PROPOSED STANDARDS FOR GRADES 1—31
For several decades, the Haitian education system has faced chronic problems of governance
weakness, limited and inequitable materials and services, poor teacher preparation, and poor
quality of the teaching-learning process. Before the devastating earthquake in 2010, despite a
significant increase in the numbers of schools and students enrolled in schools, 1) more than one
hundred communal sections had no public school infrastructure; and 2) hundreds of thousands of
school children, with a strong concentration in the poor rural and urban areas, lacked access to
formal education.
Since 2011, with the launch by the government of the Universal and Compulsory Free Education
Program (Programme de Scolarisation Universelle Gratuite et Obligatoire-PSUGO) and
considerable efforts in school building construction across the country, Haiti has seen a
significant improvement in students’ access to formal education. The quality of education,
however, remains a major concern for the government and a huge challenge to face in this sector.
In 2008, tests performed on the reading skills of students in the first cycle of fundamental levels
exposed deficiencies in student performance. According to a report from the PHARE project2,
more than half of the students tested (58%) could not read 30 words per minute. Indeed, only
14% of students were able to read between 60 and 120 words per minute. These results highlight
the problem of the quality of teaching and learning in the Haitian education system in general
and, in particular, substantial deficiencies in reading.
The Ministère de l’Education Nationale et de la Formation Professionnelle’s (MENFP) 20102015 Operational Plan "Towards Rebuilding the Education Sector" demonstrates a commitment
to combatting the challenges facing the Haitian education system. The US Agency for
International Development (USAID) shares this commitment, as demonstrated through its
education project "Tout Timoun Ap Li" (ToTAL). A two-year USAID applied research project,
ToTAL focuses on developing, implementing, and evaluating 1) a program for teaching reading
and writing skills in Haitian Creole for primary Grades 1, 2, and 3; and 2) a program for teaching
oral language in French for primary Grade 1 and for teaching reading and writing skills in French
for primary Grades 2 and 3.
1
Grade 1 standards presented here were submitted to USAID on November 19, 2013 and approved by USAID on November 20,
2013.
2
PHARE : Programme Haïtien d’Appui à la Réforme de l’Éducation/ Haitian Support Program to Education Reform (USAID).
RTI/ToTAL Recommended Standards for Grades 1—3
1
In order to inform the MENFP regarding student progress in reading, USAID has requested that
early grade reading standards be developed as part of the ToTAL project. As understood by RTI,
USAID’s intention is to situate recommended early grade reading standards in the context of
results from ToTAL Early Grade Reading Assessment (EGRA) testing administrations in the
2012-2013 and 2013-2014 school years, while ensuring that recommended standards are
defensible from theoretical and practical perspectives. This document presents RTI’s draft
recommendations for Grade 1—3 early grade reading standards for students and teachers in
Haitian Creole and French3, and additional guidance from the MENFP should be used to refine
and finalize the standards. It should be noted that the standards proposed here assume gradelevel-appropriate Oral Reading Fluency passages.
1. Student Grade 1 Early Grade Reading Standards
Effective reading instruction in Grade 1 focuses on establishing the foundational building blocks
of literacy development: phonological awareness and processing ability; letter knowledge; a
robust and growing vocabulary; comprehension ability; and increasing fluency in identifying
letters, words, and word meanings. Because of the importance of letter knowledge and the ability
to read connected words in the development of reading proficiency, RTI proposes the following
standards for students in Haitian Creole at the end of Grade 1. As indicated earlier, these Grade 1
standards were approved by USAID in November 2013.
Letter Sound Fluency
Recommended Standard, LSF 1: 40 letter sounds identified per minute.
Aspirational Standard: 60 letter sounds identified per minute.
Familiarity with the sounds of written letters is a critical building block of reading in alphabetic
languages, because this skill enables students to decode, or sound out, new and unfamiliar words.
