The present study investigated some psychometric properties of the Basic Reading Inventory (BRI), a widely used informal reading inventory. The BRI and Dynamic Indicators of Basic Early Literacy Skills (DIBELS) probes were administered to 149 third, fourth, and fifth graders. Test--retest and alternate forms reliability analyses indicated adequate…

This study investigated the reliability and validity of Part 1 of the Informal Decoding Inventory (IDI), a free diagnostic assessment used to plan Tier 2 intervention for first graders with decoding deficits. Part 1 addresses single-syllable words and consists of five subtests that progress in difficulty and that contain real word and pseudoword…

Reviews the Sucher-Allred Group Reading Placement, used to determine the instructional reading level for students in grades 2-12. Concludes that the test correlates well with other standard tests and is useful as an informal reading inventory. (RS)

Confirms previous findings that the word recognition criterion for instructional reading level should be set at about 95 percent for students reading at grade levels one through six. (FL)

Argues that informal reading inventories fail on several points to provide accurate and reliable scores on the subskills of reading. Asserts that the inventories cannot properly be used to assess children's specific strengths and weaknesses. (FL)

The article reviews validity and reliability studies on the informal reading inventory, a diagnostic instrument to identify reading grade-level placement and strengths and weaknesses in work recognition and comprehension. Gives suggestions to improve the validity and reliability of existing inventories and to evaluate them in newly published…

Finds a number of problems with the test and concludes that there is little real advantage to using it in preference to other published informal reading inventories now available. (FL)

Uses case study data from three young readers to examine the assumption that commercial informal reading inventories are as reliable as teacher made tests. Questions that assumption. (FL)

Examines 12 commercially prepared informal reading inventories and discusses the advantages and disadvantages, as well as the unique features of each. (FL)

Errors in oral reading tests result from inaccuracies that tend to creep in because children are not totally consistent while taking a test and from inaccuracies caused when the examiner does not catch a word recognition error, giving credit for an answer that is more wrong than right or vice versa. Every test contains a standard error of…

Reports the results of a study that examined the technical adequacy of three selected informal reading inventory procedures. (AEA)

This study tested the validity and reliability of the West Informal Reading Evaluation (WIRE), an unobtrusive screening device that identifies adult learners' reading abilities. Of the 154 students in basic education or high school completion courses who completed one form of WIRE, 123 subjects were administered another reading test that served as…

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…

Reports that reading instructional level scores of a teacher constructed informal reading inventory, the commercially prepared Basic Reading Inventory, the Metropolitan Achievement Test, and students' actual level of placement in books are roughly comparable but that the Wide Range Achievement Test reading subtest places children much higher. (FL)

A comparison was made of Durrell Analysis of Reading Difficulty and informal reading inventory (IRI) independent and instructional level designations for 15 children, aged 9 to 11 years, who had been referred to a diagnostic clinic for reading assessment. The children's reading performance was first scored according to procedures outlined in the…