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

Discusses the problems of overusing workbooks, dittos, and basal assessment tests in beginning reading instruction. Proposes alternatives. (FL)

Notes that while across large groups of students two tests may be highly correlated, specific characteristics of tests may interact with specific characteristics of students to yield differences in scores for one individual on two or more tests. (FL)

Discusses several problems associated with standardized testing. Proposes possible solutions to these problems, and calls for a new perspective on testing which utilizes informal tests and teacher observations of reading behavior. (MM)

The first of eight related documents, this booklet is part of a series of papers presented at the 1978 National Right to Read Conference examining issues and problems in literacy. In its examination of standardized reading competency tests, the booklet first offers a definition of the kind of test it will consider and the criteria the test must…

Reviews four uses for norm-referenced tests of reading comprehension. Concludes that three of the uses are actually misuses and that the only appropriate use is for predicting future student performance. (FL)

Argues that giving students a reading test that is above or below their levels of achievement will yield inaccurate information. (FL)

One of a series of special reports on current trends in school policies and programs, this publication is designed to provide school practitioners and others concerned with education with current information on problems which are the core of the constantly changing education scene. This special report focuses on reading programs throughout the…

Points out that children's growth in response to literature is not assessed by existing standardized tests or by progress from one textbook to another. Suggests guidelines for teacher observation of children's responses and provides a checklist for assessing oral and written reactions. (FL)

This paper states that today's newspaper and educational journal articles complain that only half the school population can read on grade level. Yet standardized tests are written to spread pupils out from the first to the 99th percentile, or from three or more standard deviations above to three or more standard deviations below the mean.…

Discusses test-taking skills and their application to tests of reading achievement. Presents a rationale for teaching these skills, lists a comprehensive set of skills relevant to standardized reading tests, and offers suggestions for teaching the skills and helping children use them. (FL)

Some of the problems and hazards associated with the use of standardized reading test scores in the formation and reformation of ability groups for reading instruction are discussed. (Author)

Reviews of the Nelson-Denny Reading Test (N-D) for college students indicate that the test may not be appropriate for all college students. Although the N-D is easy to administer and score, some of its traits make it questionable for use in evaluating open admissions students: it is timed; it measures vocabulary, rate, and comprehension in a mere…

Finds some evidence that out-of-level tests are more suitable and reliable for poor readers than are on-level tests. (FL)

A study was conducted to explore the reliability and validity of three prominent procedures used in informal reading inventories (IRIs): (1) choosing a 95% word recognition accuracy standard for determining student instructional level, (2) arbitrarily selecting a passage to represent the difficulty level of a basal reader, and (3) employing…