Because of this role in reading acquisition, the ability to identify the sounds of letters quickly and
accurately (with fluency) is considered to be a useful indicator of subsequent reading
development. Typically, and within EGRA, letter sound fluency is measured via a task that
exposes students to a grid of written letters and asks students to produce the sounds of as many
letters as possible within a constrained period of time (60 seconds, or one minute).
When looking at EGRA results from the ToTAL project, it is evident that a standard of 40 letter
sounds identified in a minute is an ambitious goal for most Grade 1 students in Haiti. When
tested at the beginning of each year of the ToTAL project, fewer than 1% of Grade 1 students
who were tested were able to correctly identify 40 letter sounds or more in one minute. At the
end of first grade in each year, fewer than 10% were able to. While meeting the recommended
3
Within the ToTAL program, reading in French is not introduced until Grade 2; therefore, Grade 1 student standards are for
Haitian Creole only.
RTI/ToTAL Recommended Standards for Grades 1—3
2
standard will require ongoing explicit instruction and effort on the part of both teachers and
students, it is important that students attain the recommended standard level of fluency with
letter sounds by the end of their first year of formal education. If students are not able to rapidly
and accurately identify the sounds of letters, they will be unable to string these sounds together
in the decoding of unfamiliar words, itself an essential skill in reading development. At a fluency
rate of 40 letter sounds per minute, a student would require 1.5 seconds to correctly produce a
letter’s sound. While still a somewhat laborious rate, this level of fluency would suggest a basic
level of letter knowledge that could be further automatized through practice.
In addition to the recommended standard, RTI is providing a more aspirational standard of 60
letter sounds identified per minute that the MENFP might consider as a goal for higher-achieving
schools and students and overall in subsequent years as more students enter Grade 1 with prerequisite early literacy exposure and as more teachers are prepared to teach rigorous Grade 1
reading curricula. Performing at a fluency rate of 60 letter sounds identified per minute, a student
meeting the aspirational standard will be even better poised to more effectively use letter sound
knowledge to read words.
Oral Reading Fluency
Recommended Standard, ORF 1: 20 words read per minute.
Aspirational Standard: 40 words read per minute.
Of course, the objective in mastering early-literacy foundational skills is to be able to read
connected text effectively and with comprehension, and fluency in reading words presented in
connected text is a standard measure of reading proficiency. Typically, and within EGRA, oral
reading fluency is measured by exposing students to a written story and asking them to read
aloud as quickly as possible while still trying to comprehend as much of the story as possible.
Student performance is measured as the number of words read correctly in one minute.
When looking at EGRA results from the ToTAL project, it is evident that a standard of 20 words
read in a minute on EGRA is an ambitious goal for most students in Haiti. When tested at the
beginning of each year of the ToTAL project, fewer than 8% of Grade 1 students who were
tested were able to correctly read orally 20 words or more in one minute. At the end of first
grade, however, this percentage increased to approximately 20%, suggesting that this standard is
attainable.
In addition to the recommended standard, RTI is providing a more aspirational standard of 40
words read per minute that the MENFP might consider as a goal for higher-achieving schools
and students and overall in subsequent years as more students enter Grade 1 with pre-requisite
early literacy exposure and as more teachers are prepared to teach rigorous Grade 1 reading
curricula. A student meeting the aspirational standard will be even better poised to more
effectively read connected text with comprehension.
RTI/ToTAL Recommended Standards for Grades 1—3
3
2. Student Grade 2 Early Grade Reading Standards
RTI proposes the following standards for students at the end of Grade 2 in both Haitian Creole
and French. Within the MENFP curricular approach Haitian students are only first taught to read
and write in French in Grade 2. However, the Creole literacy skills and French oral language
they have learned in Grade 1 will support the acquisition of French literacy, and it is important
that students quickly show competency in French literacy in Grade 2 in order to meet
expectations in higher grades. Therefore, the standards proposed below pertain to both Creole
and French languages.
Letter Sound Fluency
Recommended Standard, LSF 2: 60 letter sounds identified per minute.
