This article focuses on strategies children can use to foster their reading comprehension and develop metacognitive skills. The article discusses crucial aspects of reading comprehension, the authentic assessment of strategic reading, alternative methods of assessing reading strategies and metacognition, and promoting thinking with literacy…

This paper describes adult literacy pedagogy and philosophy in Australia and reports on two studies of adult reading disabilities. The first study, with 102 asthma patients, showed important differences among different tests of reading comprehension. The second study, using 11 case studies, indicated the need to integrate adult literacy…

Criterion-related validity data are presented on 3 methods for assessing reading comprehension, based on 26 learning-disabled middle school students. The standard cloze test and multiple-choice cloze test produced moderate correlations, although the traditional scoring method was considered inappropriate. The story retell procedures demonstrated…

Assesses the effectiveness of teaching metacognitive thinking strategies through modeling to college students. Compares the reading test performance of students who had the strategies modeled to them, of students who only had the strategies taught to them, and of control group students. Teaching the strategies without modeling was ineffective.…

This article describes the use (in Minneapolis, Minnesota) of curriculum-based measurement (CBM) to monitor reading progress, including development of CBM reading probes, administration and scoring of the CBM reading test, determination of appropriate measurement levels, setting of long-range goals, and program evaluation. Research in this area is…

This study of curriculum-based assessment of the reading ability of four elementary-level students with learning disabilities found that individual-referenced tests are powerful for understanding instructional effects, whereas norm-referenced tests are best suited for determining deployment and allocation of resources. (DB)

In a discussion of the limitations of reading tests to assess literacy, Street's "autonomous model of literacy" is critiqued and an alternative approach, described as a pragmatic model, is proposed. The alternative approach reflects the social dimension of literacy activities and views reading and writing as inseparable. (32 references) (Author/LB)

A study is reported that was designed to determine whether students would experience differential levels of anxiety when faced with three different second-language reading assessment methods. Subjects were students enrolled in first-year English at a Korean university. Cloze and think-aloud procedures were found to elevate anxiety. (seven…

Contends that the methods used to measure literacy development of young British children lag behind understanding of how that literacy develops. Argues for new measures to assess children's early literacy, including their ways of responding to environmental print, sharing books and stories, and early writing. Discusses the placement of assessment…

Study investigated relative merits of using teacher judgment and Slosson Full-Range Intelligence Test (SFRIT) to estimate students' math and reading achievement. Analyses of students enrolled in a remedial-reading program, showed that the SFRIT recovered more variance from the distributions of math and reading tests than did teacher judgment. (RJM)

Identifies factors that influence the English reading test performance of Hispanic children as compared with Anglo children in the same fifth and sixth grade classrooms. Suggests that Hispanic students' reading test scores seriously underestimate their reading comprehension potential. Discusses factors that adversely affect their test performance.…

Students (n=190) from a normal primary school in New Zealand were tested on sustained attention, reading ability, and classroom behavior measures. Results showed that the Continuous Performance Test, the Delay Task, and ratings on the Inattention factor on the Conners Teacher Rating Scale were significantly correlated with reading scores.…

Basic Skills Assessment Program reading scores for all South Carolina students in grades 1-3 and 6 were analyzed. Failure to meet state standards was higher among younger, male, Black, and lunch-subsidized students. Risk of failure was still higher for younger students after controls for race, gender and lunch-payment status. (Author/PB)

Using responses of 123 elementary school teachers, a battery of performance-assessment tasks designed to generate responses to reading tests was evaluated from task development and scoring perspectives. More than one dozen types of errors were identified. Practical outcomes of the study and improvement of task development and scoring are…

This study examined the validity of a measure of reading proficiency in content areas with 121 grade-10 students. Correlational analyses revealed low-moderate to moderate correlations between reading measures and scores on a classroom study task, grade point average, and achievement test performance. Recommendations are made for implementation…