This article reports findings of a study conducted in public primary schools in Narok County Kenya. A sample size comprising 74 children in Grade 3 (37 who did not attend preschool and 37 who attended preschool), 18 head teachers, 66 lower primary school teacher's and five education officers were selected for the study. Learners' reading ability…

COVID-19-induced school closures generated great interest in tutoring as a strategy to make up for lost learning time. Tutoring is backed by a rigorous body of research, but it is unclear whether it can be delivered effectively remotely. We study the effect of teacher-student phone call interventions in Kenya when schools were closed. Schools…

This research explores structural relations among the component skills of reading comprehension in Kiswahili. Furthermore, the study examines the relationship between socio-economic status, home and school language use, and home literacy environment with Kiswahili reading outcomes. The study utilized secondary data from the baseline Tusome…

The present study examined the mediating role of text reading fluency in reading comprehension in English and Kiswahili utilizing longitudinal data from 628 first- and second-grade children from multilingual contexts in Kenya. We employed path analysis to explore the mediating role of text reading fluency on decoding and reading comprehension in…

Using a longitudinal data set, this paper examines to what extent school-entry (N = 553; mean age 6.32 years) early mathematics and literacy skills predict students' later achievement in a lower-middle-income country, Kenya. Controlling for socioeconomic status, intervention status, rural versus urban settings and parental literacy, the findings…

Many children living in linguistically diverse low- and middle-income countries learn to read and write in multiple languages. Recent research provides implications for effective reading instruction with multilingual learners (e.g., Hall et al. in New Dir Child Adolesc Dev 166:145-189, 2019). However, there is limited empirical evidence on…

Storytelling is a ubiquitous practice dating back to 4000 BC (Abrahamson, 1998). Storytelling, as an effective communication tool and, has helped propagate societies' traditions and culture. Storytelling has also gained popularity in education globally due to its pedagogical advantages, mainly helping students remember information (Morris, 2015).…

This study explores how the primary school teacher preparation curriculum prepares pre-service teachers to teach reading in lower primary schools in Kenya. High-quality reading teacher preparation is among the critical aspects that need to be addressed in order to curb the literacy challenges faced by early grade students living in low-resource…

Teacher classroom practices have been identified as the key contributing factor to the low learning outcomes of primary school grades in Kenya. Teacher mentoring has the potential to improve classroom practices and this study sought to determine its effects on the classroom practices of primary school teachers in Kwale County, Kenya. Using One…

Background: We examined the component skills of reading comprehension (i.e., letter sound knowledge, syllable reading fluency, decoding fluency, text or oral reading fluency and listening comprehension) and their structural relations using data from three sub-Saharan African languages with transparent orthographies in a multilingual context.…

Background: We examined the component skills of reading comprehension (i.e., letter sound knowledge, syllable reading fluency, decoding fluency, text or oral reading fluency and listening comprehension) and their structural relations using data from three sub-Saharan African languages with transparent orthographies in a multilingual context.…

We evaluated a program to improve literacy instruction on the Kenyan coast using training workshops, semiscripted lesson plans, and weekly text-message support for teachers to understand its impact on students' literacy outcomes and on the classroom practices leading to those outcomes. The evaluation ran from the beginning of Grade 1 to the end of…

The present study explored the role of vocabulary and decoding skills in predicting reading comprehension, utilizing data from 322 first- grade children from four elementary schools in Kenya. The children were administered a comprehensive battery of tests to assess pseudo-word reading skills, oral reading fluency, reading comprehension, and…

The research explores the impact of interactive, multimedia literacy software (ABRA) on the reading skills of early elementary students in Kenya. Twelve grade two English teachers and their students from six schools were randomly divided in half: an experimental group (N = 180) where ABRA was part of their English Language instruction and a…

Using a randomized control trial, this study examined the causal evidence of cross-language transfer of phonological awareness and letter knowledge (names and sounds) using data from multilingual 1st-grade children (N = 322) in Kenya. Children in the treatment condition received an 8-week instruction on phonological awareness and letter knowledge…