RTI International piloted tablet-based, self-administered Early Grade Reading (SA-EGRA) and Mathematics (SA-EGMA) assessments in Ghana to measure foundational literacy and numeracy. Over 800 students in grades 1 and 3 completed the tools, which showed strong reliability and promising validity compared to traditional EGRA/EGMA. Spelling tasks in SA-EGRA correlated highly (r = 0.828) with oral reading fluency, and math tasks demonstrated acceptable consistency. These innovations reduce assessor burden and enable scalable, child-driven assessments in low-resource contexts. Findings confirm that digital self-assessments can provide accurate, efficient measures of learning outcomes, paving the way for broader deployment.

RTI International conducted additional analyses of Ghana’s pilot of tablet-based, self-administered Early Grade Reading (SA-EGRA) and Mathematics (SA-EGMA) assessments. Findings confirm strong reliability for most tasks and highlight the Spelling subtask as a robust proxy for oral reading fluency, even when compared to a composite literacy score built using Structural Equation Modeling (SEM). Syntax redesign successfully eliminated “yes bias,” while some numeracy tasks, like Number Identification, performed less effectively with higher-proficiency students, suggesting item adjustments for advanced learners. These insights strengthen the case for scalable, child-driven assessments using Tangerine, enabling accurate, efficient measurement of foundational skills in low-resource contexts.