Evaluation of the output of Quran education program at fifth elementary grade

This evaluation project was performed to evaluate the ability of fifth elementary grade students in reading the Quran (accuracy and speed). The main questions of the study were as follows: 1 – How the students perform regarding Quran reading accuracy? 2 - How the students perform regarding Quran reading speed? The sample consistd of 2500 students (boys and girls). They were selected using multistage random sampling from among 212 schools (12 students from each school). The schools were selected from 20 educational districts of the center of the provinces,13 urban and 17 rural educational districts.Data were collected using 4 tests on reading speed and accuracy. Major research findings were as followsAverage score of fifth grade students in reading phrases and verses of fifth grade Quran textbook and Quranic verses and phrases out of the textbook, with reducing 0.25 of score for each reading error, was 14.5; based on reducing 0.5 score for each reading error, was 9 and based on reducing 1 score for each reading error, was zero (0) (based on 0-20 scores).If we consider the performance up to 75% as the criteria for good performance, about 52 percent of students gained the desired score and obtained the desired learning outcome. It should be mentioned that based on the research findings, about %5 of total students become fluent readers. Comparing the performance of bilingual students with monolingual ones (just Farsi speakers), using the statistical analysis, it became clear that there was significant differences in their reading speed and accuracy to the benefit of monolinguals. And comparing the student's performance according to their sex, it became clear that female outperformed the males.