioid Research
      • Interventions for Opioid Use Disorders
      • Preventing Opioid Misuse and Overdose
      • Treating Opioid Use Disorders
    • Policing Research and Investigative Science
    • Drone Research and Application
    • E-cigarette Research
    • Zika Virus Research
    • Integrated Governance

    Emerging Issues

  • COVID-19 Research + Response
  • Global Reach
  • Insights Blog
  • Newsroom
  • RTI Press
  • Publications
  • Partner With Us
  • Careers
  • Facebook IconTwitter IconInstagram IconYouTube IconLinkedin Icon
  • Home
  • Impact
  • Newsroom
  • New Study Underscores Ability of Mother Tongue Reading Programs to Achieve Significant Improvements in Student Reading at Scale, Working Through Systems
Newsroom

New Study Underscores Ability of Mother Tongue Reading Programs to Achieve Significant Improvements in Student Reading at Scale, Working Through Systems

November 01, 2019
Share
  • Share on Facebook
  • Share on Twitter
  • Share on Linkedin
  • Email

RESEARCH TRIANGLE PARK, N.C. — A study led by RTI International, a nonprofit research institute, of a large-scale literacy program in Uganda found that investing in mother tongue reading instruction can achieve significant gains in student literacy outcomes. The study explored results of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) Uganda School Health and Reading Program (SHRP), an intervention that improved the reading abilities of early grade students in Uganda.

Researchers analyzed 12 randomized controlled trials that show the impact of SHRP on literacy outcomes in different languages and, collectively, demonstrate patterns and provide insights on what is driving the outcomes. The study found that SHRP significantly increased the literacy achievement in nine of the 12 languages overall, and that the complexity of the language of instruction was more predictive of mother tongue learning gains than socioeconomic status or implementation fidelity.

SHRP was a large-scale sector reform program that covered 4,097 schools and 43 districts across Uganda. Working through Uganda’s Ministry of Education and Sports (MoES), SHRP developed classroom materials and provided training and support for teachers. The program supported an approach to teach students in grades Primary 1 to Primary 4 to learn to read in their first language, or “mother tongue,” before transitioning to learn to read in English. The study’s findings are instructive for similar contexts where the goal is to teach children in their mother tongue.  

“The success of the SHRP program is an encouraging sign that mother tongue reading interventions can have a substantial impact,” said Tracy Brunette, Senior Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning Advisor at RTI, who led the study and previously led monitoring and evaluation efforts for SHRP. Brunette was joined by co-authors Benjamin Piper, Rachel Jordan, and Simon King, all from RTI, and then-RTI expert Rehemah Nabacwa. “There are few rigorous studies on the impact of mother tongue interventions, especially those examining programs being implemented at scale and through existing systems. We hope our findings will help governments, donors, and implementers more effectively invest in interventions to get better results. It may take more time and resources to see reading gains when working with complex languages, at scale, through existing local systems.” 

The study differs from previous research in that it examined not only SHRP’s impact on reading outcomes by language, but also three contextual factors that affected outcomes. Critically, the study found that the complexity of the language of instruction had the largest effect on student learning outcomes, and that SHRP had a smaller impact when instruction was carried out in more complex languages. The researchers also found that socioeconomic indicators such as preschool attendance, students wearing shoes, and average class enrollment predicted impact, but that their effects were less than that of language complexity. The fact that language complexity was more predictive than either socioeconomic status or implementation fidelity was surprising to the authors and is worthwhile for program designers to consider in the future.  

The study, “The Impact of Mother Tongue Reading Instruction in Twelve Ugandan Languages and the Role of Language Complexity, Socioeconomic Factors, and Program Implementation” was published in Comparative Education Review.

RTI is the lead implementing partner for SHRP and the Uganda Literacy Achievement and Retention Activity, both of which are funded by USAID and implemented in partnership with Uganda’s MoES. Through these programs and the Uganda Teacher and School Effectiveness Project implemented by the MoES with funding from the Global Partnership for Education, more than 10,000 schools (80 percent of all government-funded schools), 75,000 teachers, and 5 million children across 103 districts have benefited from an approach to early grade reading that emphasizes improving teacher training and support and providing quality, language-appropriate materials to every primary school child in Uganda.

Classroom in Uganda

Highlights

  • A study led by RTI International of a large-scale literacy program in Uganda found that investing in mother tongue reading instruction can achieve significant gains in student literacy outcomes.
  • The study explored results of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) Uganda School Health and Reading Program (SHRP), an intervention that improved the reading abilities of early grade students in Uganda.

Media Info

To request an interview, contact our Media Relations team.

  • +1 919 708 8205
  • news@rti.org
Subscribe to RTI

RTI Logo
Partner With Us
  • US Government
  • Commercial
  • Foundations & Associations
  • Multilateral Donors
  • Universities
  • Suppliers
Site
  • Privacy Policy
  • Security Policy
  • Site Map
  • Terms of Use
  • Accessibility
  • Contact Us
Contact Us
Facebook Icon Twitter Icon Instagram Icon YouTube Icon Linkedin Icon
delivering the promise of science
for global good
RTI Health Solutions RTI Innovation Advisors RTI Health Advance

© 2023 RTI International. RTI International is a trade name of Research Triangle Institute. RTI and the RTI logo are U.S. registered trademarks of Research Triangle Institute.