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)

Points out that sound assessment programs should (1) be a part of instruction, (2) use varied methods and instruments, (3) focus on a broad range of skills and knowledge, (4) occur continuously, (5) occur in a variety of contexts, and (6) be appropriate for age and level of development. Offers examples of practices based on these points. (FL)

Examines the accuracy of students' perceptions of whether enough has been learned from a text to pass a test in the experiments. Reveals consistent, although nonsignificant, increases in accuracy of perceived readiness for examination performance (PREP) from before reading to after reading. Indicates that only the before-reading to after-testing…

Analyzes eight leading basal reading programs to determine the types of writing included in each and the array of writing types used in three standardized reading tests included in the programs. (FL)

Investigates relationships between syntactic awareness and reading proficiency. Fourth- and fifth-grade children of varying decoding ability differed in syntactic awareness according to their ability to correct grammatically deviant sentences in an oral language task. Significant correlations were observed between task results and measures of…

Concludes that if students are provided with background information about topics included on the comprehension section of a standardized reading test, they will score higher on the test than will those not exposed to the information. (FL)

Discusses methods for obtaining verbal report data on second language test-taking strategies. Reports on the findings obtained from unpublished studies dealing with how language learners take reading tests. Concludes that there should be a closer fit between how test constructors intend their tests to be taken and how respondents actually take…

Describes a study which investigated the intersentential sensitivity of the rational deletion cloze procedure. Eighty-four college-level students of German were divided into two sub-groups; one group completed a sequential cloze task, the other completed a scrambled cloze task. There were not significant differences in performance on the two…

The purpose of this study was to provide evidence of the validity of two measures of social intelligence and a self-esteem scale relative to math and reading achievement. The social intelligence measures showed modest degrees of concurrent and predictive validity; the academic self-esteem measure failed to demonstrate its validity. (Author/PN)

Focuses on the stated purposes of reading evaluation, examines trends in the types of assessments used, and looks at some possible indicators of changes in literacy levels in the Canadian Provinces. (CRH)

Examines studies of literacy instruction in American schools during the past 10 years both in terms of the notions that guide current practice and in terms of recent conceptions of literacy. Concludes that current literacy instruction limits students. Proposes an alternative view of instruction grounded in the concept of instructional scaffolding.…

Reviews the Spadafore Diagnostic Reading Test, which is used to determine decoding and reading comprehension levels and to give detailed diagnostic information. Concludes that it is not an improvement on similar inventories published previously. (HOD)

Concludes that most elementary school teachers surveyed were familiar with informal reading inventories and knew how to administer them. (FL)

Demonstrates that the reflection-impulsivity dimension is related to some reading tasks but not others. Finds in particular that not all word recognition tasks are affected by conceptual tempo. (FL)

Two types of questions were inserted in reading material either before or after certain text segments to see how they affected learning. (MM)