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Literacy Data and Insights
Literacy is a foundational skill essential to anyone's lifelong success. Through our e-reader programs, we're helping children, families and entire communities become more literate and educated. The below data and insights from our studies show how we're enabling people to read more and read better.
Ghana iREAD Study II (2012-2014)
Worldreader studied the efficacy of e-readers in early grade reading programs in Ghana over nearly two years, with support from USAID, AusAID, and World Vision through an All Children Reading grant. The program served 574 students from Primary 1, 2, and 3 grades in four under-resourced schools in the Eastern Region of Ghana. Each of the students, their teachers, and head teachers received an e-reader loaded with 240 titles.
Book Origins
We included hundreds of titles from African publishers on the treatment e-readers.
Reading Comprehension
The group of students that received e-readers greatly outperformed the baseline groups on basic reading comprehension and at the average minimum standard speeds of 45 and 60 correct words per minute (CWPM) believed to be required for comprehension and retention of texts.
Able to Read at Least One Word on the Assessment (% of Students)
35.4%89.3%49.3%88.4%
Akuapem-TwiAkuapem-TwiEnglishEnglish
Baseline (Ghana EGRA 2013) Worldreader (Treatment)
Able to Read at Least 45 or 60 Correct Words Per Minute (% of Students)
13.4%41.0%6.1%32.9%
45 CWPM or more45 CWPM or more60 CWPM or more60 CWPM or more
Baseline (Control) Worldreader (Treatment)
The following charts compare the reading comprehension levels of the national Primary Grade 2 (P2) student population to P2 students in the treatment group:
National results are shown by default. Click on the blue buttons to show results from our treatment group.
ENGLISH Reading Level (% of Students)
BaselineWorldreader
National vs. Treatment
AKUAPEM-TWI Reading Level (% of Students)
BaselineWorldreader
National vs. Treatment
Reading Speed
The following text demos demonstrate the same text at the mean reading speed of the students in the treatment group, before (shown by default) and after (click to show) the e-reader intervention.
ENGLISH Reading Speed of Treatment Students (Mean WPM)
BaselineWorldreader
Before vs. After E-Readers
Before: 17 Words Per Minute
Play Demo
After: 41 Words Per Minute
Sample text from The Girl with the Magic Hands by Nnedi Okorafor.
AKUAPEM TWI Reading Speed of Treatment Students (Mean WPM)
BaselineWorldreader
Before vs. After E-Readers
Before: 17 Words Per Minute
Play Demo
After: 34 Words Per Minute
Sample text from Kofi Nnwon by Christopher Hodson.
Featured Literacy Program Reports
Ghana iREAD Study 2012-2014: Final Evaluation
Early primary students read more and better after 18 months in our e-reader program. Read our evaluation results here.
November 2014 V
Project LEAP Final Report
Libraries using e-readers in Kenya saw monthly visits triple, revitalizing those libraries as hubs of information and knowledge. More findings can be found here.
April 2015 V
