What is a Reading Assessment?
A reading assessment is a specific test that is used to determine a child’s literacy knowledge and reading skills. A reading assessment can be diagnostic, which is used to determine a child’s strengths and challenges in reading. It can also be a formative or summative assessment to evaluate a student’s understanding of a particular reading skill or strategy after instruction.
Formative assessments can be given informally throughout a unit of instruction to determine if the students have a solid comprehension of a particular objective. This may include observations through anecdotal notes or exit tickets. A summative assessment is a more formal or standardized test given at the end of a unit or instructional period. Great teachers use every type of assessment to determine how to better support each of their students during whole group, small group, and one-on-one reading instruction.
How has Reading Traditionally been Assessed?
Traditionally, reading has been assessed for years through paper and pencil assessments consisting primarily of multiple-choice comprehension questions and a form of matching vocabulary terms to their definitions. Often times, reading tests were given to students in a class after a story was studied for the week. Unfortunately, when this happens, we are assessing a child’s memorization of a story while we should be assessing a child’s comprehension of any text or story. Many times, these assessments are provided for the whole group or entire grade level, which means differentiation is not used in this administration.
Within the past two decades, states have created standardized assessments to evaluate a student’s comprehension of grade-level reading standards from third grade and up. The assessments closely match the standards-based curriculum districts around the state must implement. These tests have primarily consisted of an estimated thirty-five multiple-choice questions as well but continue to evolve.
New Reading Assessments
State standardized assessments have not only transitioned from paper and pencil to online platforms, but many districts have also implemented systems like Power School that allow teachers to create their own biweekly assessments to match standards and objectives they have taught in their own classroom.
This format provides a simulation for students before the end-of-year state test is administered. The majority of tests are now completed on chrome books or laptops. Rather than focusing on multiple-choice questions, many of these tests now use technological tools including “drag and drop” to complete online graphic organizers to match comprehension standards. The tests also assess vocabulary and phonics skills according to the grade level.
In addition to providing tiered questioning based on Bloom’s Taxonomy, some states have implemented leveled questions and text passage readability based on the students’ accuracy during the online assessment in real time. While previous reading assessments had a focus on literal comprehension, new reading assessments are implementing questions, tasks, and cloze sentences that require higher-level critical thinking skills to analyze and interpret the text.
Schools and districts around the country are also purchasing online and offline reading assessments for teachers to administer to students one-on-one. Some examples of these diagnostic reading assessments include Jan Richardson’s Guided Reading Assessment, the DRA (Diagnostic Reading Assessment), PALS (Phonological Awareness Literacy Screening), and Fountas and Pinnell.
In addition to determining a student’s comprehension level, teachers can use each child’s phonological awareness and phonics knowledge, as well as their oral reading fluency, to identify every student’s instructional, independent, and frustration level in reading. These assessments should be given at least three times a year to track a child’s developmental reading growth. In addition, informal assessments can be given one-on-one to students throughout the year to constantly assess their phonics knowledge, fluency, and comprehension.
Fluency involves phrasing, rate, accuracy, and words per minute, which is assessed through an oral reading record. Some assessments evaluate both oral and silent reading comprehension while others go one step further and evaluate written reading comprehension of older students. Some assessments even assess high frequency words, especially in the early elementary school years. Whenever a new assessment is developed or implemented, both teachers and students are affected.
How These New Reading Assessments Will Affect Teachers and Students
When we as educators understand the value of an assessment, we are able to significantly improve our instructional practices, especially in reading. We need to ensure that teachers receive training on how to effectively administer one-one-one reading assessments, as well as standards-based reading assessments so that validity and reliability are evident across grade levels, schools, and districts.
Diagnostic reading assessments paint a picture of each student’s individual reading journey. Teachers should use the five components of reading development that are assessed to determine the most effective guided reading or one-on-one instruction for their students. These components include phonological awareness, phonics, vocabulary, fluency, and comprehension.
The data provided not only tells teachers the reading level of a child but also how it compares to other students in the classroom and how it ranks against the school’s or district’s benchmark levels. When teachers use the data as a roadmap to plan instruction, they can address the reading challenges a student is experiencing that may be holding him or her back in reading. Teachers should also use the data to help students create reading goals. This helps students understand the importance of the one-on-one testing experience, what is expected of them, and what they can practice at home to improve their reading skills.
When school districts or states change curriculum or standards, the assessments also change. Teachers should become familiar with the format of the test, including example question stems and commonly used visuals or graphic organizers. This information will help teachers prepare better reading lessons and model various styles of reading and thinking for the students. Students should have plenty of exposure to the modeling of question stems and given effective test-taking strategies to help them achieve passing rates on any summative or standardized test.
The best reading assessments provide valuable information for students, parents, and teachers. When reading assessments are consistently administered and analyzed appropriately, the result is the implementation of quality reading instruction.
