There are many options to assess a student’s reading and it is often a minefield to know where to start. Fortunately there are common skills that are the focus of assessment. and knowing your purpose for assessment helps you to determine which tools to use.
[Hint: click on the resources in the font that is both bold and italicised to be taken to find the resource]
Purpose 1 → Identification
Also known as Universal Screening. This is where assessment of the entire cohort of students is completed and the purpose is to identify those students at risk of not making adequate progress. The FREE Universal Screening tools have been designed in alignment with research in order to measure the skills that are known to be predictive of student reading success. In Australia the two most commonly used Universal Screening Assessments for K-6 are Acadience Reading and DIBELS 8th edition. In addition there has been a very good case made by Dr Tiffany Hogan for adding in a Universal Screening assessment of Oral Language and the current best available option to use alongside Acadience Reading or DIBELS 8th Edition is the CUBED Narrative Language Measure. You can learn more about these in a previous blog post I wrote found here.
For both Acadience Reading & DIBELS you can purchase access to the online data tracking tool for a cost of between US $1-1.50 per student. Online Training for DIBELS is organised by SpeldSA
If a student is assessed as being below benchmark level in the CUBED Narrative Language Measure I would refer for formal language assessment with a Speech Pathologist.
Purpose 2 → Progress Monitoring
The Universal Screening tools mentioned above, have the added advantage that they are also designed for progress monitoring with testing formats allowing for reassessment 3 times in a school year. This is extremely useful because at times, students will plateau and this approach allows for early identification of students requiring additional support.
There are a range of free and paid Progress Monitoring Assessment tools that align to specific Systematic Synthetic Phonics Programs, Decodable Readers and particular instructional scope and sequences. These include [but are not limited to]
Free & Paid
Phonic Books UK – Aligned to the scope and sequence of Sounds Write | Dandelion Readers | Phonic Books Catch Up Readers | The Drop In Series by Forward with Phonics
Diagnostic Assessment Cards | Dandelion Readers Assessment
Little Learners Love Literacy – Reading Assessment [LLARS]
MultiLit Suite of Assessments – Access to Schools who have completed training
Decodable Readers Australia – The Sparkle Kit
Sounds Write Assessment – Access to those who have completed training
SPELDNSW – Literacy Hub – Aligned to new NSW K-2 English Syllabus
Purpose 3 → Intervention
For a student who is identified by Universal Screening Assessment as requiring intervention, the next step would be to further assess phonological awareness and rapid automatic naming skills. As a teacher, I typically use criterion or curriculum based assessment tools as they are easy to access and administer. It also means that I’m not going to impact the retest validity of a normed assessment that might be used for diagnostic purposes
Free Curriculum Based Assessment Tools
Phonological Awareness include
Little Learners Love Literacy – Phonological Awareness Assessment [TOPALL]
Phonological Awareness Screening Test [PAST]
Heggerty’s Phonemic Awareness – Australian Assessments
A combined assessment of Phonological Awareness and Rapid Automatic Naming
Read 3 – CHIPS – Early Literacy Screener
I would then also use the Progress Monitoring Assessment tools to customise intervention and monitor progress in a response to intervention model.
Free
Phonic Books UK – Aligned to the scope and sequence of Sounds Write | Dandelion Readers | Phonic Books Catch Up Readers | The Drop In Series by Forward with Phonics
Diagnostic Assessment Cards | Dandelion Readers Assessment
Little Learners Love Literacy – Reading Assessment [LLARS]
MultiLit Suite of Assessments – Access to Schools who have completed training
Decodable Readers Australia – The Sparkle Kit
Sounds Write Assessment – Access to those who have completed training
SPELDNSW – Literacy Hub – Aligned to new NSW K-2 English Syllabus
Purpose 4 → Diagnosis
Standardised or Norm Referenced Assessments are typically used for formal profiling of a student’s reading ability and diagnosis of Specific Learning Disorder – Reading [also known as Dyslexia]. Dyslexia is known to be associated with difficulties with Phonology, one of the components of language skills. Therefore it is commonly referred to as a language based learning difficulty. Within the sub category of Phonology, a student with Dyslexia can have difficulties with Rapid Automatic Naming [RAN] which typically presents as oral reading fluency difficulties, Phonological Awareness Difficulties or both. Dyslexia typically presents with difficulties with word decoding and can be a developmental difficulty or acquired difficulty.
Diagnosis of Dyslexia in Australia is typically made by a registered psychologist and the DSMV guidelines indicate that the diagnosis is only made after a minimum of 6 months evidence based intervention.
Standardised Assessments include
YARC – the York Assessment of Reading Comprehension [This replaced the Neale]
Woodcock Reading Mastery Test – 3rd Edition
Test of Word Reading Efficacy 2 [TOWRE-2] – This is an assessment of fluency at word level
Comprehensive Test of Phonological Processing – 2 [CTOPP-2]
Motif Assessments – Here you will also find the Australian Norms for the TOWRE-2
Test of Integrated Language & Literacy Skills [TILLS]
If you’d like more information or professional support regarding implementation of a whole school assessment framework or use of assessments for intervention or diagnostic purposes get in touch and arrange customised coaching, join a small group coaching group or join one of my courses.
