Prepared for: The NikeTalk Community

Through our Literacy Program, Room to Read® partners with schools to address gaps across three areas that
are critical to literacy learning: teacher training and support, quality reading materials, and child-friendly
learning spaces. After assessing a school’s unique needs, we provide a tailored intervention to ensure
students have the resources and support they need to flourish. Following are details about Government
Primary School Karmandi, and the targeted activities we have conducted to support the students at this
school. Thank you to Niketalk.com and your community of supporters for making these educational
transformations possible!

SCHOOL PROFILE LOCATION: CHHATTISGARH

 Name: Government Primary School Karmandi Chhattisgarh is a state set among remote beauty in central
 Grades served: 1 – 5 India. Formed in 2000 from what was formerly the
 Students: 126 (63 girls, 63 boys) southeastern districts of Madhya Pradesh, it is a mostly
 Teachers: 5 (0 female, 5 male) rural state known for its steel production and rich reserves
 Country: India of coal, tin and aluminum. Roughly 44% of Chhattisgarh is
 Region: Chhattisgarh covered in forest, and the state’s remote nature poses
 City/Village: Karmandi challenges to developing strong transportation, sanitation,
and educational infrastructure. The state has a population
of 25.5 million and features one of the highest female to
male ratios in India (991 females per 1,000 males).
Although this allows women to enjoy social freedoms not
shared in other parts of the country, Chhattisgarh’s culture
is still largely male dominated, particularly in public life.
Due to the state’s remoteness, caste system, and gender
politics, the literacy rate for men is 80%, but for women, it
hovers at 60%.

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PROJECT DETAILS
LITERACY INSTRUCTION
Teacher Training and Support
Number of Grade 1 classes supported: 1
During the first year of our program, we work with all Grade 1 teachers at a school to improve literacy learning in
their classrooms. In India, this includes providing at least eight days of professional development focused on how
to build students’ literacy skills in Hindi, the official language of instruction in the states where we work. The five
key components of reading covered in these trainings are: phonological awareness, phonics, vocabulary, fluency,
and comprehension. Teachers are also provided with learning materials that support the activities learned during
their trainings, and our literacy coaches visit classrooms an average of twice a month to ensure teachers master
the new instruction techniques.

LITERACY INSTRUCTION TRAININGS CONDUCTED

(Topics may be repeated to increase mastery of skills or to reach different groups of stakeholders)
Start Date Length (Days) Training Topic

07-26-2016 4.0 Comprehension; Fluency; Other; Phonics; Phonological/phonemic

awareness; Vocabulary; Background on Room to Read; Vocab, Fluency, and
Comprehension; Intro to the 5 Components of Reading; Phonological
Awareness Activities
07-28-2016 6.0 Comprehension; Fluency; Other; Phonics; Phonological/phonemic
awareness; Vocabulary; Background on Room to Read; Vocab, Fluency, and
Comprehension; Intro to the 5 Components of Reading; Phonological
Awareness Activities
10-19-2016 4.0 Comprehension; Fluency; Other; Phonics; Phonological/phonemic
awareness; Vocabulary; Background on Room to Read; Phonics activities
(Phase 1 & 2); Student Tracking; Vocab, Fluency, and Comprehension;
Vocab, Fluency, and Comprehension Review; Intro to the 5 Components of
Reading; Phonological Awareness Activities
10-12-2016 6.0 Comprehension; Fluency; Grade 3: Other; Other; Phonics;
Phonological/phonemic awareness; Vocabulary; Background on Room to
Read; Phonics activities (Phase 1 & 2); Student Tracking; Vocab, Fluency, and
Comprehension; Vocab, Fluency, and Comprehension Review; Intro to the 5
Components of Reading; Phonological Awareness Activities

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 LIBRARY
Teacher Training and Support + Quality Reading Materials + Child-Friendly Learning Environment
Classroom libraries allow children in schools with limited space to benefit from books and other library resources,
while also promoting the integration and use of reading materials in classroom instruction. These libraries are
established within a designated portion of a classroom and contain a collection of reading level-appropriate books
for use by classes during lessons, free time and dedicated library time. These libraries are also provided with other
educational materials and storage furniture.

LIBRARY RESOURCES PROVIDED

 236 local language books published by Room to Read

 386 non-Room to Read local language books
 Book Display Racks; Cushions/Mats; Display Boards; Educational Materials; Posters

Library Management Training

Room to Read provides all librarians and teachers involved with our libraries with a minimum of three days of
training in the first year of our support, and one to two days of refresher training in both the second and third
years. These trainings build on each other and align with the library's stage of development. We also support
educators by providing direct coaching and program implementation feedback during regular library monitoring
visits. Our team assesses the quality of the library through a rating tool, which evaluates the library across 16
indicators. Room to Read staff use these ratings to determine the frequency and type of support we provide.