As indicated earlier, familiarity with the sounds of written letters is a critical building block of
reading in alphabetic languages, because this skill enables students to decode, or sound out, new
and unfamiliar words.
When looking at EGRA results from the ToTAL project, it is evident that a standard of 60 letter
sounds identified in a minute is an ambitious goal for many students in Haiti at the end of Grade
2; when tested at the end of the 2013-2014 school year, only approximately 10% of Grade 2
students were able to correctly identify 60 or more letter sounds per minute. However, it is
important that students attain this level of fluency with letter sounds at least by the end of their
second year of formal education, and preferably before, in order for them to reach levels of
fluency needed to succeed in Grade 3 and beyond.
Oral Reading Fluency
Recommended Standard, ORF 2: 60 words read per minute.
Aspirational Standard: 75 words read per minute.
When looking at EGRA results from the 2013-2014 school year, it is evident that a standard of
60 words read in a minute on EGRA is an ambitious goal for many students in Haiti. When
tested at the end of the ToTAL project, Grade 2 students were able to read only up to 35 words
per minute in Haitian Creole. However, it is important for students’ ongoing literacy and
academic development that they are able to read at 60 words per minute by the end of Grade 2.
In addition to the recommended standard, RTI is providing a more aspirational standard of 75
words read per minute that the MENFP might consider as a goal for higher-achieving schools
and students, and overall in subsequent years as more students enter Grade 2 with stronger earlyliteracy skills. Performing at a fluency rate of 75 words read per minute, a student meeting the
aspirational standard will be even better poised to more effectively read connected text with
comprehension.
RTI/ToTAL Recommended Standards for Grades 1—3
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3. Student Grade 3 Early Grade Reading Standards
Effective reading instruction in Grade 3 focuses on building reading fluency and corresponding
comprehension. RTI proposes the following standard for students at the end of Grade 3 in both
Haitian Creole and French.
Oral Reading Fluency
Recommended Standard, ORF 3: 80 words read per minute.
Aspirational Standard: 100 words read per minute.
Instruction in Grade 3 typically shifts from explicit teaching in reading to teaching content area
materials with an assumption of basic fluency in reading. Because of this, it is important that
students are able to read fluently, at least at a rate of 80 words per minute by the end of Grade 3,
whereby they will be well poised to effectively read connected text with comprehension.
In addition to the recommended standard, RTI is providing a more aspirational standard of 100
words read per minute that the MENFP might consider as a goal for higher-achieving schools
and students.
4.
Teacher Early Grade Reading Standards4
RTI proposes the following standards for teachers of Grade 1–3 Haitian Creole and/or French
reading curricula. These standards are adapted from the International Reading Association’s
Standards for Reading Professionals5 but have been tailored for use in Haiti. Each standard
includes a series of sub-standards; for each sub-standard, illustrative examples of the competence
are provided. These examples should be interpreted as illustrative only and not as exhaustive
lists. Given the range of student competencies in each of Grades 1–3, it is important that teachers
in all grades understand and be able to provide differential instruction in each area.
Standard 1: Foundational Knowledge
Teachers of Grade 1–3 literacy curricula should understand and be able to provide differential
instruction in the following areas:
FK 1.1 - Phonological awareness, processing, and manipulation
FK 1.1.1 - Understanding that spoken words are made of individual sounds
FK 1.1.2 - Understanding of how spoken words can be segmented into individual letter sounds
and how individual letter sounds can be blended to form words
FK 1.1.3 - Ability to articulate segmenting and blending of sounds
4
Teacher standards presented here were submitted to USAID on November 19, 2013 and approved by USAID on November 20,
2013.
