The Impact of Students’ Characteristics on EGRA Results

107 A regression model was also applied in order to understand the impact of parents’ and teachers’ characteristics on the ORF and reading comprehension. There were three variables of parents’ characteristics that had significant impacts on students’ reading performance, namely: parents’ income, parents’ level of education, and parents’ main language at home. From these three variables, parents’ income had the largest impact on the ORF and reading comprehension scores. A student from a better economic background was expected to have an increase of about 13.86 words per minute on the ORF and an increase of almost 30 higher correct answers on the reading comprehension. Table 4.29: Oral Reading Fluency and Reading Comprehension: Impact of Parents’ Characteristics In addition, students who had parents with a good education level senior high school or university graduate were associated with 5 additional words per minute in the ORF and 7- 8 more correct answers in the reading comprehension as opposed to students with uneducated parents. Parents language at home also had a significant impact. A student who had parents who mainly spoke in Indonesian language at home provided an expected increase of about 5 words per minute on the ORF and almost a 10 increase in the correct answers of reading comprehension. SSME Category Indicator ORF Wordsminute Reading Comprehension Correct Parent Parent’s Income Less than 500.000 IDR ref - - 500.000 – 999.999 IDR 0.05 1.40 1.000.000 – 2.999.999 IDR 1.25 2.00 3.000.000 – 6.000.000 IDR 9.03 14.70 More than 6.000.000 IDR 13.86 26.90 Parent’s level of education Never study ref Primary school 1.01 1.00 Junior high school 0.81 0.80 Senior high school 5.42 7.50 University 5.42 6.70 Parent’s Language Indonesian Language 5.31 9.60 Local Language - - Constant 3.82 5.00 ref : signifies the reference group : indicates statistical significance at the .05 level 108 To understand the impact of teachers’ academic qualifications on students’ reading performance, a regression analysis was also applied. A student, who was taught by a senior high school graduate teacher, provided an expected increase of about 7 words per minute in the ORF and 8.60 increase of correct answers in the reading comprehension. A similar impact was also identified from teachers who were university graduates. Table 4.30: Oral Reading Fluency and Reading Comprehension: Impact of Teachers’ Characteristic

4.8 The Impact of School and Classroom Characteristics on EGRA

Results The impact of school and classroom characteristics on the EGRA score was also examined using a regression model. There were six factors of a school’s characteristics that had a significant impact on the ORF score and reading comprehension, namely: school status public or private school, school accreditation, library ownership, reading corner availability, as well as availability of electricity and clean water resources. These factors had a relatively similar impact on the EGRA scores. Attending a public school provided an expected increase of about 2 words per minute in the ORF. In addition, students from a higher level of school accreditation had the opportunity to increase their ORF score to about 4-5 words per minute. Meanwhile, the availability of a library and reading corner improved students reading performance to about 3 words per minute in the ORF, and about a 4-5 increase in correct answers was found in the reading comprehension. Finally, the school’s infrastructure such as electricity and clean water also played a significant role in improving students’ reading performance. SSME Category Indicator ORF Wordsminute Reading Comprehension Correct Teacher Teacher’s academic qualification Junior high school - - Senior high school SMASPGSPGA 7.03 8.60 Diploma 1,2,3 3.05 2.60 Bachelor ref 6.75 8.90 Constant 4.09 7.80 ref : signifies the reference group : indicates statistical significance at the .05 level