Literacy Assessments

Formal Tests

Standardized testing with a norm group of established benchmarks so you can compare a student's results to peers.

Requires following specific directions and steps. E.g., Iowa Test of Basic Skills and Test of Word Reading Efficiency (TPWRE)

Informal Tests

Are flexible and provide a holistic view of a student's reading. No norm group. E.g., observation checklists, informal reading inventories, teacher-made tests, or Qualitative Reading Inventory 7.

4 Types of MTSS Reading Assessments

1) Universal screeners

2) Diagnostic assessments

3) Progress monitoring tools

4) Summative assessments

Universal Screeners

An assessment of all students to determine which are at- risk (do not meet benchmarks). Test is given 1-3 times a year to a class, grade, or even an entire school to check for potential reading difficulties. Not used to diagnose specific gaps, but help to identify who will need a diagnostic assessment or supplemental intervention.

Diagnostic Assessments

Identify a student's specific strengths and weaknesses in reading, e.g., phonics or vocabulary skills. They provide a detailed profile of the student's needs to guide intervention. Given after a student fails a screener and may be repeated as needed. These assessments inform instruction and intervention.

Norm-referenced Assessments

A formal assessment, often used with diagnostic tools, that produce scores that compare the individual performance to a set-populations performance

Criterion-referenced Assessment

A formal and informal assessment, used with diagnostic tools, to compare the student's skills to a defined set of skills and a goal (criterion) for mastery. Administered before and after instruction to measure skill growth.

Progress Monitoring Assessment

Measure a student's progress throughout instruction and intervention. May be given weekly, bi-weekly, or monthly depending on the intensity of the intervention and student needs. The information helps the teacher adjust instruction.

Summative Assessment

Assessment data collected after instruction to evaluate a student's mastery of the curriculum objectives and a teacher's effectiveness at instructional delivery.

Types of Informal Classroom-Based Assessments

1) Letter/sound recognition assessment

2) Concept of prints awareness assessment

3) Phonological awareness assessment

4) Phonemic awareness assessment

5) Informal (qualitative) reading inventory assessment

6) Reading comprehension assessment

7) Oral reading accuracy assessment

8) Reading fluency

9) Word Recognition

10) Phonic elements awareness

11) Portfolio assessments

Letter/Sound Recognition Assessment

Measures the ability to recognize letters (uppercase and lowercase) and sounds.

Typically done 3 times a year in kindergarten. E.g., show students one letter at a time and ask "Can you tell me what letter this is?" or "Can you tell me what sound it makes?"

Concept of Prints Awareness Assessment

Typically done twice a year during kindergarten that measures students' understanding in:

a) print has meaning

b) print can be used for different purposes

c) relationship between print and speech

d) difference between letters and words

e) words are separated by spaces

f) difference between words and sentences

g) there are punctuation marks that signal the end of a sentence

h) books have parts (front cover, back cover, title page, and spine).

i) stories have beginning, middle, and end.

j) text is read left to right

Be specific in your questions. E.g., "Can you show me the cover?" or "The sentence?" or "How many words are in this sentence?"

Phonological Awareness Assessment

Typically assessed during kindergarten and throughout 1st grade. It measures:

a) recognizing words in a sentence. "How many words are in the sentence, "I am happy." (Mastered at age 3)

b) recognizing a rhyme: Do these words rhyme? Big, fig? (Mastered at age 4)

c) recognizing a syllable and the ability to separate or blend words the way they are pronounced. E.g., I'm going to say a word in parts - o...pen. What word did I say? (Mastered at age 4)

d) understanding onset-rimes: What word do these sounds make? /s/ - /ee/. (Mastered middle of kindergarten)

e) Syllable segmentation: can you tell me the two-word parts in "open"? (o...pen) (Mastered kindergarten)

f) Syllable deletion: say open without the -pen. (Mastered kindergarten)

Phonemic Awareness Assessment

Typically assessed in kindergarten three times a year and in first-grade years. Measures:

a) phoneme matching - Which words sound alike? (mastered middle of kindergarten)

b) phoneme isolation - initial sound. What's the first word in sat? (middle of kindergarten) Medial sound in sat? (/a/), (late kindergarten/early 1st grade) and last sound in sat? (/t/) (late kindergarten/early 1st grade).

c) phoneme blending - what words do these sounds make? /h/-/o/-/t/. (late kindergarten/early 1st grade)

d) phoneme segmentation - what sounds do you hear in hot? ( /h/-/o/-/t/) (1st grade)

e) phoneme manipulation - initial sound (Say mat without the /m/) (1st grade), final sound (say mat without the /t/) (1st grade), and substitution (Say pig. Now change the /p/ in pig to /f/) (middle/ end of 1st grade or early 2nd grade)

Informal (Qualitative) Reading Inventory Assessment

Measures grade level reading, fluency, comprehension, vocabulary, and oral reading accuracy. Typically given to students grade 1 - 12 and students are expected to master age-appropriate material. It;s an ongoing assessment and should be completed several times a year.

Reading Comprehension Assessment

Involves asking a student to read a passage of text that is leveled appropriately for the child's age or grade, and then asking explicit, detailed questions about the content of the text. E.g., Informal Reading Inventory (IRI), aka Qualitative Reading Inventory (QRI).

Oral Reading Accuracy Assessment

Measure of a student's oral reading accuracy by giving teachers insight into a student's individual reading level. Allows the teacher to listen and record reading behaviors- number of errors, word substitution, or in need of prompting. Typically mastered 1st - 3rd grade and should be assessed several times throughout the school year.