LIBRARY MANAGEMENT TRAININGS CONDUCTED

(Topics may be repeated to increase mastery of skills or to reach different groups of stakeholders)
Start Date Length (Days) Training Topic

05-16-2016 5.0 Book leveling; Creating a child-friendly environment; Engaging other

teachers; Importance of libraries and reading; Library management; Library
period and reading activities; Other; Sustainability
09-14-2016 2.0 Book leveling; Creating a child-friendly environment; Engaging other
teachers; Importance of libraries and reading; Library period and reading
activities; Other
09-06-2016 3.0 Book leveling; Creating a child-friendly environment; Engaging other
teachers; Importance of libraries and reading; Library management; Other

COUNTRY & GLOBAL LITERACY PROGRAM HIGHLIGHTS

SYSTEMIC CHANGE: IMPROVING LITERACY LEARNING BEYOND OUR PROJECT SCHOOLS
Your investment in our programs has allowed Room to Read to demonstrate high quality education initiatives with
measurable results. Our ability to execute quality programs at scale has gained the recognition of local and national
governments as well as other nonprofits, who want to partner with us to promote widespread educational policy and

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curriculum changes. The following is a highlight of some of these partnerships, focused on improving literacy learning for
children broadly. We greatly value your investment in our work and make every effort to leverage your support for
maximum benefit for the children in the school you supported, and far beyond! With your help and that of partners
around the world, we can solve the challenge of illiteracy — in our lifetime.

SYSTEMIC CHANGE IN INDIA

Room to Read began piloting literacy instruction activities in India in 2008. These activities are now a core component
of our Literacy Program, and Grade 2 students in our India program can read three times as many words per minute
as their peers in non-program schools. Recognizing this achievement, the state governments of Uttarakhand and
Chhattisgarh invited us to implement our early grade literacy instruction work at scale for five academic years. In
2015, we began a pilot project in 360 primary schools across the two states, and are working to build the states’
systemic capabilities so they can implement effective literacy interventions independently in the future. These efforts
will benefit close to 4 million children over time.

GLOBAL RESEARCH, MONITORING & EVALUATION

Room to Read conducts ongoing research, monitoring and evaluation to ensure we are providing communities with the
highest quality educational programs. This includes annual data collection on each of our projects, which is then analyzed
to measure and improve the impact of our work. Following are some of the highlights from our 2015 program analysis,
which is the most recent year we have completed analyzing.

Impact on Students’ Reading Skills

Room to Read supported literacy instruction in 10 languages in 2015. In all these languages, children in program schools
showed statistically significant gains in reading fluency when compared with their peers in nearby schools. On average,
children in schools supported by our program were reading nearly twice as fast. The fact that we have so consistently
observed these improvements in children’s reading skills is hugely encouraging. Globally, 40% of the children we have
assessed in program schools are reaching our target reading fluency of 45 words per minute by the end of second grade.
This target is derived from a rule-of-thumb estimation of the minimum reading fluency required for effective
comprehension, based on research in high-income countries.

In 2015, we introduced a new “emerging reader” benchmark of 20 words per minute. Sixty-seven percent of Grade 2
students we assessed were reading at or above this fluency level. Tracking children’s reading skills against these two
benchmarks helps us understand our progress. Our goal is to see more children establishing the firm foundation of literacy
skills they need to thrive. To reach this goal, we have worked to simplify and standardize our teacher-training curriculum
over the past several years, so that teachers can focus on approaches with proven benefits for children’s reading.

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Library Usage: Average Books Checked Out per Library
Beyond just building students’ literacy skills, our Literacy Program also
supports children develop a habit of reading. When children truly love
reading, when they take their own initiative to seek out books simple
because books are interesting or fun, they open endless new possibilities
to learn about the world around them. Our primary indicator of children’s
habit of reading is library book checkout. In 2015, more than 7.8 million
books were checked out by students across all Room to Read libraries.
This represents an average of 2,315 books at each library we supported
last year. This year, we are also able to report for the first time that
globally, most children with access to Room to Read libraries do check out
books. This is true even among first-grade students, most of whom are
just beginning to understand their languages’ alphabets.

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PHOTOS

The room where the library was established

Exterior view of the school building where the new library is located

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A teacher engaging students in a reading activity

A student enjoying one of the new books

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Students enjoying the resources now available in the school library

A teacher conducting a lesson

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A student using new literacy learning materials

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