Argues that minimal competency tests will promote reading literacy. (MKM)

Provides information about the existence, purposes, and design of state mandated reading assessment programs. (MKM)

Describes study which questioned theories of skill hierarchies in reading and states that it cannot be assumed either that the transfer of one skill in literacy is made to another skill or that a transfer is made to other "real life" reading situations. (JM)

Suggests that, for the assessment of performance in low and intermediate levels of reading, sentence-completion tasks can play an informative role and that, for students who have acquired these skills, the tests are valuable for ascertaining vocabulary acquisition or comprehension of syntactic structures. (JM)

Presents a test on abbreviations used in classified employment advertisements which may be used in survival reading skills instruction. (MKM)

Examines why profile analysis "adds spurious specificity and misarticulated authority to quasi-diagnostic statements." Concludes that the difficulties inherent in diagnostic reading tests suggest that they are best utilized in comparing a child's performance with a norm group. (JM)

Students know more than they think they know, so guessing gives better scores even when there's a penalty for errors. (JM)

A review of the Decoding Skills Test, used to identify first- through fifth-graders with developmental dyslexia and to provide a profile of decoding skills for researchers of dyslexia, concludes that the test is useful for examining decoding competencies and evaluating the skill deficiencies of students known to have difficulty reading. (CB)

Argues that second-language reading comprehension and its assessment can be usefully divided into two aspects: (1) comprehensions (different levels of comprehension the reader adopts to suit different purposes of reading); and (2) interpretations (different readings of the same text resulting from different background knowledge or preoccupations…

Reviews the fifth edition of the Classroom Reading Inventory (CRI), which contains four forms of the inventory and two graded spelling surveys. Concludes that although there are problems in the fifth edition, there is much that is good, especially the helpful hints section for the novice examiner. (SKC)

Reviews recent research on reading comprehension and textbook content and provides examples of several instructional strategies designed to aid students in understanding textbook passages. (JDH)

Ninety pupils in grades one through three, half English speaking and half Spanish speaking, were administered informal reading inventories in their respective countries. Analysis of variance was used to determine whether significant differences existed between decoding errors of pupils in both countries. Results are discussed. (Author/MT)

Describes how a microcomputer with a word processing program can be used efficiently to generate cloze tests, offering teachers an effective method of producing individualized materials for reading and language arts instruction. Examples of grammar worksheets focusing on proper nouns and adjectives, adjectives and adverbs, and plural words are…

The inclusion of "purpose questions" before passages in reading comprehension tests is evaluated in light of recent research related to schema theory and adjunct questions. While research supports the use of purpose questions, gaps and weaknesses in the available data exist. Suggestions for further study are provided. (Author/LMO)

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)