Simulations are an underpinning pedagogy and tradition in some professional fields, such as medicine, yet are seldom used in education. In this study, the author reports on the findings of a reading assessment situation activity that she did with preservice early grade (kindergarten to grade 6) teachers. In addition to giving preservice teachers…

This teaching tip describes an intervention used in a third-grade classroom implemented to help students pass an end-of-grade reading comprehension test. Low scores on a practice end-of-grade comprehension test prompted a re-examination of classroom reading instruction and a plan for intervention. This teaching tip describes the phases implemented…

Reviews the assessment systems which accompany three of the most recently published and widely used basal reading programs. Examines the materials designed for the second half of second grade and for fifth grade. (PRA)

Discusses the differing responses of two groups of administrators and teachers to a new statewide reading assessment--one group saw the ideal and one group experienced the reality. (SR)

Notes that the National Assessment of Educational Progress's (NAEP) recent assessment found fundamental changes taking place in education and in society which render the apolitical, uniform, "one size fits all" approach to education dysfunctional. Calls for reconceptualizing reading instruction to benefit all readers rather than just the…

What can teachers do in their classrooms to help students prepare for a high-stakes, standardized, multiple-choice reading test without sacrificing what they know to be best practice? Decreasing class sizes or other solutions that require substantial changes in school finance are not usually realistic options. This article outlines five…

Describes how one small school district developed performance objectives and wrote their own criterion-referenced reading tests to evaluate kindergarten and first grade children in a reading program supplimentally funded by the state. (TO)

Shows that a score obtained on a retest using the reading reinforced technique gives a useful measure of reading capacity and apparently provides a successful method of screening students for reading programs. Tables, graphs, and bibliography. ( RW)

Concludes that for fourth and fifth grade students in compensatory reading programs, using test forms from a lower grade level and converting the scores might give a more reliable estimate of achievement. (FL)

Describes a collaboration among policy makers, test developers, curriculum specialists, researchers, and classroom teachers in Michigan that has produced a new interactive definition of reading, new statewide reading objectives, and efforts to develop statewide tests that are more consistent with current theory and research. (FL)

Claims that in the conventional administration of the Informal Reading Inventory (IRI) comprehension diagnosis is inordinately influenced by the reader's ability to recall information. Suggests that allowing reinspection by the reader restores recall to its proper function and may result in other advantages. (NH)