Total Reading Approach for Children Plus (TRAC+)

In recent years, due to disappointing national early-grade literacy scores, the Cambodian Ministry of Education, Youth, and Sport has placed emphasis on the development of a new reading curriculum for Grades 1-3. To support this effort, World Education developed the Total Reading Approach for Children (TRAC) system, a combination of reading benchmarks, interval assessments, and targeted reading interventions.

After the success of the TRAC pilot project(2012-2014), World Education continued to develop its early-grade reading methodology, with the generous support of World Vision. Through TRAC+, World Education expanded the TRAC system to reach 170 schools in five provinces, as well as developed reading benchmarks for Grade 3. As in the TRAC pilot program, TRAC+ consisted of three key interventions designed to improve early-grade reading in Cambodia:

• Reading Toolkits containing games that target specific reading skills, which parents are encouraged to check out from the library for use at home with their children
• Literacy Coaches at participating schools, who support early-grade reading instruction and act as a liaison between schools and families, to ensure that reading practice is continuing outside of school hours
• The mLearning app, a collection of interactive learning games accessible in participating school libraries, which students play by themselves or with peer tutors

In addition to supporting Cambodian schools, the TRAC+ project also built the educational capacity of its funding partner, World Vision, whose staff received training on the TRAC system from the World Education implementation team.

Like the TRAC pilot program before it, the TRAC+ project significantly improved the reading performance of students in its 170 participating school sites.