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Thursday, June 5, 2014

Yesterday I was able to attend the final training for the Pilot ASER reading program in the 10 schools in the Diocese of Hinche.  Each of the 10 schools selected one 1st grade and one 2nd grade teacher to participate in the program and the director of the school plus 3 supervisors from the BDE Hinche attended.  In addition to the participants in the Diocese of Hinche a supervisor from the other diocese in Haiti attended the program to get a preview of the process.  Only the 10 schools in the Diocese of Hinche participated in the actual pilot program and the BDE Hinche was selected due to the strength and capacity of the BDE staff to support and supervise this program.  The training was held in 4 one day sessions at the Normale School in Papaye which lasted from 9 am until about 3 pm.

Below is a sample of the ASER Reading Test.
ASER Reading Sample Test

The teachers use this test to determine the comprehension level of each student quickly and easily.  The teacher begins with the Letter section and the student is asked to identify 5 letters if they can correctly select 4 of 5 they pass this level and move on to words.  The teacher then moves to the word section and the student must correctly identify 4 of 5 words selected by the teacher to pass.  If they pass the teacher moves on the the Paragraph level and the student is asked to read the short paragraph.  After successfully reading the paragraph they are asked to read the short story and are then asked a few basic comprehension questions.  In this manner it is very easy for the teacher to quickly test each student and record the level they have achieved.  The teachers test the students 3 times per year and record their progress providing them with a concrete way to measure the development of the students, the class and also to know which students need additional help to catch up to the required grade level competency.  There is currently no such information regarding student reading level in any school in Haiti, this program will allow the teachers, directors, supervisors and BDE and CEEC staff to understand the schools that are preforming well and those that need additional assistance.  This program will allow the teachers to know early on and throughout the students progression through 1st, 2nd, 3rd, etc grade if the students are preforming at grade level.  This will help to address the deficiencies early on and allow the teachers to help the students who are behind to catch up and thus continue their education.

The program can also be used for Math and Science as well but only the Reading was tested in this Pilot.  Next year they plan to roll this training out to two additional Diocese in Haiti and will include Math as well.

An example of the Math ASER Test:



During this last training session they were to discuss recording and analyzing the results and TJ D'Agistino form Notre Dame's ACE program was very happy to see that many of the teachers had already created their own form of a tracking tool for their classes.  One teacher had taken a note book and listed the students names on the left half of the page then the testing levels on the right side, she had cut the page in Half so that she could flip the page for the 3 different test she administered and quickly see the students progress in this book.  TJ was very happy to see how organized these teachers were with keeping the records of the class even before it was discussed on taught in the training.

As this was the last session the teachers, the Directors and the Supervisors reviewed the program and gave feedback on the program and the training.  All were happy to have been a part of the program and all said they would like to continue the program next year and in the future expand the program.  They also said they felt they could teach the program to other teachers in their school and in the Diocese with a little more training and increased support for the supervisors.  There was very positive feedback on the program and it looks to be something that will continue and expand in the future.


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