Improving Early Grade Reading Skills in Morocco .

In Morocco, less than 15 percent of first-grade students are likely to graduate from high school. Just a few years ago, 33 percent of second-grade students who were tested in west-central Morocco’s Doukkala-Abda region could not read a single word. To reverse these trends, the USAID Morocco Reading for Success Small-Scale Experimentation (RFS-SSE) program assessed and improved early grade reading abilities and teacher training. The program was part of USAID/Morocco’s broader Reading for Success program, which used a combination of analysis, experimentation, and national policy reform to strengthen literacy instruction and rates in Morocco. In collaboration with the Moroccan Ministry of Education and Vocational Training and local partners, RFS-SSE applied international best practices in Arabic reading to develop reading materials that best serve students’ and teachers’ needs.