*Never use this assessment in isolation*

Reading Fluency

Measures how many words a student reads correctly in one minute using an appropriate passage for the student to read aloud, typically within one minute. Students should be assessed throughout the year and master age-appropriate material.

Word Recognition

Measures sight word vocabulary at a given grade level by asking students to read from a list of words. Typically mastered with age-appropriate material, and should be assessed 3 times during the school year from kindergarten to 2nd grade.

Phonic Elements Awareness

Measures phonic elements at a given grade level. E.g., what sound do the letters 's' 'h' make? (/sh/) or how can I turn cap into cape? (Adding /e/ at the end of the word). Mastered with age-appropriate material and should be assessed several times a year in grade 1st-3rd.

Portfolio Assessments

Involve the ongoing collection of a student's daily classwork, projects, tests, and homework in one or more content areas; provide student progress giving an accurate picture of an individual's strengths and weaknesses.

3 Types of Portfolios

a) Collection

b) Display Portfolio

c) Teacher/Student Assessment Portfolio

Collection Portfolio

Samples of students' various work.

Display Portfolio

a collection of the works selected by a student demonstrating his/her knowledge, know-how, development during a course, module or even over the entire period of study. Typically used during conferences.

Teacher/Student Assessment Portfolio

A collection of documentation (copies of work from display portfolio, tests, anecdotal notes, conference summaries, etc.) to help teachers in aid discussions with administrators, student, parents, and other teachers.

DIBELS (Dynamic Indicators of Basic Early Literacy Skills)

Short (one minute) fluency measures that can be used to detect risk and monitor the development of early literacy in letter knowledge, phonemic awareness, fluency and early reading skills in kindergarten-8th grade.

2 Types of Fluency Assessments

1) Letter Sound Fluency (LSF)

2) Nonsense Word Fluency (NWF)

Letter Sound Fluency

Assess letter sound knowledge by asking children to identify the sound of an isolated letter arranged randomly. This is done for about 1 minute.

Nonsense Word Fluency

Presents two-and three-letter pseudowords in vowel-consonant or consonant-vowel-consonant patterns for students to say for 1 minute.

Pinpoints if a student can really read by phonic sounds or if they have just memorized "sight words". Example nonsense words: gap, deg, tux, ziltwo

3 Aspects of Descriptive Feedback

1) Help the students discover, or the teacher points it out themselves, what was the goal.

2) Where are you, the student, in relation to that goal?

3) What are we going to do to close that gap?

Running Record

Students read a passage from a book, between 100-300 words, shorter passages for grades 1-2, that assesses a student's reading fluency, accuracy, and comprehension.

Scoring:

Omission - circle the words

Insertion - add a caret and write the student's response above the word.

Substitution - draw a line through the word and write in the substituted word over it.

Repetition - draw a box around the repeated words.

Teacher help - write a "T" above the word.

Self-correction - next to the miscue, write "SC"

Letter/Sound Knowledge

The ability to associate sounds with letters.

Assessments:

a) Dynamic Indicators of Basic Early Literacy Skills (DIBELS)

b) Early Reading Diagnostic Assessment (ERDA)

Phonemic Awareness

The ability to hear and manipulate sounds in words.

Assessments:

a) Comprehension Test of Phonological Processing (CTOPP)

b) Dynamic Indicators of Basic Early Literacy Skills (DIBELS)

c) Early Reading Diagnostic Assessment (ERDA)

d) Iowa Test of Basic Skills (ITBS)

e) Phonological Awareness Test (PAT)

f) Texas Primary Reading Inventory (TPRI)

Decoding

The process of using letter sounds correspondences to recognize words.

Assessments:

a) Iowa Test of Basic Skills (ITBS)

b) Phonological Awareness Test (PAT)

c) Texas Primary Reading Inventory (TPRI)

d) Test of Word Reading Efficiency (TOWRE)

Fluency

The automatic ability to read words in connected text.

Assessment:

a) Curriculum-Based Measurement (CBM)

b) Gray Oral Reading IV (GORT - 4)

c) Dynamic Indicators of Basic Early Literacy Skills (DIBELS)

d) Test of Word Reading Efficiency (TOWRE)

e) Texas Primary Reading Inventory (TPRI)

Reading comprehenson

The process of understanding the meaning of text.

Assessments:

a) Degrees of Reading Power (DRP)

b) Gray Oral Reading IV (GORT - 4)

c) Texas Primary Reading Inventory (TPRI)

d) Iowa Test of Basic Skills (ITBS)

e) Early Reading Diagnostic Assessment (ERDA)

High Stakes Assessment (Outcome Assessments)

Given to all students within the same grade that measures a student skills against grade-level expectations. Used to make decisions about students, teachers, a school, and school system.

Simple View of Reading (SVR)

word recognition x language comprehension = reading comprehension

SVR Profiles

1) Specific Word Recognition Difficulties -SWRD: students with good language comprehension, but poor word recognition, typically need phonics intervention.

2) Specific Comprehension Difficulties (SCD): poor language comprehension, but good word recognition and decoding skills.

3) Mixed Reading Difficulties (MRD): students have weaknesses in both language comprehension and word recognition/decoding skills.

Orthographic skills

the ability to apply spelling and writing rules to language.

EX:The student recognizes that the sounds of language are represented by letters and letter patterns.