Is a Phone‐Based Language and Literacy Assessment a Reliable and Valid Measure of Children's Reading Skills in Low‐Resource Settings?

Abstract

Technology‐based remote research methods are increasingly widespread, including learning assessments in child development and education research. However, little is known about whether technology‐based remote assessments remain as valid and reliable as in‐person assessments. We developed a low‐cost phone‐based language and literacy assessment for primary‐school children in low‐resource communities in rural Côte d'Ivoire using voice calls and SMS. We compared the reliability and validity of this phone‐based assessment to an established in‐person assessment. A total of 685 5th grade children completed language (phonological awareness, vocabulary, language comprehension) and literacy (letter, word, pseudoword, passage reading, and comprehension) tasks in‐person and by phone. Reliability (internal consistency) and predictive validity were high across in‐person and phone‐based tasks. Children's performance across in‐person and phone‐based assessments was moderately to strongly correlated. Phonological awareness and vocabulary skills measured in‐person and by phone significantly predicted in‐person and phone‐based letter, word, and pseudoword reading. Oral language and decoding skills measured in‐person and by phone significantly predicted in‐person and phone‐based passage reading and comprehension. Our phone‐based assessment was a reliable and valid measure of language and reading and feasible for low‐resource settings. Low‐cost technologies offer significant potential to measure children's learning remotely, increasing the inclusion of remote and low‐resource populations in education research.

Variability in the age of schooling contributes to the link between literacy and numeracy in Côte d'Ivoire

“…One notable finding within the current work is the insignificant effect of vocabulary. In the current study, vocabulary was not predictive of literacy, contrary to previous work in Côte d'Ivoire using the same task (Sobers et al, 2023). The vocabulary measure, an antonym generation task, consisted of five items (α = .61) and had comparable reliability to a 10-item version (previously used with primary school children in Côte d'Ivoire (α = .63)).…”

“…LITERACY NUMERACY COVARIANCE been found to predict literacy in this population (Ball et al, 2022;Jasińska et al, 2022b). We investigated the reliability and validity of language and literacy tasks in this population in a separate manuscript (Sobers et al, 2023). We found the 10-item version of the task was fairly reliable (α = .63) and valid (i.e., correlated with other language measures and predicted reading performance); we also replicated the analysis with a five-item version and found similar reliability and validity (see osf.…”

Assessing Handwriting Skills in a Web Browser: Development and Validation of an Automated Online Test in Japanese Kanji

“…For example, Yeatman et al ( 2021) developed a browser-based word reading assessment with a strong correlation (r = .86) with a standardized paper-based reading test (Letter-Word Identification from Woodcock-Johnson; Woodcock et al, 2001). Similarly, Sobers et al (2023) reported that their cell phone-based remote assessments evaluating several aspects of language and literacy showed moderate to strong correlations (rs = .35-.80) with traditional paper-based assessments. While our studies examined handwriting skills, the correlations between OAHaS and the paper-based writing test were comparable to those reported for these online language and reading assessments.…”

“…To date, only a handful of online assessments of language and literacy have established reliability and validity (e.g., Hulme et al, 2024;Sobers et al, 2023;Yeatman et al, 2021). For example, Yeatman et al ( 2021) developed a browser-based word reading assessment with a strong correlation (r = .86) with a standardized paper-based reading test (Letter-Word Identification from Woodcock-Johnson; Woodcock et al, 2001).…”

Individual Differences in Leveraging Regularity in Emergent L2 Readers in Rural Côte d’Ivoire

“…mouli or bape) as they could in 60 seconds for each task. These measures have been previously utilised in Côte d'Ivoire, and have been found to be both reliable and valid in this population (Sobers et al, 2023).…”