Assessment of Student
Progress in Reading and
Writing
Tompkins-Chapter 3
5th edition
READING LEVELS
INDEPENDENT- CAN READ ON OWN
WITH 95-100% ACCURACY
 INSTRUCTIONAL-CAN READ WITH
SUPPORT WITH 90-94% ACCURACY
 FRUSTRATION-TOO DIFFICULT
 LISTENTING CAPACITY-POTENTIAL
READING LEVEL

READABILITY FORMULAS
Method of estimating the difficulty of
text or reading level of a text
 Determined by correlating semantic and
syntactic features
 Leveled Books, FRYE Readability Graph,
Lexile Framework

The Lexile Framework
(available through Scholastic)
System for leveling books (or matching
books to readers)
 Lexile levels range from 100-1300
 Ex. 6th grade = 850-1300

Fry Readability Graph



Readability Formula
Used to determine if a textbook or trade book
is appropriate for a particular grade level
See p. 307 for instructions




Select 100 word passage
Count # of syllables in each word
Count # of sentences in the passage
Plot on graph
Reading Recovery
Early intervention program for
struggling readers at the end of the first
grade
 Goal to get them on grade level by 3rd
grade
 Reading Recovery reading levels = 0-26

Informal Assessment
Used to guide instruction
 Sometimes is an instructional tool (the
assessment is the instruction)
 Not high-stakes

Concepts about Print or CAP
Marie Clay
Assessment of Basic understandings
about print and the way it works
 Book-Orientation concepts
 Directionality concepts
 Letter/word concepts
 (See p. 302 for example of Scoring
Sheet)

Phonemic Awareness and Phonics
Monitor sound isolation, segmentation,
blending, etc. through picture sorts,
songs, rhyming words
 DIBELS (nonsense word fluency)
 The Names Test (Cunningham)

Running Records
(Marie Clay)





To assess word identification and fluency
Students read text aloud while teachers make
checkmarks noting the words read correctly
and the miscues
Calculate # of words read correctly (95 %=
independent, 90-94%= instructional, and
fewer than 90%= frustration level
Examine miscues
Examine comprehension through retelling
Miscue Analysis
Miscues= unexpected responses
 Includes substitutions, repetitions,
omissions, mispronunciation
 Categorize according to cueing systems:




semantic (meaning is similar)
graphophonic (looks similar)
syntactic (grammatically acceptable)
Informal Reading Inventory (IRI)
Commercial tests to assess reading
levels (grade level equivalents)
 Includes graded word lists, graded
passages, and comprehension questions
 Used to calculate independent,
instructional, and frustrations levels

Retellings
Students retell a story or expository text
after reading the text silently or aloud
 Student retell story without assistance
and then the teacher may ask open
ended questions (What happened
next?)
 Teachers analyze retelling for
comprehension

Cloze Procedure
Used to:
Determine suitability of a textbook or
trade book
and/or
Access comprehension
Cloze Procedure
1.
2.
3.
Select a passage of approximately 250
consecutive words from the text or trade
book. The text should be one that the
students have not read, or tried to read,
before.
Type the passage using the first sentence
intact and deleting every fifth word
thereafter.
Give students the passage and have them
fill in the blanks. Allow them all of the time
they need.
Scoring Cloze Tests





Score by counting as correct only the exact
words that were in the original text.
Determine the percentage of correct answers.
Less than 44%- Frustration Level (level that
is too difficult…thwarts or baffles student)
44%-57%- Instructional Level (level at which
the student can read with teacher guidance)
57% or more- Independent level (level to be
read “on his or her own”)
Maze Procedure
Similar to cloze procedure
 Students are provided with 3 choices
for each deleted word (or each blank)
 1) correct word
 2) syntactically acceptable but
semantically unacceptable
 3) both semantically unacceptable and
syntactically unacceptable

Authentic Assessment









Takes place during the teaching/learning process
Does not measure language as a set of fragmented
skills
Oral and written language are integrated and whole
Contextual/situational
Assesses many types of literacy abilities in real and
functional ways
Continuous process
Varied process
Should include student’s interests and beliefs
Involves self-reflection and self-evaluation
Observation




Interaction
Shadowing-following one student and systematically
recording the student’s instructional experiences
Kidwatching-Ken Goodman
Teachers explore: 1) What evidence exists that
language development is occurring?
2) What does the child’s unexpected production say
about the child’s knowledge of language?
Anecdotal records- written accounts of specific
incidents in the classroom
Monitoring Student Progress
Observations
 Anecdotal Notes
 Conferences
 Rubrics
 Work Samples
 Portfolios
 Self-Assessment
 (Also See Assessment Tools p. 85)

Standardized Tests
Mandated tests
 Schools and districts use scores for
comparing student achievement with
previous years
 Comparing with national norms and
other districts

Purposes





To place and classify students
To provide accountability
To determine who needs extra help or
enrichment
To create groups
Standardized tests often fail to reflect current
views of teaching reading and are of little
use to teachers day-to-day instruction
Formal Assessment-Norm
Referenced



Norm-referenced- measure a student’s
relative standing in relation to comparable
groups of students across the nation or
locally
Authors seek reliability and validity so that
schools can be confident that the tests
measure what they intend to measure
Results in standard scores—grade equivalents
(in years and months) and percentile ranks
(position within a set of 100 scores)
Criterion-Referenced




Scores are interpreted in terms of specific
standards
Designed to match the standards or
expectations of what students should know at
successive points, or benchmarks
Advantage: Students do not compete with
one another, but try to master certain
objectives or criterion
Disadvantage: Reading can appear to be
merely a set of skills that can be taught and
learned in isolation
Standardized Testing
NO
Is standardized testing
beneficial to
student learning?
Conclusion
YES
Standardized Testing
Pros
--wide-scale testing
could bring about
need reforms
--can be a tool for
teaching and learning
as well as designing
curriculum
Cons
 Biased
 Teaching to the test
 Students become
“passive” rather than
“active” learners
 Not always accurate
representation of what
the student can do
 Not authentic
 One source of
information