English Literacy Initiative | Evidence-based Edtech | Reading Comprehension Program

The world of Randomised Controlled Trials has been demystified, thanks to the Nobel Prize-winning work of Abhijit Banerjee, Esther Duflo, and Michael Kremer. RCTs, as they are more commonly referred to, are experiments designed to isolate the impact of an intervention (or in a clinical setting, a treatment) that can influence outcomes. RCTs are conducted on a sample of the population. The word ‘randomised’ suggests that the experiment is done on a representative group (sample) of the population so that findings from this sample can be extrapolated to the population. ‘Controlled’ denotes that a comparison is made between a Treatment group that is exposed to the intervention and a Control group that is the same as the Treatment group in all respects except for exposure to the said intervention. ‘Trial’ refers to the fact that this is indeed an experiment.

RightToRead is an evidence-based edtech reading and comprehension program that takes AI-driven technology-enabled reading to millions across schools in India and globally.  EnglishHelper has partnered with independent assessment agencies to conduct more than 100,000 digitally administered assessments. These standardized assessments are based on the Council of Europe Framework of Reference for Languages (CEFR) and aligned with the NCERT grade-level learning objectives of the Indian Education System. The assessments have validated the effectiveness of the Program in improving English learning outcomes to the extent of 20% to 50%, compared to a Control group. Improvement has been observed across different cohorts of students: at scale, across geographies and with continued use. Studies have also illumined the correlation extant between increased exposure to the tech-enabled reading sessions and improvement in outcomes.

In addition to the proven improvement in English learning outcomes, there is now increasing evidence that points to RightToRead’s impact on learning in other subjects (due to improvement in English literacy), increased engagement of students, and enhanced effectiveness of teachers. Together with the ROI Institute, RightToRead is embarking on an in-depth evaluation of the impact of the Program on learning in schools. Watch this space closely in the months to come, for more updates on the evaluation!

– Hemavathi Murthy

This article is written by Hemavathi Murthy, Vice President at EnglishHelper.

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