This report summarizes the findings of an effort to develop and validate tablet-based, self-administered assessments of English-language foundational literacy and numeracy in the early grades. The tools described in the report were developed at the request of Imagine Worldwide with the support of the Jacobs Foundation. RTI carried out field testing and a pilot study to assess the tools' internal consistency, test-retest reliability, and concurrent validity with respect to "traditional" EGRA and EGMA. RTI International developed the two assessments, known respectively as the Self-Administered Early Grade Reading Assessment (SA-EGRA) and the Self-Administered Early Grade Mathematics Assessment (SA-EGMA), with the support and at the direction of Imagine Worldwide. The assessments are deemed “self-administered,” because children complete the assessments independently in response to instructions and stimuli imbedded in the tablet-based software. However, adults typically supervise the organization and conduct of the assessment as well as the collection of individual data from the tablets for analysis.

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.