DEVELOPMENT AND STANDARDISATION OF EARLY READING LITERACY TEST FOR PRE-SCHOOL CHILDREN IN OYO STATE, NIGERIA

Abstract

Standardised tests are capable of measuring pre-school children’s latent reading ability and are also used to assess examinees' performance across norms (gender, age, school-type and location). However, in Nigeria and Oyo State in particular, most of the available tests are foreign and not adapted to the socio-cultural learning environment. Consequently, early reading ability of pre-school children is not uniformly assessed. Previous studies have focused mainly on primary and secondary school levels with little emphasis on standardised reading literacy test at the pre-school level. This study, therefore, developed and standardised Early Reading Literacy Test (ERLT) for pre-school children along the norms with the aim of deriving valid and uniform instrument to assess the reading ability of pre-school children in Oyo State.

The study was anchored to Cognitive Theory of Literacy Development, while Instrumentation Approach and counter-balance design were adopted. The study was conducted in two stages. In stage one, the ERLT (with identification of letters; objects; colours; signs and symbol; reading fluency and picture reading subsets) was developed and validated (r=0.84) using a sample of 45 pre-school children from two randomly selected pre-schools in Osun State. For instrument standardisation, the proportionate-to-size sampling technique was used to select four Local Government Areas (LGAs) each from Oyo Central and Oyo North senatorial districts, and three LGAs from Oyo South senatorial district. Three percent of public (21) and private (34) pre-schools were selected across the 11 LGAs, while 55 intact classes (one per school) with 776 pre-school children were sampled. Data were analysed using T- score and Stannine.

The discrimination indices of DRAFT-ERLT ranged between 0.12 and 6.36, while the difficulty parameter was between -7.92 and 0.83, and a total of 163 out of 226 items were finally assembled and administered. The ability test scores ranged from 19.80 to 71.70 (x ̅=51.0). Normative scores established using stannine 1, 2 and 3 reflecting 23.0% of examinees were below average while 4, 5 and 6 showing 54.0% of the examinees were on the average. Stannine 7, 8 and 9 showing 23.0% of the examinees were above average. The pre-school children mean scores by age were below four years (x ̅=57.85}; four years (x ̅=50.86); five years (x ̅=50.85); gender were male (x ̅=51.79); female (x ̅ =50.40); school-type were private (x ̅=53.58); public (x ̅=47.73) and school location were urban (x ̅=54.28); rural (x ̅=41.61). Differential Item Functioning was observed among groups (gender, school- type and location) in the identification of some letters: w, m, b, d, v, x, q, s and z; identification of objects like bag, tree, egg, tyre and fan; and picture reading on a boy fetching water and a girl sweeping the floor.

The developed and standardised early reading literacy test was sensitive only to gender, location and school-type. Pre-school teachers should ensure gender balancing and devote more time to teaching letters w, m, b, d, v, s and x, particularly for pre-school children in public schools and rural areas.