5
http://www.reading.org/general/CurrentResearch/Standards/ProfessionalStandards2010.aspx
RTI/ToTAL Recommended Standards for Grades 1—3
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FK 1.2 - Letter names and letter sounds, including being able to correctly produce and
differentiate between all sounds that exist in the Haitian Creole language
FK 1.2.1 - Understanding of differences and similarities between Creole and French alphabets
FK 1.2.2 - Ability to demonstrate letter sounds to students and correct inaccurate letter sounds
produced by students
FK 1.3 - Vocabulary, both oral and written, including correct pronunciation and
definitions
FK 1.3.1 - Knowledge, and use, of at minimum secondary-level vocabulary in both Creole and
French
FK 1.3.2 - Ability to correctly pronounce all vocabulary words presented in both Creole and
French
FK 1.3.3 - Ability to explain and/or demonstrate meanings of words to students
FK 1.4 - Comprehension strategies, both listening and reading, including explicit
instruction in strategies to remediate deficiencies in comprehension
FK 1.4.1 - Knowledge of specific strategies for fostering both listening and reading
comprehension (such as prediction, making visualizations, summarization)
FK 1.4.2 - Ability to identify opportunities during lessons to reinforce comprehension strategies
FK 1.5 - Fluency, in letter and isolated word identification as well as reading of connected
text, in order to obtain requisite levels of automaticity with skills
FK 1.5.1 - Understanding of importance of fluency in reading achievement
FK 1.5.2 - Ability to read secondary-level text in both Creole and French at a rate that supports
comprehension and understanding by the listener fluently
FK 1.5.3 - Ability to read aloud with high level of accuracy (90-95%) and prosody that
demonstrates understanding of the text
Standard 2: Curriculum and Instruction
Teachers of Grade 1–3 literacy curricula should demonstrate an understanding of the following:
CI 2.1 - The basic components of the curriculum and how they integrate to introduce and
reinforce important reading skills
CI 2.1.1 - Understanding of the importance of explicit instruction in phonemic awareness,
vocabulary development, letter knowledge, comprehension, and fluency to support reading
development
CI 2.1.2 - Familiarity with program’s scope and sequence
CI 2.1.3 - Familiarity with program’s theoretical approach, and how it differs from other
approaches
RTI/ToTAL Recommended Standards for Grades 1—3
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CI 2.2 - The types of activities used in the curriculum, the objectives of each, and how they
relate to each other
CI 2.2.1 - Understanding of the intent and utility of each type of activity
CI 2.2.2 - Ability to effectively teach each type of activity
CI 2.2.3 - Ability to effectively implement formative assessment opportunities
CI 2.3 - Effective classroom management and student feedback strategies
CI 2.3.1 - Understanding of and commitment to providing constructive and positive feedback to
students
CI 2.3.2 - Ability and commitment to engaging all students in the classroom
CI 2.3.3 - Ability to use individual, pair, and small-group as well as whole-group teaching
strategies
CI 2.4 - Effective supplemental activities that can extend beyond and build upon the
curriculum in meaningful ways
CI 2.4.1 - Familiarity with supplemental activities
CI 2.4.2 - Ability to identify students in a classroom able to engage in supplemental activities
Standard 3: Assessment and Evaluation
Teachers of Grade 1–3 literacy curricula should demonstrate an understanding of the use of the
following:
AE 3.1 - Formative assessment to guide and differentiate instruction
AE 3.1.1 - Ability to effectively implement formative assessments embedded within the
curriculum
AE 3.1.2 - Understanding of how to use formative assessment results to guide instruction
AE 3.2 - Periodic reviews to reinforce instruction and to monitor student understanding
and retention
AE 3.2.1 - Ability to effectively implement program periodic reviews
AE 3.2.2 - Understanding of how to use periodic reviews results to guide instruction
AE 3.3 - Periodic reviews and/or interim assessments to communicate student progress to
caregivers
AE 3.3.1 - Understanding of how to translate periodic review and/or interim assessment results
into information accessible by caregivers
AE 3.3.2 - Ability to effectively communicate student progress to caregivers
AE 3.4 - End-of-course assessments to determine readiness to advance to next level
