Analysis of Reading Assessments in Elementary Schools

Overview of Reading Assessments in Elementary School

Reading assessments in elementary school involve screening and progress monitoring, diagnostics measures and outcome measures. Screening tests provide teachers with a beginning assessment of a student's preparedness for grade-level reading instruction. Progress monitoring tests keep the teacher informed about the student's progress in learning to read at grade level throughout the school year.

Diagnostic tests are used to measure one or more critical reading skills. They are designed to provide a more detailed picture of the full range of a student's skill. Outcome assessments are given at the end of the school year to evaluate the overall effectiveness of the reading program. Teachers use the data from reading assessments to plan for and deliver reading instruction to meet students' individual needs.

Types of Assessments

Reading assessments can be both formal and informal. Formal assessments tend to be time-sensitive, and are often used to prepare students for standardized tests. Informal testing is done one-on-one with the student, as frequently as necessary during the school year.

Fiction Reading Level Assessments

Informal reading inventories for narrative texts help teachers identify which level of texts students can read independently. The assessments provide an analysis of comprehension, miscues and fluency.

Concepts about Print

Based on their home and early school experiences, children come with different understandings about how the printed word communicates meaning. An assessment of beginning literacy print concepts might include book orientation knowledge and the arrangement of print on the page. Children will also be assessed on their understanding of reading terminology, such as 'words' and 'letters'. Additionally, assessments might include knowledge of end punctuation.

Letter Identification

What does your child know about letters? Which letters can he or she identify? Although students do not need to know the names of all letters before they begin reading books, knowing letters helps them communicate with the teacher and each other. Being able to discriminate and quickly recognize important letters is also helpful in attaching sounds to the correct letters when reading words.

High Frequency Words

The purpose of this assessment is to determine the number of high-frequency words that students know. When these words are instantly recognized, the short term memory is not overloaded and is freed to focus on comprehending what is going on in the story. Therefore, this type of assessment can be used throughout the year to record students' growth in automatic word recognition.