Glittery Schools: Students’ Progress in Emergent Literacy, 2025–2026 Cohort

Developing literacy skills during the first years of school is one of the strongest predictors of later educational success.

The emergent literacy assessment conducted at the end of the preparatory grade for the 2025–2026 cohort shows that a systematic educational intervention — combining teacher training, high-quality learning resources and continuous assessment — can lead to substantial progress, regardless of children’s starting level.

The analysis covers 933 students who were assessed twice: once at the beginning of the preparatory grade, between September and October, and again at the end of the school year, between May and June.

The children came from 63 Romanian-language preparatory classes participating in the Glittery Schools primary literacy development programme implemented by the All Children Read Association.

These classes are part of a larger group of 88 preparatory classes, taught in Romanian and Hungarian across 10 counties, with which the Association began working in September 2025.

For comparability with previous school years, this analysis focuses only on children studying in Romanian. The results of students enrolled in Hungarian-language classes will be analysed separately.

The findings are also compared with a broader database of 4,664 children assessed with the emergent literacy assessment tool during the 2023–2024, 2024–2025 and 2025–2026 school years.

Overall Results for the 2025–2026 Cohort

The results of the 933 students show substantial progress in emergent literacy skills.

By the end of the preparatory grade, the average score reached 125 points, compared with 48 points at the beginning of the school year.

This represents an average increase of 77 points, meaning that the average emergent literacy score increased approximately 2.6 times within a single school year.

The final distribution of results was particularly encouraging:

• 69% of children reached the excellent achievement category;
• 13% reached the very good achievement category;
• 13% reached the good achievement category;
• only a small percentage remained in the limited achievement or at-risk categories.

These findings indicate that most children developed the fundamental skills required for the transition towards independent reading and writing.

 

 

Profile of Participating Children

Among the 933 children included in the analysis:

• 53% were boys and 47% girls;
• 81% lived in rural areas and 19% in urban areas;
• 47% received a social scholarship, while 52% did not;
• 94% had attended kindergarten.

At the beginning of the preparatory grade:

• 17% of children had very strong foundations for literacy development;
• 39% had good foundations;
• 44% had limited foundations.

In other words, almost half of the children entered school requiring additional support in order to develop their emergent literacy skills.

Progress Across All Areas of Emergent Literacy

The improvement was not limited to the overall assessment score. Children progressed across every component measured by the assessment.

The largest increases were recorded in:

• alphabet recognition and reproduction: +49.3 points;
• phonemic segmentation: +11.3 points;
• word recognition: +7.3 points;
• vocabulary development: +5.6 points;
• word writing: +3.0 points;
• concepts about print: +1.1 points.

These results indicate that the programme supported the full range of foundational skills needed for learning to read and write.

Progress According to Children’s Starting Level

One of the most important findings is that Glittery Schools benefits children regardless of their initial level of literacy development.

Children Who Started with Good Foundations

This group included 367 children.

By the end of the preparatory grade, their average score reached 135.3 points, approximately 13 points above the overall cohort average.

Their average improvement was 83.7 points, and 80% of the children reached the excellent achievement category.

The results suggest that children who entered school with favourable literacy foundations were able to consolidate and further develop those skills during the year.

Children Who Started with Limited Foundations

This group included 408 children, representing almost half of the analysed sample.

Although they started from a considerably lower level, they recorded the largest average improvement: 90.7 points.

Children who started with stronger skills naturally had less room for improvement on the assessment scale. By comparison, the children who started furthest behind had much greater potential for measurable progress.

By the end of the preparatory grade, children in this group achieved an average score of 106.2 points, indicating a substantial reduction in the learning gaps that existed when they entered school.

Their final results show that:

• 48% reached the excellent achievement category;
• 17% reached the very good category;
• 12% remained in the at-risk category.

The findings suggest that early intervention can significantly reduce learning disparities and create meaningful opportunities for children who begin school with weaker literacy foundations.

School Attendance and Progress Among Children with Limited Initial Skills

The analysis also explored the relationship between school attendance and literacy development among the 408 children who entered school with limited foundations.

Among them:

• 254 children, or 62%, had no absences;
• 64 children, or 16%, were occasionally absent;
• 44 children, or 11%, were frequently absent.

Attendance information was incomplete for the remaining children.

The data show a clear association between regular participation in school activities and stronger literacy outcomes.

Children who attended school more consistently generally achieved higher final scores and were less likely to remain in the at-risk category.

Children with No Absences

The 254 children with very good attendance achieved an average final score of 117 points, close to the overall average of the entire sample.

Their final results were:

• 56% excellent achievement;
• 18% very good achievement;
• 21% good achievement;
• only 5% remained in the limited or at-risk categories.

The strongest improvements among these children were recorded in:

• alphabet recognition and reproduction: +65.6 points;
• phonemic segmentation: +13.0 points;
• word recognition: +9.1 points;
• vocabulary development: +7.1 points.

The findings suggest that consistent participation in classroom activities provides children with repeated opportunities to practise and consolidate emergent literacy skills.

Children with Occasional Absences

The group of occasionally absent children included 64 students.

Their average improvement was 90.7 points, similar to the overall progress of children who had started school with limited literacy foundations.

However, their final average score was lower than that of children with no absences, reaching 84.4 points.

Their results were distributed as follows:

• 48% excellent achievement;
• 17% very good achievement;
• 23% good achievement;
• 12% remained at risk.

Progress was visible across all emergent literacy components, particularly in:

• alphabet recognition and reproduction: +50.6 points;
• phonemic segmentation: +7.6 points;
• word recognition: +5.6 points;
• understanding the concept of a word: +5.3 points.

The results indicate that relatively consistent participation can help children recover a significant part of their initial learning gap. At the same time, even occasional absences are associated with lower final outcomes compared with those of children who attended throughout the school year.

Children with Frequent Absences

Among the 44 children who were frequently absent, outcomes were considerably weaker.

Their average final score was 56.97 points, approximately 60 points lower than that of children with no absences.

Their results were:

• 18% remained in the at-risk category;
• 25% remained in the limited achievement category;
• 32% reached good achievement;
• 9% reached very good achievement;
• 16% reached excellent achievement.

These children still made progress compared with their initial assessment, but the improvement was substantially smaller than among children who attended school consistently.

For example, improvement in alphabet recognition and reproduction was 35.1 points, compared with 65.6 points among children with no absences.

Conclusions

The results of the 933 children participating in the Glittery Schools programme indicate that emergent literacy development can be accelerated through an integrated educational intervention.

The programme combines:

• teachers’ professional development;
• mentoring;
• educational resources adapted to children’s learning needs;
• access to books;
• systematic assessment and progress monitoring.

Beyond higher assessment scores, the findings show stronger foundational reading and writing skills and a reduction in the differences between children who enter school with different levels of preparation.

The data also indicate that regular school attendance is associated with stronger emergent literacy outcomes, particularly among children who begin preparatory grade with weaker skills.

The programme’s experience further suggests that investing in teachers’ professional development is one of the most effective ways to improve children’s learning outcomes.

When teachers have access to continuous training, mentoring, assessment tools and high-quality educational resources — and when children have access to books and learning activities adapted to their developmental level — progress becomes both visible and measurable.

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