RTI/ToTAL Recommended Standards for Grades 1—3
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AE 3.4.1 - Ability to effectively implement program end-of-course assessments
AE 3.4.2 - Understanding of how to use end-of-course assessment results to communicate to
school personnel each student’s ability to progress to next level
Standard 4: Diversity
Teachers of Grade 1–3 literacy curricula should demonstrate an understanding of how to manage
the following:
D 4.1 Identify, address, and monitor different needs of students in the classroom
D 4.1.1 - Understanding of different needs that could potentially be represented in a classroom
D 4.1.2 - Familiarity with strategies to address different student needs
D 4.2 - Manage classroom dynamics to ensure fair and equitable treatment of all students,
both by the teacher and by students
D 4.2.1 - Understanding of strategies for engaging students in all areas of the classroom
D 4.2.2 - Understanding of strategies for engaging girls and boys equally in the classroom
D 4.2.3 - Commitment to providing fair and equitable feedback to all students
D 4.3 - Physical and curricular aspects of the classroom to ensure accessibility to all
students
D 4.3.1 - Understanding of strategies for locating students in the classroom to accommodate for
special needs
D 4.3.2 - Understanding of how to position materials and stimuli in the classroom to ensure
access by all students
D 4.4 - Effectively integrate students with different cognitive, physical, and/or other needs
into the classroom, ensuring full access to instruction and participation
D 4.4.1 - Commitment to fair and equitable treatment of all students
D 4.4.2 - Understanding of strategies to encourage all students to attend school
Standard 5: Literate Environment
Teachers of Grade 1–3 literacy curricula should demonstrate an understanding of how to do the
following:
LE 5.1 - Set up the classroom to make full use of curricular and supplemental materials
(such as libraries, posters, materials)
LE 5.1.1 - Understanding of effective positioning of curricular and supplemental materials
LE 5.1.2 - Understanding of how to effectively incorporate use of classroom libraries into
instruction
LE 5.1.3 - Ability to set up space in classroom conducive to student individual or paired reading
RTI/ToTAL Recommended Standards for Grades 1—3
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LE 5.2 - Safeguard classroom materials against theft and damage
LE 5.2.1 - Ability to work with school personnel to ensure safety of classroom materials
LE 5.2.2 - Understanding of strategies to encourage students to return borrowed classroom
materials in-tact and on-time
LE 5.3 - Develop additional materials for use in the classroom that expose students to
letters, words, pictures, stories, or other forms of literacy-building materials
LE 5.3.1 - Ability to develop grade-appropriate literacy-focused supplemental materials (such as
posters, alphabets for walls)
LE 5.3.2 - Understanding of how to incorporate such materials into lessons
Standard 6: Professional Learning and Leadership
Teachers of Grade 1–3 literacy curricula should demonstrate an understanding of how to do the
following:
PLL 6.1 - Attend, and attend to, all teacher training opportunities provided
PLL 6.1.1 - Understanding of importance of training opportunities
PLL 6.1.2 - Ability to translate lessons from training into classroom instruction
PLL 6.2 - Encourage supervisors, coaches, inspectors, and other support resources to
evaluate teaching strategies and be open to feedback
PLL 6.2.1 - Understanding of importance of improving instructional techniques
PLL 6.2.2 - Willingness to adapt instructional techniques to most effectively implement the
program and meet the needs of all students
PLL 6.3 - Engage with peers to develop and practice more effective teaching strategies
PLL 6.3.1 - Understanding of importance of peer reviews to improve teaching strategies
PLL 6.3.2 - Ability to implement peer dialogue and willingness to adapt instructional techniques
based on peer dialogue
PLL 6.4 - Engage with caregivers and members of the community in productive and
collaborative ways to further the development of students’ reading proficiency
PLL 6.4.1 - Understanding of the role of caregivers in students’ learning overall and reading
development in particular
PLL 6.4.2 - Ability to engage caregivers in students’ learning
RTI/ToTAL Recommended Standards for Grades 1—3
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