The authors offer guidance on recognizing and resisting test-centric instruction in reading comprehension. They posit that five practices indicate a test-centric view of comprehension: when the tested content is privileged, when the test becomes the text, when annotation requirements replace strategic thinking, when test items frame how students…

According to interpretations of results from the latest oral reading fluency (ORF) study conducted by the National Assessment of Educational Progress (White et al., 2020), fourth-grade students who score below the basic standard require interventions that focus on word recognition, phonological decoding, and fluency. Before such mandates for…

A firm foundation in alphabet knowledge is critical for children learning to read. Under new literacy standards, letter name knowledge in preschool and kindergarten can function as a gatekeeper to the rest of the curriculum. Teachers need data about their students' alphabet knowledge early and often to plan differentiated instruction that moves…

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…

The authors present findings from a data-driven account in which they followed ten fifth-grade students receiving intervention in reading through Georgia's test-based grade retention policy. Under the policy, the students had little confidence in themselves as readers and felt that reading test passages was unnecessary and difficult. Consequently,…

The disparity between the results of state accountability tests in reading and the fourth-grade National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) has left many educators dismayed and concerned. In this article the authors describe a comparison of assessment approaches evident in NAEP to the approaches taken in a sample of state tests. The authors…

Concludes that while aspects of the reviewed test may be criticized, overall it is a fine observational tool that provides information about what a child knows about print. (FL)

Offers a humorous look at the problem of assessment. (FL)

Suggests one possible way to get rid of reading tests that do not measure what they are supposed to. (RB)

Discusses the advantages and disadvantages of criterion referenced testing in the elementary reading program. (RB)

Suggests an easy method to check phonic skills and learn what help the child needs to improve his reading ability. (TO)

Discusses several new educational assessment procedures implemented in Illinois and Michigan school districts. (MM)

Provides insights and procedures used in clinical approaches to reading diagnosis and suggests ways classroom teachers might use them. (FL)

Demonstrates how a universal taxonomy of reading goals might be related to a taxonomy of reading means. (FL)

Provides a critical and comparative analysis of the major commercially produced informal reading inventories. Offers recommendations for those who are considering purchasing or using one of the inventories. (FL)