This volume is a milestone year for the Yearbook, the conference, and the College Reading Association (CRA). At this conference, CRA celebrated its 50th year. The title of this thirty-first yearbook mirrors the theme of the 2008 conference--"Mentoring Literacy Professionals for 50 Years." The title "Mentoring Literacy Professionals:…

A study analyzed the validity of inferential, cause/effect, and main idea questions which were asked in five selected commercial informal reading inventories (IRIs). The inventories were "Analytical Reading Inventory (3rd Edition),""Basic Reading Inventory (4th Edition)"; "Burns and Roe Informal Reading Inventory (3rd…

A study was conducted to determine the effect of using a space test (marking word boundaries, a task involving setting aside words from the context of a sentence) as a measure of reading ability. Subjects in the study were 138 fourth, fifth, and sixth grade students. The students were randomly divided into two groups so that one group completed…

This study was designed to investigate further the validity of using a space test (marking word boundaries, a task involving setting aside words from the context of a sentence) as a measure of reading comprehension. Specifically, the purposes of this investigation were to compare student performance on a space test to their performance on a cloze…

Three commonly used informal reading inventories were examined to determine the extent to which their comprehension test questions were passage independent, and could be answered correctly without reading the passages on which they were based. Fourth graders were given the questions orally without access to the passages. The percentage of…

A survey of past research reveals that intellectual capacity, particularly verbal proficiency, are important factors in reading performance. The purpose of this study was to determine if classroom teachers, through informal observation, can recognize indicators of intellectual ability. The Strang Informal Observation of Capacity Inventory and…

Two groups of teachers testing with two different informal reading inventories were asked to give explanations for the miscomprehensions of two of their students (selected because of difficulty with comprehension unrelated to word recognition). Teacher explanations reflected diversity in description with the reader's lack of knowledge of key…

Using a test-retest research design, a study examined the reliability of the Classroom Reading Inventory (CRI) and the Ekwall Reading Inventory (ERI). Independent variables of test administrator to subject, test administrator to test, subject to test, and test order were randomized. Subjects included 31 children aged 7 through 12 years. The four…

Thirty-two children aged 7 to 12 participated in a study to determine the reliability of the Ekwall Reading Inventory (ERI) and the Classroom Reading Inventory (CRI). The children were randomly assigned to take one of the two inventories, which were administered by four different specially trained teachers. The study used a test-retest design, in…

This study investigated the feasibility of using only the McCracken Word List (MWL), a subtest of the Standard Reading Inventory (SRI), rather than the entire SRI to determine functional grade placement in reading. The MWL is one of the few word lists with well-documented reliability and validity. In addition, the MWL has been shown to be highly…

This study investigated the relationship between and among the results of three types of reading assessments in the first grade: a standardized reading test (the Stanford Achievement Tests); an informal reading inventory (the Classroom Reading Inventory); and teacher judgment of student rank in reading achievement. The study included 165 first…

Recent research has revealed that informal inventories of students' abilities can be useful in reading diagnosis. Teachers need to be aware of the occasions during the school day which permit informal observation or testing of skills related to reading. The purpose of this study was to determine if classroom teachers, through informal observation…

Noting that ratios can be used to great advantage in scoring informal reading tests, such as the cloze procedure and the informal reading inventory, this paper explains the procedures for calculating cross-ratios and percentages when computing scores for informal reading assessments. Examples are provided for using ratios to determine scores for…

The Standard Celeration Chart and its related research principles were used in a study to determine the reading level on the informal reading inventory that promotes highest speed or accuracy of learning. For ten school days, 49 fifth graders read and charted their progress at four levels: instructional level, one grade below, and two and six…

The reliability of short versus long passages in informal reading inventories was compared. After 132 fourth grade students were tested with the Standard Reading Inventory, Form B, they read longer passages in either the oral or silent modes. Students with higher silent reading scores read long passages orally, while students with higher oral…